Why do people love this game so much?

[Natz]

For some reason I cant explain, this is my most played game in the past 2 years, I used to play civ and total war and was bored after a couple of hours trying to have fun. I only play total war for the battles against my friends but thats it, everything else is a chore to me. What I even dont understand is none of my real life friends like this game. To them this is basically a different kind of civ.

[Natz]

Don't be fooled by my playtime, I mostly play this offline and I swear if steam logged all my playtime I could reach 500 or maybe 1000 hours

[Dremall]

I enjoy it for the emergent story telling of the game. My Sussex campaign was perhaps my most memorable where I was at constant war, or proxy war with Mercia. During the truce timers he'd try to expand, or take tributaries and I'd defend them. I'd do the same and he'd try and block me. There was one time we worked together to throw the Norse back into the sea, but I slowly ate away his lands until he had a single county and I forced vassalization upon him. He died a few days after that. It only got hairy when he had managed to get an alliance with Francia, but killing the French bride nullified that.

And this all started because I seduced the guys wife. CK2 FTW.

[JD]

Because of fun you can have with it, because of replayability. In my current run I started in 867 as a Germanic Norse Viking (Hvitserk) in England, captured Sunni woman, converted to her faith and now I'm converting England to Sunni :D

Like any other complicated thing once you start to understand it you start enjoying it.

[Brittanian]

Tbh its a great roleplay experience, I love playing viking and raiding my way to a glorious civilisation, making a great bloodline and playing the politics game to get everyone to like you and have the best people working for you.
But I think i like it so much because its so hard and if on ironman has no reload feature, so its super high risk high reward at times

[SkyCam]

no game is ever the same even if you start at the same date same character same traits (if using ruler designer) the outcome will never be the same might be similar the never the same

yea lots of games are like that but nothing like ck2 thats what so good about this game it will never get old (well technically it will cause you cant change the release date)

then there are mods which add more flavor/content yes other games do this but again with the no game is the same just makes mods that much more enjoyable

take xcom2 for example yes no game is the same yes you can add hundreds of mods diversifying the game even more but in the end your still doing the same thing over and over and over still fun but ck2 you could do the same thing over and over and over but your still not getting the same results its always different

thats why ck2 is soo much fun

[Malus]

I like games which are strategy games but can easly be played as rpgs

[Cardolam]

For those that like the role playing aspects, immersion and emergent storytelling of CK2 you should try Dark Ages:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1795476655&searchtext=

[ミ★ Sucrelune ★彡]

Interesting topic (and answers). Hi and cheers from France, sorry for my english ^_°

Same here : first i was really suspicious about Paradox (expensive games with expensive and countless DLCs, spending thousands of hours watching.... a map ?!).

But I ♥ History and especially middle age.
So i tried CK2.
What pleased me is really surprising : i could not understand the game.
Yep !
I felt so dumb. Could not play : i was just watching all the options, texts, pictures, like a wide puzzle.
That's what grabbed me : i had to hang on. I had to try, for hours, like someone who does not practice music and still, holds an instrument, making noises.

Before the rogue-like/lite emerges, all game industry focused on easy AAA big games, and you could play everything while alt-tabbing in your social medias + YouTube + texting your friends and answering the phone call of your grand-aunt.

So Paradox was, to me, like a new way of playing : "you are ♥♥♥♥, i am the hardest game ever, you gonna suffer and learn."
That's what happened, in some way, to the Dark Souls fans, when DS came out : they were used to beat monsters all day, and then a new game came out and said "you will hit the ground again, and again until you get gud".

CK2 is like the monolith in Kubrick's 2001.
You try to fully understand it, but there is still something more to learn.

Christmas Potadjo said in this topic : "I like games which are strategy games but can easly be played as rpgs". YES, YES YES.
Cause in Paradox games you do whatever you want, and you can have a lot of fun even if you "loose" the game. I mean, i never conquered the world in one single game, and that's ok.

Oh, and about the DLC debate : i really think this shows the big influence of Paradox. Cause if not, nobody would talk about it. However, a lot of players have this "love/hate" feeling for the studio. 1000h played and writing red-thumb-down reviews. It's like the Blizzard fans : always whining but still playing :p

And these last days, i tried STELLARIS, a sort of CK2 in space.
This is brilliant too °_°.

[Сааребас]

Originally posted by Nadja:

Interesting topic (and answers). Hi and cheers from France, sorry for my english ^_°

Same here : first i was really suspicious about Paradox (expensive games with expensive and countless DLCs, spending thousands of hours watching.... a map ?!).

But I ♥ History and especially middle age.
So i tried CK2.
What pleased me is really surprising : i could not understand the game.
Yep !
I felt so dumb. Could not play : i was just watching all the options, texts, pictures, like a wide puzzle.
That's what grabbed me : i had to hang on. I had to try, for hours, like someone who does not practice music and still, holds an instrument, making noises.

Nothing wrong with your English, fully understandable.

Also; this... so much this.

This was the reason I started getting interrested in CK2

[CrUsHeR]

CK2 with all DLCs:


Well it is certainly unique, as a primary strategy game which has a strong social focus on your dynasties and roleplay, rather than only military and economy.

From a gameplay perspective, it offers a very good gameflow - even if you play a single county lord, there barely are more than 5 or 10 seconds of time passing without some kind of event requiring your attention. And many decisions will have severe consequences sooner or later.

If you also add hectic wars, and the constant stuggle against your own family, vassals, and empty coffers, it also offers a certain stress level which keeps me on the toes long enough.


The historical aspect is also amazing, it brought me much closer to actual history of that era.
I think most people have had topics like Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire, William the Conqueror of Gengiz Khan in school and watched the occasional TV documentary; but after you've "been there" it becomes a very different matter.