In previous Age of Empires titles, there were a variety of factions / eras a player could play with / through. (thenerdstash.com)
Although this is a big departure from previous Age of Empires, Microsoft contends that the priority is not in the lucrative nature of microtransacting. (thatvideogameblog.com)
Indeed, the elimination of suffering, in a way that would strike people of previous ages as wildly utopian, has become a major social imperative. (firstthings.com)