So I'm curious what are the nations that you do use? I'm coming from a completely different vantage point as some one who just recently splurged on the rest of the DLCs. As someone who recently picked up the game a few months ago...I'm having a blast trying it all out. For me one of the immense value of this game is the replayability. Trying out different countries, different starting positions, different end goals, different strategies, etc is a huge part of my enjoyment. To me its like you are going to a buffet, only eating a ham sandwich, and then complaining about the cost.
I mainly play as Norway, but I did do a complete run-through as Bavaria once. The fun in it for me is trying to figure out how to improve on my previous run and create an even larger, more prestigious empire. All those replayability values you listed are things you could have done without any DLC. And I believe your analogy is wrong. It's more like going to a buffet that costs $20 to enter and includes chicken, ribs, full salad bar, ham, roast, and beverage, then paying an extra $10 to have shrimp, steak, and crab legs included on the menu. However, the restaurant decided to give shrimp and crab legs for free to those who paid the original $20 so all you are getting for your extra $10 is steak.
It'd be a fantastic patch, but an awful DLC.
Only because fans of the game would think "an AI patch should be free!"
There have been TONS of offers, even for EU4 already so it´s not like you are forced to pay full price anymore.
Most people know about the VERY predictable Steam sales and for those who don´t, well, "Every minute a sucker is born", as the saying goes.
What they could and should do by now is put a EU4 complete on Steam, as the changes since 1.0 are SO big it feels like a totally different game with the sum of patches and extra features.
All the DLC go on sale very often, it's just a matter of time. If you buy full price it's because you don't want to wait.
Sunbro is right. When I get to playing a game, if I decide I want something, I do not want to wait. I guarantee that by the time Art of War and El Dorado go on sale for 25% or even 50% off, I will not be playing EUIV.
Admittedly this is frustrating when the market is happily accepting poor quality by one's own standards (and there are far worse offenders out there than EU IV), but that's the reality of the matter.
You are right, that is the reality of the matter. And you are also right that there are far worse offenders out there like EA, King, or any other company that includes microtransactions.
the thing that irritates me in discussions like this is how people hold paradox to a completely different standard to other entertainment mediums. the total full price of the game and all addons is somewhere around $120-$150, i cant be bothered to check exactly, i cant speak for everyone but i have about 600 hours of play time in the game that makes it around 4-5 hours of entertainment per $1, even if you only have 200 hours (which seems a more reasonable amount of time for most people) that is still over 1 hour/$1 of entertainment, i cant think, off the top of my head, of any other entertainment medium that gives that much value for money.
even if you only have 50 hours of play time thats still only $2-$3/hour which is less than you pay to watch a movie.
there are plenty of valid criticisms of this game without people inventing irrelevant and unfair ones so please stop holding games companies to a different and unfair standard.
edit: and complaining about the cosmetic dlc's (which i wasnt including in my price estimate) is ridiculous as that is completely optional with no preasure whatsover to buy unlike the other dlc its cosmetic and purely for those people that like that kind of stuff and have the spare money to buy it.
I don't think I ever complained about cosmetic DLCs, though their value is often even less than the other DLCs. As for holding the video game industry to an unfair standard. Well, video games have always been a far better value than buying a movie... just like buying a movie is a far better value than seeing a movie at the theater. You cannot compare it to other industries. You compare it to the industry it's in. Or in this case, I compare it to the box game.
I think what bothers people is that if, say, they made a naval expansion they'd likely make the naval combat revamp free just to keep everyone on equal footing. Then we'de see "this expansion adds nothing!" and a lot of complaints. What they'd need to do to quell these complaints is tough love people and make them sit on the old terrible naval warfare content when the new awesome naval warfare expansion makes it fun.
Paradox would never do that though, because they like their playerbase far too much.
Wouldn't bother me if we were forced to pay for a truly fantastic naval expansion. Either release it all free or require people to pay for it.
What bothers people is instead of making a complete game we get modules presented from which we make up our own game. In order to get the old style complete games we have to buy all modules, called DLC, which then cost muuuuch more than a complete game would cost.
This is 100% accurate. It used to be that a company either released a game complete and bug free as possible or else they got hammered with negative reviews and generally would not sell well (see ET on the Atari). That is why review websites like IGN and Gamespot used to only review initial, unpatched released. Even day 1 patches were not included in their reviews.
I often imagine how the offices are these companies are. I can imagine a large group of people sitting around a table with a massive list of features put on a white board. I imagine them discussing all they want to put into the game and I can just imagine someone saying "nah. We will wait on that and just release it in a DLC instead." Most of what has been released in the DLC now easily could have come with the original game.
I will reiterate that in general, I do like Paradox and do think they are one of the better companies out there. I've bought games from them since EUII and even bought some obscure games published by them like Knights of Honor (I would love for a sequel to that game) which can't even be registered on here to get an icon. I even encouraged a relative who is a Sim City fanatic to buy Skylines and he did. So it's not like I dislike Paradox, but when an issue exists, good or bad, it should be discussed.
