Ask Paradox (almost) Anything Thread (no support/tech or code questions)

[Castellon]

Castellon, you are an admin, so you are close enough to Paradox to answer a question.

Why don't you have any games registered? IIRC, BiB doesn't have any (or many) games registered either. Do they disappear because you are an admin, or are they not there for other reasons? A wish to stand out? The same reason you have the giant "admin" tag under your name?

Well the Admin tag is there to make sure you know to pay attention
The lack of game icons is because I don't want to show favoritism to any particular game or group of games. (Admin should be impartial in every way)
So the only option is to have them all or to have none, and when you can have every single one, I think it is more of a statement to have none.
or in this case just the Pdox logo, by flying that flag so to speak I am showing my support for all the games.
Not to mention is saves on server resources and bandwidth.
Maybe I will start and switch icons depending on which game I am playing at the moment?

--> This insight into the mind of Castellon is brought to you by Paradox Interactive.

 

[Castellon]

But they are not asked to be the final arbiter of rules and discipline.
It is the same reason you will not see me participate much in OT Forum.

If you want a real world analogy
Paradox is the Government
Admins are the Supreme Court
Mods are the Lawyers representing the state
and Demi-Mods are like local beat cops

 

[Johan]

So.... Anyone from Paradox can be found guilty and punished? Or corruption is widespread?

No.

We're more like gods.

 

[Castellon]

So.... Anyone from Paradox can be found guilty and punished? Or corruption is widespread?

When was the last time you saw anyone in Government get punished for thier crimes.

No.

We're more like gods.

Being the Government is better than being God, you have all the power but if anything goes wrong you blame God(s)

 

[Castellon]

Guys lets keep this to non tech support questions, I know it can be frustrating when you encounter a problem but we already have ways to contact us about tech issues, and of course you are encouraged to start a thread in the support forum for the specific game.

 

[Castellon]

Well that would be a request for a story, not a request for tech support.

and I think Kallocain already shared some.

 

[Shams]

I've urged her repeatedly to post the best support case every week. She's has a lot of integrity and has therefor refrained from doing so.


My all time favorite is still the email that read.

Subject: Help!

"I'm Japanese!"

Great stuff.

/s

 

[Mattias Lilja]

Trivia: I also think Paradox/GamersGate staff like Theodore and Mattias Lilja are still involved in publishing new versions of Target Games' old RPGs. These ventures are called "Järnringen" and "Riotminds".

@Pandemonium: the trivia part at least is very true, both me and Theo (that's Gamersgate CEO Theodore Bergqvist) have various pet projects like old school rpgs (the pen & paper kind).

/Mattias

 

[Susana]

Why are you frequently displaying steampowered links to buy your newly released games?Would it not be normal for you to encourage people to go to Gamersgate, which is as good as Steam is?

Actually, we try to display purchase links to all places that carry every game to make it as easy as possible for everyone. Some people buy all their games on Steam, some people all their games on GamersGate, this way we get a much bigger part of the market share than just using one outlet. Our titles do better = we do better = we can continue developing more internal games and produce external games etc

 

[Susana]

Actually, that reminds me:

Is there a reason that the boxed copy of Mount&Blade Warband uses Steam?

The Steam retail version opens quite a few possibilities for the developer, auto-updates, reduces print lead times (currently as long as 6 weeks) and more. The reason the boxed copy of Mount & Blade: Warband uses Steam is because the developer wanted to use it.

Kind regards
Susana Meza

 

[Johan]

"Please return my picture of a spider" etc

seen it. before.

 

[Castellon]

This is prob for Kallocain, who is the oldest forum member?

We have lots of members over 100 years old.
by that logic I deduce that playing paradox games is proven to increase your longevity.

Maybe we need to charge more and market that aspect.

 

[Shams]

With my 46-page thread marathon done, I can finally ask my questions

What processes do you go through in order to produce a new title? Is everyone involved in brainstorming ideas, or is it more focused on a few members of the team? Are certain ideas rejected outright because of coding complications, or do you consider anything to be possible?

Similarly, regarding patches and expansions?

Lastly, do you tend to focus on one title/expansion to the exclusion of others? Or do you have one title as a primary focus and work on others in your spare working time and/or when inspiration hits?

I love this thread, it's providing excellent insight to the company It's great to see a company with this level of communication with its fanbase.

You're just wondering about the internal titles? I'll let the developers answer themselves.

/s

 

[Kallocain]

200K Icons no longer give access to all avatars. I thought they were like a magic key with an interesting use. Now it's gone. Can you bring it back?

It was a bug... So no.

What processes do you go through in order to produce a new title? Is everyone involved in brainstorming ideas, or is it more focused on a few members of the team? Are certain ideas rejected outright because of coding complications, or do you consider anything to be possible?

All that feel inclined can take part, so it varies. A lot of the discussion takes place in pubs and such.

Similarly, regarding patches and expansions?

Similar, but with focus on the team currently developing the patch or expansion.

Lastly, do you tend to focus on one title/expansion to the exclusion of others? Or do you have one title as a primary focus and work on others in your spare working time and/or when inspiration hits?

Well, we have two teams. One for the current game we make, one for the current patch/expansion. To work on another game at the side is not the standard, but it happens sometimes. I guess the answer is A.

 

[Mattias Lilja]

I'd like to hear about the cooperation between Paradox and developers whose titles you are publishing, and how involved does Paradox get in the development process?

Well, it really depends on when we get onboard. Sometimes devs come to us with close to a finished product and we publish the game as is, other times we are in it from the start (or even contract studios to develop a concept).

In the earlier case we can suggest changes and additions, and then roll with what we get.

In the later case we work more involved with the devs; they often present ways to go forward and discuss it with us. What we most often add is a sales/marketing expertise - if we see a change that might mean a broader appeal then we go for it (increased sales is the main reason devs want a publisher after all, the other reason being funding).

Cheers,
Mattias

 

[Castellon]

Imperialism already had a sequel. Imperialism 2
I have to say I liked a lot of what the game had to offer.
It was a welcome relief to Civ end game where you had so many cities that late game management took hours a turn.

 

[Castellon]

Think of that as a random temporary bonus for registering a newer game.

 

[Castellon]

Thats strange, when I registered my games I got the search function available...

Braging about it tends to make me hunt them down.

 

[Castellon]

I´ve got two questions regarding the forums:

1. How about enabling multiple board languages, e.g German or French Interface ?

2. What about using stuff from your games to customize further the style of the forums? ( the EU.Rome sub forum with the ingame graphics would look awesome ) ?

1. Not right now but possible at a future date, it takes a lot of work to maintain multiple languages. At least you can access language specific sub forums for many languages.

2. Updating the look for forums is on hold right now as the concentration is on getting the latest VBul software to integrate with the servers. You will find many updates and bug fixes once that is accomplished. As for your specific question, that is a definite possibility.

 

[Kallocain]

Why are so many people working barefooted in your office?

(Just something I noticed after reading the Paradox Interactive Uncovered article)

Those would be our two interns. I'm not sure why, I find it a bit weird.

I'm reading this book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_Tongue_(book) by Bill Bryson at the minute, and it got me wondering, do ye talk to eachother in mainly Swedish or English in the office (this doesn't apply to King)?

I'm not sure if you are serious or not, but Swedish is still used, yes. Some technical terms tend to not get translated from English though.