PRAISE
It is still my favourite game of all time.
I know it's mostly staring at a map but the team really made a great game - so Paradox do deserve a lot of credit.

CRITICISM
It's a shame about the subscription stuff, it's a cheap money grubbing trick and makes Paradox look bad... just make good stuff and sell it. Nobody likes subscription as service. It is the bane of our times. Also, using AI tools is just theft with extra steps.

SOLUTION
I think the creative people working at Paradox should form a union and seize control of the company from their Capitalist overlords, now I know what you are thinking! - that is a bit fantastical - but let me give you a history lesson:

"On 24 January 1919, staff and patients barricaded themselves inside the Monaghan Lunatic Asylum in Ireland and declared a soviet council."
- https://chattingcritically.com/2025/01/24/when-the-lunatics-ran-the-asylum/ (see I don't plagarize)

At the Asylum staff and nurses were working a 93-hour week for about £70 a year.
When Peadar O'Donnell of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union declared the asylum a soviet, both the staff and patients maintained the facility together, and successfully reduced the working week to 48 hours.
The strike was a success, the workers ended up with a 56-hour workweek, substantial pay raises for both men and women, and the right for married staff to go home after shifts.

Now imagine, brave Paradox workers! Break free from your bonds! Break the AI tools forced upon you by the capitalist class. Join with your unpaid modder brothers and sisters in solidarity and seize control of Stellaris - save this great games soul from the husks of the C-suite class and shareholders.

I still believe in you <3