Crusader Kings 2 is insanely addicting

I'm an a-hole

My friend who introduced me to the game said instead of killing his rival, he had two of his children assassinated. His rival became depressed and killed himself.

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If you are into games like Civilization but want a far deeper political experience, this is for you.

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hell of an understatement
learning curve on EU4 and CK2 is about like EVE online

Finally, someone else who plays. No telling how many hours (well, Steam would tell me, but it's embarrassing) I've sunk into CK2 and EUIV.

ETA: The GOT mod is fun but is far too stable for long games.

If any of y'all need pointers or advice, I'm your man. Been playing this shite for 3+ years and have pretty much mastered it. Last playthrough, I successfully made Israel as a tiny Jewish Ethiopian duke. shite be hard.

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I was interested but the reviews made it sound bad

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It is not for the faint of heart. You need to have 50 hours or so in to get a decent grasp of things.

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Paradox grand strategy games just have too much going on for this to be doable. The entire point of them is to be an intensely cerebral, planned experience. It's not for everyone, I know, but I do not think the complexity is an indictment on design.

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I would probably say that people have good reasons for enjoying a Paradox grand strategy titles, but objectively, they're not good video games.

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How does one create an objective judgement on something that is inherently subjective?

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Subjectively is probably the better word there I agree; however, I do believe there are generally agreed upon design principles. If there were game design text books (which there may be), I find it hard to believe they would advocate games designed to require 50 hours of preparation before the player can begin to grasp how to play the game.

Secondly, in almost every instance, when you compare two games in a similar genre, the game that is easiest to pick up and play is the game that is more financially successful and universally loved. It's not about the game is the most feature rich or the game that lets you push the most buttons, it's the ability of a game to evoke a certain feeling. This is why World of Warcraft, Halo, and Civilization have been so successful over the years compared to older MMORPGs like EverQuest, older first person shooters, and the most in-depth grand strategy games.

I have over 1200 hours on CK2.

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I only have a few expansions right now. What would you recommend?

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Everything except Sunset Invasion, which is useless. Don't waste money on portraits and songs unless you have funds to piss away.

Ways of Life, Old Gods, and Charlemagne are tops. The Republic (or whatever it is) is good if you want to play as Venice, Genoa, or to create a republic from a tribal/nomadic government and have retinues. Sword of Islam if you want to be kebab.

Portraits and songs can be nice though. It gets a little old just seeing the same old portraits. I'd add the expansions very slowly. Honestly, some of the expansions messed with my computers ability to run the game, especially the raja expansion.