I’m on vacation and will be posting little drafts and other items every single day to get me in the habit of writing a bit more.

There are many people that have tricked themselves into thinking that they are intelligent or clever because they can beat a video game. This is a phenomenon that occurs in miniature wargaming or sports. People pushing plastic know how they would have avoided losing as Germany in WW2 or what mistakes that Napoleon made before they eat overpriced food at a convention. In sports, we never would have called that play and certainty wouldn’t have called a timeout. It’s hard to go on any online game forum and see people talk about a game. Steam reviews and comments are often something like “1,000 hours played, would not recommend, devs don’t know what they’re doing and really messed up the game after the 0.4 update.” because people created expectations for a game that could NEVER be fulfilled.

The magic of Stellaris is a little bit like every Paradox game. Every single game is a magic trick with The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige. Stellaris has, from the beginning, I wanted to write a simple guide to new people who are playing Stellaris from the perspective of a normal person. My engagement and joy from the game come from the most basic of Stellaris feelings. No matter what the mechanics, bugs, or performance issues are for the game every game of Stellaris starts with the question “What if ….”

• What if Bug people loved the miliary and science but also had slaves?
• What if space elves hated equality and loved mining?
• What if Egyptian robots were part of an ocean paradise?

Before getting into how to play Stellaris, or how to play Stellaris in 4.0, I wanted to share what a Paradox Game is and