stellaris is a cash cow that's threatening to burst. i've reached a point where i can't recommend this to anyone.
[b]tldr; Paradox gave us something that was really good for a while and then bogged it down with incomplete releases at high prices for downloadable content that should have been in the base game.[/b]
look, i LOVED this game. i played so much of it nonstop for hours and hours and hours- hours spent mainly in single player with a handful of private lobbies as well. it was [i]fun[/i], plain and simple; immersive, vast, and full of unknowns and with so, so much replayability.
but if you look at it nowadays, there are DLCs left, right, and center with [i]season passes[/i] for future releases, AND [i]subscription services[/i] for if you don't want to spend, as of the time writing this, [b]$375 USD[/b] to own your own copies of.
don't get me wrong, a majority of the DLCs' added some really fun stuff that, in my opinion, [i]should have been in the base game already[/i], but instead of pushing it out as a patch, it's just another chance to milk consumers dry. so why is it that Paradox can't be bothered to finish their products before release date just to sell it to us at ridiculous prices for what's less than the bare minimum?
the rampant greed lives on as a significant problem that's additionally punctuated by Paradox [i]using gen AI on multiple assets and content[/i]. Paradox is a significant studio full of many talented people. why are things being relegated to AI at all? there are people that can be paid to do better work with better longevity, but that's what feeds back into the overall greed of the company. AI doesn't need to be paid. Paradox isn't footing the bills for the data centers (which is a whole other issue of ethics that isn't the topic here).
[b]if Paradox cannot be assed to make their own games, then i cannot be assed to purchase [i]any[/i] of their products.[/b]
