I think Starcraft was actually part of what pushed people away from the RTS genre and into MOBAs. Blizzard deliberately made WC3 and then SC2 much faster-paced and more micro-based variants of their predecessors. Then they started pushing the e-sports angle, which in my opinion made it even less about the traditional strategy elements of RTS and more about APS, multi-tasking, ability matching, etc.
MOBAs are then the natural step from fast-paced micro-heavy RTS - strip out the base building part and make it 100% about micro, abilities, and squad control. It's the evolution of what happens when RTS gets ADD. In a way, I think Blizzard basically gave kids candy instead of vegetables and now the mainstream player attention span isn't there for traditional RTS games anymore.
Heh, Brood War is FAR more micro intensive than SC2, mostly by virtue of the game interface; terrible unit pathing, 12 unit selection limit, no "smart casting" etc. Add to that more cumbersome macro mechanics and the game is much more difficult and twitchy to play effectively than it's successor. Though I'll agree that SC2 is faster paced, especially with the 12 worker start since LOTV
WC3 was more hero focused, like MOBA's, which of course had their start in WC3 as custom maps.
It is of course ironic that Blizzard inadvertently spawned a genre that ended up crushing them in a field that arguably they also pioneered, e-sports.
It's worse yet, as someone who started with the very first RTS (Dune) all the way to League of Legends, in most games your teammates have zero concept of late-game or playing defense. If they're not destroying from the start it's time to give up. The game is very good if played properly. No one is good enough at lower skill levels that better teamwork can't allow a come back from behind. Which is an amazing feeling.
For me, the test of a good game is if it's fun even if you're losing, which is the case with LoL but not as much with most traditional RTS.
I doubt it. Age of Empires 2 is pretty much the entire AoE scene left. And Age of Empires 2 definitive edition (AoE2DE) is coming out soon. And that'll only work if it accurately recreates the AoE2 experience with better graphics and slightly better interface.
I expect any modern non-AoE2 AoE game to be just as bad as any other modern RTS. Even AOE2 DE was/is probably going to be requiring Win 10 just to force people to upgrade. MS is still MS.
Not an unreasonable request, Windows 7 is a decade old. Computers are tools and you need to keep your tools up to date, at least if you're not writing the code yourself to keep it secure and running.
Not unreasonable in general but there's absolutely no reason that AoE2DE needs to use DX12 and the Win 10 requirements that come with it. And there's a significant reason why they shouldn't.
A large fraction of the player population is in countries without access to large purchasing power or modern computing equipment. If it requires 10 then a large part of the playerbase will simply stick with AoE2 AoC on voobly or HD on steam. So DE will only be new players or players in rich western economies. MS is showing they either don't care or don't understand the AoE2 scene.
Windows 7 mainstream support ended in 2015 and extended support ends in 2 1/2 months. I can't wrap my head around why I would support that, encouraging people to stay on an OS that is insecure. It would make more sense to support a current RHEL-based LTS release. An option for unsupported systems will be streaming, given their investment in Azure Gaming. I don't disagree there's no technical argument to not be DX12-only but I would've only agreed with your stance a year or 2 ago, not this close to the extended support ending on Windows 7. There's always a cut off point and today seems reasonable for titles still in development.
One thing Microsoft does need to do is offer an ad-supported, Microsoft Store only, free-of-charge Windows-S 10 to everyone to download. Since it would only support their stuff, it could be optimized to run on lower end hardware.
>An option for unsupported systems will be streaming,
Do you think a pay subscription using up bandwidth like that is going to work for the vast majority of the low income, very international, old hardware AoE2 scene? It won't. Just like trying to force them up upgrade to 10 won't. They don't care because they don't think they can make money off those people. You don't care because you don't understand. But both you and MS don't understand that they are the AoE2 pro and ranked scene and that by ignoring them AoE2DE is going to be a flash in the pan and everyone will go back to playing AoE2 patched on voobly.
I care that those people are on supported software, not insecure versions that are unsupported. You're welcome to hold out on old hardware, no one is offended, but don't expect MS to support unsupported operating systems. That's doing no one a favor.
There's plenty of old hardware scenes and gamers, and has been for a long time before AOE2. It is important if MS can make money off people, because without that incentive there never would've been an AOE2 to begin with. So I'd save your dinars for that upgrade.
But I suspect people went to mobas like League of Legends because they wanted a more social, team based experience and they liked playing a hero.