Ask Paradox (almost) Anything Thread

[Alfred Packer]

I'm a history teacher with the good fortune to have tiny class sizes (7-12) and a brand new Interactive SMART Board (installed Friday). So, my first thought was "hey, I bet I can use Paradox Games in the classroom on this thing!" I assume EU3 would be the best/easiest one to use. I remember years ago seeing a post from Johan mentioning EU3 being used in school classrooms. Have you guys heard anything else about this or know who used it in schools so I can annoy them with questions?

[Stefanos_P]

I'm a history teacher with the good fortune to have tiny class sizes (7-12) and a brand new Interactive SMART Board (installed Friday). So, my first thought was "hey, I bet I can use Paradox Games in the classroom on this thing!" I assume EU3 would be the best/easiest one to use. I remember years ago seeing a post from Johan mentioning EU3 being used in school classrooms. Have you guys heard anything else about this or know who used it in schools so I can annoy them with questions?

Wow, your students have no Idea how lucky they are.

The mere prospect of this makes me want to go to school again.

[DanubianCossak]

I'm a history teacher with the good fortune to have tiny class sizes (7-12) and a brand new Interactive SMART Board (installed Friday). So, my first thought was "hey, I bet I can use Paradox Games in the classroom on this thing!" I assume EU3 would be the best/easiest one to use. I remember years ago seeing a post from Johan mentioning EU3 being used in school classrooms. Have you guys heard anything else about this or know who used it in schools so I can annoy them with questions?

What exactly do you plan to teach your students with EU3?

[RedRalphWiggum]

What exactly do you plan to teach your students with EU3?

Well for a start you have a comprehensive world map of every day for 400 years, not to mention the government types and leaders

[RedRooster81]

Well it's a start for putting students in the shoes of political leaders. Asking why decisions were made rather than go the direction of moral values is a good way to go at least most of the time. Rather than "was Napoleon a bad leader" ask why did he decide to invade Austria when he did.

[Alfred Packer]

Basically, what RedRooster and RedRalphWiggum said...most of my students have no concept of why governments do things...they don't understand inflation or limited resources...they struggle with 'why' and I think EU3 would do a good job of giving them that (Vicky would too, but that is a seriously complex game!)

[Raph]

You could let them play the older non-sandbox games like EU2, HoI2 and Victoria, they all have tons of historical events that'll teach them lots and lots of history. Taught me a lot and freshened up even more that used to lie dormant. Now I know very a lot more about the Crimean war, which king succeeded which in Sweden, who was in the thirty years war and so on.

[LYNCHY]

Do you have some sort of agreement with PC Gamer as alot of there free giveaway games are wither PI developed or produced by PI?

[DanubianCossak]

Well for a start you have a comprehensive world map of every day for 400 years, not to mention the government types and leaders

You have map that scrolls through time, and i suppose you could show kids some things, but at the same time i wouldnt use EU3, specially vanilla, to like teach them history and stuff. The map is wrong in so many places, starting with general map projection (compare work CanOmer did to vanilla), to historic set up, for instance in Japan there is nothing historically accurate at all. Many other places, for example Russia and eastern Europe (just to name 1), are done to such low detail that its basically "here be dragons". Dont get me wrong, its still my all time favorite game, but its far(really far) from perfect.

[Susana]

Do you have some sort of agreement with PC Gamer as alot of there free giveaway games are wither PI developed or produced by PI?

Yes, we work with a lot of media for things like give-aways etc. Pc gamer is a good fit for Paradox for obvious reasons :-)

Kind regards
susana

[Johan]

I'm a history teacher with the good fortune to have tiny class sizes (7-12) and a brand new Interactive SMART Board (installed Friday). So, my first thought was "hey, I bet I can use Paradox Games in the classroom on this thing!" I assume EU3 would be the best/easiest one to use. I remember years ago seeing a post from Johan mentioning EU3 being used in school classrooms. Have you guys heard anything else about this or know who used it in schools so I can annoy them with questions?

Someone used it like this on University/college level course.

A group of students (3-4 people) had to play together a country over 5 30 minute sessions, and then write on why they did certain decisions, what impacted their strategies, and what they learned otherwise.

[Alfred Packer]

Thank you both Regina and Johan...I'm going to try this out with my students starting in September! I'll definately share how it goes with you guys!

[Zarine]

Maybe the question was already asked :

Will PI will ever release "very old" game as open source (with any license please you ofc) so we could mod it even further (even if it's the old game) ?
I'm thinking like EU1 in 2/3 years...

[Raph]

I just stumbled over the 4x game Endless Space and their developers. Have you heard of Games2Gether, a system they use for involving players in the creation of the game, similar to an open beta but with more "power" in the hands of the gamers? What do you think about it and do you see anything similar happening for PDS or PI games?

EDIT: Also, what is your attitude to selling alpha games/games as work in progress, similar to this, and Minecraft also comes into mind?

CASTELLON EDIT: To remove external links.

[Balor]

Have you heard of Games2Gether, a system they use for involving players in the creation of the game, similar to an open beta but with more "power" in the hands of the gamers? What do you think about it and do you see anything similar happening for PDS or PI games?

definitely not for pds games.

[Svip]

definitely not for pds games.

I have to concur, I always find that games produced by focus groups and democracy tends to be worse than games produced by a dictatorship of creativity. It is great that to listen to others' input, but a project lead still needs to make the final decision.

[Raph]

definitely not for pds games.

That was my guess. How about PI published games though? How much control does PI have over the creative process of its developers?

And regerding PDS I'd say that you guys listen a lot more to the community compared to other studios, but not too much. "Lagom"!

[Grombeard]

Do you have a public booth at gamescom this year or are you in the developer/press-only hall again?

[Fishman786]

Is Paradox taking into account the suggestions of the fans for EUIV?

[JakopDalunde]

You could let them play the older non-sandbox games like EU2, HoI2 and Victoria, they all have tons of historical events that'll teach them lots and lots of history. Taught me a lot and freshened up even more that used to lie dormant. Now I know very a lot more about the Crimean war, which king succeeded which in Sweden, who was in the thirty years war and so on.

Even though the new sandboxy games are much more fun, a part of me still misses those good old straight-jacketed events about what actually happened through history. I learned a lot from them.