Paradox opens the floodgates
“This, to me, is like an anniversary, birthday, birth of your firstborn kid all in the same day”
For years, Paradox Interactive has hosted press conventions and small fan gatherings, but this year, in the publisher’s hometown of Stockholm, it combined the two with the first public Paradox Convention. Around 700 people gathered in Sweden’s capital for two days of panels, seminars, competitions, and demos. But why has Paradox decided to open the floodgates now? “I like the feeling of doing things like this,” says CEO Fredrik Wester, surrounded by PCs showing BattleTech skirmishes and HeartsofIronIV campaigns. “This, to me, is like an anniversary, birthday, birth of your firstborn kid all in the same day. It’s a fantastic feeling.”
Wester and co have been planning this new version of PDXCon for over a year and a half, and discussing it for at least three years. They’ve just been waiting for the right moment. Almost everyone employed at Paradox is in attendance, along with several developers they work with, and even a few that they don’t.
“If you look at Frontier,” gestures Wester, “who is here as well, we’re great fans of what they’re doing, so we just sent out the invitation, and they said yes. So we’re really happy to have them here. Same with Mojang. Minecraft— great game, great audience. And they’ve been doing MineCon for a couple of years, and we were inspired by that as well.”
While Mojang has fostered a gargantuan fanbase with Minecraft, Paradox hasn’t been a slouch in that department either. This is a chance for the publisher to hammer its appreciation of those fans home.
Smashing walls
“We want to develop this company together with the fans, not be like on another side of a wall just looking out, but actually being in the middle, seeing people playing, hearing what people are saying,” Wester explains. And he’s got big dreams for the future. “I hope we can scale this up. I hope thousands of people will come to Stockholm to see our games.”
It’s not lip service, either. Paradox’s relationship with its fans is long running, and it even hires from within that community, bringing in modders to work on its grand strategy games. Being able to have a direct line of communication with the players is, Wester explains, essential. PDXCon isn’t just about showing new games: It’s about hearing what the players think about them.
“The people who are here, they paid for their tickets, they paid for our games, and our obligation is to listen.
If you invite people to your home and don’t listen to what they say, then you’re being rude. I expect some people to criticize what we’re doing here as well, and that’s fine, because what else is going to help us move forward as a company? Both praise and criticism in a well-balanced mix.”
It can be intense, though. There are no barriers between the developers and the community. While I’m talking to streaming producer, Anders ‘cKnoor’ Carlsson, a pair of young guys come over to talk about Stellaris and ask for his autograph. Speaking with Civilization V’s Jon Shafer, who is working with Paradox on an unannounced project, he jokes that fans were waiting outside the toilet to talk to him.
When it comes to speaking to anyone, Wester doesn’t like managing his developers. “People often ask us, ‘How do you coach your developers when they talk to the press?’ We have a simple rule: We don’t. The developers know what games we have announced and what we haven’t announced, and they’re supposed to stick to the one’s that we’ve announced. Apart from that, developers are free to say whatever they like.”
He prefers to send them to the frontlines, to PDXCon or interviews, and let them talk passionately instead of worrying about making a mistake. That becomes harder, however, the larger Paradox becomes, especially when it comes to talking to players.
Stream engine
“I think the key to that is keeping the teams small and community-focused,” Wester says. “So the teams themselves are in direct contact with players. Look at the Stellaris team, for example. It’s almost as if they are players instead of developers. And they have a good time and invent weird things, like the Blorg, so they are creating their own memes and being a part of their own audience. That’s the way forward. Our streaming guy, Anders, he just said he wants everyone at Paradox to participate, at least once, in a stream.”
Walking around, I meet fans who have travelled from all over Europe and beyond, some bringing their family even, to meet developers, streamers and modders. As a woman looks for a free PC to play on, her little girl dances on the stairs. “I want them to think, ‘I feel like I’m part of a family, and I’m coming back next year,’ those are the feelings I want them to have, like a warm feeling,” Wester tells me.
The event is a personal thing for him, and an affirmation that the publisher is heading in the right direction. “I think having the opportunity to be a part of the journey of Paradox Interactive has been a blessing. I’m starting to sound religious, but it’s almost that feeling. The nice thing about it is nobody has ever told us what to do. We just decided we want to do this, so, okay, let’s try it. We are experimental at heart.” Fraser Brown
We want to develop this company together with the fans