I thought about almost this exact thing recently. I hope we're able to keep the best games running forever.

For games that are fun I think you can leave in balance issues and even features-not-bugs. It's trickier for things like netcode bugs that are purely a negative.

Really grateful Id release their source eventually. Really hoping the same will happen for AoE2 someday.

In chess if you don't play 2 years and then come back to it, you don't find out that all the rules have changed in the meanwhile. Which is what currently happens with age of empires 2.

It really is and they keep iterating on it. definitive edition has more investment than some of the new AOE3 and 4 versions

It's a brilliant game for sure. The randomness, the fact that it's not turned-based and the multiplayer also make it interesting compared to chess. However Chess has 1000x simpler rules that never change, and you don't need high APM to play competitively.

AoE2 is coming out on PS5 this year.