Age of Empires
"Age of Empires", released on October 26, 1997, was the first game in the series, as well as the first major release from Ensemble Studios. It was one of the first history-based real-time strategy games made, utilizing the Genie game engine. GameSpot described it as a mix of "Civilization" and "". The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion pack, "The Rise of Rome", published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced new features and four new civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems.
Empires of Eve
"Empires of Eve" was written by journalist Andrew Groen. Groen, who had written for "Wired" and "Ars Technica", wanted to write a book about parts of the video-game world which had been overlooked by other journalists. "Eve Online" was released around that time, and Groen began researching the game. The game met his criterion for uniqueness because of its focus on causation. Groen looked for past work about "Eve Online"; a 2003 forum post ("Death to Taggart, Death to Ragnar, Death to the memory of this treacherous night" by player Jade Constantine) caught his attention and inspired him to write the book. He spent two years in research, talking to over 70 players, examining forum posts and reading data related to the game. Groen had never played "Eve Online" before he wrote the book, and said that his idea for a book was not seriously considered; without "Empires of Eve", the game's history might have been lost. He began a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the book in 2014.