Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester on Hearts of Iron 3

[TheLoneGunman]

1. Yes this did come out wrong, I agree. It was not meant to be patronizing or patting on the head. I meant that some things that people complain about are things that was in the basic game design, and that was a decision from the dev team, not a misunderstanding or a bug.

2. Yes, I'm fairly happy about the release. The game has issues that we are working on and that we are aware about.

3. No, we are not asking for the for our fans to fix things in the game.

4. It is ok to think the game is shit and to complain. However, calling me a joke (like in the article), threatening people from the dev team (like has been done this forum and in other places) are best done in person. So please guts email me (email address found in my sig) and I'll give you my phone number and you can complain for free. Person to person.

Thanks
Fred

Fred, thanks for the response.

The problem is people happen to love this brand so much that they have very high expectations and are very protective over what they perceive as "their" game.

While there are issues, I'm hoping that in the coming months many of the issues we all happen to have will be resolved and that we can move on to bigger and better things for the franchise.

The game already has the potential, all that's needed is to fix the real problems and utilize the potential.

 

[Fredrik II]

Mr Wester is quoted as saying "It is tough to get a completely new audience for a game series like Hearts of Iron..."

So what does that say about their existing audience? It makes me seriously consider finding a completely new games company to support. I've bought nearly every release by Paradox since 2000, and I'll pretty much buy it if it's got Paradox on the box. No more.

Maybe it is just that English is not my first language, but it's hard for me to find anything insulting in my statement. What I mean is that we have never claimed to win over the casual games players and/or main Sims 3 fan base.

Can someone fill me in on what was wrong in the statement?

 

[The Disaster]

1. Yes this did come out wrong, I agree. It was not meant to be patronizing or patting on the head. I meant that some things that people complain about are things that was in the basic game design, and that was a decision from the dev team, not a misunderstanding or a bug.

2. Yes, I'm fairly happy about the release. The game has issues that we are working on and that we are aware about.

3. No, we are not asking for the for our fans to fix things in the game (apart from the ones who wish to mod it, which we are thankful for)

4. It is ok to think the game is shit and to complain. However, calling me a joke (like a comment in the article), threatening people from the dev team (like has been done this forum and in other places) are best done in person. So please email me (email address found in my sig) and I'll give you my phone number and you can complain for free. Person to person.

Thanks
Fred

This is a great example of what is so good about paradox - can you imagine this happening at Sega with ETW. etc.

I agree with the previous poster - we DO care a great deal about Paradox and HoI, and this is why we sometimes get a bit emotional. I am horrified to hear of insults and threats made against paradox staff - yes, we are stakeholders to an extent in Paradox and their work, but we do NOT have the right to do that!

 

[Socratatus]

I realize that there are two parties among the fans. I know many of you like it the way it is and you too have the right to enjoy what you like. But I completely disagree with the line I qutoed. You may not have a game but for many of us the HOI series is about this single sentence below:

Win as Germany against history, against the odds.

The ultimate HOI game, one day I hope, will provide me the option to play a historical game, as Germany, and will gave me a next to impossible challenge to win WW2. I want to try and try again, with a different plan just to see how my panzers come to a crawl in the Russian winter, how I run out of oil, how I lose the Battle of Brittan, the Tonnage War, and how all this defeats me.

That to me, and many of us would be a sweet game. That would be simulation.

.

But can`t you see how limiting this is? You`ve in one go just totally shut out other people.

What happens if you want to be Britain? What about the US? Anyone else?

Are we to just sit there, historically, waiting for the BOB or Pearl harbour?

And if we are allowed to act before then we will be changing history which would hamstring the AI because it would be set in past historical mode. Even if it could react, we would have already prepared first knowing that it won`t do anything until we do because we already know history.

We have a completely unfair advantage.

Even you playing as Germany would have an unfair advantage because you know exactly what to do and when to act because you can read a history book and know by what DATE when EVERYONE else is going to act.



Try and understand that the way it is now, you as Germany have to keep your eyes open EVERYWHERE. You have to prepare for ALL events, just like Hitler at the time. Hitler didn`t know how things were going to happen, in many ways he took a chance and was lucky, but as far as he knew anything could have happened. We know that Hitler would have backed off early if the Allies had gone to war before Poland. We know that Hitler thought long and hard about allying with Stalin.

I put it to you and all you others that as HOI3 is, it is actually MORE HISTORICALLY REALISTIC because you now have the same worries and concerns that the REAL Leaders had. They never knew what was going to happen and you should not either.

 

[CoyoteTheClever]

1. Yes this did come out wrong, I agree. It was not meant to be patronizing or patting on the head. I meant that some things that people complain about are things that was in the basic game design, and that was a decision from the dev team, not a misunderstanding or a bug.

2. Yes, I'm fairly happy about the release. The game has issues that we are working on and that we are aware about.

3. No, we are not asking for the for our fans to fix things in the game (apart from the ones who wish to mod it, which we are thankful for)

4. It is ok to think the game is shit and to complain. However, calling me a joke (like a comment in the article), threatening people from the dev team (like has been done this forum and in other places) are best done in person. So please email me (email address found in my sig) and I'll give you my phone number and you can complain for free. Person to person.

Thanks
Fred

Why would you choose to make a decision system at all though and not flesh it out for the later years in the war? Why include ministers and things like that when they don't die when they are supposed to? I don't really understand how these can be "design decisions" compared to a rushed release.

And I'm not using this idea that the release was rushed as a way to insult you either, because I do respect you and your company, and realize that sometimes, you don't really have a choice, especially since you are a small company (Whereas the rushed release of Empire Total War was pretty inexcusable, because their company is larger than yous and they should have much more leeway on when they need to take in profit), and in most likelihood the rushed release was to fund your work on Victoria 2, which I think any fan should be able to appreciate. But I'd feel a little better about it if you were more forthcoming about whether the release was a little rushed or not, and if you made it clear that some work was going into filling the historical void in this game by fixing election dates, leader deaths, adding some of the conspicuously missing decisions that were events from Hearts of Iron 2 and the like.

My fear is that your lack of commitment a lot of these problems might be from you trying to distance yourself from having to properly patch this game so you can get your staff to work on Vicky 2, but I think that strategy might alienate a lot of your fans who have in the past been very happy with your work on patches and support for your games.

 

[The Disaster]

Maybe it is just that English is not my first language, but it's hard for me to find anything insulting in my statement. What I mean is that we have never claimed to win over the casual games players and/or main Sims 3 fan base.

Can someone fill me in on what was wrong in the statement?

Dear Fredrik

I understood your comment "It is tough to get a completely new audience for a game series like Hearts of Iron.." to mean that this release was aimed at a 'completely new audience' and not at the existing fanbase.

Your post (above) makes it very clear that I misinterpreted what you said, so I should like to withdraw my original comment.

 

[Fredrik II]

Dear Fredrik

I understood your comment "It is tough to get a completely new audience for a game series like Hearts of Iron.." to mean that this release was aimed at a 'completely new audience' and not at the existing fanbase.

Your post (above) makes it very clear that I misinterpreted what you said, so I should like to withdraw my original comment.

Ok, got it

What we did was AIM for our target audience (HoI players), and while doing it hoping to catch a few new people as well.

 

[The Disaster]

Ok, got it

What we did was AIM for our target audience (HoI players), and while doing it hoping to catch a few new people as well.

Thank you for taking the time to make that clear - it means a lot!

 

[Socratatus]

Ok, got it

and while doing it hoping to catch a few new people as well.

And you have. Good work!

 

[coreymas]

Fred,

Please do not be so hard on yourself.

I am in the IT business and I have to communicate in 3 different languages (English, French and Spanish) and sometimes my explanations in French and Spanish are not exactly correct (as they are not my native languages).

Some people need to read between the lines instead of picking apart a sentence word by word.

 

[MicBass]

Try and understand that the way it is now, you as Germany have to keep your eyes open EVERYWHERE. You have to prepare for ALL events, just like Hitler at the time. Hitler didn`t know how things were going to happen, in many ways he took a chance and was lucky, but as far as he knew anything could have happened. We know that Hitler would have backed off early if the Allies had gone to war before Poland. We know that Hitler thought long and hard about allying with Stalin.

I put it to you and all you others that as HOI3 is, it is actually MORE HISTORICALLY REALISTIC because you now have the same worries and concerns that the REAL Leaders had. They never knew what was going to happen and you should not either.

That's absolutely ok. Absolutely, and great if it works.

But it's not a matter of determinism. It's a matter of plausibility. An open world is fine as long as it is convincing and coherent. Not "random".

 

[Madsircool]

Ok, got it

What we did was AIM for our target audience (HoI players), and while doing it hoping to catch a few new people as well.

Any chance the geographical errors in the map will be fixed?

 

[RHALX]

People around here are taking things way too seriously. Are you all forgetting that it's "just" a game?

About the historical accuracy, people don't want a "simulation", they just want something more accurate where Brazil doesn't invade the European continent with the few troops they have and communist China doesn't join the allies, etc.

Hoi2 was much more balanced, and I never heard anyone complaining about it yet. But for many people here it's either everything, or nothing. It's messing things up.

 

[sbr]

My fear is that your lack of commitment a lot of these problems might be from you trying to distance yourself from having to properly patch this game so you can get your staff to work on Vicky 2, but I think that strategy might alienate a lot of your fans who have in the past been very happy with your work on patches and support for your games.

I can't imagine any way that this is the truth. Why would they abandon what should become their biggest selling game to start work on a project that they don't expect to turn a profit?

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=424492

Hey all,

I really like that people are excited that Vic2 is in development. This feels like an interesting and exciting project for all of us, however it is no secret I voted for another project from the Paradox dev team.

Johan assured me our fans want this project, and so did you (forum people) in a poll on this forum.

So in brief; I think this project never will see profit (reason is simple Vic1 was a terrible launch). Johan thinks it will. Johan and his team have the responsibility to create a good game and of course we hope that you will buy it since this was the most voted-for title in our poll.

So, what do I bring to the table except for whining? I have promised the dev team (and checked with my family) that I am shaving my head if this project ever sees profit. AND post pictures of it here in the forum.

We will have a budget meeting in the coming two weeks to see how many units we need to sell to reach our break-even; and keep you posted. Progress reports will follow.

And yes, I am serious.

Cheers,
Fred

 

[Uniikki]

HoI3 at 1.1 has some fairly annoying issues. But all in all, I'd say on launch HoI3 is a lot better than CK and a bit better than HoI1. Yet compared to both EU:Rome and EU3, HoI3 is in rather bad a condition. Yes, the considerable ambitions of HoI3 certainly account for a lot, yet that doesn't mean much to your average player, when she isn't having fun playing.

Personally, the things that really annoy me about HoI3 are, how on earth some of the interface features present in HoI2D/A are missing from HoI3. Coupled with stuff like the supply bug, HoI3 is a bit of a micromanagement nightmare for a compulsive player like me. Readjusting production sliders every day, argh :wacko:

And yes, a vague post like this isn't really constructive, but it seems 1.2 will take care most of the issues, as others have been more useful than me In general, even though in my book this launch is a step back in some ways, my faith isn't even tested yet. And the game itself, with it's ambitions, is in any case a major step in an interesting direction. Even if it should ultimately fail. Time will tell (cue Hell March)

 

[sbr]

Any chance the geographical errors in the map will be fixed?

I am pretty sure I saw a post that says they will not change the map; I could be wrong and though.

 

[joeenochs]

I would like to tell Fredrik and the dev team, that I would also like the game to behave more along historic lines. I do not even mean events here, more the way, nations behave ingame. Switzerland in the Allies for example just breaks immersion to me as playing Germany. It is not just that it did not happen in reality. It is just not even plausible for a parallel world close to ours. For a country like Switzerland it should make sense to stay neutral because of the thread posed by Germany, not despite it. Maybe the devs could comment if Switzerland's behaviour is considered WAD. Because to me it looks broken and it should not have to be fixed by modders.
To repeat, give us a parallel world in HOI3. But let it be close to the actual history. While the degree of historicy versus variation people want to see differs, I think that almost all customers would agree that the game should be more historic than at present. Even if something else was intended, I think Paradox should tweak that through patches. It is clear that the obvious bugs have priority though.

 

[Madsircool]

I am pretty sure I saw a post that says they will not change the map; I could be wrong and though.

Thanks for the tip. I find it upsetting that they would allow so many errors to exist. It doesnt take a programming genius to produce an accurate map.

 

[CoyoteTheClever]

I can't imagine any way that this is the truth. Why would they abandon what should become their biggest selling game to start work on a project that they don't expect to turn a profit?

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=424492

If it isn't going to turn a profit, he is going to want to put the game out as quickly as he can so he can start on a project that will. Also, Hearts of Iron 3 has already sold a lot of units, so they might be feeling they can safely distance themselves from it for now until they can put out an expansion pack.

 

[RedJack]

This is a great example of what is so good about paradox - can you imagine this happening at Sega with ETW. etc.

!

And that, in a nutshell, is why I like Paradox games.

Yes, the current release has issues (though not as bad as some make it to be IMHO). But PI is working on it, and accepting feedback.