[aragilar]

I've played AOE4 (during the free load balance trial), and sure, it's not Age of Empires Online, that doesn't mean it's an AOE game (another example: Halo 4 and 5 may be called Halo games, it doesn't mean they are ones). This view extends to the group of friends I play AOE2 with, so while I'm glad AOE4 has found its audience (so maybe they'll redo AOE1), I'm cynical that any sequels will be ones we want to play.

The issue for the new DEs/4 isn't that they're proprietary, it's they've gone backwards for cross-platform play (no MacOS, worse on wine), hence the open source implementation (with propriety assets) would enable playing on whatever systems people have.

EDIT: I will agree that 0AD isn't the same as AOE2 if I want to play AOE2, but given the option of playing a game that will work (0AD) vs. one that may work (new AOM), I'll take the one that will work.

[lagolinguini]

As someone who grew up on playing AOE and AOE2, I remember people said the same thing about AOE3 when it came out. In the end I never got into it myself but then when AOE4 came out it felt like a breath of fresh air. They way I see it is that each iteration in the franchise is really a different game and not a replacement for another. So I still find myself playing the AOE2 campaigns from time to time in the definitive edition for the nostalgia factor. So I think it’s a bit unfair to say AOE4 isn’t an Age of Empires game.

At the end of the day the goal is to have fun so if the new game doesn’t fit your vibe that’s totally understandable. But I invite you to give it one more shot , even the Viper plays it from time to time :)

Also definitely agree about the no Mac/wine thing. A friend of mine ended up buying a new PC to play the game with the rest of our group.