Stormgate: The Unworthy Successor

Stormgate isn't a spiritual successor to StarCraft 2 and WarCraft 3, it's a materialistic flop. The best Kickstarter of 2023, industry super-veterans, investment money, and the legacy RTS community of pros and content creators couldn't salvage a game whose every pillar fails to compare... .. to an indie browser game from 2014? How did it all go so wrong? TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Proof I Wanted SG to Succeed 14:53 - Gut Reaction 17:53 - Comparing $40m AA to an Indie Browser Game 19:13 - Missing Replay Features 24:30 - Ranked Points and MMR Flops 29:45 - Comparing Badge System to LittleWarGame 30:45 - Unit Pathfinding 32:36 - Lagging on Game Start 35:07 - The First Truly Asocial RTS 40:22 - Map Editor Unavailable 47:55 - Versus AI is Versus UX 49:22 - Cam Pain 51:50 - Poor Visual Clarity 57:48 - Predicting 3v3 Design 1:00:29 - No Hotkeys 1:03:02 - Curbstomping Community Goodwill 1:03:40 - Kickstarter 1:07:55 - WarZ and Day 1 DLC 1:09:30 - StartEngine and WoL Claims 1:11:17 - EWC Hypocrisy Aside 1:12:52 - Fortnite Art Style 1:19:03 - Abysmal Release State 1:24:57 - Designed Against Casuals 1:34:02 - Uncontrollable Coop Difficulty 1:37:03 - Games Journalism Anti Signaling 1:41:00 - Community Fumbles 1:45:59 - 1v1 Was Prioritized 1:52:26 - SGWorld and LuminiteGG 1:59:53 - Restroom Break 2:02:24 - Preamble to Pillar Talk 2:05:25 - Four Crumbling Pillars aka The Inept Four 2:06:44 - 1v1 Problems 2:10:25 - Blame Runs Deep 2:14:23 - Back to 1v1 2:14:54 - Campaign Misery and Dogwater Writing 2:28:20 - Coop and Cope 2:40:17 - Missing Editor 2:41:32 - Metrics of Misery 2:49:14 - Wrapping Up