Customer loyalty, especially the type that PDS has earned over the past many years is something very rare and very hard to acquire. To the point where people were even buying previous DLC they had no interest in playing, just to help development of future products. It boils down to trust. Many fans have trusted Paradox to be a competent developer that listens, and most importantly cares about what their customers think.



Unfortunately I am noticing a trend recently of PDS displaying what I can find no other word to describe than contempt toward the fans. It's bad enough to have some of the severely misguided design decisions that we have seen over the past few patches, ultimately peaking with 1.6. Changes that inevitably end up having to be hotfixed/reverted away. But what's more disturbing is the response from the spokesmen from the company on these forums. I'm seeing an arrogance that I've not seen from PDS before. Posts telling players to l2p, and declaring that the testers found nothing wrong with the product (implication being the problem must be with us), or making statements like "just let the rebels win".



I feel like the respect that PDS displayed toward its customers in the past is gone, and that perhaps the success of the past few years has gone to their head and they now think themselves better than they are. That in the past when a decision was met with universal disagreement, we would be met with an explanation, maybe even an apology, and eventually a change back to what the playerbase found fun. Now we are met with what seems like scorn, 1 liners, and dismissal.



This emerging attitude is incredibly dangerous, especially to a developer like Paradox that relies on the unique relationship and loyalty it has with its fans. It is not something that is easy to get back once lost, and it's worrying to see Paradox going toward the dismissive "our way or pound sand" attitude that certain other bigger developers have adopted. You're not EA. You're not Activision. Don't get ahead of yourselves and start acting like them because you don't have the playerbase they do. For better or worse you are a niche developer that owes its success to a small, dedicated, and loyal fanbase. And while that fanbase can be forgiving for design decisions that don't work (no one is perfect), one thing they won't be forgiving of is having their complaints dismissed and laughed off by a developer that suddenly has gotten a big head due to the success brought by that very fanbase.