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This article doesn't feel like it was written by anyone paying attention to the scene for the last decade. It downplays the role MOBAs have played in the downfa

by madrox 4y ago

This article doesn't feel like it was written by anyone paying attention to the scene for the last decade. It downplays the role MOBAs have played in the downfall of the RTS by calling them "subgenre offshoots that snuck off" while ignoring that MOBA player and viewer numbers dwarf what RTSs ever achieved [1]. They've completely eaten the mindshare that RTS games used to occupy. Unsure if this article is spinning history or clueless, but MOBAs killed the RTS. There are still good entries getting added to the RTS genre. This article completely ignores They Are Billions, Northgard, and others...maybe because they aren't culture defining the way Starcraft and Age of Empires were. However, if that's their criteria for a good RTS game, then those days are long over. 1. 124 million monthly active players https://activeplayer.io/league-of-legends/ https://activeplayer.io/league-of-legends/

Sakos 4y ago
SC2 also killed itself by focusing solely on ladder and esports and abandoning the casual gamer. The genre might have had a chance otherwise.
Upgrayyed_U 4y ago
The referenced article is five years old, so of course it's going to miss some of the biggest trends of the last decade. They Are Billions and Northgard were both released on Steam sometime after this article was written. The author also made it a point to narrowly define an RTS game as "one that involves base building and/or management, resource gathering, unit production, and semi-autonomous combat, all conducted in real time (rather than being turn-based), for the purpose of gaining/maintaining control over strategic points on a map (such as the resources and command centers)," which leaves MOBAs out of the discussion. I think the author succeeded in his goal of providing a light history of the RTS genre during its peak years (early 90s to mid 2010s). The criticisms you have may be valid, but they are largely outside of the article's scope.
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by madrox 4y ago

Sakos 4y ago

SC2 also killed itself by focusing solely on ladder and esports and abandoning the casual gamer. The genre might have had a chance otherwise.

Upgrayyed_U 4y ago

The referenced article is five years old, so of course it's going to miss some of the biggest trends of the last decade. They Are Billions and Northgard were both released on Steam sometime after this article was written. The author also made it a point to narrowly define an RTS game as "one that involves base building and/or management, resource gathering, unit production, and semi-autonomous combat, all conducted in real time (rather than being turn-based), for the purpose of gaining/maintaining control over strategic points on a map (such as the resources and command centers)," which leaves MOBAs out of the discussion. I think the author succeeded in his goal of providing a light history of the RTS genre during its peak years (early 90s to mid 2010s). The criticisms you have may be valid, but they are largely outside of the article's scope.

deleted 4y ago

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