PDXCon2017 - Our story
We’re recently back from Stockholm, where last weekend Paradox held their first fan-attended PDXCon. I promised to write about it when I got back to a proper keyboard, so here we go.
My wife, Karen, and I arrived on Thursday before the Con. Acting on advice, we’d booked on SAS to land at Arlanda and take advantage of the Express to get us into Stockholm proper. A short ride on the comfortable train and a cab journey later and we were at our hotel, the Hotel Hellsten. This is a very nice family-owned place, essentially a bunch of apartments turned into a hotel. Everyone there was very warm and friendly - a trait of Swedes, as we were to discover.
That afternoon/evening, my wife and I carried out a ‘recce’ trip, walking down to Gamla Stan to see the lie of the land, as it were. I found the Riksarkivet and popped into the courtyard where I saw and recognized Zeke (TheLetterZ) and briefly introduced myself. Since everyone was clearly busy and tired, and with typical British reserve we didn’t want to intrude, we left quickly.
Next day, Friday, having been informed that there was a metro station on Gamla Stan (recce on foot hadn’t noticed the “T” sign, obviously…) we made our way to it before doing some ‘touristy bits’, walking round the old town before catching a tour bus and a boat trip before finally returning to the hotel for something to eat and drink. A nice day.
Saturday came, and we went to the Riksarkivet. We got off the Metro and ran into Chris King, and walked up with him. I mentioned to Chris that I’d bought his game, and he shrugged a bit and said he at least was one of the few, if not the only, other person at Paradox who knew what it was like to be the CEO… We had a good laugh, then he went in and we waited in the queue gathering outside. Already I was being drawn into conversations about the games, what i was looking forward to, etc. Paradox fans easily become ‘family’.
The first presentation we saw was Chris and DDRJake with the “EU4 Live Live Stream” - a lot of fun and a lot of “in-jokes”. Next, we saw Henrik “Doomdark” Fåhraeus talk about the “Seven Deadly Sins of Crusader Kings Development” - more fun, and informative.
Before going, Susana had urged me (on Twitter) to seek her out. The next thing was Fred and herself formally opening the show, so to speak, and after their presentation I went up to the stage and said, “Hi Susana, I’m Steve” - and for a moment I thought we would end up in an undignified heap on the floor as she went to hug me. But she said “Hi! - I’ll be right back!”, rushed around the stage, bringing a grinning Shams and Daniel Goldberg (I think - hazy memory) before asking my wife if a hug was OK, getting a nod and enveloping me in a warm greeting. THAT moment I will always remember, Susana, Shams, Dan and later Fred made us welcome like old friends - which, in a way, we had been on Twitter and the Forums, but now it was face-to-face. These folk are as warm and gracious and fun In Real Life as they are on the ‘Net.
The next panel we saw was with Jonny Watts from Frontier, Mariina from Colossal Order and PDS legend Johan Andersson, about Creativity in the games. This was excellent, and we met up with Jonny and Zac, also from Frontier, afterwards and told them our son worked with them - the Hammer sent his greetings. It’s a small world!
Now it was time for the first of Andreas’ concerts. We were at both of these, they were terrific - Andreas is a very talented musician and composer, and hearing the familiar music played live by a string quintet was something we’ll both remember. Later, at the BBQ, during the second concert, the wind picked up and blew the notation around, but still, they managed.
After them, a Swedish medieval band named “Kalabalik” came on to entertain us. They’d played for Paradox before, and were warmly received and played mostly familiar tunes to those of us who played PDS games (I’d assume a large majority of the audience). They were good fun!
After that, my wife and I headed indoors for two reasons - One, the disco was about to start and I could do without that, and Two, it was getting *cold*. As we went in, we made our way to the ‘internal bar’ and the karaoke… What happens at karaoke stays at karaoke, so ‘nuff said, except that we left when all closed up for the evening and finally hit the bed at 2pm. Not bad for a couple in their sixties!
Next day dawned, and after breakfast we again headed for the Riksarkivet. Our programme began with a presentation by Dan ‘Podcat’ Lind on (of course) Hearts of Iron. This was fun, as Dan not only told how we’d got to this point but also gave some ideas about where he’d like to improve the game. Check out his Dev Diaries, folks.
After that we saw the presentation by Mariina called “Parks and Wreck: The Evolution of Cities: Skylines”. The talk was as full of humour as the title suggests. By the way Mariina, I love the idea of a Pony Tycoon game… I knew that Cities: Skylines had been an amazing success, but I didn’t realise it had sold 3.5 Million copies. My only regret was that Karoliina, the senior programmer who featured in the launch videos, wasn’t there - it would have been good to here some of her stories.
Next up was lunch, only I never got that far - I was talking to other gamers so much that (much to my wife’s dismay) I missed out on lunch altogether. I managed to see Juliette and Andreas’ presentation titled “Fair Use, Copyright and Creation: How to Avoid a Casus Belli” - which was interesting, informative and showcased some unfamiliar parts of the company.
I finally got to hear Johan’s presentation about EU4: “Around the World in 400 Years, the Europa Universalis Story.” Johan’s fun, he says what he thinks, but he’s also to a large extent the Loremaster of PDS so what he says needs to be listened to. I was disappointed to be told (by others, several times) that he HATES “Falalalan” though. ;-)
Next up, we had a presentation by the MEIOU & Taxes group about their Mod. They’re taking EU4 a long, long way from PDS, not just by adding detail and provinces, but also changing the way the game plays - their mod requires players to be a lot less direct, you don’t get a “result” from an “input”, it happens behind the scenes (using a lot of variables). Talking to the guys after, I was amazed to hear that their mod actually now (in the 2.0 version) runs faster than vanilla - a bold claim indeed. The guys are passionate and friendly, well worth engaging with.
We went back out into the courtyard to get a (soft) drink and listened to Shams and his presentation, “Ideas are Useless! Pitch a game to Paradox!” I’m still disappointed that Shams didn’t troll everyone by wearing a Victoria III T-Shirt…
Finally Fred brought proceedings to a close with his solo presentation, “The Evolution of Paradox.” Full of anecdotes, characters and milestones, this was a good reminder of where they’d come from - and Fred also said where he hoped they’d be going to.
All of these presentations are or will be available one way or another on Twitch or Youtube, so you can catch them there. It’s a good job, because we missed some I’d have liked to have seen - particularly Martin ‘Wiz’ Anward’s “Stellaris”, Petter Vilberg and Milla Isaksson’s “Content Creation” and Björn “Kuma-Kun” (or PDS_Metal_King) Iverson’s presentation on Audio - which is already on Youtube and WELL worth watching.
As things were winding up, forum member @Horrendus tweeted that he was organising a community after party at Broder Tuck, one metro stop and a short walk away. Naturally, I retweeted, told him we’d be there, and we made our way… there were eventually about 16 of us - and then Björn, Andreas Waldetoft and Björn’s intern - Thomas, I think, excuse me if misremember - joined us too. Rather like the karaoke, I’ll draw a veil here…
So that was PDXCon2017 over. We still had two and a half days in Stockholm, during which time we did some sightseeing, some shopping, visited the Vasa museum - an absolute MUST, and (sorry) far better than the Mary Rose, as well as the ABBA museum and the Royal Palace. We enjoyed our trip tremendously, know there’s lots more to see in Stockholm and nearby, and sincerely hope to go again next year if, as promised, they do it again!
My apologies for any inaccuracies in the report above - I accept the blame for any that are there!
We’re recently back from Stockholm, where last weekend Paradox held their first fan-attended PDXCon. I promised to write about it when I got back to a proper keyboard, so here we go.
My wife, Karen, and I arrived on Thursday before the Con. Acting on advice, we’d booked on SAS to land at Arlanda and take advantage of the Express to get us into Stockholm proper. A short ride on the comfortable train and a cab journey later and we were at our hotel, the Hotel Hellsten. This is a very nice family-owned place, essentially a bunch of apartments turned into a hotel. Everyone there was very warm and friendly - a trait of Swedes, as we were to discover.
That afternoon/evening, my wife and I carried out a ‘recce’ trip, walking down to Gamla Stan to see the lie of the land, as it were. I found the Riksarkivet and popped into the courtyard where I saw and recognized Zeke (TheLetterZ) and briefly introduced myself. Since everyone was clearly busy and tired, and with typical British reserve we didn’t want to intrude, we left quickly.
Next day, Friday, having been informed that there was a metro station on Gamla Stan (recce on foot hadn’t noticed the “T” sign, obviously…) we made our way to it before doing some ‘touristy bits’, walking round the old town before catching a tour bus and a boat trip before finally returning to the hotel for something to eat and drink. A nice day.
Saturday came, and we went to the Riksarkivet. We got off the Metro and ran into Chris King, and walked up with him. I mentioned to Chris that I’d bought his game, and he shrugged a bit and said he at least was one of the few, if not the only, other person at Paradox who knew what it was like to be the CEO… We had a good laugh, then he went in and we waited in the queue gathering outside. Already I was being drawn into conversations about the games, what i was looking forward to, etc. Paradox fans easily become ‘family’.
The first presentation we saw was Chris and DDRJake with the “EU4 Live Live Stream” - a lot of fun and a lot of “in-jokes”. Next, we saw Henrik “Doomdark” Fåhraeus talk about the “Seven Deadly Sins of Crusader Kings Development” - more fun, and informative.
Before going, Susana had urged me (on Twitter) to seek her out. The next thing was Fred and herself formally opening the show, so to speak, and after their presentation I went up to the stage and said, “Hi Susana, I’m Steve” - and for a moment I thought we would end up in an undignified heap on the floor as she went to hug me. But she said “Hi! - I’ll be right back!”, rushed around the stage, bringing a grinning Shams and Daniel Goldberg (I think - hazy memory) before asking my wife if a hug was OK, getting a nod and enveloping me in a warm greeting. THAT moment I will always remember, Susana, Shams, Dan and later Fred made us welcome like old friends - which, in a way, we had been on Twitter and the Forums, but now it was face-to-face. These folk are as warm and gracious and fun In Real Life as they are on the ‘Net.
The next panel we saw was with Jonny Watts from Frontier, Mariina from Colossal Order and PDS legend Johan Andersson, about Creativity in the games. This was excellent, and we met up with Jonny and Zac, also from Frontier, afterwards and told them our son worked with them - the Hammer sent his greetings. It’s a small world!
Now it was time for the first of Andreas’ concerts. We were at both of these, they were terrific - Andreas is a very talented musician and composer, and hearing the familiar music played live by a string quintet was something we’ll both remember. Later, at the BBQ, during the second concert, the wind picked up and blew the notation around, but still, they managed.
After them, a Swedish medieval band named “Kalabalik” came on to entertain us. They’d played for Paradox before, and were warmly received and played mostly familiar tunes to those of us who played PDS games (I’d assume a large majority of the audience). They were good fun!
After that, my wife and I headed indoors for two reasons - One, the disco was about to start and I could do without that, and Two, it was getting *cold*. As we went in, we made our way to the ‘internal bar’ and the karaoke… What happens at karaoke stays at karaoke, so ‘nuff said, except that we left when all closed up for the evening and finally hit the bed at 2pm. Not bad for a couple in their sixties!
Next day dawned, and after breakfast we again headed for the Riksarkivet. Our programme began with a presentation by Dan ‘Podcat’ Lind on (of course) Hearts of Iron. This was fun, as Dan not only told how we’d got to this point but also gave some ideas about where he’d like to improve the game. Check out his Dev Diaries, folks.
After that we saw the presentation by Mariina called “Parks and Wreck: The Evolution of Cities: Skylines”. The talk was as full of humour as the title suggests. By the way Mariina, I love the idea of a Pony Tycoon game… I knew that Cities: Skylines had been an amazing success, but I didn’t realise it had sold 3.5 Million copies. My only regret was that Karoliina, the senior programmer who featured in the launch videos, wasn’t there - it would have been good to here some of her stories.
Next up was lunch, only I never got that far - I was talking to other gamers so much that (much to my wife’s dismay) I missed out on lunch altogether. I managed to see Juliette and Andreas’ presentation titled “Fair Use, Copyright and Creation: How to Avoid a Casus Belli” - which was interesting, informative and showcased some unfamiliar parts of the company.
I finally got to hear Johan’s presentation about EU4: “Around the World in 400 Years, the Europa Universalis Story.” Johan’s fun, he says what he thinks, but he’s also to a large extent the Loremaster of PDS so what he says needs to be listened to. I was disappointed to be told (by others, several times) that he HATES “Falalalan” though. ;-)
Next up, we had a presentation by the MEIOU & Taxes group about their Mod. They’re taking EU4 a long, long way from PDS, not just by adding detail and provinces, but also changing the way the game plays - their mod requires players to be a lot less direct, you don’t get a “result” from an “input”, it happens behind the scenes (using a lot of variables). Talking to the guys after, I was amazed to hear that their mod actually now (in the 2.0 version) runs faster than vanilla - a bold claim indeed. The guys are passionate and friendly, well worth engaging with.
We went back out into the courtyard to get a (soft) drink and listened to Shams and his presentation, “Ideas are Useless! Pitch a game to Paradox!” I’m still disappointed that Shams didn’t troll everyone by wearing a Victoria III T-Shirt…
Finally Fred brought proceedings to a close with his solo presentation, “The Evolution of Paradox.” Full of anecdotes, characters and milestones, this was a good reminder of where they’d come from - and Fred also said where he hoped they’d be going to.
All of these presentations are or will be available one way or another on Twitch or Youtube, so you can catch them there. It’s a good job, because we missed some I’d have liked to have seen - particularly Martin ‘Wiz’ Anward’s “Stellaris”, Petter Vilberg and Milla Isaksson’s “Content Creation” and Björn “Kuma-Kun” (or PDS_Metal_King) Iverson’s presentation on Audio - which is already on Youtube and WELL worth watching.
As things were winding up, forum member @Horrendus tweeted that he was organising a community after party at Broder Tuck, one metro stop and a short walk away. Naturally, I retweeted, told him we’d be there, and we made our way… there were eventually about 16 of us - and then Björn, Andreas Waldetoft and Björn’s intern - Thomas, I think, excuse me if misremember - joined us too. Rather like the karaoke, I’ll draw a veil here…
So that was PDXCon2017 over. We still had two and a half days in Stockholm, during which time we did some sightseeing, some shopping, visited the Vasa museum - an absolute MUST, and (sorry) far better than the Mary Rose, as well as the ABBA museum and the Royal Palace. We enjoyed our trip tremendously, know there’s lots more to see in Stockholm and nearby, and sincerely hope to go again next year if, as promised, they do it again!
My apologies for any inaccuracies in the report above - I accept the blame for any that are there!
