Age of Empires' enduring appeal stems from balancing accuracy with fun

It's probably safe to assume that everyone who likes strategy games has, at some point, played one of one of the Age of Empires games. Actually, I bet that a few of you out there will have played one of them, eventually uninstalled it, and then out of nowhere installed it once more. you probably repeat this play-uninstall-install cycle every once in a while.

For some, RTS games are ones that you don't really grow out of and the older ones in particular retain a sense of belonging and familiarity that newer attempts have found hard to beat. Age of Empires is an especially personal example for me: As a Brazilian, I can't choose my country in any of the games in the franchise, but as a historian by degree and at heart, I've studied many of those empires closely -- the familiarity with the leaders' names and cultures or even the opportunity to play with history and command powerful armies is a real draw.

Generally speaking, you could take umbrage with the franchise's nonchalant approach to historical accuracy. For some, this takes away from the game, but I couldn't disagree more.

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