Victoria 3 has Only Bad Stories to Tell

While playing the new DLC for Victoria 3 and completing 3 runs. I came to the conclusion that Victoria 3 has only bad stories to tell.

And sadly I really mean it. The thing that kept me playing was not an interesting story that developed, but green number goes up. At the same time I got quite angry at paradox.

The Game is now Worthy to be Called Version 0.8 (When you buy some of its DLC…)

When Victoria 3 released, it was simply not done cooking, IT WAS RAW. It was obvious from the start that many of the major systems needed a great overhaul. They needed to be basically reimplement because not the balancing was the problem but its fundamental design.

Its obvious even playing now that the game is simply not complete. There are still systems in place like how war as a diplomatic crisis escalates and how a war is executed. Having a war is simply not fun.

We could now argue how not being at war is a good thing (economically speaking) and should therefore be avoided as the best strategy for your nation. But that misses the point of giving the player options to tell a story.

Maybe paradox didn’t want to compete with Hoi4 on that regard.

Especially conducting war and war operations has so many edges you will cut yourself. From bad automatic army deployment to wars that and because you didn’t watch one province and now your war exhaustions grow too fast even though your nation as a whole is completely fine, your army is winning, and you would reconquer it in 2 weeks…

Victoria 3 has the ability to show that your nation cannot fight anymore. Strikes, rebellion, economic collapse, but instead is uses one abstract value called “war exhaustion” to determine if a war should automatically end.

But do the DLCs Improve the Game?

Not all but Sphere of Influence and the latest DLC Charters of Commerce are a great addition. But as they are a great addition to the game they also come with additional salt. Why is this not the base game? Why do I have to pay over €100 for something that I still cannot call a 1.0 worthy release?

And people will say than don’t buy it. You don’t have to pay anything! Bla bla bla. Missing the point entirely. I was promised by fans, content creators and paradox itself that it will only take some months and one DLC/expansion until most of the edges are shaved off, and the game is mostly fixed and a worthy 1.0. They lied. If I had known that I would have refunded the game.

I bought an expectation and feared that if I hadn’t bought it, it would have never got any updates at all. An Imperator Rome all over again. I love economic games how could I not support it?

Grifters and Liars

When you also watch some paradox content by other YouTubers, they seldom mention the problems with the DLCs it’s always the same narrative. Yes I saw some problems, encountered bugs here and there. But that was two weeks ago on a build. When I raised the problem they said they will fix it.

But the story always ends the same, they don’t fix the problems, the DLCs becomes the worst rated every, people are in open arms, etc.

Influencers are complicit in the scummy behavior of paradox. They basically do free marketing for paradox but don’t even get paid. One reason that plays in that behavior is the abusive relationship fans have with paradox. The same applies for content creators that rely on the game getting updated and not dropped. Imagine not being able to make your weekly dev diary video, guide, review, or let’s play of the new hot content.

All this results in an incentive for content creators to look the other way.

One Proud Bavarian uses revisionism and calls Victoria 3 an uncut gem, regarding the state the game was in at release. When Victoria 3 was release it was simply not finished, it was a broken mess, underdelivered, and was frankly a disappointment.

The Abusive Relationship with Paradox and its Fans

There is a huge incentive for fans to support paradox interactive and buying its DLC’s. If we buy them we can expect content updates for free. Basically the game gets iterated and improved along many years, a quick look to Europa Universals 4 (now at version 14), Hearts of Iron 4, Stellaris (now at version 4), Crusader Kings 2/3 and ofc Victoria 3 are now at a much, much better state and full of different content (mods excluded).

If we don’t support paradox and buy their DLC, their game will get some patches but will never reach its full potential. Yes I look at you Imperator Rome. When you buy a paradox game, It’s seen as an investment.

Sadly paradox gets more and more sloppy. One DLC after another that is simply dog shit. Adding content no one asked for, trying to sell a DLC but with less content than before. And people have angst. “I mean yea the DLC is bad but come on they will fix it! And if we don’t buy it they may stop developing the game! Then no good content will ever come, and the current things won’t get fixed!”

It’s a vicious cycle. One of the worst ever developed DLC gets dropped. People are in disbelieve how could this happen! Why is it so buggy? Didn’t someone test this before? People are buying the DLC. Paradox issues a statement how sorry there are and how this will never happen again. Then it happens again for the next paradox game. Usually the next DLC after being dog shit is significantly better.

History of Dog Shit

There is a clear pattern of first delivering dog shit DLCs where buying it feels like being robbed and then actually getting a DLC that is worth its money. It often feels like we are getting more than what we paid because we know the stark contrast of the previous DLC being terrible. Now even a mediocre one like Charters of Commerce feels like a gourmet.

Update 10/09/2025 Release of Crusader Kings III: Coronations

I cannot believe what the opinion is by other people like one proud bavarian. “I am personally going to deactivated it for future serious playthrough”. History seems to again repeat it self. After a good DLC comes mediocracy or dog shit. It seems that even others come to the same conclusion. “I swear, Paradox DLC releases can be summarized as alternating between “It’s so over.” and “We are so back.” - “@TheBossBark”