Paradox Interactive

Infobox Company
company_name = Paradox Interactive
company_
company_type = Public
foundation = 1998
location_city = Stockholm
location_country = Sweden
location =
key_people =
industry = Interactive entertainment
products =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
homepage = [http://www.paradoxplaza.com/ www.paradoxplaza.com]

Paradox Interactive is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm that is known for producing historical strategy computer games. It is also a video game publisher, publishing its own games as well as others through retail channels as well as with their proprietary digital distribution service, GamersGate. The lead game programmer is Johan Andersson.

Paradox Interactive is not a division of Paradox Entertainment, owners and developers of properties such as Conan the Barbarian.

Game characteristics

Each game is marked by the use of standard real-time elements but with an ability to make any and all changes while paused (and while unpaused), which provides realism while remaining true to the traditional format of strategy games. The games also demonstrate a commitment to historical accuracy which results in a highly detailed playing experience.

Each game also has a loosely based set of "Victory Conditions" which defines the game winner as accumulating the most "points" by the closing date of the game. These points are abstracted from meeting certain goals during gameplay. Due to the wide-open nature of the game engine, however, it is easy to ignore these victory conditions. The games are notable not in the sense of winning by a predefined set of conditions (like a traditional board game) but in being an open game engine (sandbox-style game) in which the player can define their own victory, or even play without victory in mind. A single game from start to finish represents hundreds of hours of gameplay. It usually takes a week or more to complete, say, the "Grand Campaign" in Europa Universalis II, which runs from 1419-1820. The games all feature shorter scenarios for more focused and shorter game play.

Their games are characteristically complex, with steep learning curves and highly detailed gameplay models. Though they superficially resemble a "conquer the world" game much like Risk, in reality the game models so many aspects of running a nation that conquering the world is, while not impossible, tedious at best. The focus of each game is different, but generally a player must manage the economy, commerce, internal politics, diplomacy, technological development, and military forces of a nation. The careful balance between long-term planning and the ability to react to emergent conditions is what makes these games so complex, but is also part of their appeal.

On the support side, Paradox continues to release patches to their games years after a game's initial release. While they often only fix small problems or tweak the game initially, some games have required patches shortly after release to make them playable.cite web |url=http://www.quartertothree.com/inhouse/news/410/ |title=QuarterToThree interview with Johan |accessdate=2008-04-19 |author=QuarterToThree |date=2008-3-27] Later patches may contain large changes to the game and the way the game is played, meeting the demands and requests of fans. Should the fan's demands and requests be too large for a patch, Paradox will release supplemental expansion packs, as is the case with and Europa Universalis III.

Additionally, Paradox games are open and easy to edit. Whether tweaking a saved game or creating an entirely new scenario, Paradox has made the game open to all users. For those modders that cannot figure out how to edit the game on their own, the Paradox forums provide a library of "how to" advice. If modding is not the user's desire, they can download scenarios created by other users, a practice encouraged by Paradox. However, while they do link to scenarios on the forums, Paradox does not endorse these modified game scenarios. Users download and modify games at their own risk.

Forums

One of the key features of the Paradox gaming experience is participation in the active Paradox forums. The complex nature of the games encourage players to collaborate to improve gameplay. The forums allow players to learn from the experiences of other players. The open-ended nature of Paradox games allows for players to develop unique strategies and approaches to widely different styles of gameplay. The forum provides a means to share these experiences with other players. Besides strategy discussions, the forums feature active modding and fan fiction communities. However, the Paradox forums suffer regularly with unresponsive servers, mostly due to the sheer volume of users and small server capability.

Much of the gameplay information used by the engine is contained in uncompressed text and bitmap graphic files. The ability to freely edit these files has allowed an active modding community to develop. The Paradox forum is highly active and provides a way for players and modders alike to collaborate and improve gameplay and develop complex new scenarios for each title. The Paradox game developers are also active in the forums, and incorporate ideas and even contributions from the gameplaying community in ways that many larger gaming companies do not. Europa Universalis: Crown of the North included two user created scenarios (the unhistorical "Independent Europe Scenario", and the expanded "Alternative Grand Campaign") that came directly from forum contributors, rather than by game developers. Also, the recently released Europa Universalis III was developed in close collaboration with experienced players of the earlier titles through discussions on the forum.

Fan-fiction (called After Action Reports on the forum) provides a way for players to discuss their own gameplay in unique ways with other players. Unlike standard fan fiction, After Action Reports are creative embellishments on actual gameplay. The open-ended engines of these games encourages creativity and the goal of writing compelling After Action Reports often allows players to use the game engine in unique and often unusual ways. Impossibly difficult gameplay situations (such as playing as an extremely weak minor nation) or continued play in the face of horrendous setbacks (such as losing over half of one's nation in a single war) are enhanced by the creative outlet of After Action Reports. This outlet has kept the players involved in the game in unique ways and serves to expand the replayability of these games.

GamersGate

GamersGate AB is a digital distribution service operated by Paradox Interactive. In addition to Paradox Interactive titles, GamersGate distributes games from third party publishers, including distribution partnerships with THQ and Atari. GamersGate commenced trial operations in April 2006 and officially launched (entitled "Gamer's Gate") on November 20, 2006. [cite press release
title = Paradox Interactive Launches Large-Scale International Digital Distribution Service
publisher = Paradox Interactive
date = 2006-11-20
url = http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=109087
accessdate = 2007-01-24]

Games

Upcoming Games

2008

* (PC - Publisher)
* Supreme Ruler 2020 (PC - Publisher)
* Mount&Blade (PC - Publisher)

2009

* (PC)
* Elven Legacy (PC)
* Hearts of Iron III (PC)

References

External links

* [http://www.paradoxplaza.com Paradox Interactive]
* [http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/ Paradox Interactive Forums]
* [http://www.gamersgate.net GamersGate]