Paradox Studio Thread

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Sounds like a faggot. Did the fascist orgs of the time use it? If so it is far game. It also ignores the fact loads of fascists were previously leftists.

The way he frames it as "dangerous" because it is "feeding the far-right" makes me want to ignore it out of principle.
It does say that the flag was used way more by the left back then -
Not only is it giving credence to the far right, it's down right ahistorical. Hearts of Iron 4 mainly is based in the years 1936 - 1946, and the use of the flag in the 1930's and 1940's was far more associated with the left wing of Australia than the right.

From the Wikipedia page on the flag:

In 1948 a procession of 3,000 members of the Communist affiliated Eureka Youth League and allied unionists led by a Eureka Flag bearer marched through the streets of Melbourne on the occasion of the 94th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade.[127]
And later on:

The same year, headlines in the Melbourne Argus) stated "Police in serious clash with strikers" and "Battle over Eureka flag" following a violent clash between about 500 strikers and police during a procession on St Patrick's Day in Brisbane.
Here's an article from the communist newspaper dated to 1939:

An ugly clash occurred between members of the Second AI.F. and Communists to Sydney Domain on Sunday afternoon. (...) The Communists platform contained (..) A red flag, bearing a hammer and sickle, and a blue and gold flag, a replica of the Eureka Stockade emblem, was flown..
There are numerous more examples of the overwheming use of the flag by left wing groups. In fact, apart from a single mention on the Wikipedia article of the Eureka stockade flag, I can't find any reference to Eric Campbell's Center Party or New Guard using the flag.i

It is overwhelmingly ahistorical and plays into what narratives the far right is trying to create around the Eureka stockade flag as a symbol of nationalism, fascism and hatred. Especially so when you consider the time period that these games are set in.
 
Opinions on this thread about paradox misrepresenting the Eureka Australia flag? - https://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxpla...he_way_paradox_uses_the_eureka_stockade_flag/
Well it is lot of lefty coping and seething, but he is probably right.
I dont know enough about Australian politics in this period to say.
I think however this is not some autistic attempt to commit historical revisionism. But result of pdx not giving enough fuck when doing their research for Together for Victory and Death or dishonor.
Perfect example is fascist Czechoslovakia.
Guy in charge of fascist party NOF didnt really enter politics until after NOF was dissolved . And (almost) all of Czechoslovak political advisors are people who were part of goverment of Slovak state (German puppet).
And I could go on but I think I made my point.
 
It is overwhelmingly ahistorical and plays into what narratives the far right is trying to create around the Eureka stockade flag as a symbol of nationalism, fascism and hatred. Especially so when you consider the time period that these games are set in.
Counterpoint: HOI4 is a war simulator first of all and if you want to go independent you either go fascist or communist. HOI4 is not a politics simulator and ''fascism'' as an ideology only meant german/japanese aligned as ''communist'' meant soviet aligned, and ''democratic'' meant UK/US aligned. That's how it worked in HOI3. People didn't give a shit until TNO ruined everything by giving people the false idea that the war game is a politics game.
 
Not only is it giving credence to the far right, it's down right ahistorical. Hearts of Iron 4 mainly is based in the years 1936 - 1946, and the use of the flag in the 1930's and 1940's was far more associated with the left wing of Australia than the right.
If Paradox does ahistorical things with flags it wouldn't be anything new. For example, last I checked Fascist Wales uses the flag of the Free Wales Army, a nationalist paramilitary organization founded in the 1960s.

welsh.png

The Center Party was connected to the New Guard paramilitary organization as they had the same leader. The New Guard used the Union Jack as their flag apparently so if everything was entirely accurate, things from a game play perspective may get confusing.

Here are the historical political stances of the Center Party/New Guard (the Center Party is the Fascist path party for Australia in HOI4):
1. Pro-Monarchist
2. Australian Nationalism
3. Anti-Communism
4. Ideological support of Italian Corporate Statism
 
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Opinions on this thread about paradox misrepresenting the Eureka Australia flag? - https://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxpla...he_way_paradox_uses_the_eureka_stockade_flag/
The Eureka flag has been used by many groups, right and left. It's a symbol of rebellion, like how the stars and bars are now just a generic symbol to the point Canacucks will use it to voice displeasure against the Saint Lawrence riverine elites.

I don't necessarily disagree that PDX inadvertently "encourages" Fascism/Nazism but this is not an instance of that. This is just PDX assigning a flag that numerous groups used to represent their idea of "true Aussies"; for the left it was against capital and for class solidarity, for the right it was against capital and for ethnic solidarity. These are all revolutionary groups and thus they use revolutionary symbols.
I don't necessarily disagree that PDX inadvertently "encourages" Fascism/Nazism but this is not an instance of that.
Now, on this part; PDX is quite egregious in advancing the idea that Nazism, and Hitler in particular, were some superior force through gameplay. Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini far and above every other personality in the game in terms their effects. Hitler gives a huge boost to political power collection, giving Germany a great early game advantage to increasing your buffs (analogue = "Nazism/Fascism is more efficient"). Hirohito gives a massive boost to stability, such that even being at war with Japan's very modest early stability will be at minimum 80%, which is where most countries get mid-game at war after buffs. Mussolini also gets super powerful with a bunch of smaller buffs across many mechanics. Contrast that with most other rulers and, outside of late-game Stalin, the best you get is either nothing or small +10% boosts or -10% debuffs.

PDX also does this in other games; for instance, Victoria 3's artwork depicts the American suffragettes as multi-racial in protests, when the reality is that it was a movement by rich Southern women to counter the black male vote in the post-war South.

The issue here is multifaceted, which the top minds of reddit won't even realise, let alone address. The issues with HoI4 are not intentional; Hitler and Hirohito were designed the way they are as a band-aid to ensure balance and fun, whilst Mussolini and Stalin's ubermensch qualities came about as a result of feature creep and the demand for bigger focus trees of each subsequent DLC (just wait for the Japan rework where Hirohito literally is a God by 1945). Likewise, the popular perception of suffragettes, particularly in Europe where they had a classist and not racial aspect, does not remember how bigoted they were (Red Dead 2 does this as well). It's the result of rose-tinted glasses fitted with a feminist/progressive lens looking back at the past. It's sort of like how the Soviets gave the Teutonic Knights swastikas on their helmets in 1938's Alexander Nevsky; both the Soviets and Nazis saw a particularly precient idea in comparing 1930s and 1940s international politics to the Catholicization of the Balts, but the reality is that the past is a foreign country.

All this is to say is that Paradox, for all you want to say about them, are not downplaying Nazism or whatever other societal ill or ideology is popular to condemn this week on reddit. They, like everyone else and every piece of media meant for consumption, is biased to a particular view, both intentionally and otherwise. I don't like how they portray Nazism in HoI4, but I understand also that making the Nazis as incompetent as they were IRL would mean anyone with any knowledge of WW2 would be winning as the Allies before the first German soldier stepped foot into the land west of the Rhine. PDX is not intentionally downplaying anything, and it's absurd to say that they are trying to make a flag no one outside of Australia knows or cares about into a symbol of Fascism is absurd when it's been a symbol of leftists, rightists, and everyone inbetween who feels agrieved by the Australian government.

TLDR; milquetoast liberal Swedes who think saying "Deus Vult" is a crime against humanity are not doing anything they are accused of by predditors.
 
Why do the newer Paradox games have such crappy achievements. Not every achievement has to be conquer half the world as "small shithole" or some other difficult out of left field ahistorical nonsense.
 
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So Paradox's NotCiv! released today and well:
View attachment 5851347
Lol. LMAO even. Biggest complaint is apparently multiplayer is hotseat only, with simultaneous coming soon™, and also buggy as fuck.
Seeing Paradox pay a bunch of Youtubers to advertise this game was pretty funny, since it felt like a lot of them were struggling to make the game seem appealing. Even the positive reviews on Steam are saying things like "W-well the fundamentals are good, so if you just give it 8 months or so, I'm sure it'll be a really great game!"
 
Lol, even IGN gave it 5/10 how shitty your game has to be to get 5/10 from fucking journos without literally murdering trannies.
Usually I hate deferring to game journalists, but it's often a big tell when you look on a store page and the reviews section only lists a bunch of sites you've never heard of, instead of the standard "9/10, it's okay - Gamespot" stuff. Could just be that the game in question didn't get much mainstream attention, normal for niche indies, but for a game that Paradox is dumping marketing money into? Oh yeah, they fumbled.
 
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I thought the demo was interesting, but held off on actually buying it because it felt too limited of a sample to make my mind fully. Glad I was right.

don't forget the unfunny pun achievement

I like some of the pun achievements. But I agree that generally the achievements shouldn't be just "WC in all but name" or just puns. Using historical achievements for example is pretty good, as are some meta ones. In the case of EU4 two examples that come to mind is the one for forming Persia as Tabarastan (which is the historical way that Persia was reformed) and Aatwix Legacy (named after a fan who passed away who was legendary for creating a autistically in depth guide on how to get personal unions, and the achievement is for having 10 of them at the same time).
 
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