Age of Empires Online

While Bree is delivering a ransom to try to secure what's left of Shawn's beard, MJ and Teri join Justin for the first Massively Speaking of 2013! It might have been a relatively slow news week, but there was still enough talk around the water cooler to make us sit up and say, "Why do we have that water cooler again?"

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Read below the cut for the full show notes.

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What you see right now in Age of Empires Online is what you'll get... forever. Microsoft Studios announced that it's ceasing any further development on the title effective immediately due to finances. The studio will release a "small amount of content" in the near future, but following that, the game's features and civilizations will be set in stone as it moves into a support phase.

That doesn't mean the game's getting cancelled, however. The announcement emphatically states that Age of Empires Online will continue to operate as is, will have future community events, and it is not "dying."

The move from development to support was explained as follows: "Creating top-tier content, as we have been for the last year and a half, is very expensive -- too expensive to maintain for long, as it turns out. We can no longer afford to keep creating it. Age of Empires Online already has a very large amount of high-quality, hand-crafted entertainment, and adding more is no longer cost-effective."

The Babylonians are joining Age of Empires Online. In a recent interview, Gas Powered Games revealed that both this industrious new pro civilization and a new booster pack, Fertile Crescent, will be added to the game on August 16th to coincide with the game's one-year anniversary.

The Babylonians bring with them new ways to build, protect, and conquer, from mobile storehouses called Ox Carts to The Siege Tower (think Trojan horse) to shield bearers. Additionally, the Babylonians can build out of wood instead of stone.

The land of Mesopotamia also opens up the game with the Fertile Crescent booster pack. This area has level-scaling repeatable quests for the level 20 to 40 crowd. Lead designer Brian Frick noted that this type of scaling content is the direction the company is going in the future. He added, "We just want to have more of our content be fun for all levels to play."

Both the new Babylon pro civ and the booster pack will be purchased using Empire Points, the in-game currency; Babylon will cost 900 EP, and the Fertile Crescent will cost 450 EP. You can read more details in the full interview.

Last month, the Age of Empires Online developers announced an aim to take the game away from its "free-to-try" business model and move to truly free. With the latest update, the real-time strategy game will not only convert to a truly free-to-play model but also offer new content to players in the form of Alliance Wars (a team-based competition for level-40 players) along with new purchasable vanity items and consumables.

In the move to make all premium content available through gameplay, the game's currency -- Empire Points -- can now be earned through conventional play or purchased through Steam. Chris Taylor, founder and CEO of Gas Powered Games, explains, "With Empire Points and this true free-to-play business model, we are giving players what they have repeatedly asked for... fewer pay walls and more ways for players to experience this legendary franchise."

As the game transitions to this new model, all current players will receive a gift of 500 Empire Points automatically, while new accounts will receive 100. Current players who had Empire Points previously will see them converted into in-game coin.

[Source: Gas Powered Games press release]

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Age of Empires Online is getting a skirmish mode courtesy of the upcoming Skirmish Hall booster pack. The new gameplay will allow players to team up and fight AI opponents in pursuit of experience and loot.

Skirmish mode will pit you and a friend (or computer ally) against four computer-controlled enemies, and each AI can take on a variety of different playstyles. Each style is represented by a unique leader, and there are eight of these to choose from.

Also of note is the fact that skirmish mode unlocks all of the game's units regardless of your overall level. If you want to preview some powerful Age of Empires units that are hidden away behind hours of advancement gameplay, skirmish mode is the way to go. Check out the skirmish mode trailer after the break for more details.

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