The developers of Paradox Interactive are the leading strategy company on PC. Their hits like Crusader Kings 3, Stellaris, or Victoria 3 are among the games with absolute top reviews on Steam. On social media, they present themselves uniquely and deal self-ironically with the typical accusations against their games.
What kind of games is Paradox known for?
- The Swedish publisher is primarily known for historical strategy simulations based on the “Clausewitz” engine. With game series like Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings (part 3 has 87% positive reviews on Steam), Victoria, or Hearts of Iron, you can historically reenact half of human history relatively accurately.
- The SF game Stellaris is also considered a hit in the strategy genre – Stellaris has 85% positive reviews on Steam.
- Additionally, they also publish other really good games like Cities: Skylines or Mount & Blade.
“In Sweden, they make games that consist only of maps”
How does one deal with typical clichés? A prejudice about Paradox’s games is that one cannot understand the games at all. For outsiders, it is entirely unclear what is happening in the games. This is because the underlying game mechanics are too complex.
On Twitter, Paradox makes fun of this accusation, posting a picture of human rights activist Park Yeon-mi and letting her say:
In Sweden, they make games that consist only of maps. No one knows how to play them, and people just stare at the maps for hours, watching the colors change.
The fans on Twitter chime in and explain:
- „I have installed and uninstalled Hearts of Iron 4 more than 4 times because I just didn’t understand anything.”
- „Bro, it’s true. I really stare at the map for 30 minutes before I realize: Oh, I should actually play here.”
- „After 8,000 hours I once found out how I could actually play a Paradox game. I was so happy. Then a new patch came that changed the game mechanics and I was back to square one. But seriously Paradox, I love you, you guys are the best.”
A day later, Paradox responded to Nvidia’s question “How many games have you completed from start to end?” with a “It’s complicated.”
A hint that hardly anyone plays a game from Paradox until its end date, because they become so lengthy and complex in the endgame that the games often run out of steam.
Moreover, a complete game simply takes an extremely long time. Most of the time, fans only play the games until they achieve a certain achievement or a self-imposed goal.
Here too, there is much agreement in the comments:
- „1,500 hours in Crusader Kings 3, I haven’t even finished the tutorial.”
- „I played my last game in Stellaris almost until the end. But the galactic federation didn’t like that I wanted to eliminate my enemies…”
- „After hundreds of hours I have exactly won one game of Stellaris and that was more of an accident.”
- „After 1800 hours in Stellaris, I haven’t even once seen the Victory screen.”
The Twitter account of Paradox apparently knows exactly how their fans tick. Quite unique.
More about Paradox:
