Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester on Hearts of Iron 3

[TheLoneGunman]

Relax guys, it's obvious that Paradox employees are well-meaning. In 1-2 weeks tops when patch 1.2 roll out most of the problems will be fixed.

Why piss off the hard working team when they are obviously working overtime to fix bugs AND create specific interface improvements asked for by fans?

I don't think some of you realize how hard the Paradox crew have been working, much much harder than most people, and probably driven by passion for the game rather than money.

Not only that, but this is how they feed their families.

If games aren't coming out and being sold, they're not gonna be able to survive.

I'm not saying corporate greed is what motivates them, but they need to have a reliable job with a consistent salary being a requirement.

 

[Oscu]

As i thought, paradox is relying on their fans to finish the game for them.

I think it is great in a way. If you look at HOI2 or EU2, they would never had become such great games without huge and fanatically loyal beta testing team that is willing to read through hundreds of history books and then correct something like religious demographics in 1630 in some ukrainian village. Or do lenghty debates over the quality of burman road system in 1930's. An it is not just about historical accuracy. It is also about game mechanics and great improvement ideas. Only Paradox with it's fans can do it. An thank god they listen to us. Go and fetch EU2 or HOI2 from your shelf and try them without patches. You will see the difference

I've been playing these games since 2000 or 2001 and I'd like to thank all the people who have made suggestions (good or bad) and PI for listening.

 

[unmerged(13000)]

Just like "broken", we clearly have different meanings for "unplayable".

HoI3 is "unplayable" for me not because the software will not run but because the experience it offers me is sufficiently far below my expectations (realism, sensible AI, nations building and researching sensibly - not building 1000s of escorts etc) that I cannot enjoy it in its current form.

I'd rather play something else at present, and await the patch. This does not make me happy, as I have been looking forward to this game for ages.

It has to be broken and/or unplayable for EVERYONE to be broken an unplayable. I can play the game. I find nothing broken thus the game is playable as well as not broken.

So basically instead of unplayable you just don't want to play it that doesn't make it unplayable because it IS playable.

If it were broken you wouldn't even be able to play it at all nor would I. But since it's playable and you just don't want to play it it's not broken either.

I'm sure you probably have some brown paper grocery bads and card board boxes around.

 

[unmerged(147960)]

Langnasen, if you were on a dev team your game would probably never come out!

You would make a good beta tester though!

I hope Fredrik sends you the Vicky 2 beta to test for the company!

If it were me I would engage my public directly and inform them of the necessity of releasing the game in a buggy state and needing them to help refine it. I would also sell it directly, so avoiding a drop in it's retail price over time and ensuring the model under which it was sold did not lead to a catastrophic loss of profit.

If you're going to pull a stunt like this you need the customer on board as a willing participant, not an ignorant dupe. Sure, a lot of people would decline, but they'd buy months later when the game was finally fit for purpose, and with direct selling they'd still have to pay full price.

The lack of imagination, faith and common-sense displayed by Paradox with this release is truly awe-inspiring. They have done themselves and their reputation nothing but harm.

 

[unmerged(53301)]

We all <3 you frederik/paradox! Don't be discouraged by the haters. HOI3 is great!

 

[Oscu]

At first, for me things are broken if they didn't work as they should. And should in form of as I think they should. broken doesn't nececarrily mean that is broken beyhond possible repair, simply because this is a piece of Software

And because i see broken in this way (other may call it issues of find whichever word suits them best) all the points you mentioned above are broken in my view.

I dont want to state everything which doesnt work as intended (supply, ai, diplomacy, trading, OOBs, Map, combat-ai, Naval bombers not finding a invading transportfleet, performance, savegame corruption etc) in all detail since it is already written down in several threads. (But of course will do so if you want it )

So my overall point is: Not everyone here necessarily means the same when speaking about 'issues', 'broken' etc.

And of course people are feeling pissed if they buy a game and feel like they are beta testers. Well i tried to participate during beta, but wasn't chosen. Now i payed to be betatester. To be honest, im not really happy about it. So far i didn't even know that this is some kind of 'standard' for Paradox releases. My first Paradox Game was HOI2oomsday, that worked finde from the start, installed it, patched it, no major issues. (Major issues are things which annoy me like a totally random AI, and a strange threat system which has no place for opportunistic behaviour and which even promote outright suicidal behaviour )


So far this is the first Thread i see a direct reply to the problems outside of the Patch Thread. I appreciate that.

Your first game was HOI2 Doomsday. So first there was a HOI2 + x number of patches. Then came Doomsday + x number of patches and then came armageddon +x number of patches= So by patched doomsday you were somewhere in version 6 of the game. What most are playin at the moment is nearing version 10 of HOI2. Now we have version 1+ of HOI3. Just be patient.

It'll take a while

 

[unmerged(13000)]

I would also sell it directly, so avoiding a drop in it's retail price over time and ensuring the model under which it was sold did not lead to a catastrophic loss of profit.

This shows you do not even know how the distribution systems works. The publisher contracts out a number of copies to retail outlets or these retail outlets distribution centers. The profit has already been made. So, it doesn't matter if the retail outlets puts them onsale or gives them away. There is no more profit to gain by the sale on those contracts.

but they'd buy months later when the game was finally fit for purpose, and with direct selling they'd still have to pay full price.

Another bad analogy you haven't researched. I don't buy Matrixgames for this very reason. 5-10 year old games do not deserve the full retail price as the graphics are dated and many of them don't even run on newer OS. Battelfronts CMBB/CMAK comes to mind here and now they are trying to charge $5 for a patch to Vista.

You cannot force the consumer to do anything. You seem to think everyone is a lemming when it comes to buying video games. We are not and most intelligent gamers will look for bargains or not buy them at all.

Plus direct selling without some form of brick n mortar store visuals will net you a loss in the mass market of things. A lot of prospective customers want to see the product, they want to hold the box in their hands and one of the bigger reasons is to get a printed manual. Direct selling is fine if you're a niche producer like HPS or Shrapnel or Schwerpunkt, but, trying to go mainstream and make lots of profit you better be in retail stores and there better be some bargain bin discounts along the way on all your products.

 

[unmerged(16850)]

Long time polls and facts prove that the hard core crowd is few and miniscule compared to the casual wargamer. Only about 2% of consumers are hard core wargamers (and I got this information from a very reliable publisher). Thus games have to be and must be made for casual wargamers if a company wants to stand out in the "mainstream" market and/or survive.

I think the info you got from the "very reliable publisher" is BS. Paradox has built their entire company relying on the hard core wargamers. And those gamers have always bought enough to allow Paradox to not only survive, but to grow. The problem is that HOI3 sits somewhere between. It’s too dumbed down and historically ridiculous for the core audience, but still too inaccessible and deep for the casual gamer. Further in the direction it’s going, and HOI4 will just be another WW2 RTS, and not a very good one to boot.

 

[TheLoneGunman]

I think the info you got from the "very reliable publisher" is BS. Paradox has built their entire company relying on the hard core wargamers. And those gamers have always bought enough to allow Paradox to not only survive, but to grow. The problem is that HOI3 sits somewhere between. It’s too dumbed down and historically ridiculous for the core audience, but still too inaccessible and deep for the casual gamer. Further in the direction it’s going, and HOI4 will just be another WW2 RTS, and not a very good one to boot.

Some more scripting to improve the AI would do a lot to please the hardcore crowd by making the various countries react in more "intelligent" ways while still leaving possiblities open if not encouraging more open-ended behavior on the side of both human player and AI.

 

[unmerged(13000)]

I think the info you got from the "very reliable publisher" is BS. Paradox has built their entire company relying on the hard core wargamers. And those gamers have always bought enough to allow Paradox to not only survive, but to grow. The problem is that HOI3 sits somewhere between. It’s too dumbed down and historically ridiculous for the core audience, but still too inaccessible and deep for the casual gamer. Further in the direction it’s going, and HOI4 will just be another WW2 RTS, and not a very good one to boot.

You can believe what you want. I know what the publisher told me. If anyone is in the know they are I'm sure. Hard core gamers are just a small pea in the bucket now. You are used and then they finally get the capital for the real money. Believe it or not.

 

[unmerged(61166)]

If it would have been up to me, I think I would have created a game that, for
the most part, remains historically accurate, but at certain times, allows historical alternatives to occur. For example, imagine if FDR served only one term, or was never elected. Imagine a U.S. that becomes further isolationist, never embargoing Japan and thus never increasing diplomatic tension. Japan postpones declaring war on the U.S., and manages to defeat Nationalist China.

Although this is historically inaccurate, it is historically feasible. It is an event that could have possibly occurred in some alternate universe.

What is not historically feasible, is Nationalist Spain invading Finland. Perhaps Gibraltar and portions of Africa, but I just don't see Nationalist Spain invading Finland in some alternate universe. It just doesn't feel like World War II.

 

[unmerged(16850)]

It has to be broken and/or unplayable for EVERYONE to be broken an unplayable. I can play the game. I find nothing broken thus the game is playable as well as not broken.

Wrong! If too much of your audiance finds it unplayable / broken then you are, as a developer, in trouble. The history of computer gaming is littered with the bodies of dead development companies that closed after a single buggy release that was only unplayable by 20% or less of their customers. Not saying HOI3 is at this stage. But insisting it has to be 100% broken/unplayable for everyone to be deemed broken/unplayable is just foolish. Under that definition, no broken/unplayable game has ever been released, and never will.

 

[Oscu]

You can believe what you want. I know what the publisher told me. If anyone is in the know they are I'm sure. Hard core gamers are just a small pea in the bucket now. You are used and then they finally get the capital for the real money. Believe it or not.

Of course they are. Mainstream is playing mario cart with wii. Strategy market is what is called a niche market. I don't really see PI going for C&C, or for mario cart....Hope I'm right.

 

[unmerged(13000)]

I don't understand all these wannabe historical RESTRICTIONS to a game title WW2. World War 2 means just that a WORLD AT WAR. There should be no restrictions or stipulations on whom who goes to war with. Spain can goto war with Finnland...why not? What's to keep them from building a navy and doing so? Why must a World at War say to Japan you cannot attack France you don't have the naval logistics. Well why can't Japan build that kind of logistics? Never understood why some gamers get so dramatic that WW2 must be like WW2 there can be no deviations or only things that are plausible to THEM.

People used to complain about a spearman unit beating tanks in Civilization and I saw clearly how easy that would be to do. Most gamers see one diminsional. I see with eyes wide open. The tank crew is taking a break, doing maint on the tank so many things not specifically having to be inside the tank and the spear men come from holes in the ground or out of the treeline and spears the crew to death. So simple, so easy to imagine and still be plausible that a spearman unit could kill a tank in Civilization. The other way to look at it is the spearman unit was 100's or thousands of men and the tank was just one tank unit. So many ways to make those kinds of things plausible just like there is in HOI III.

 

[unmerged(16850)]

I know what the publisher told me. If anyone is in the know they are I'm sure.

Hah, the infallibility and omnipotence of game developing companies is well known. I'm sure what they told you is spot on.

On a side note, I work in finance - would you like to take out a loan?

 

[unmerged(13000)]

Under that definition, no broken/unplayable game has ever been released, and never will.

Exactly just as I said. And the only foolish one here is use for looking at things with blinders on. If it is not broken or unplayable to me then it is not broken or unplayable those are facts. Plain and simple. I could use your computer and play the game just as easily and prove it is not broken or unplayable at your end either. Those are hard facts. Nothing foolish about it.

 

[goulash]

All I can say is "Well done HOI 3 Devs".

Once the next couple of patches are done and the mod teams have had some time to discover the potential, I feel you have a great game.

Looking forward to the paid expansion myself, hell its only a couple of hours pay for months of great gaming.

Bring 5 expansions out, Ill pay for the lot :rofl:

 

[unmerged(13000)]

Of course they are. Mainstream is playing mario cart with wii. Strategy market is what is called a niche market. I don't really see PI going for C&C, or for mario cart....Hope I'm right.

Well you aren't. Paradox is going for the big bucks and they will make whatever type of games they have to now for the $$. They have $5,000,000 captital now so I'm pretty sure they can do pretty much as they please from now on.

Many of you may not be familar with Triumph studios and Age of Wonder series. They are another that moved away from the hard core to mainstream kids games like Overlord and Overlord II.

 

[Vulture]

I'm not really expecting any companies to go out and say, we could and should do things better before the release etc. But I always thought paradox was different. Happy with the release and the state of the game my arse. Man up and be honest you friggin coward.

Right,

I'm back from holiday... Infraction handed out: inappropriate language for a family forum.

 

[unmerged(61166)]

I don't understand all these wannabe historical RESTRICTIONS to a game title WW2. World War 2 means just that a WORLD AT WAR.

Well. It is a World War 2 game. Because this software is being sold as a World War 2 game, my inevitable expectation is that I will feel immersed in a World War 2 environment by playing this game.

If I want a "WORLD AT WAR," I will play Risk, thank you.