@TheMummy17 Deduce what?

"For PDXCON CK2 Is Free To Play!" seems to indicate that this is a giveaway that will run for the duration of the convention. Could we get some clarification as to whether CK2 has changed permanently to a Free To Play model, or is this a limited time 'redeem now keep forever' style activation?

yo i was gonna buy this like yesterday thank god i didnt

I doubt it is fully free to play. Its a free weekend of sorts.

Originally posted by DrunkOnGlory:

I doubt it is fully free to play. Its a free weekend of sorts.

It is Paradox Interactive, after all. No way they'd give the game away for free.

The announcement made me think it was a timed thing, but the feel I get from their site is that this is a new strategy for this game. They'll still make money with the complete edition or the expansions separately.

thanx for beta-test, guys!

It was free to claim last year I think, also twice in Humble Bundles... It would be pretty unfair making it Free to Play forever ;/

Why would making it free to play forever be a bad thing?
It seems like a smart model for paradox given more people getting into it and a bigger audience buying the DLCs. IF you want you can basically see it as the demo version of the game, I mean all the DLC comes to 190$...
There are a number of people who will now be installing this to play multiplayer with their friends and now for a change legitimately buying the DLC. This was a smart move by Paradox imo.
>Imagine having sour grapes because other people get to enjoy a (base) game for free that you paid for.
Be happy that you supported the development and that the audience for GSG games may grow in general leading to further demand.

Shall i claim a refund from pdx store?No key,no email,and now here is a large discount on steam.So sad.

What do the people who paid for Crusader Kings 2 going to get?

All you need to know about the steam store

f2p - games such as mmos or other games that are permanently f2p. usually these games have their own servers, clients, stores and achievements. you cannot own an f2p game. the benefits of f2p games include frequent updates. they also tend to make most of their money off microstransactions. Because f2p games fall under a different set of regulations, none of the dlc can be refunded. Third party lisence conflicts can also result in loss of data (skins, characters) depending on the agreement reached. Steam is never directly involved in any of this. f2p games don't stay in your library if you uninstall or changes are made to the games price and other base information. f2p games are usually more often than not online multiplayer only games and may or may not have steam achievements. THIS IS WHAT APPEARS TO BE GOING ON HERE, THOUGH THE CONFUSION IS IF IT IS REMAINING F2P PERMANENTLY. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT YOU WAIT IT OUT BEFORE BUYING THE DLC, SINCE IF THE GAME GOES OUT OF F2P..YOU WILL LOSE ACCESS TO THE DLC SINCE YOU DON'T HAVE THE GAME.


Play for free weekend - a specified time in which a game goes on sale, but becomes available to play for free until the event is over. The full base game is always made available, but dlc is not. You cannot purchase dlc during these events, since you do not have the game activated on your account. The game only will become activated on your account after purchase. otherwise it is labeled as a trial version until the event is over. these games will say "play for free until" and will have a timer counting down. The game will be available to purchase at a discount. The important thing here is there will be two green buttons one for enabling the trial period, and one for purchasing the game.

BOTH F2P AND PLAY FOR FREE WEEKEND GAMES WILL NEVER GIVE YOU A RECEIPT OR ACTIVATE ON YOUR ACCOUNT. if you uninstall the games , or the dev changes something in the games, it will remove itself from your library (with the exception of if you have it "hidden" hidden games won't remove from your library ..not sure why. if you uninstall a hidden game you can still see it in your library..but if you remove it from hidden it will disappear. An f2p game will always show up in your games list on your profile and be recognized as an activated game, unless specified by valve or the dev or with some odd exceptions. however, they do not go through the same activation process as a regular game so it's up in the air of whether or not you own an F2P game. An activated game will first activate to your account then install, and F2p game just goes right to install.

Demo - a free portion of a game made available to the general public in order for people to make an educated decision about purchase. Demos usually last for a few hours of game play or contain only one area. some demos let you play indefinitely but restrict you to a certain level cap.

$0.00 games - games that go on sale for $0.00. There will be a green button that says "activate now". This will bring you to the shopping cart. You will then "purchase" the game for "free" and it will be activated permanently on your account. Usually games that do this , do so because they are being removed from digital sale or a sequel is coming out. After "purchase" you will own the game indefinitely (ie for as long as valve determines you have "ownership" of that game). You will receive a receipt. Other stores that do this include, Epic, Uplay and Origin. You will also be warned that games activated for free on steam will not provide steam trading cards and sometimes have limited profile features.

Early access -
paid "demos" in which you basically pay to support the development of a game. similar to a kickstarter program. helps the dev to find bugs in their game as they go, instead of just releasing the game to the public only for it not to do well. A lot of nice games will also go early access for a brief window to test the waters. during this period, customers get full access to the game and all updates at a discount price compared to what it will be worth on release. Usually dlc or some other bonus is offered.


Add-on - content that , althought it is it's own game and is free to play, requires you to own another game to function. The term addon is not really used anymore, and just says "add to account" or free to play. Only specified as an add-on/mod in the text if so chosen.

packages - groups of bundles/products sold at a fixed discount. packages will never give you duplicates, which becomes frustrating when trying to buy the right version of divinity.
bundle "complete your collection" - bundles that allow you to buy only the items you don't own. the discount in these bundles applies to each item individually.
Bundle - like a package except the dev/publisher has more control over making changes to it, such as adding /removing items and changing the price/discount.

DLC - add on content for your games, never includes videos, but music is a dlc.
MUSIC - not used anymore, but Music used to a seperate thing from DLC, now it is just labled as dlc, though some games still have the Music label on their DLC (pyschonauts for example)

4 pack - no longer officially supported by valve but older games that used this distribution method are still allowed to sell them. gives you 4 copies of the game, 1 for yourself and 3 for friends.


All this information, and more is available on the steamworks docs.
hope this helped more than my big rant did.

Originally posted by REΔLLɎ ᕈROSṈIΔK:

I can't believe it, the day before they sold the game for 39 € and the next day for freetoplay forever.

Isn't there an option at the Steam Support refund page that says that the game dropped in price a few days after you purchased said game?

Why do you think people who bought this game need to get a "reward" like a free dlc? You bought it earlier, got access to it earlier, played few or few thousand hours earlier than those new F2P players, that is kinda your reward. Do you think that Paradox should also recompensate older players when its on discount or part of humble bundle? I mean, they paid, probably, full price for it, they deserve something for it, right? If you bought game recently and didnt play much then ask for a refund, if you played it more than you probably already got your moneys worth

Too much DLC to buy, I do not like this way of proceeding