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in a sentence, companies have to be explicit about what data they collect from you and you have to agree to that
since it's not feasible to strip the telemetry out of older versions, the telemetry IS a necessary part of the functioning of the game
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It legally requires vendors to inform customers of data collection. Game versions from before that popup was included do not do that. The choice was to update every old version of every game with the popup, or put them behind the password wall which in turn shows that popup.
Their location has very little to do with it - its easiest for any online company to simply abide by the regulations of a major jurisdiction of customers like the EU. Like in the US, where many regulations that are only on the books in a one or two large states (Texas amd California are the two classic examples), but companies find it easier to just comply with them rather than tailor their products to each state’s customers.
It doesn't. This just happens to be the solution Paradox opted for.
In their defense, they could have also just removed this functionality (though I'm sure the decision to keep older versions accessible was at least partially influenced by the PR backlash that could have been expected).
Did the codebase itself change this much, when it's part of Paradox business model to keep working on a game and refine it with more and more patches over years, rather than just releasing and forgetting about it? On the other hand, you make some good points I did not think of, especially regarding the potential importance of cascading changes caused by third party resources. It's probably impossible for anyone outside the studio to say for sure just how much work would have been required.
Ironically enough, a Paradox launcher managing all games from the company's catalogue (rather than each game having its own launcher) would have made this transition far less problematic, in that it could have served precisely the function they have now set up a website for: up-to-date privacy policy consent.
Alternatively, they could've added a check to disable telemetry for outdated versions when the games were originally published, but this is of course Captain Hindsight speaking.
GDPR has nothing to do with Article 13, which isn't even in force yet as the last attempt to introduce it was voted down in Parliament, and the bill sent back for re-drafting.
But since Google's lobbyists seem to have gotten a lot of people to believe this, I'd also like to take the opportunity to point out that memes are already covered by existing copyright exceptions for parody (see Art. 5 Directive 2001/29/EC). Article 13 of the planned Directive would not establish new copyright, it is about applying existing copyright law to the digital sphere. Furthermore, the only news websites that would've been targeted by the legislation are the ones that just steal their content from the actual creators without any enumeration (aka aggregators, aka Google/Facebook/etc). I can only recommend everyone to read the documents on the planned Directive for themselves, rather than limiting their exposure only to other people telling you what they think (or claim) it says. It's the safest way to avoid manipulation, no?
Yes.
Thats not the problem. The problem is probably more the inability to get release servers to compile the code.
That's so bad that Paradox had to change the minimum requirements for EU4 between 1.26 and 1.26.1 without informing the customer except by silently changing the requirements on Steam and in a answer to a bug report.
>With that done the Games tab on Paradox Plaza will show the list of codes needed to revert to previous versions.
So... Is this particular functionality a WIP? I can't see the codes on https://accounts.paradoxplaza.com/games. I can't even see that I own EU4/Ck2/HOI4, only Stellaris and the south indian portrait DLC for CK2.
So... Is this particular functionality a WIP? I can't see the codes on https://accounts.paradoxplaza.com/games. I can't even see that I own EU4/Ck2/HOI4, only Stellaris and the south indian portrait DLC for CK2.
Indeed. Codes will be available from the 1st of October onward!
Regarding the issue of Steam and Plaza not synchronizing games properly, I will talk to my colleagues to be sure that this settled by the 1st of October.
Honestly, under the circumstances this is probably the most customer-friendly realistic option Paradox had, so I get that and am not angry.
However, I won't do it. I have not linked my Steam and Paradox accounts despite numerous overtures to do so from Paradox, and I won't do it now either. I am deeply cynical about linking accounts like that, and I think there is some reason to be. As of (a few days from) now that means I'll no longer be able to roll back a version to try out an interesting but outdated mod (the primary reason I've used the beta feature); them's the breaks. The beta feature is more a cool extra than something expected out of a company - c'est la vie.
I really hope Paradox never moves to make a linked account mandatory for playing the game at all.
However, I won't do it. I have not linked my Steam and Paradox accounts despite numerous overtures to do so from Paradox, and I won't do it now either. I am deeply cynical about linking accounts like that, and I think there is some reason to be. As of (a few days from) now that means I'll no longer be able to roll back a version to try out an interesting but outdated mod (the primary reason I've used the beta feature); them's the breaks. The beta feature is more a cool extra than something expected out of a company - c'est la vie.
I really hope Paradox never moves to make a linked account mandatory for playing the game at all.
Could it be possible to upload old versions as mods instead that over-ride the entirety of the game files? I wonder....
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Even if your Game page doesn't populate properly you will see all the passwords for the older versions of the games, it will be a separate section.
By even playing a previous version of the game that tells us that there's something that is driving some folks there - more so if it's a large portion of the player base playing a previous branch. When we have that data, it becomes valuable and actionable information for the team. Getting telemetry on previous versions of the games and seeing how that version is being interacted with helps to inform future development decisions. The core of gathering any form of telemetry data from a game is to better understand what people do with it - from a development perspective that's about understanding interactions within the game and what is meaningful to people, from a community perspective it helps us to understand where we can engage with our players and what we should communicate regarding future updates that will be of interest.
I tried triggering thr manual sync yesterday on the owned Items page, and i think that is not working. There are a lot of icons in the "Inactive" box of games that I own, such as the CK2 base game which I play almost every day. Why are these icons not in the "Active" box? See attachment
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The manipulation to get the codes will only be available from the 1st of October and onward. In addition, the sync between Steam and Paradox Account has to be done on the Paradox Plaza webiste, not within the forums. Hope this helps! And if your situation is only linked to icons, please file a ticket on our support website