So what is the problem with Paradox..?

[tosentier]

The game's been on my radar for a couple of years already, now I was about to buy, but read the complaints about Paradox. What's going on exactly..? You have to sign up where? And you can't play the full game without subscribing to a newsletter? That sounds absurd. And there are new bugs after Paradox took over?

Can someone summarize the issues?

[Endorb]

Basically, the multiplayer and the Pavillion items require an account. The account requires you to give an email, and you cannot opt out of the Emailed newsletter

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by tosentier:

The game's been on my radar for a couple of years already, now I was about to buy, but read the complaints about Paradox. What's going on exactly..? You have to sign up where? And you can't play the full game without subscribing to a newsletter? That sounds absurd. And there are new bugs after Paradox took over?

Can someone summarize the issues?

If you want to play multiplayer you have to be online (that's always been true, and multiplayer in this sucks anyway, people are now just whining that paradox wants you to sign up for a paradox account to log in online which is still anonymous since it's just linking your steam account which you would have needed anyway)

You absolutely get the full game even without signing up, there's 1 new item that didn't even exist for the past 7 years that you are given as a bonus if you sign up for a paradox account. It's a guard pavilion that is almost useless and was never even part of the game until recently. I have it and still don't bother using it.

The other complaints are people who can't read, you can unsubscribe from paradox email newsletter. You can play the game offline (and lose nothing other than the useless multiplayer mode), you can skip the launcher when it first comes up (most people seem oblivious to the button right under "sign up" that says SKIP)

The complaints are from clueless people who can't read.

Even if you do sign up for a paradox account it's a lot like complaining that you need to be logged into Steam for some games, prison architect now has the option to log into a paradox account when it launches. So what? It's just one more anonymous game account like so many others.

[MekaDovah]

Originally posted by Endorb:

Basically, the multiplayer and the Pavillion items require an account. The account requires you to give an email, and you cannot opt out of the Emailed newsletter

Pretty sure I did opt out when I made an account. The only annoying bit was having to stay logged in just to access the pavillion, but eh, sounds like that thing was more trouble than it was worth anyway so I don't miss it.

[Bizarroskull]

really? bad reviews couse of that??? XDXDXD what a joke, im gonna buy it right now at sale

[ShadowAngel]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

The complaints are from clueless people who can't read.

Just entitled children who love to ♥♥♥♥♥ and complain.

There really is nothing wrong with the game so far. You don't need to sign up (The Guard Tower is not important for gameplay, it's a nice thing to have, but nothing you'd miss)
Otherwise it's the same game, just that it got another patch that broke some mods.

Really, the only bad thing that could happen is that Paradox turns this into another one of their DLC-Hells, with tons of small, crappy, DLCs (see Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis) or just DLCs that are practically mandatory (like Cities Skylines), but given the fact that this has Workshop and full Mod support, i doubt they do that.

[Morlan]

Turns out you can play without letting the launcher access the internet. Earlier on there must've been some firewall/launcher glitch that made the launcher exit for some reason.
In any case: You can play "offline", so to speak, but obviously every "online" feature, like multiplayer, is disabled.
There's another issue though that may or may not affect achievements. In Stellaris you have to enable "Cloud saves" in order to be eligible for achievements (because we're not worthy if you don't..right). I don't know whether they enforce this in Prison Architect so if you care about achievements best to ask around or wait until someone replies.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Morlan:

Turns out you can play without letting the launcher access the internet. Earlier on there must've been some firewall/launcher glitch that made the launcher exit for some reason.
In any case: You can play "offline", so to speak, but obviously every "online" feature, like multiplayer, is disabled.
There's another issue though that may or may not affect achievements. In Stellaris you have to enable "Cloud saves" in order to be eligible for achievements (because we're not worthy if you don't..right). I don't know whether they enforce this in Prison Architect so if you care about achievements best to ask around or wait until someone replies.

The game was made by Introversion and the way achievements work has not changed since being taken over by paradox. So long as you are logged into steam you get achievements, no cloud saves required

I don't even know if the game does a cloud save, I've been playing on and off since alpha 2012 and the only saves I ever use are local, they are just basic txt files

[Kleiner's final Form]

The PDX Launcher in general has problems with bordering on spyware, causing people that don't know how to make firewall rules to have problems. My personal problem that you don't have to care about though is that the new updates broke some mods that i just don't want to play without.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Kleiner's final Form:

The PDX Launcher in general has problems with bordering on spyware, causing people that don't know how to make firewall rules to have problems. My personal problem that you don't have to care about though is that the new updates broke some mods that i just don't want to play without.

I don't think you know what spyware is. It's no more spyware than steam or any other game launcher

[Kleiner's final Form]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by Kleiner's final Form:

The PDX Launcher in general has problems with bordering on spyware, causing people that don't know how to make firewall rules to have problems. My personal problem that you don't have to care about though is that the new updates broke some mods that i just don't want to play without.

I don't think you know what spyware is. It's no more spyware than steam or any other game launcher

I know what spyware is, and i'm not gonna shame and just tell you it's a simple comparison. Aside from that i've found threads on the Internet about it including the solution i mentioned - now if you want to find out whether or not they are giving my data to caretakers who will give it loving care or some russian ad-company that'll just give me the freee windwows fix again - that's up to you.

[murgh]

Originally posted by Kleiner's final Form:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

I don't think you know what spyware is. It's no more spyware than steam or any other game launcher

I know what spyware is, and i'm not gonna shame and just tell you it's a simple comparison. Aside from that i've found threads on the Internet about it including the solution i mentioned - now if you want to find out whether or not they are giving my data to caretakers who will give it loving care or some russian ad-company that'll just give me the freee windwows fix again - that's up to you.

No no no, the Microsoft employees are not Russian, they all live in India, right?

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Kleiner's final Form:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

I don't think you know what spyware is. It's no more spyware than steam or any other game launcher

I know what spyware is, and i'm not gonna shame and just tell you it's a simple comparison. Aside from that i've found threads on the Internet about it including the solution i mentioned - now if you want to find out whether or not they are giving my data to caretakers who will give it loving care or some russian ad-company that'll just give me the freee windwows fix again - that's up to you.

rofl

paranoid much? you're too far gone for me to even bother trying to explain this further. you lack the fundamental knowledge to understand any explanation you would be given

[Kleiner's final Form]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by Kleiner's final Form:

I know what spyware is, and i'm not gonna shame and just tell you it's a simple comparison. Aside from that i've found threads on the Internet about it including the solution i mentioned - now if you want to find out whether or not they are giving my data to caretakers who will give it loving care or some russian ad-company that'll just give me the freee windwows fix again - that's up to you.

rofl

paranoid much? you're too far gone for me to even bother trying to explain this further. you lack the fundamental knowledge to understand any explanation you would be given

Ok.

[Morlan]

Regarding achievements.. well, if you don't even know whether it uses cloud saves or not then don't bother commenting. All your achievements were before the launcher was introduced so you basically don't know if there was a change.
It's irrelevant that Introversion made the game. It is now developed by another team and published by Paradox. A reply from someone who has disabled steam cloud and has gained an achievement would help, not assumptions..

PS. Steam is in fact (potential) spyware.. As per the agreement, they can keep personal data and may potentially give it to a 3rd party! We just don't know what data the collect (apart from what they state) and that's the "spyware" part. Here's an example of what's also available. No reason to blindly defend something like Paradox (launcher) when there's even less evidence of what it's gathering..

[SnaggingWater65]

data collection is a massive market, cant remember where or who published it, though its in the billions per annum.

As they say, if its free your the product.