Initially, the fifth installment also had its share of bugs (not as many as in the seventh, but still). Patches quickly fixed them. I read a small "study" somewhere about why some people don't like the fifth game but love the third. The conclusions were: 1) They can't recapture those feelings, but times have changed, both socially and technologically, and they don't accept Ashan. 2) Most people just tried the fifth game and didn't bother to explore it further. Therefore, it's unclear how they judge it. 3) Old-school players prefer 2D. They didn't like the game just because of its 3D graphics. I played the third game a lot, and a bit of the second and fourth. I started playing the fifth after its release - everything was confusing, and the 3D graphics were a bit annoying, especially when art and resources were skipped on the map. Then we started playing HotA. As a result, it doesn't even compare to the third (I only checked HotA, but not for long). The third game is now a thing of the past. But the same is unlikely to happen with the seventh game, because even if you remove the bugs, it's already not appealing.