This is the Story of a Crusader King

I seem to be finally writing on a bunch of games lately that I’ve played but hadn’t written anything about. This week I quickly typed up some thoughts on Crusader Kings II for PopMatters.

One of the biggest problems I’ve had with the game is how to accurately describe it to others. Part of it is that the most interesting aspect, the part of the game that got me interested enough to buy and play it, is something that is buried behind intimidating UI and seemingly lack of cause and effect. It does take some time and understanding of where things are what different things mean. It takes learning a different video game vocabulary than what most players are used to.

Every couple of weekends I’ll end up playing a few more hours and without context just tweet the evening’s story out. Most of my regular followers knows what’s going on, but some of the things that can happen still confuse people. For instance, last weekend I tweeted: “What the hell happened to Norway?” – thing I just said out loud. Which was appropriately responded to with: Is this Crusader Kings, or did something just actually happen to Norway?

What had happened to Norway was, when I wasn’t looking, it had become Denmark. Don’t know who did what to whom to make that happen, but there it is. Norway is now part of Denmark. Which really makes me want that alliance I was trying for earlier. It just another one of those things that can happen in Paradox’s games that make them so enjoyable.

This week’s post was partially just getting something out the door and partially my attempts to define Crusader Kings II for others.