By reader demand, here's a translation of the interview (don't mind any stupid mistakes, this was written way too early in the morning):
The Battle for Europe Continues
Are you not satisfied with European history? The new version of computer game "Europa Universalis" gives you the chance to influence history, from the fall of Constantinople to the French revolution. Development boss Johan Andersson talks about the rules of the game.
In "Hitech Building", middle building of Hötorget (central Stockholm), lies the Swedish computer game company Paradox Interactive. The prejudiced expects odd computer nerds in a basement sticky from Jolt Cola, but the office on the sixth floor looks disappointingly normal. Except there's no contemporary art - instead, there are computer game posters, such as "Alien invasion", "Warhammer", "Hearts of Iron" and, naturally, "Europa Universalis III".
"EU III", as they call it, has just been released and it is expected to at least match the success of the predecessor when it came out six years ago. Unlike then, this time they built a whole new engine from scratch, and added many features and three dimensional maps, but the strategy idea is the same.
To put it simply, the goal of the game is to, as successfully as possible, guide any country through history, starting some time between May 30, 1453 and July 14, 1789. From the fall of Constantinople to the French revolution. You can choose to play alone, or by network with, or against, 31 other players.
Development lead Johan Andersson brings me and a notebook computer to a conference room for "press review 1A". This means that we starta new game as 1453's catholic Sweden, when Karl VIII (Karl Knutsson Bonde) governed a weak country at the periphery of civilization.
Johan Andersson emphasizes that you do not play the regent or any other specific person, but the "spirit of the country". Swenglish is the lingua franca of computer gaming, so we just tow along when he guides us by "tutorials" and "trials" and in to "single-player-mode".
- As you can see, we are at war with Norway and Denmark. We have a budget deficit and an advisor slot is empty, says Johan Andersson and points at various icons on the screen.
There you can also see that the state treasury weighs in at 52.5 ducats, a game specific monetary unit, with a size that can be illustrated by noting that a regiment costs about 10 ducats - Sweden is relatively poor at this point in time.
- Hmm, we have the ability to purchase three advisors to the court. Let's take this Sten Sture Bielke. He costs 0.6 each month, but he gives us 18 plus to the country's stability. Then we can purchase a spy, Bengt von Ascheberg. He costs 0.4 each month, but he has good "spycraft" (interviewer seems shaky on EU3 gameplay mechanics, ed.), and that's always good, especially in war.
The history buff has already realized that some of this is fictional, but the game's level of historical detail otherwise is remarkable. It contains 1 700 provinces in 250 historical nations with a total of 4 000 regents and 1000 other historical persons. Whichever country and time you choose to play, the initial setting is completely correct, down to forms of government, religion, cultures, allies and enemies.
But from the moment you start to play you can rewrite history however you wish. Or?
- As Sweden you could for example conquer England and make it catholic. Sweden can probably become muslim if you play as Turkey, but I'd say it's impossible of you choose to play as Mali. (You heard the man, prove him wrong!
ed.)
The history revisionism is limited by the mechanics, by the game's balance. You can not make greater changes than what you have in resources, technology, troops, money, etc. Karl VIII can for the same reason not become Pope.
We're giving it a try. We give order to the troops in Värmland to, under the command of Karl VIII, attack the Norwegian Akershus. After losing some troops, we manage to besiege the fortress, but meanwhile, Norwegian troops have taken control of Dalaskogen, to the north of our army. Dang. Sweden's treasury is not large enough to bribe the majority of the Papacy's seven cardinals, the leaders of the curia. Doubledang. A Swedish pope will have to wait.
Johan Andersson says he has always been interested in history, but the development of the "EU"-series and several other historical games have certainly helped. Additionally, and very importantly, they have in the established game development way had continuous contact over the internet with a so called beta group, something like a volunteer focus group.
- It started with 20 persons about one and a half year ago. The group quickly grew, and today there are about 200 of them, with everything from professional academics to amateur historians to common computer gamers. Three or four of them live in Sweden, but others come from Croatia, USA, Turkey, Portugal, practically the whole world, except Africa, where there aren't very many with internet access, says Johan Andersson.
With the help of the beta group "EU III" has become a game where you can govern most aspects in your country in a very intricate way. You can regulate the degree of innovativeness at the expense of narrowmindedness, the level of free trade versus mercantilism, aristocracy versus plutocracy and so on.
Another of the game's central concepts is the balance between war and peace. In "EU III", the longer you wage war, the worse you become at trading, and vice versa.
Already when "EU" was released the series was lauded for its historical qualities. Among others, Peter Englund wrote in DN that he was impressed "by the degree of historical feel that has actually made its way into the game".
When "EU III" was released at the end of January it went directly to the third place on one of the internet's most important lists, Gamespot. Three days later, it had to Paradox's great delight ousted both the super success "World of Warcraft" as well as its expansion "The Burning Crusade" from the top of the list.
Who are your ideal players?
- People of buy the game instead of downloading it illegally, something we try to counteract by offering legitimate players as much as we possibly can. One thing we have noticed is that highly educated people are rather common among our player base. Not so many people who look for quick action where you don't need to think, as, honestly speaking, you need some historical knowledge and a certain intelligence. A pretentious description of "EU III" is "the fine arts" of computer gaming, says Johan Andersson.
Do you play it yourself?
- Almost never.
Is it like the drug dealer device "don't get high on your own supply"?
- Kinda. It's a fitting phrase. I don't play computer games much at all, and after nine hours at work you just want to do anything but that.
