I will admit that it was weird to attend an event and not feel any pressure to write about any of it. Over a dozen games were on display, some of them with static images or limited play. But there was still a lot to be excited about.
First the disclaimer. My employer, Evolve PR, represents one of the games that was on display – Sword of the Stars 2. There wasn’t a lot to see in the presentation, but Martin Cirulis, Arrinn Dembo and Chris Stewart’s enthusiasm for the game is still obvious. It’s gotten a major graphical overhaul and the evolving in-game encyclopedia is something new for strategy documentation. There are lots of reasons to wish Kerberos great success with this game.
My take away impressions from the event.
1) Paradox’s moves outside of strategy are tentative but promising. The action/RPG Magicka, which comes out today, should be huge for them if there is any justice in the world. Salem is a free-to-play MMO that emphasizes construction and self-policing the world. Mount & Blade: Fire and Sword follows in that franchise’s stabby fun, and I am not sure what to make of Gettysburg: Armored Warfare but I love the name. Still, the core business of Paradox is games that, as one colleague put it, are about moving things around until a flag changes color. Given the company’s announced financials and its refusal to do things the way everyone else does them, it will be fun to see how far they work outside of their comfort zone.
2) Strategy games can be a hard sell in a half hour presentation. Though there were some experienced strategy media there, there were also people drawn by specific games like Mount & Blade or Salem or Magicka that weren’t Crusader Kings 2 or Supreme Ruler Cold War or Pride of Nations. As I write my own beginner’s guide to Europa Universalis 3, it has become clear how little is obvious, and even with 30 minutes to sell a game a developer needs to be absolutely transparent on what a game is about. Maybe they should have two presentations – one for the familiar, and one for the unfamiliar. It was interesting to see the contrasts from one team to the next. Some people do this very well.
3) Strategy games can appeal to a wide audience. In spite of the difficulty in making a pitch that makes sense, seeing my less strategy adept peers say “That sounds like something I’d be interested in playing” after getting the sales pitch on Crusader Kings 2 or Pride of Nations or whatever tickled their fancy demonstrates that the biggest barrier between strategy games and a larger audience is not the subject matter but how it is presented.
4) I want Crusader Kings 2 now. This was another presentation that didn’t have a lot to show – family trees, some of the building stuff – and the map will look different by the time Q1 2012 comes around. But the presentation reminded me why the first CK is my favorite Paradox grand strategy game. The whole soap opera medieval Sims thing will have me reinstalling the first game by week’s end. Just watch.
5) Naval War: Arctic Circle might be the long term sleeper here. The prospect of a major naval war in in near future is remote, but the whole hide-and-seek thing and sensor warfare is why I loved Harpoon. If you can see it, you can kill it. This game is quickly moving up my watch list.
More on this week’s podcast.
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RPS reported that Magicka has launched with a lot of bugs, ranging from freez-ups, connection issues to quests and gameplay not working. Paradox has promised daily patches though but it’s still a shame that a game this promising had to start like this.
What’s the current state of Harpoon?
I see it’s being sold, but is it alive? It looks like the newest Harpooon for sale is an anthology of old Harpoons. Is that right?
Is there online multiplayer?
I have looked at the Matrix Games site, but can’t understand what the current state of the game is.
Can anyone help?
“there were also people drawn by specific games like Mount & Blade or Salem or Magicka that WEREN’T BY Crusader Kings 2 or Supreme Ruler Cold War or Pride of Nations.”
Is that what you meant?
“Given the company’s announced financials and its refusal to do things the way everyone else does them, it will be fun to see how far they work outside of their comfort zone.”
I don’t really understand what you are getting at here. Did they publically say something recently about their financial position? Seems like knowing that is key to understanding your point.
One funny note – the only thing I’ve seen really mentioned elsewhere was the HOI3 expansion, something you didn’t even discuss here. ;-)
Reads like the same thing to me, though it would affect the parsing a little:
there were also [people drawn [by specific games like Mount & Blade or Salem or Magicka [that weren’t Crusader Kings 2 or Supreme Ruler Cold War or Pride of Nations]]]
(i.e. it modifies specific games)
there were also [people drawn by specific games [like Mount & Blade or Salem or Magicka] [that weren’t (drawn) by Crusader Kings 2 or Supreme Ruler Cold War or Pride of Nations]]
(i.e. it modifies people)
Sarkus:
They announced some pretty amazing growth numbers, whose specifics escape me right now, but are probably somewhere in a live blog. I’ll look for the info and link to it.
In short, Paradox is growing and turning a tidy profit. CEO Frederik Wester credits this to not listening to people who told him that PC gaming was dead and that you couldn’t make money targeting specific audiences. Free to play is the new one – he thinks the market is not crowded.
I feel that at best Salem will be a “niche of a niche” title with a few thousand loyal players. That may be enough to keep it in service – it depends on how much it costs to make – but I doubt it will make a profit.
Even the hardest-core PvP MMGs – EVE and Darkfall – won’t touch permadeath with a ten foot pole. And they want to combine that with free-for-all PvP, where anyone can kill you at any time, for any reason (or no reason)?
Listening to the video interview with Bjorn Johannessen, he seems to show no awareness of how badly the lofty ideal of player self-governance has gone awry in games dating back to (at least) Ultima Online.
He tilting at the windmill of BioShock’s Rapture here. He thinks he’s going to create some sort of libertarian utopia. I suspect it’s far more likely to turn into a cesspit of grief players devouring one another.
Wot the ‘ell, Goodfellow…both you and RPS did the same thing. You casually mention Gettysburg: Armored Warfare, a name that fires up the imagination (in complete contrast to the blandly named Naval War) but then say NOTHING about it. I had to go to some MMO blog to find out about the actual game. Tsk.
I had only the briefest look at Gettysburg: AW, Scott, but there is some chat on this week’s podcast.
“As I write my own beginner’s guide to Europa Universalis 3,…”
Is this something the world will be able to read in the future?
David:
Yes.
I’ve already reinstalled Crusader Kings 1 in anticipation of the 2nd one, and I am getting addicted to 1 all over again. I started playing the other day at around 5:30 and ended after midnight. Its been a while since I’ve been sucked in to a game like that.
Crusader Kings is very immersive for a strategy game, but it isn’t locked into one story like many other immersive games, every game is its own story, so I guess those two factors suck me in. Seeing the Arygos family spread from Greece across the world as my empire expands is very fun.
I’ve become “King of Transoxania”, I’ve never even heard of that before. My latest ruler is the Great Grandson of the Prince of Hellas Nikepheros Argyros in the 1066 scenario, who starts under Byzantium’s grasp, and now his descendant rules one of the great kingdoms of the world, in 1149. But Cuman utterly pummeled me, I had to plead for peace with them in the late 1140s. The pagans are SCARY this game.
That unpredictability is my favorite aspect of CK, and I hope it stays like that in CK II.