Compared to many, I'm a pretty new member to Paradox. But over the past year or so, I've enjoyed the games and have respected the development team's commitment to making the games better, taking suggestions and releasing patches. Excellent, excellent work and a true player's and gamer's environment.
I especially enjoy the historical games -- though, I love the sandbox aspects -- and the inner complexities of the games (which can be frustrating at times, also) make them rather deep and challenging. The games are wonderfully multidimensional.
It is in this light that I've always felt Paradox was the perfect development team for a couple types of other great games: one is a city/transportation game. And lo and and behold, I see that they have one in development. Excellent, I will be keeping tabs on where it's going in the coming months.
Another game I've always felt Paradox could do extremely well was a Mafia/Mobster game. I'm not talking about a first-person shooter or anything like that. I'm talking about an in-depth strategy game where several families / mafias / gangs / even police vie for rule and space in a city. The game might incorporate similar mechanics to some of their other strategy games: running finances, diplomacy, arms buildup, avoiding too much "infamy," recruiting, influencing, etc.
But instead of province control, the player would look to control blocks of land, businesses, apt buildings, neighborhoods. Instead of managing soldiers and citizens, the player would attempt to influence and manage thugs, workers, businessmen, police, lawyers, judges, civilians, the press/media. Instead of large scale wars across huge swaths of land, involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tanks/planes/ships, the player would need to conduct (sometimes more sometimes less) discreet ways of waging war: whether it be setting fire to an opponent's warehouse or making a 10-man raid on a secret meeting of police and rival families. Instead of running an empire, the player would run a mob family, and rule city streets and city blocks, public perception and media outlets, police and political influence.
The layout itself might look like a map, but perhaps in a closeup zoom view, Paradox could incorporate some of the things they're trying to do with Cities in Motion. It wouldn't have to be just in the USA, as well, as Europe/Russia or South America might make interesting campaigns.
The only game I have ever seen even come close to the one I envision was Hothouse/Eidos "Gangsters" of many many years back... but that's so outdated it's hard to even compare it with the potentiality that a team like Paradox could do with the genre. I hope they might consider it. The game could incorporate historical events and yet also have the sandbox atmosphere that makes Paradox games so interesting... so addicting.
I especially enjoy the historical games -- though, I love the sandbox aspects -- and the inner complexities of the games (which can be frustrating at times, also) make them rather deep and challenging. The games are wonderfully multidimensional.
It is in this light that I've always felt Paradox was the perfect development team for a couple types of other great games: one is a city/transportation game. And lo and and behold, I see that they have one in development. Excellent, I will be keeping tabs on where it's going in the coming months.
Another game I've always felt Paradox could do extremely well was a Mafia/Mobster game. I'm not talking about a first-person shooter or anything like that. I'm talking about an in-depth strategy game where several families / mafias / gangs / even police vie for rule and space in a city. The game might incorporate similar mechanics to some of their other strategy games: running finances, diplomacy, arms buildup, avoiding too much "infamy," recruiting, influencing, etc.
But instead of province control, the player would look to control blocks of land, businesses, apt buildings, neighborhoods. Instead of managing soldiers and citizens, the player would attempt to influence and manage thugs, workers, businessmen, police, lawyers, judges, civilians, the press/media. Instead of large scale wars across huge swaths of land, involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tanks/planes/ships, the player would need to conduct (sometimes more sometimes less) discreet ways of waging war: whether it be setting fire to an opponent's warehouse or making a 10-man raid on a secret meeting of police and rival families. Instead of running an empire, the player would run a mob family, and rule city streets and city blocks, public perception and media outlets, police and political influence.
The layout itself might look like a map, but perhaps in a closeup zoom view, Paradox could incorporate some of the things they're trying to do with Cities in Motion. It wouldn't have to be just in the USA, as well, as Europe/Russia or South America might make interesting campaigns.
The only game I have ever seen even come close to the one I envision was Hothouse/Eidos "Gangsters" of many many years back... but that's so outdated it's hard to even compare it with the potentiality that a team like Paradox could do with the genre. I hope they might consider it. The game could incorporate historical events and yet also have the sandbox atmosphere that makes Paradox games so interesting... so addicting.
