4 ms·

The saddest part about this is it's not the devs fault, it's management. I'd be interested to see the size of paradoxes growth in terms of management compared t

The saddest part about this is it's not the devs fault, it's management. I'd be interested to see the size of paradoxes growth in terms of management compared to devs in the past 5 years. My only other speculation is that they stopped hiring people passionate about their games. Hence why much dlc that has come out has broke the game or caused it to slow down dramatically. The price is nothing to me. While high, I do like the long term support. But they seriously need to go back to square one here. Because as of late, paradox has just become the Activision of grand strategy and I just can't see myself bothering with them anymore.

simion314 5y ago
Nah, is always the people in comments, go to most movie.TV series reddit and see tons of comments that are like "bad writing, it should have been exactly like I want" (Because some random dude is better then actual writers with experience and awards). Though thee is hope, I know that there is a fix, from my experience good moderation where rules like "no personal attacks" , "no lazy comments" , "properly explained critics" and a community that mostly reports bad behavior resulted in a good experience for me.
- hn8788 5y ago
  The most recent DLC they released broke a lot of stuff, and was clearly unfinished, because it still had placeholder assets in it. Sometimes the people complaining actually are right about what they're talking about.
  - simion314 5y ago
    And as I said there are ways to write a comment with valid criticism that is not toxic. Edit: what I maybe failed to communicate before is that even when there is a valid criticism to make, most of the time the people in comments address their hate to the wrong people. Maybe the developers/writers are not incompetent but someone else demanded certain things.
    - nottorp 5y ago
      As the customer, why should you care who exactly delivered a crap product that breaks existing products? Whoever from the organization is facing the customer gets the blame and the complaints. Mind, I stay away from Paradox games because they cost $500 if you include all addons, and are unplayable for the first 2 years until they release a good number of addons. So I have no idea what's going on with this particular addon. Except that several people above me posted that it completely breaks the game?
      - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
        Sure, but when people pour their hearts into a product for months or years of their life, and they read about how they are lazy or incompetent (or evil), it hurts a lot. If you actually want your feedback to be listened to, you should try writing it more nicely. But then, this is the internet, so that doesn't seem likely ;)
      - nottorp 5y ago
        > Sure, but when people pour their hearts into a product for months or years of their life Are you referring to the mandatory overtime and low pay across the gaming industry there? :)
      - simion314 5y ago
        Sure, but you refund and complain about the companies. Gaming community is notorious for the toxicity , like sending death treats to people from the public relations for example. I disagree with the toxicity addressed at some individuals person that probably is not at fault. I was suggesting some good moderation from the community, not to censor criticism but to allow and encourage civilized comments and block lazy stuff.
bmcahren 5y ago
People blame management for Cyberpunk as well, but your options as a company are limited. Game development companies are expensive to operate and fail often. Franchises rise and fall. Player bases jump ship (PUBG -> Fortnite -> Apex -> CoD Warzone, etc). So your options again are limited: A. Delay the project X years with an uncertain probability of the game improving vs becoming more complex/buggy over time. B. Cancel the project entirely. C. Restart the project or replace the development leads/management if you think they are the problem again with an uncertain probability of improvement or degradation of quality. D. Delay as long as is possible/reasonable and attempt to deliver a workable game that might not please everybody <----- What most game developers choose. We can't expect companies to bankrupt themselves to deliver and we also can't guarantee any additional time would actually solve some possibly core problems to the game/engine. It does NOT come down to incompetence or malice in all cases. Very easily a transition in tooling or the underlying engine mid-development could throw off the entire project in permanent ways.
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago
  Video games are hard. Think about it, they are essentially a fusion of software and entertainment products, both industries which are noted for unpredictable scheduling and inconsistent quality. It honestly amazes me that so many games actually work pretty well, given that I've seen how the sausage is made.
Der_Einzige 5y ago
Bad DLC in Paradox games is nothing new. Did you not play HOI3? The reality is that its a coinflip on if a new DLC or patch fixes more than it breaks or not with paradox...

simion314 5y ago

Nah, is always the people in comments, go to most movie.TV series reddit and see tons of comments that are like "bad writing, it should have been exactly like I want" (Because some random dude is better then actual writers with experience and awards). Though thee is hope, I know that there is a fix, from my experience good moderation where rules like "no personal attacks" , "no lazy comments" , "properly explained critics" and a community that mostly reports bad behavior resulted in a good experience for me.

hn8788 5y ago
The most recent DLC they released broke a lot of stuff, and was clearly unfinished, because it still had placeholder assets in it. Sometimes the people complaining actually are right about what they're talking about.
- simion314 5y ago
  And as I said there are ways to write a comment with valid criticism that is not toxic. Edit: what I maybe failed to communicate before is that even when there is a valid criticism to make, most of the time the people in comments address their hate to the wrong people. Maybe the developers/writers are not incompetent but someone else demanded certain things.
  - nottorp 5y ago
    As the customer, why should you care who exactly delivered a crap product that breaks existing products? Whoever from the organization is facing the customer gets the blame and the complaints. Mind, I stay away from Paradox games because they cost $500 if you include all addons, and are unplayable for the first 2 years until they release a good number of addons. So I have no idea what's going on with this particular addon. Except that several people above me posted that it completely breaks the game?
    - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
      Sure, but when people pour their hearts into a product for months or years of their life, and they read about how they are lazy or incompetent (or evil), it hurts a lot. If you actually want your feedback to be listened to, you should try writing it more nicely. But then, this is the internet, so that doesn't seem likely ;)
    - nottorp 5y ago
      > Sure, but when people pour their hearts into a product for months or years of their life Are you referring to the mandatory overtime and low pay across the gaming industry there? :)
    - simion314 5y ago
      Sure, but you refund and complain about the companies. Gaming community is notorious for the toxicity , like sending death treats to people from the public relations for example. I disagree with the toxicity addressed at some individuals person that probably is not at fault. I was suggesting some good moderation from the community, not to censor criticism but to allow and encourage civilized comments and block lazy stuff.

bmcahren 5y ago

People blame management for Cyberpunk as well, but your options as a company are limited. Game development companies are expensive to operate and fail often. Franchises rise and fall. Player bases jump ship (PUBG -> Fortnite -> Apex -> CoD Warzone, etc). So your options again are limited: A. Delay the project X years with an uncertain probability of the game improving vs becoming more complex/buggy over time. B. Cancel the project entirely. C. Restart the project or replace the development leads/management if you think they are the problem again with an uncertain probability of improvement or degradation of quality. D. Delay as long as is possible/reasonable and attempt to deliver a workable game that might not please everybody <----- What most game developers choose. We can't expect companies to bankrupt themselves to deliver and we also can't guarantee any additional time would actually solve some possibly core problems to the game/engine. It does NOT come down to incompetence or malice in all cases. Very easily a transition in tooling or the underlying engine mid-development could throw off the entire project in permanent ways.

disgruntledphd2 5y ago
Video games are hard. Think about it, they are essentially a fusion of software and entertainment products, both industries which are noted for unpredictable scheduling and inconsistent quality. It honestly amazes me that so many games actually work pretty well, given that I've seen how the sausage is made.

Der_Einzige 5y ago

Bad DLC in Paradox games is nothing new. Did you not play HOI3? The reality is that its a coinflip on if a new DLC or patch fixes more than it breaks or not with paradox...