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tiberije

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Mar 15, 2014
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I am really disappointed with latest announcement from Paradox.

Off course Paradox can work on any game they want, but when after 3 years ( EU4 - 2013) studio that exists only because of the grand history strategy games announces space game and before that RPG (that was later abandoned), you have to think they are trying to bite more than they can chew.

This happened with angry birds developer who overextended and know is trying to get back to their roots.

Question is...

Why studios negate their core customer base and try to do "something completely different". Were they really in all this because of the money and they think they gonna make more if they go mainstream or it is something else?
 
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Some succeed, some fail... You can't generalize with just one studio (which is an unexperienced one compared to Paradox...). If no one were inovating or ambitious, we would still be at stone age.

It doesn't mean either that they're abandoning historical grand strategy (HOI 4 and probably some other of their runing projects). You mentionned their recent success, so it was to be expected for them to expand their number of projects, and you can't realistically say release an EU game every year :p
 
It's a grand strategy game in space. From everything they've said and shown so far, Stellaris seems to be neither something completely different nor more mainstream.
 
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So what? I'm excited to see them apply their model to an all but dead genre. Maybe I'll finally enjoy a space strategy game newer than MoO 2.
 
You mean Angry Birds' developpers decided to do something(whatever it is) that is not a reskin of the same old tired game I've been seeing on Newgrounds frontpage since 2005 and that is a bad thing?

As for negating their customer base, I can only speak for myself, but I always wanted a good space GS/4x and one that runs on Linux natively. So as far as it goes it seems like they are even going out of their way to please the only customer base I care for(me). Ain't that awesome?
 
I support the risk they are taking. Not many companies have the guts to do things like that. I don't feel that they are abandoning anything, doing new things is a good step, variety is good and if it pays off, they will be able to broaden the number of titles they make. If they only made 3 titles again and again, people will lose their enthuziasm to make those games and quality will drop. Who knows, maybe we will see s Vicky 3 after stellaris or whatevet.
 
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Variety is good if you have resources to work on multiple projects, but if it is gonna take you 3-4 yrs to release next grand strategy history game because you invested your resources in space, rpg or some other game than you have problem because significant part of your customers are history buffs that don really care about space or one more RPG.

I know that I won't buy Stellaris even if it is $1 because I don't care about space. It is irrelevant, just fantasy for masses or Hollywood. On the other hand how many new customers Space game of Paradox complexity can expect to get? If they loose 1/3 of customers that buy history games, do you really think they will find same number out there?

It takes a lot of time to learn to play Paradox games and most people that like space games or RPG's don't really invest hours of their time in watching Arumba videos in order learn how to play game.

That is a problem for Stellaris it is made for HC Strategy gamers but big part of those are history freaks that don't want to waste time on space game, even if it comes from Paradox
 
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No I don't demand anything but I am talking about pure business sense, if core of my business is making grand strategy history games and I don't issue a single game of that type in 3-4 yrs, then I think my business strategy need to be readjusted.

It's like if all of sudden Toyota decides to make airplanes instead of cars in the next 3-4 yrs.
 
Whatever.We will se in the next year or so, how market will respond to stellaris and other games that deviate from core games that PDS makes.
If it is well accepted they may decide to experiment even more with fantasy/space. If not we will se more of the history strategy games but by then I will give my money to CA and Total War franchise and Civilization (Beyond earth is exception, I wouldn't take that one for free).
 
A Paradox title of Rome which is not some sort a EU based, but a title of its own. It might be under development, might be not, but I really it is, because many people in this community are asking for it. I follow Paradox's game release and not once they canceled their own titles or other titles (East vs. West) assumably due to two reasons quality, which they mentioned as far as I can remember after every cancelling and sales potential. It is very likely that Paradox's view on potential sequel or a completely new Rome title stems from the probable lack of success of EU:Rome, which quite frankly didn't stand up to the standards set by his bigger brothers. However, I do believe that Rome is a highly desired era and without conducting much research I can quite surely say that if done correctly it would be a very successful title. I also think that the RPG elements is crucial for a game like Rome success.

If I compare titles of Paradox, like CK2 to other games in strategy genre and other genres, what makes their game so attractive is the replaybility that what makes it a cash cow it is. In summary, we can say that Paradox's activity is characterized by risk averse nature, but Rome is a popular era and combination of high quality and replaybility should lower the risk and higher the potential of it becoming major title similar to its older brothers.
 
A similarly built sequel can tank just as hard as an original IP. Just look at Rome Total War 2, or countless others from other studios. I've read HOI 2 players weren't crazy about HOI 3, but I've only played 3 so I don't have an opinion.

I think PDS knows what it's doing. I was very skeptical of Runemaster, and the fact they canceled the project, only makes me trust them more. From what I gather, it was a passion project that they were very excited about. I bet it was really disappointing when they had to make a tough call and shelve it. Despite my skepticism, I didn't feel betrayed. Any developer that makes a game that I have sunk 200+ hours into has gained a certain amount of trust that wouldn't be broken by one creative decision I don't agree with.

Stellaris looks amazing, and although it's a new setting, it looks like game play will be familiar to previous titles. I'm tired of people in the community making the claim that somehow PDS is betraying the fan-base. And being stretched thin? If that is the case then they are still somehow producing what is arguably their best work to date in EU4 and CK2.

I view the cancellation of Runemaster and the success of EUIV as the begining of a golden age for PDS. They will have a wide net with a diverse portfolio of the niche grand-strategy games they are so known so well for. And there is no reason to think that they will somehow stop producing sequals to their core titles that I've seen.

And that is my essay on how to be a fanboy. Thank you.
 
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tiberije said:
This happened with angry birds developer who overextended and know is trying to get back to their roots.
Click to expand...

I don't think a dozen Stella games were really overextension, at all

hqdefault.jpg
 
It's not games that killed them. It was angry birds theme parks, merchandise and god knows what... If they were making only games instead of trying to make new brand (anybody said disney) they would be fine now.
 
tiberije, i think your problem is that you have seriously overblown expectations of what PDS is as a company and are disappointed when they didn't meet the impossibly high bar.

the problem isn't them trying to milk a tried-and-true cash cow, they aren't going mainstream just because it is, they aren't "going against" their consumers; they are doing something they've been wanting to do for a long time: their dream project. there's no smoking gun here, YOU are just too close-minded to accept that they will do anything different ever. they aren't selling out like Rovio, they aren't overextending, they are just doing what they do. the PDS core franchises are that way because there's been several iterations of them, they all panned out, and because they really didn't have much room or money to safely work with anything else until their watershed years of 2013-2014

as for the timespan- this isn't a generic mobile game that a team can crank out in a span of weeks, this is a full size game with presumably high replayability. it takes years to make a working game like this (take fallout 4 and its incredible 8 year development cycle) and even then, it's generally buggy. and that's on top of all the other stuff PDS has to concurrently work on: updates and DLCs for CK2 and EU4, working on HOI 4, and their 2 other projects that won't be announced until they are 6-8 months away.

like Dur pointed out, when you think about it stellaris isn't really all that much of a deviation from the beaten path. it's a combo of the GS genre (which PI coined back in the day) and the 4X genre. two niche genres that thanks to game journalists and especially Steam have gained much more of a following in recent years.


EDIT: and lets not forget the modding potential like at https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/what-mod-do-you-hope-for-the-most.876128/. i bought CK2 because of mods like AGOT and EK. now i still play the hell out the base game just as much as the mods. not only does stellaris have a ton of base potential, but there are other games like sins of a solar empire which have massive mods that can be used as inspiration or even ported to stellaris.
 
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Mudcrab said:
Heh. OT, I prefer (not) this charming Hapbsburg, yes, Habspurger tea cup.

kgzppVu.jpg


For all you hreboringhapbsburg fans, everywhere. And yes, this bloody thing is a thing and it's for bloody purchase. Dear Lord, preserve us.
Click to expand...

HA!... i'd buy it.
 
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