As a fellow eu4 fan, I'm nearly certain they've removed 1444 start date solely to sell it back as DLC. They've done similarly in crusader Kings, and I don't doubt it's their plan here too. Also I agree wholeheartedly about your Victoria 3 experience. The game is so focused on its economy system, which is ironically less authentic than what was there in Victoria 2, all while every other aspect of the game was gutted out for rng based dice rolls. I can somewhat understand this for warfare (although the system is still atrocious), but the way you changed your laws by incrementally and endlessly rolling events in your parliament or whatever was mind numbing to the point it's what put me off the game and modern paradox for good.

Also @Conselheiro@lemmygrad.ml is totally right about creamapi, must have for EU4 particularly.

I believe they said "game", you know, where you can actually do something

He was the least bad pope in recent history, whoever replaces him will almost guaranteed be worse in every respect.

Just like how china is supposed to collapse surely next year, we have the Indian version, which is:

Superpower by ~~2020~~, ~~2030~~, ~~2040~~ and so on.

So it's not a hate crime as long as you belong to the same language family. Don't tell this guy about the Balkan wars, lmao.

On what grounds is the Ukraine a western "ally", according to you? Because all I see is "proxy"

Damn, and actual Marxist Leninist party. Wonder how long before the inevitable coup.

I saw that apparently they had him speak right before JB Pritzker. Which has to have been some sort of deliberate humiliation ritual.

Sanders was up there talking about how they needed to get rid of big money in politics, and the guy who speaks right after him is bragging and saying "I'm a real billionaire, unlike Trump" then getting a massive round of cheers.

I think you have to start by understanding that "gaming" or "geek" culture seeming like it leads to reactionary views or pipelines has a lot more to do with who "gamers" actually are, not what their hobby happens to be.

In most cases, videogames, table top RPGs, Warhammer 40k, pretty much any of the stuff you'd typically associate with the subculture, all of these things have been nearly entirely out of the reach of the vast majority of poorer working class kids in the past 30 odd years. As tough as it might be to hear, these have always been expensive and toys, hobbies and privileges to take part in, with maybe the exception of comic books, nearly everything else has a fairly steep entry fee, needing to buy computers, several books, figurines, videogames, merchandise etc.

It's really no wonder then, that the majority of people who are actually able to keep up with these costs will disproportionately be cis white men from the imperial core, as the group that happens to be at the top of the social structure of the world with the most amount of disposable income. And I think this is where the problem really stems from.

It's not that geeks and gamers just happen to be more likely to become reactionary, it's actually somewhat the opposite. Reactionaries, through their inherent privileged position in the world, are simply more able to get into this lifestyle in the first place. Geek culture and fascist/reactionary views might seem correlated, but they're both just part of a path of least resistance for a certain type of person.

It's mind boggling to me that lemmygrad is the only place I've yet seen anyone show some sort of respect for a world leader dying in a violent accident. Everywhere in the media and online all I'm seeing is people glad he's dead. As if he's ever done anything to any of us to deserve that.

Must have been a Terrible way to go. Rest in peace.

Kerala is not "Completely communist", from what I know about the situation there its governed by a broadly left wing coalition with the main Communist party as the leader, and they are very limited in what they can actually do because of the constraints from the federal government.