{"id":870,"date":"2015-02-20T17:30:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T01:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=870"},"modified":"2015-02-20T17:31:20","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T01:31:20","slug":"medieval-strategy-game-crusader-kings-ii-lives-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/medieval-strategy-game-crusader-kings-ii-lives-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Medieval strategy game \u201cCrusader Kings II\u201d lives on"},"content":{"rendered":"
By DECLAN HERTEL\r\n Staff Writer<\/pre>\n
\u201cOh my god, Dad! You\u2019re sleeping with my
\nwife?\u201d
\nThis is the somewhat sanitized version of a
\nsentence I once said out loud while playing Paradox
\nInteractive\u2019s 2012 grand strategy game,
\n\u201cCrusader Kings II,\u201d which marked its third anniversary
\nthis month.
\nIn CKII, the players take control of the head
\nof a medieval dynasty and do everything they
\ncan to become rich, powerful, and above all,
\nlong-lived. The only \u201cobjective\u201d is to make your
\ndynasty last until 1453, although this is hardly
\nthe appeal of the game: CKII is a sandbox game
\nat heart, meaning you are dropped into a huge
\nliving world to do anything your heart desires.
\nThere is an incredible amount of detail, not least
\nfrom the impressive level of research put into
\nhistorical accuracy.
\nEach character in the game is represented by
\na ton of little symbols and numbers representing
\ntheir abilities, opinions, and character traits.
\nYou can interact with these characters in many
\nways, such as sending assassins to kill them,
\nsending them gifts, arranging marriages, and
\nrequesting their excommunication. Learning the
\nsignificance of all these bits is key to keeping
\nyour family on top, and there are a ton of bits.
\nNot to mention that in addition to keeping
\nyourself un-murdered and your heirs in the
\nhands of teachers who will bestow the best traits
\nupon them, you must also run a kingdom. You
\ncan mess with everything from tax policy to succession
\nlaw to even more nitty-gritty bits; it\u2019s all
\nup to you. This results in a difficulty curve that
\nmore closely resembles a wall, but the CKII community
\nis nothing if not obsessive: there are a
\ngreat many guides and tip collections to ease the
\nprocess. Give some of these a perusal and you\u2019ll
\nbe bumping off meddlesome uncles in no time.
\nOne thing I didn\u2019t expect on first playing the
\ngame is how darkly hilarious it can be. Being assassinated
\non the orders of your 8-year-old mentally
\ndisabled nephew; becoming your son\u2019s lover
\nonly to have him murder you for your titles; a
\nmaimed blind man with typhus winning your
\ngrand tournament; all of these are fair game.
\nThere is no shortage of \u201cha ha, what?\u201d moments
\nthroughout any given play-through. Also incest.
\nLots of incest.
\nCKII has, on average, 2,500 players active at
\nany given moment. Thanks to nine expansions,
\n37 minor DLCs, and a thriving modding community
\n(there is a very popular \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d
\noverhaul mod), CKII is very much alive with no
\nend in sight, three years post-release. That\u2019s
\nmore than many games can say after six months.
\nIf you\u2019ve ever wondered what it\u2019s like to unite
\nall of Western Europe into one giant France, if
\nyou\u2019ve ever wondered what it\u2019s like to sire 30
\nchildren by eight mothers, if you\u2019ve ever wondered
\nwhat it\u2019s like to marry your syphilitic
\ndaughter to an enemy duke and gain all his titles
\nand lands when he dies from the syphilis
\nyou \u201ctotally didn\u2019t know about,\u201d \u201cCrusader Kings
\nII\u201d just might be the game for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By DECLAN HERTEL Staff Writer \u201cOh my god, Dad! You\u2019re sleeping with my wife?\u201d This is the somewhat sanitized version of a sentence I once said out loud while playing Paradox Interactive\u2019s 2012 grand strategy game, \u201cCrusader Kings II,\u201d which marked its third anniversary this month. In CKII, the players take control of the head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}