Since Paradox has basically stated that if EU3 ever existed it would be far into the future, and Johan (quite understandably) has little time to devote to patching, what are the downsides for Paradox if they release the code to a few selected people in order to continue patching the game? Not allowing them to distribute the whole game, but just to put out small patches through these forums as Johan has recently.
Possible issues (and why I think they're irrelevant):
Disclaimer: Ok, I realise I'm living in la-la land here, and there are probably really good reasons why this would be totally unfeasible - certainly I have no real knowledge about how game companies work. But I can dream, no?
Possible issues (and why I think they're irrelevant):
- [*]There are 'trade secrets' in the code that no one's allowed to look at. Firstly, I think if they selected people who were obviously committed to the game it would be highly unlikely for these to be disclosed. And the game itself has no enormously complex technical stuff as far as I can see, while their 'engine' has already undergone significant improvement for later games (EU2's hardly cutting edge anymore...).
[*]There are expensive tools used, or material which is copyrighted by a company other than Paradox. Well, people interested could always buy them
And these would be most likely involved in the maps and such-like: although the ability to modify these would be nice, I'm sure most of us would think that some tweaking of the basic code would be a lot better than nothing.
[*]Even if EU3 was planned for 2010, a significantly improved EU2 would undermine it. By 2010 we could assume that graphics/gameplay/platforms would have advanced far beyond those current, and hobbyists have a track record of not implementing major interface changes (see the Steel Panthers series for an example). But at any rate, Paradox could have the option to 'withdraw' the code at any time they wanted.
[*]There's nothing serious that really needs changing. Have you seen the buglist lately? Or the wishlist ?
[*]You can't let people loose like that. They'll destroy the game. You could always just use the last official patch. Or the 1.05 patch, as some (crazy!) people persist in doing! Hell, there are probably people playing the game who've never even looked around the internet for the latest patch (or don't have a connection! Oh, the horror...).
[*]But the first thing that they'll do is hack together some quick changes so you can really play in, say, Victoria's timeframe. Paradox won't like that. Paradox could, as part of allowing certain people to modify the code, restrict the areas in which they can modify it. If the specially selected people were stupid enough to ignore these, Paradox could make threatening legal noises and not distribute it, at the very least ensuring that it didn't garner a wide audience and its affect on Victoria sales was minimal.
Disclaimer: Ok, I realise I'm living in la-la land here, and there are probably really good reasons why this would be totally unfeasible - certainly I have no real knowledge about how game companies work. But I can dream, no?
