• XCOM 2
• Offworld Trading Company
• Stellaris
• Warhammer Total War
• Hears of Iron 4
• Civilization 6
• Endless Space 2 (I hope)
  

Yet here I am, still waiting for a new Age of Empires game.

Strategy game are a very large family.

I think it should be important to begin with separating the good old RTS and the genre of strategy that came with 4X and Turn-Based game.

The good old RTS is a style which is dying. Starcaft 2 is dying (less and less player every day, still love to see the streaming of it ). Was a bit disappointed by grey goo which was supposed to bring a new breath to the genre, let's just see what Dawn of War 3 will be, i just hope it will be closer of the first than the second that i don't particularly like. Age of (empire or mythology), Warcraft, Starcraft, Empire earth, Command and Conquer, Suprem Commander, Cossacks, they are all relic of the past that may never shine again, and sadly that's the truth

But the 4x genre and what is called now "grand strategy" is going marvelously well with the success of Paradox (Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis 4, Stellaris), Civilization (I really hope the 6 will be good, The 5 was complete when you bought the dlc, i don't really like this and BE was disappointing), the Endless series (of course) and Total War (until Rome 2 that i really didn't liked much, compared to the great game that shogun 2 was ), to only speak about the 4 biggest in my opinion. And i don't think it's going to stop, now that the quantity is here we can just hope the quality will follow

After, i will speak about the "bastard", they derived from strategy game, but i don't really like them, or they're not the strategy game we think.

1 : ******* Internet multiplayer strategy game. There success is unstoppable as long as people are ready to loose a bunch of money on it. I consider them the cancer of the internet and really don't want to speak about it but they are startegy game despite what they are  (some example, o-game, goodgame empire, travian, and all those game which now are shitty smartphone application)

2 : MOBA, like it or not, they are considered strategy game, and they're going pretty well (no joke ). Even if know i personnaly believe people had to much of it and it's on the decline.

3 : Tower-defence-like game : Here i will speak about game like sanctum, orcs must die (or DoTE ). It's a genre that's going pretty well today, Even on RTS game there are map for tower defense (i recall playin Age of Empire 3 online and play tower-defense game or even with the starcraft 2 arcade). But i believe the tower-defense genre game are doom to remain game of little or medium scale, you will never see a AAA tower-defense game (but i would love to see what it looked like)

So in the end, does Strategy game are in a golden age ?? I would say yes and no, the RTS Golden age is long past (when RTS were truly the type of game the more played), and i don't believe strategy game will have the same outreach than it did during this time. But the strategy genre with new children is going pretty well, better since the last few years, and that's very good news

You should check out Offworld Trading Company if you're interested in checking out an old-school RTS that brings a real twist. Our AI programmer tichau loves it! :)

Speaking of the good all-mighty RTS games, Age of Empire's 2 community is still very lively and there are youtubers doing videos regularly about some game mechanics or factions (ex. : Spirit Of The Law). I know that this is only because Forgotten Empires studio added more content this last two years, but it proves that people can be eager to return to RTS : there is still demand, but there is no good offer.

I think we are.

I wouldn't say that we are having the same output of titles and new IPs that was prevalent in the Westwood and Co. heyday, but the sheer amount of quality content within the genre nowadays that comes with new fresh ideas or refinements does put strategy in a unique bragging rights position of top notch titles that few others can claim to match (if ever). I would make the parallel with comics in so far as that the 90's was it's Golden Age of commercial and mainstream success and prestige, but it now is in a true cultural Golden Age with the rise of independent ideias and initiatives.

Well put (and the stack of 20 newly-purchased Fables comics on my work desk waiting to be taken home agrees with your comparison too).

I rather feel that we're in a golden age of PC gaming period.  I think with the success of crowdfunding, even big publishers are willing to defer to developers more and let them pursue new ideas rather than relying on focus groups and marketing strategies to guide them.  The fact that Sega was willing to work with Amplitude proves that.

wintermute213 wrote:

I rather feel that we're in a golden age of PC gaming period.  I think with the success of crowdfunding, even big publishers are willing to defer to developers more and let them pursue new ideas rather than relying on focus groups and marketing strategies to guide them.  The fact that Sega was willing to work with Amplitude proves that.

not necessarily, if you know anything about the Total War series then you know sega heralded its downfall. hopefully Sega is turning over a new leaf, or the total war series just happened to lose its direction when Sega bought it.

Possibly so. 

At the start of the year I thought Endless Space 2 and Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord, sequels to probably the two most underrated games ever, were both coming out in the same year but Bannerlord's release is still unknown. Although the siege gameplay from E3 looks amazing! Anyone else here a fan? 

Depending on how long ES2 is delayed for they still might release in the same year, or just within a year of each other. Either way, both games look amazing with almost endless playability. 

Nizla wrote:

Strategy game are a very large family.

I think it should be important to begin with separating the good old RTS and the genre of strategy that came with 4X and Turn-Based game.

The good old RTS is a style which is dying. Starcaft 2 is dying (less and less player every day, still love to see the streaming of it ). Was a bit disappointed by grey goo which was supposed to bring a new breath to the genre, let's just see what Dawn of War 3 will be, i just hope it will be closer of the first than the second that i don't particularly like. Age of (empire or mythology), Warcraft, Starcraft, Empire earth, Command and Conquer, Suprem Commander, Cossacks, they are all relic of the past that may never shine again, and sadly that's the truth

But the 4x genre and what is called now "grand strategy" is going marvelously well with the success of Paradox (Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis 4, Stellaris), Civilization (I really hope the 6 will be good, The 5 was complete when you bought the dlc, i don't really like this and BE was disappointing), the Endless series (of course) and Total War (until Rome 2 that i really didn't liked much, compared to the great game that shogun 2 was ), to only speak about the 4 biggest in my opinion. And i don't think it's going to stop, now that the quantity is here we can just hope the quality will follow

After, i will speak about the "bastard", they derived from strategy game, but i don't really like them, or they're not the strategy game we think.

1 : ******* Internet multiplayer strategy game. There success is unstoppable as long as people are ready to loose a bunch of money on it. I consider them the cancer of the internet and really don't want to speak about it but they are startegy game despite what they are  (some example, o-game, goodgame empire, travian, and all those game which now are shitty smartphone application)

2 : MOBA, like it or not, they are considered strategy game, and they're going pretty well (no joke ). Even if know i personnaly believe people had to much of it and it's on the decline.

3 : Tower-defence-like game : Here i will speak about game like sanctum, orcs must die (or DoTE ). It's a genre that's going pretty well today, Even on RTS game there are map for tower defense (i recall playin Age of Empire 3 online and play tower-defense game or even with the starcraft 2 arcade). But i believe the tower-defense genre game are doom to remain game of little or medium scale, you will never see a AAA tower-defense game (but i would love to see what it looked like)

So in the end, does Strategy game are in a golden age ?? I would say yes and no, the RTS Golden age is long past (when RTS were truly the type of game the more played), and i don't believe strategy game will have the same outreach than it did during this time. But the strategy genre with new children is going pretty well, better since the last few years, and that's very good news

I think the classic base building, resource gathering RTS has the potential to make a comeback. I think people are finally realizing that A: the MOBA is NOT the future, next generation evolution of the RTS and B: even if it is, no one is going to be able to get into that market for the foreseeable future thanks to the unparalleled dominance held by League of Legends and DotA2. As an addendum, Heroes of the Storm only does as well as it does because of A: Blizzard (where else do you get to see Jim Raynor shoot Illidan?!) and B: Free. But Blizzard isn't pushing any kind of Esports into Heroes, focusing instead on StarCraft II and maybe even Overwatch these days.

But I think the classic RTS genre is taking some awkward steps on a road to a comeback. Sure, Grey Goo and Act of Aggression weren't brilliant (I enjoyed Grey Goo well enough but I've still sunk far more time into Homeworld Remastered and C&C3) and Homeworld Deserts of Kharak was enjoyable enough. I think StarCraft II, despite not hosting as many players as it did in the Wings of Liberty days, is still a 600 pound gorilla in the arena and still dominates the market share. Furthermore, if you think about RTS, it wasn't a widespread genre to begin with. You listed off pretty much the only big titles in the genre and with the exception of StarCraft and Dawn of War, they're all pretty much gone: C&C is dead, Supreme Commander is dead, and Ensemble Studios folded after Age of Empires 3 (despite both AoE3 and Age of Mythology doing fantastic). Hell, I don't think any of us were expecting to see DoW3 after THQ folded (THQ held the 40K license, NOT Relic). I think DoW3 will be fine (it's going sort of a hybrid of DoW1 and 2, with both base building, resource gathering and unit training, as well as having overpowered kickass hero units).

I think if the right people can get into the business, and the right game comes out, I think the RTS can return to those glory days of Tiberian Sun, Tiberium Wars and Early StarCraft II.

Commander wrote:

I think if the right people can get into the business, and the right game comes out, I think the RTS can return to those glory days of Tiberian Sun, Tiberium Wars and Early StarCraft II.

The thing about computer games is that if there is some game that's worth playing, you can keep playing it until it dies to lacking backwards compatibility. Just look at StarCraft: Brood War, which was the esport RTS until Blizzard decided that it needed a fresh coat of paint and brought out SC II. And I think despite the casual player base going down, StarCraft will still be around in esports for years to come.

However, I see the esport as a problem for many genres of gaming, not just Strategy, although it possibly hit there rather hard compared to some others. Making a game for highly competitive play can often make it less palatable for the casual gamer, who aren't willing to pursue gaming as a job, especially when resources are saved on the single-player part, which obviously isn't important for esports at all, but is the important part of the game for many casual players. To speak from experience, the Legacy of the Void campaign sucked compared to Wings of Liberty. It was staged bombastically, but the gameplay was boring. All missions were "destroy these MacGuffins", and there was basically no need to use the variable army and ability setup you had, once you had found your playstyle, compared to WoL, where your choices were permanent, but the missions made you wish you had chosen differently.

And I think that's a problem with many RTS as a casual game. The gameplay loop gets stale, and does not lend itself well to telling stories. Usually, the story is told outside the missions, and all the idiosyncrazies of the genre are just glossed over (we're a ragtag bunch of rebels, short of cash and only have like a single ship? Let's build an army of a hundred space marines and tanks and sacrifice them all to the aliens because that's how the game goes). The frantic pace of most gameplay is a hurdle for any in-mission story telling trying to grab the player's attention without making him lose, and the narrow focus on combat at a single theatre of war gets in the way of the emergent story-telling that makes 4X games so long-lived. You're not attacking the Orcs on the other side of the map because you want the diamond mine they're sitting on, or because their base might a staging ground for future invasion, you're attacking them because they're on the map and killing them is how you win.

So to get RTS out of the depression it might be in right now, there's three paths one could go, all of which require some innovative idea which apparently hasn't arrived yet. Either, you figure out how to tell stories effectively in RTS, and stories that would be difficult to tell in a different genre, or you find a way to give players the ability to tell their own stories, or make it accessible for competitive play on all levels. The last one is what's usually attempted, but I guess we have yet to see a game that does it well.