RTS is not dead, it just evolved down a suboptimal path through corporate meddling. It was never at its best as a competitive Esports genre dominated by sweats (fuck you SC2, fuck you nu-Blizz). It was intended to be a genre focused on FUN foremost. Not who can perfect their build orders. Not who can break the 200 APM barrier.
Red Alert games: great campaigns, success
WC3: great campaign, success
TFT: great campaign, success
AOE2: great campaign, success
Conquerors: great campaign, success
AOE3: shitty campaign, failed
AOE3 expacs: even shittier campaigns, failed
SC2: mediocre campaign, success despite Blizz's worst efforts
What more evidence do you need? Indie RTS with nonexistent competitive playerbases? Do we need to bring in grand strategy as a demonstration of the gigantic singleplayer strategy playerbase compared to multiplayer? All multiplayer does is allow the worst of the worst (sweats) to interact with a community primarily in it for FUN on their own terms. This never leads to positive results. Tee bee aitch, RTS shouldn't even have multiplayer, because it diverts company resources away from quality campaigns and playtesting. This is how you get dogwater like Stormgate.
