#Aoe 2 online series#

Single-player campaigns are usually centred around expanding oneвЂ™s empire and multiplayer online games are competitive battles ranging from 1v1 to 4v4 players. The purpose of advancement in AoE II is purely to engage in effective warfare. If these ages sound awfully specific to Western Europe in the Middle Ages, wellвЂ¦more on that later. In AoE II, players take control of a society of their choice and guides them through four different вЂagesвЂ™: the Dark Age, where buildings resemble shabby tents the Feudal Age, where more technological upgrades and buildings become available the Castle Age, when the civilisation starts to get access to powerful units and advancements, and finally to the Imperial Age, when players get access to all buildings, units and technologies available to their civilisation. This last expansion contributes to a total of 35 civilisations (or вЂcivsвЂ™) represented in the game, all of which are based on prominent cultures from the 5 th century to the 15 th -from the Celts to the Chinese, the Teutons to the Turks, the Incas to the Indians. 1384 вЂ“ 1433), representing the civilisationsвЂ™ most revered вЂempire-buildersвЂ™-what the game calls Heroes-in premodern Southeast Asia.ДЄn ongoing battle in Rise of the Rajas with Battle Elephants

#Aoe 2 online series#

The last expansion pack of the game, Rise of the Rajas, added four new вЂcivilisationsвЂ™ to the series (Burmese, Malay, Khmer, and Vietnamese), each with its own fully voice-acted campaign: вЂњBayinnaungвЂќ (1516 вЂ“ 1581), вЂњGajah MadaвЂќ (flourished 1319 вЂ“ 1364), вЂњSuryavarman IвЂќ (reigned 1006 вЂ“ 1050), and вЂњLГЄ Lб»ЈiвЂќ (c. In the 1999 sequel the series really hit its stride in terms of critical acclaim and popularity, so much so that in 2013, fourteen years after the original, an HD edition was released along with a quick succession of expansion packs. ItвЂ™s a game I know well from my childhood. Age of Empires II: Rise of the RajasДЄge of Empires or AoE (1997-present) is a long-running and incredibly popular series of historical real-time strategy video games. Rise of the RajaвЂ™s title image, with Suryavarman I on the left, Bayinnaung on the right, and Gajah Mada in the centre. With so many people around the world-within and without the region-engaging with Southeast Asian pasts through gaming, what are the historical and political implications? This is despite the fact that Southeast Asia has had an increasing presence in gaming, both in terms of being featured in games, and also in terms of market presence. While there has been more work done on historical games based in Europe, the Americas and East Asia, less attention has been on Southeast Asia. In this blog post IвЂ™m looking specifically at the construction of Southeast Asian pasts in the real-time strategy game Age of Empires II: Rise of the Rajas (2016). Even more recently, scholarship has gone beyond this pedagogical slant and turned to the political implications of such games. Over the past decade, historians have caught on the phenomenon of history-telling in gaming, analysing both the form and content of historical games, as well as the opportunities that these games create in furthering historical knowledge. Passionate (and often toxic) debates can arise from whether a game is вЂhistorically accurateвЂ™, although like many historical debates, these clashes are often less about the past than about present political concerns. IвЂ™ve spent a (shameful) number of hours speaking to a variety of historical figures in AssassinвЂ™s Creed Odyssey.ДЄ scene from AssassinвЂ™s Creed Odyssey вЂ™s Discovery TourДigital games have become one of the primary ways most people consume and construct historical knowledge, often unknowingly. This extended game time has also made me reflect on how many of the games IвЂ™ve played recently have a strong relationship with history and historiography. I have a sneaking suspicion IвЂ™m not alone. IвЂ™ve been playing a lot of video games recently: working from home and self-isolation has made me reach out for my Switch/PS4 controller much more than I used to, which-trust me-says a lot.