Paradox’s Victoria 2 doesn’t create pseudoproblems. Or does it?

Posted by on May 31, 2011 in Game Diaries

Victoria 2 is Paradox’s massive spreadsheet strategy game about the 19th century, give or take. It’s the game I’ve been playing instead of Pride of Nations, since the “review build” of Pride of Nations is in really bad shape. The developers have their work cut out for them between now and their June 7th release.

So while not playing Pride of Nations, I was greeted by the following message in Victoria 2:

Scientists in our country have discovered Proto-Existentialism.

This was not a philosophical movement but disparate philosophers analyzing and discussing concepts and conceptions which they considered flawed. The general notion about things as Intuition, Time, Intellect, and Being had to be reformulated not do create pesudoproblems.

In terms of gameplay, it means my research had lead to an invention, which is an additional bonus that trickles out after you complete research. Instead of giving you everything at once — BAM! Now you can build granaries! or BAM! Now you’ve unlocked musketeers! or BAM! Now you can research the Apollo Project! — many research results dole out their benefits over time. In this case, Proto-Existentialism gave me a small boost to my prestige rating, which is a nation’s overall metric of success. This will happen some time after a nation finishes researching Idealism under the Philosophy category of the Culture tech tree. Even though it not a major gameplay twist, it’s a nice touch that many of the techs keep on giving with follow-up sub-techs.

But in terms of flavor text, it’s a brilliant combination of eternal wisdom, Paradox Interactive typos, and 19th Century philosophical earnestness. Proto-Existentialism is so hardcore that it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry! And don’t get me started on my discovery of Neokantian Idealism shortly thereafter.

The difference between Pride of Nations and Victoria 2 is pretty stark, even though they have identical subject matter and are played at identical scales. Victoria 2 is Paradox’s classic model of gameplay as data surfing, where you just ride the wave of history as it’s presented in a realtime sea of numbers, charts, lists, tooltips, and map displays. And since the game has been out long enough to have three patches and plenty of rough-honed mods, I’m almost dreading the release of Pride of Nations, which will have no such advantage.

  • Thrawn

    Woah.

    Aw heck, I’ll end it there as this totally blew my mind. Way out of my depth in the ocean here.
    And those are some brilliant scientists you have. So, so brilliant.

  • FearTheBear

    I always wonder when I see a chalkboard like that; how did he write all that stuff up at the top? Does he grab students for the front row and stand on their shoulders?

  • http://www.quartertothree.com Tom Chick

    Mr. Bear, the above image is from a dream sequence in a movie, so he probably was able to fly up there to write on the higher parts of the board. :)

  • FearTheBear

    Ah, okay Tom. I thought maybe that was you explaining the formula you used to rate SOCOM 4 MP as good after pointing out how all the modes were poorly done except for TDM, even that had problems due to the 3rd person perspective, and additionally the community was horrible. I, for once, totally agreed with the text of your review, so how it ended up with 4 *’s or whatever it was for the MP baffles me.

    But that’s a bit off subject…. Umm, what movie and is it worth streaming from Netflix?

  • http://www.quartertothree.com Tom Chick

    Well, the value of the MP in SOCOM 4 is that there’s really nothing else like it when you figure in the co-op, the lack of gadgetry, and the wide-open maps. I think as long as you’re not expecting Mag or Call of Duty, it’s a good MP game. Even if you’re just in it for the co-op, it’s different enough from your typical horde mode that I recommend it.

    So the movie is absolutely worth seeing. It was my favorite movie of 2009. It’s called A Serious Man and I don’t think it’s avaiable for Instant View on Netflix. :(

  • FearTheBear

    Added to my DVD queue then. I remember seeing a trailer for it when it was at the theater (our indie one) and thinking it looked good, but didn’t go see it.

    I’ll admit, I didn’t try the co-op and it sounds like that is where I went wrong. After the bad experience my clan had with it, I doubt I’d be able to find anyone still with a copy to try co-op.

    I consider the wide open maps a strike against it because it negates the objectives and turns everything into a cross map sniperfest. Done right, I agree, a highly lethal, non-gadgetry, game would be wonderful. Done wrong, and you get SOCOM 4.

  • Brooski

    I second the A Serious Man recommendation. Michael Douglas is great.

  • http://www.quartertothree.com Tom Chick

    Okay, now you’re being anti-Semitic. Besides, a more topical joke would be saying that Colin Firth is great.

  • thebigJ_A

    That’s what I love about Vicky 2. I’m playing, learning, tabbing out to look up stuff. It’s great. I’m sad to hear Pride of Nations doesn’t have it.