CK3 and Stellaris offline for long on GeForce Now + related pre-order DLC problem

[Kraster]

Well I'm not going to wait that long so I'm arranging a subscription to another game streaming service that provides a full PC that has the game or has how to install any game from Steam.
Sure, I didn't want to have to spend money on another streaming service but since the solution to the problem with GFN is going to take time (because that's what it looks like), I don't have much choice in that case, it's wait or be about $10 poorer.

Less than 21 days until Crusader Kings 3's birthday folks, let's celebrate soon!...

 

[daviperny]

I was looking into Shadow for an alternative streaming service. Looks legit in the sense you can play whatever you want on your own virtual machine. But I saw today GFN plans on adding Humankind and Old World sometime this month--so that should satisfy my grand strategy itch for a little while longer.

I'm definitely rethinking my interest in Paradox as a publisher though. I too eagerly buy every DLC and game they drop. And with the exception of CK3, all the other recent launches have been duds. I'd rather support some of these other publishers who are attempting to break into strategy gaming than find a way to continue to support/playing one that seems far too comfortable with what it achieved a decade ago.

 

[qualitätsgarantie]

Well I'm not going to wait that long so I'm arranging a subscription to another game streaming service that provides a full PC that has the game or has how to install any game from Steam.
Sure, I didn't want to have to spend money on another streaming service but since the solution to the problem with GFN is going to take time (because that's what it looks like), I don't have much choice in that case, it's wait or be about $10 poorer.

Less than 21 days until Crusader Kings 3's birthday folks, let's celebrate soon!...

What streaming service are you looking at? Shadow is expensive and has almost a year wait time.

 

[Coemgen]

I grew up with PDX. They used to care about their gamers/customers. They had one of the best customer service in the industry.

Seems like that it has changed. Really sad. I guess it’s true what many people say, all PDX cares about nowadays is ca$h

 

[daviperny]

I'm a latecomer to Paradox. I only discovered CK2 two years ago, and that led to a massive binge of every other game they got, including Vic2 over the last month. But I'd say this situation, the total garbage that is Empire of Sin, the complete abandonment of Imperator has really warped my view of what this company's principles are. I can forgive the DLC approach--so many pubs do it these days. And I've always found the content worth it. Some dramatically reshape the game for the better.

This is harder to forgive. Over two months of a clown show where frustrated customers are given confusing non answers in place of a bonafide solution or a roadmap to one. They can tell me tomorrow it's all fixed and things are back up and running, but the customer service will still suck.

 

[PaperGangsta002]

I do agree that it's upsetting, and taking far longer to resolve than ideal (though of course it's difficult to gauge how much time would be fair/unfair in this situation given the holiday midway through the situation, but of course Paradox staff are absolutely entitled to their holidays (and probably should get more let's be real)).

But I think it's good to remember that streaming games is something that's only taken off in the mainstream (and even then nowhere near the majority) in the last couple of years. There probably isn't a precedent for when things go wrong and it sucks that @AndrewT has ended up having to take the brunt of the questions and complaints, likely (though I don't know) without the proper internal structure in place at Paradox and/or GFN to help him and/or resolve the issue.

That being said, we are customers who have paid for a good and service upfront and are not receiving it, while not necessarily receiving an explanation as to why we are not, or indeed why it is taking so long to fix.

I doubt there is much that @AndrewT can do about this, thus I do offer my apologies that you seem to be caught in this position between a rock and a hard place, and extend my thanks that you do try to keep us updated with whatever you can and continue to escalate the issue with your superiors. But it seems like there needs to be a bit of internal shuffling of priorities within Paradox in order to ensure game streaming is considered so that this issue is resolved soon and any future, similar issue can be resolved within a few days rather than a whole month (nearly two counting the holiday days). I guess any shift would need to come from the top down though.

 

[Kraster]

What streaming service are you looking at? Shadow is expensive and has almost a year wait time.

Boosteroid, and while they don't have servers in America, it's not like I've found better solutions and since the game Crusader Kings 3 doesn't really need low latency (at least if it's not the multiplayer mode), I find it acceptable to pay around €5 for the service.

 

[daviperny]

What streaming service are you looking at? Shadow is expensive and has almost a year wait time.

Have you checked Shadow lately? I see I can join by Aug. 26 of this year (might just be my location). $30 for Shadow is steep compared to my GFN founders fee, but I'm still considering it since you can play pretty much anything (like all of the total war games, which scratch a very specific, bloody itch)

 

[GeppettosChosen]

Have you checked Shadow lately? I see I can join by Aug. 26 of this year (might just be my location). $30 for Shadow is steep compared to my GFN founders fee, but I'm still considering it since you can play pretty much anything (like all of the total war games, which scratch a very specific, bloody itch)

That is pretty steep.... but I may consider it. Especially considering when the GoT mod comes out one day, that may not work on GFN.

Can anyone here attest to their low latency?

 

[Coemgen]

I do agree that it's upsetting, and taking far longer to resolve than ideal (though of course it's difficult to gauge how much time would be fair/unfair in this situation given the holiday midway through the situation, but of course Paradox staff are absolutely entitled to their holidays (and probably should get more let's be real)).

But I think it's good to remember that streaming games is something that's only taken off in the mainstream (and even then nowhere near the majority) in the last couple of years. There probably isn't a precedent for when things go wrong and it sucks that @AndrewT has ended up having to take the brunt of the questions and complaints, likely (though I don't know) without the proper internal structure in place at Paradox and/or GFN to help him and/or resolve the issue.

That being said, we are customers who have paid for a good and service upfront and are not receiving it, while not necessarily receiving an explanation as to why we are not, or indeed why it is taking so long to fix.

I doubt there is much that @AndrewT can do about this, thus I do offer my apologies that you seem to be caught in this position between a rock and a hard place, and extend my thanks that you do try to keep us updated with whatever you can and continue to escalate the issue with your superiors. But it seems like there needs to be a bit of internal shuffling of priorities within Paradox in order to ensure game streaming is considered so that this issue is resolved soon and any future, similar issue can be resolved within a few days rather than a whole month (nearly two counting the holiday days). I guess any shift would need to come from the top down though.

I agree except for the holiday part. Let’s stop using the holiday as an excuse. The fact the game was up for some time during the holidays shows that it is working, it simply gives you the extra DLC.

That means they didn’t take it down because it wasn’t working, they took us down because of the free dlc issue.

of course they’re entitled to take their vacation and wait to fix it, but then let us play the working dlc version while we wait for the fix

wanna wait till September to fix it? Fine.
But let us play in the meanwhile

 

[Valentino 大谷 吉継]

Guys, they said "We think we have narrowed down the issue, but we need to do some extensive testing before implementation!" in CK3 Discord server. But...

The answer to the question of when (approximate) the game will be online is as follows;

None yet, but it is definitely a pressing issue and we are doing our best to get it handled. Before the end of the year is currently where we are looking at. It could be sooner or it could be later, but we do not foresee it being later.

Before the end of the year? So, maybe even September is too early.

 

[Dionysos030]

Oh my god I'm starting to lose the feeling in my limbs

 

[Kraster]

Guys, they said "We think we have narrowed down the issue, but we need to do some extensive testing before implementation!" in CK3 Discord server. But...

The answer to the question of when (approximate) the game will be online is as follows;

Before the end of the year? So, maybe even September is too early.

That is the person who left the message.

 

[ariamaru]

Have you checked Shadow lately? I see I can join by Aug. 26 of this year (might just be my location). $30 for Shadow is steep compared to my GFN founders fee, but I'm still considering it since you can play pretty much anything (like all of the total war games, which scratch a very specific, bloody itch)

Shadow is a great service and also worked great for my location (Berlin). I assume they have a lot of free slots currently since they lost a huge amount of customers (including me) when they raised their prices by 100% for the low tier (now 30€) and cut their middle tier completely, among other stuff. They did so after going bankrupt and getting bought by some rich guy who likely wants to let the single customer service die a slow death and just take the streaming technology and use it for business related services.

Guys, they said "We think we have narrowed down the issue, but we need to do some extensive testing before implementation!" in CK3 Discord server. But...

The answer to the question of when (approximate) the game will be online is as follows;

Before the end of the year? So, maybe even September is too early.

Well.......... at least..... they're... honest?

 

[GeppettosChosen]

Oh. So if this is true then its basically a dead service right?

Why bother if you are unable to support your product for 6+ months?

I think we can all move on. They would rather be on vacation, its fine, we can take a hint.

 

[daviperny]

Jesus...before the end of the year? I wonder if that's the same timeline for Hoi4 and Stellaris.

It's nuts because at least for CK3, this is about protecting DLC from being accessed for free. To be clear, we're talking about one package, Northern Lords, for a grand sum of $6.99.

I'd wager a good chunk of the active player base on GFN already has Northern Lords (like who doesn't want to be the Viking who forms Normandy). So the business decision here is to shut off CK3 from GFN to protect their $7 content package from the few who never paid. The geniuses in marketing can't see the benefits in letting anyone who is willing to pay the monthly fee for GFN have access to this one $7 content package. Their imaginations can't fathom that maybe those few holdouts who play CK3 on GFN could decide to pay up for Northern Lords once the problem gets fixed, taking away the free benefit.

An average of 10,500 players played CK3 over the last 30 days. Assume half use GFN--an extremely liberal estimate--that leaves about 5,000 players who would potentially bring in $35,000 if all of them payed for the DLC right now. That revenue is also overly high considering Steam would get a cut.

The amount of effort needed to fix this problem, the efforts being made to protect a small chunk of revenue, the lack of communication on top of all the snafus over the last 12-18 months make me think this company is more of a mess than I ever thought.

Maybe I'm wrong. Paradox hasn't said what the actual issue is for the outage. There's just the rumor that it was taken down due to the DLC access issue. But imagination can run wild when no one will answer you.

 

[Valentino 大谷 吉継]

The issue is Paradox Launcher and it's effecting HOI4 and Stellaris too beside CK3. Crusader Kings 3 has not many DLCs maybe but HOI4 and Stellaris has. So the issue is bigger than "$7"

 

[Coemgen]

LET US PLAY WITH THE DLC WHILE YOU FIX IT. How hard is that? You’re not losing any money.

Or make it so that you have to buy Northern Lords to play. I’ll spend 7$

 

[AndrewT]

but how can you not know whether it was Paradox's or GFN's decision, after almost two months?

I'm an external contractor half a world away from the Paradox office. I'm simply not in the development, game management, or office loops for this game.

 

[Coemgen]

That is the person who left the message.

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What discord is that?

I think that’s @PDX_Pariah speaking