Paradox Interactive’s Tutorials: The Real Paradox

About 10 years ago, I was deeply addicted to games from Paradox Interactive, a Swedish developer and publisher specializing in 4X games. For those who don’t know, 4X is an acronym for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. These are complex games where you lead a nation or race in a struggle for dominance, whether on a global or galactic scale. Civilization is a well-known example of this genre.

I had just started engineering school, and besides my insane addiction to Diablo 3 (which I’ll talk about someday), I loved Paradox games. It was normal for me to get home after university, usually between 11 PM and midnight, and play an hour or two of Crusader Kings 2 or Victoria 2. That style of play, constantly driven by the phrase “I’ll just do one more thing and then I’ll stop” (Civ players know the feeling), often compromised my sanity the next day due to a lack of sleep.