Why Crusader Kings II Should Be Game Of The Year

[Davisx3m]

http://kotaku.com/5972744/why-crusader-kings-ii-should-be-game-of-the-year

What a wonderful article!
I won't even copy it to paste it into this thread, it is ALOT of text.
And it was really nice to read it all. I hope you'll take a look.

 

[Lessing]

They're crying over the lack of/bad tutorials and "user interfaces". Fine, some of the stuff requires too many clicks, and hotkeys are missing. But what the heck are they crying about? It's not like the UI is bad. It's quite acceptable. Jeez.

 

[fenisnad]

To be fair, I wish there was a tutorial to CK. I just threw myself at it. Screwed up quite a bit the first time.

 

[Lamprey]

This game's too complex to be game of the year. Keep in mind that most people who play games either don't want to or can't invest the time required to learn it. Heck, I tried getting a friend interested, we did a mp game so I could teach him the ropes. At the end of it, he commented how "this game feels more like work than play".

I'm happy that it's a niche product, not having to please everyone means being able to add detail, nuance, etc. I hope it never gets dumbed down. But this is precisely why it won't ever win game of the year.

That said, it should definitely win the strategy game of the year category.

 

[Torngasuk]

They're crying over the lack of/bad tutorials and "user interfaces". Fine, some of the stuff requires too many clicks, and hotkeys are missing. But what the heck are they crying about? It's not like the UI is bad. It's quite acceptable. Jeez.

This is, by far, the easiest Paradox game I've ever played.

 

[Voy]

I feel like he's exaggerating a bit. It's a good game, but it's not that perfect... yet.

 

[unmerged(228153)]

Hahahaha, CK2 is not a complex game. No way. It's easily the most accessible game Paradox has ever released. I'd actually say Civilization IV is vastly more intricate and takes more time to get really good at. Yet look at the awards: IGN Game of the Year '05, IGN Best Strategy Game '05; same with Gamespot; and Baba Yetu won a friggin' Grammy some years ago. Granted, who cares about Grammies. But people still care about Civ IV - you can still find multiplayer games, and there's an active modding community that produced and continues to produce some fantastic stuff (Fall from Heaven, RfC with all its mod-mods, and what not).

Crusader Kings II has spawned quite an array of superb, variegated mods (CK2+, Project Balance, Magnate Lords, Patrum Scuta, the list goes on). It's the most popular game Paradox ever released, based on sales records. It's totally deserving of a nomination at least.


edit: though yeah, the Kotaku guy sounds quite over-eager to me

 

[cybrxkhan]

CK2 is more intuitive than one realizes once one gets the hang of it. I could never really get into EUIII or Vicky (not yet, at least), because that was just complicated. CK2? I can just pretend to act like a normal person (relatively speaking) - worrying about my kids, finding a wife, that sort of thing, and I'll sort of do fine. It took me at least 10 hours to get the hang of it, but then again, it also takes a long time to master any game.

The best part playing CK2 for me when I started was that I had no idea what the hell I was doing or what the hell was going on... but it was still fun. Not a lot of games, or anything else for that matter, can pull that off.

 

[unmerged(228153)]

The best part playing CK2 for me when I started was that I had no idea what the hell I was doing or what the hell was going on... but it was still fun. Not a lot of games, or anything else for that matter, can pull that off.

I think you pretty much nailed it. This is why CK2 is great, because this is precisely what Victoria II, or Hearts of Iron III, or even Europa Universalis III can't pull off. Those games are fun when you understand them and get used to their shenanigans, but playing them just feels terribly arduous - and in the case of HoI3, frankly, straight-up terrible - before that magic moment of realization.

 

[Winterborn]

They're crying over the lack of/bad tutorials and "user interfaces". Fine, some of the stuff requires too many clicks, and hotkeys are missing. But what the heck are they crying about? It's not like the UI is bad. It's quite acceptable. Jeez.

I've been playing Paradox games since EUII and I can't say the UI has ever been too much of a struggle, in fact the UI for CK2 is quite good. Some kind of better tutorials are required though as far too many gamers - smart gamers who enjoy strategy games bounce off and it's far from an impossible task. Just make a short 10 year scenario with step by step on screen instructions. When you know nothing it's far too easy to make mistakes. Wikis and forum articles are great but they should not be necessary and I fear they too often are(even with them I think HOI3 is beyond me but since I have it and all the DLC now I really need to take another crack).

 

[Portal]

waaaaaaah it's too complex, waaaaaaah

This game is easy, punks! Go try HoI!

 

[Spartanlemur]

Indeed it isn't perfect yet. Not until Republics and Pagans are playable (the former obviously imminent and the latter inevitable) and more depth is added to the roleplaying elements which really make the game shine above other Paradox IP's.

 

[RustyTurban]

I clearly need to visit Kotaku more hmy:

 

[Duke of Bavaria]

I can understand its hard to get into CK just over the tutorials, for me it plays easy because i played paradox games over years now and now the basic workings of them. I think its the easiest Paradox game to ge tinto and thank they have done a great job to make it less of a calculation game. I cna understand one can get frustrated until he figures out the inner workings and concepts, because to this day i havent gotten any fun out of HOI no matte rhow hard i try i know that feeling that it just feels more work than fun. (well also the limited felxibility of WWII.era world always just is a letdown for me too). So fro me CK II is the best game i played for years easily but i cna udnerstand the mainstream gamer still having some problems adapting to it. Its nice to see more and more people do though and see the outstanding qualities of this game.

 

[Julyan]

It's only worthy of the title because last year was a terrible gaming year.

 

[Winterborn]

It's only worthy of the title because last year was a terrible gaming year.

While many gaming blogs called it one of the best years for PC games in history.

 

[Djacir]

Who says that CK2 is hard to play never tested HoI 3, ;p.

Actually, that tutorial of Paradox was enough for me, i learned to play rather quickly.