I'm a big fan of Paradox games, particularly Crusader Kings 3, but I don't think anyone should approach these without already having a pretty firm understanding

I'm a big fan of Paradox games, particularly Crusader Kings 3, but I don't think anyone should approach these without already having a pretty firm understanding of history and expect to learn anything from them. CK3's engine is fantastic at spitting out personalities, but the way it functions if you're playing as an English lord is exactly the same as it plays if you're Spanish or Indian or Mongolian; only the titles are different. Obviously, once you start tinkering with history, anything that happens in the game is an alternate timeline. I think most players understand that. But what they likely don't understand is that embedded deep in the game, where it's not obvious, there are value judgments and things which are both ahistorical and somewhat hostile toward non-European peoples. The most glaring one I've discovered is the fact that the Kingdom of Jerusalem is the only kingdom-level territory you can't declare even if you own all the land, unless you convert to Catholicism. I learned this the hard way after conquering most of the Middle East and Egypt starting as a Jewish vassal in a single county - and it pissed me off. (What happened immediately afterwards, when every Muslim empire declared holy war on me at the same time, seemed somewhat realistic). Anyway, that isn't how people should learn history.