Tag: Gamers

Civilization VI vs Civilization Player Count on Steam

Civilization VI vs Civilization VII in Peak Payer Count on Steam
Civilization VI vs Civilization VII in Peak Payer Count on Steam (Source: Steamcharts.com)

Civilization VII is still being outperformed by Civilization V and Civilization VI in player counts. Civilization V outperforming a game that is fifteen years younger than it is surprising, but I should probably be aware that it was possible within our context of the increasing global nature of gaming in our age. Gaming was always global to some extent but there many players uploading videos on YouTube from Vietnam or Egypt who actively play 20-year-old games on their computers as that is their interest and most importantly, their budget for their computers. This tech debt from the Windows XP era is quite noticeable now.

Civilization VII has had a slight increase in its player base over the past couple months. However, this is small increase and mostly because of its DLCs. The game does have a player base unlike some games that have thousands of players upon launch and then you check a couple months later and hardly anyone is playing it. However, this is a game which is still unable to surpass Civilization VI months after release.

What is quite noticeable is that Civilization VII was barely able to surpass the peak player count of Civilization VI in its launch month. Another issue is the week that it was Kingdom Come 2: Deliverance was taking its energy away. While the games are different genres, their player bases overlap more than say a platformer game. Kingdom Come 2 greatly surpassed the original game’s peak player count. Civilization VII had to contend with six different games that came out before it. This is quite the legacy you have to live up to. At some point, the Civilization series was going to reach its creative plateau because it had basically forgotten its player base.

The game is honestly not that good at giving the player a sense of scale. It’s not the realism which players crave but the scale and macro nature of the earlier games.

I have stated many times on here that Civilization VII is a game that does not have unique moments such as this on a macro scale. Playing as China in that game and having Persia launch a nuclear attack on my Communist nation was truly edge of your set material in an old game.

Another interesting moment are the text boxes in Civilization III. I had the Koreans attempting to manipulate my politics. Such little boxes help to flesh out the virtual history playing out on screen. That is what Civilization VII is missing here.

Civilization VI had a decline in player counts as well, but they were not the same. Civilization VII’s player base is smaller and has more competition from not just other games but older Civilization titles. This makes the act of getting the game to surpass both Civilization V and Civilization much tougher in comparison. Civilization VII is simply not better than Civilization VI as it is product of an age in the industry where style means more than substance.

What Empire Earth has that Civilization VII still doesn’t have

Civilization VII right before Thanksgiving has only around 7.5 thousand players right now playing it on Steam.

I have already talked about how Civilization VII was a failure and the game is basically the dark ages of the Civilization franchise. The dark ages of course had brightness in it, such as in Charlemagne’s court. Civilization VII burned brightly at the beginning as so many games do and it fails to continue capturing people’s attention.

I watched with great interest at how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Civilization VII would perform together as they were released close to one another.

They are different genres, but they are both historical games with have audiences that overlap.

It is a tale of two games. Both burn brightly upon release but they are not the same. Kingdom Come 2, in spite of there being a high skill ceiling for this game, managed to tell an interesting story in 15th Century Bohemia and give a narrative from many class perspectives.

Civilization VII simply seems like an entry in a franchise which is exhausted in energy.

The game should have been pc-centric not console centric as it seems that it was. The willingness to put the game in VR makes no sense for a series that has largely been on the PC. Its soul began on the PC, and the console versions were a necessary addition but the main part of the franchise’s energy.

Empire Earth has what a lot of what the gaming industry doesn’t have now. The energy and the soul which makes it special here.

The importance of a holistic integration of many gameplay and design elements into a video game is vital for keeping it going in the memories of gamers.

Why Empire Earth is better than most Modern RTS Games

The Intro Screen of the Russian Campaign in Empire Earth

The Russian Campaign in Empire Earth is one of the reasons why I still love playing this game. I have not actually won the campaign even after so many years. However, its the possibilities that the campaign has which still captivates me. The ability to have a science fiction story set on Earth rather than space in an RTS was a great accomplishment. Regardless of the quality of the voice acting or the plausbility of the story, the campaign is known as the hardest in the game. You really get a sense of a futuristic struggle between Russia and America and other nations which you rarely get to see.

Why is that we cannot see that with modern RTS games. The only RTS game recently to accomplish any dynamicism in its design while honoring the past is Age of Empires IV. While Age of Empires III was in a beautiful obscurity, a middle child one could say, Age of Empires IV has regenerated the franchise and RTS games as whole. Starcraft II’s hold on the RTS genre along with other offshoot genres. However, one game cannot do it on its own here. There needs to be more RTS games out there as I see the genre as a virtual chess style game which can help enhance people’s minds here.

Instead of focusing on esports, maybe developers should focus on making their profits sustainable versus a constant stream which eventually tires out and then they have no artistic integrity. Video game companies need to start paying attention to the tension between art and business. Without capital, most art could not start but they should not let business take their soul away from their jobs. Such a compromise ends up damaging many businesses. Somehow, Japan, with its harsher corporate culture has managed to keep the soul of its IPs intact versus the West here.

Empire Earth has a been game that I have played for over twenty years. There is a reason why it stays with me. Nostalgia, a very much misused word in our age, isn’t really for software. It’s more for our physical places and the sense of time passing and a willingness to come back to it. The technical aspect of a video game isn’t what we are sentimental about here, but the atmosphere around playing the game. The game’s technical aspects are solid, not prefect, but better than what you see now, regardless of sentimental aspects surrounding our playing of the game.

Empire Earth has something unique about it. The AI cheats in the game, but it is competent and the battles, even when annoying are also exciting. There is something about the quality of the battles where every unit has a role to play, big and small. Unlike so many RTS games now, I feel the gameplay loop is similar to Skyrim’s. It has a mythic quality while still personable. This is an issue that Starfield had, where its huge nature made the player seem too small and not distinctive enough. This is another issue I have with Stellaris, inspire of its great gameplay. The mythic nature is so huge, that the player just seems to be clicking buttons on a screen.

What we need in video games again is a sense of personal stakes and personality again. Not just moving digital information on the screen.

The reason why Empire Earth is still played by players is really down to its technical brillancce combined with the memories of an industry that wasn’t perfect but knew how to make games over assets for investors in corporations.