Template talk:Age of Empires series

message: Just a broad inquiry: why does this template list "similar games"? We could go on forever listing similar RTS games or games that use the same engine. Most game templates are restricted to games of that series or franchise, or at the most an offshoot of the series. The games in this template have nothing to do with Age of Empires other than being in the same genre. --Scottie theNerd 06:06, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds uses the AOE II engine, so that seems like it belongs. Empire Earth could loosely fit as its lead designer worked on Age of Empires. Granted, I guess the other ones are up for debate as to whether or not they should remain. Thunderforge 05:43, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That does not seem as a viable criteria for a template. A game's engine does not unite a game with another series. Look at Quake 3: countless first-person shooters use the same engine, yet the Quake template only lists the games in the Quake series itself. Additionally, the game GUN uses a heavily modified Tony Hawk Pro Skater engine, but obviously should not be part of its template. As for Lead designers: again, many designers work on many games, so unless the template is specifically about the designer (like, say, Sid Meier), there isn't any reason to list games that are not directly related to Age of Empires. --Scottie theNerd 06:44, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: After looking at several templates such s Template:Quake and Template:Battlefield, I think I'm inclined to remove them as well. So, I went ahead and took the liberty of removing the "similar games." I still feel that Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds should be included because unlike with Quake, this is the only game (as far as I know) that has used any form of an AoE engine. However, I guess you can't have the whole world, so I decided to include it. Thunderforge 16:53, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I would like to second Thunderforge's comments. SW:GB very certainly should be included as part of the AoE series.  It not only uses the same engine, but plays very similarly to Age2 and even has some barely concealed reskinned units (cannons=trebuchets, pummels=battering rams). It is more similar to the Age of Empires series than it is to any other group of games. In fact, Ensemble Studios played a major part in the creation of the game and the implementation of the engine.  This was not simply the GUN/Quake scenerio of a studio buying an engine and tearing it apart from there.  Lucasarts, who had problems with RTS's in the past, set out to ensure that they had a decent game by simply making, with Ensemble's conset and assistance, an AoE game set in the Star Wars universe.  Thus it should definitely be considered in the outer orbit of the AoE universe.139.140.178.121 (talk) 07:01, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Star Wars is not Age of Empires. It's as simple as that. --MrStalker (talk) 10:41, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry, I didn't notice I wasn't logged in when I made the above comment.  I am 139.140.178.121.   I think your logic here simplifies things a bit too much.  Yes, Star Wars is a separate category from Age of Empires, but that doesn't preclude its inclusion here. For example, the Half-Life template includes games such as Portal, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, etc. in an "other" category separate from the main series, identical to what we had here.  The above named games are technically of a different series from Half-Life, but, as with Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and Age of Empires, they were made with the same engine in collusion with the same company and have a number of play mechanic similarities.  In fact, SW:GB is much more similar to the AoE series than any of the above are to Half-Life, being as it is an Age game with a Star Wars skin.  Finally, consider the reader who would want to use the template. Presumably, they are looking for games extremely similar to the Age series of games (and I will reiterate here that the game is a reskinned Age2).  I think we are doing a disservice to the reader in not including it in the template. However, I will refrain from reverting your edits until we can get this thing sorted out.FareedMcLure (talk) 18:13, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: No, it really is that simple. Star Wars has nothing to do with Age of Empires, many games use the same engine. We don't put all games that use Unreal Engine in the Unreal series template, do we? Including Star Wars together with AoE would only serve to do one thing: Confusing the hell out of readers. Star Wars is for the Star Wars template, not AoE. --MrStalker (talk) 20:23, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Similar Games 

message: I reverted the edits by Hippy deluxe because they added a lot of redundant text which made the template a lot harder to read with no clear benefits. Please discuss before making this change again. --MrStalker (talk) 12:30, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree with this. dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 07:57, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Redundant text 

message: I disagree with just having "Age of Kings" as a headline in the Template as well as the other games, the factual name is Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, however I don't think we need to include this on the expansions, just the main games, can we stop putting AoE3 too, this is lazy for wikipedia and although it saves space, its not the correct name for the game, the Template looks fine as it is now.  —Preceding Dantinho comment added by Dantinho (talk • contribs) 11:09, 7 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Template Text