Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[scriver]

What? No. Can't she just use the steam old versions thingy? If she is on steam at all that is.

Is she on steam, misko?

[Broseph Stalin]

Didn't realize the update was coming down but the main thing was to familiarize him with the basics and systems so when we play he isn't totally confused by what he can and should be doing. We were playing AGOT so the update probably breaks it but it looks like properties>betas>old version still works on steam.

Oh missed this
https://steamcommunity.com/games/203770/announcements/detail/1696059028000173782



Shit again, okay reading a bit more I think the old beta method still works. What the change Paradox put in did was prevent you from playing versions that were made BEFORE they implemented GDPR compliance. Because the current version is compliant I don't think you should have any trouble accessing it from the menu.

[Criptfeind]

What? No. Can't she just use the steam old versions thingy? If she is on steam at all that is.

Is she on steam, misko?

No, this doesn't work any longer because as CABL said, the new regulations from GDPR. The old versions of the game can't be played without putting in the password which the only way to get the password is suppose to be to have a paradox account and thus agreed to their privacy policy, thus making the old versions compliant with GDPR. Of course people can just tell you the password, which Paradox officially says you shouldn't do but also is on their FAQ on the matter as "yes it's possible to do but plz don't wink wink"

[Broseph Stalin]

No, this doesn't work any longer because as CABL said, the new regulations from GDPR. The old versions of the game can't be played without putting in the password which the only way to get the password is suppose to be to have a paradox account and thus agreed to their privacy policy, thus making the old versions compliant with GDPR. Of course people can just tell you the password, which Paradox officially says you shouldn't do but also is on their FAQ on the matter as "yes it's possible to do but plz don't wink wink"

I think it should still work because the current version is compliant. I can't access any of the versions from BEFORE they became compliant in october but there's still one legacy in the beta tab.

edit: From their website

Does it only apply to versions predating the GDPR changes? Those from now on, will be available via Steam normally?
Yes.

So you need to do the song and dance to go back to a version that went live before October, the current version will be accessible in the future.

[MorleyDev]

Hang on, Steam have a 3rd party EULA system built-in. They could just use that.

So they must have also hard coded the privacy policy text into the game version itself and that privacy policy was kinda shit and didn't actually tell you what they tracked, which is already bad.

But still, I'm not entirely buying that they need to force you to sign up to an external privacy policy just to play older versions of the game for GDPR compliance. GDPR doesn't apply to already released software retroactively, so an older version of the game could easily be argued to not be covered. It'll be the in-game tracking nonsense they aren't giving you the power to turn off in-game that worries them, so it's clear they'd rather keep and add more tracking with their own system than just stop the servers recording that from older versions and immediately be compliant.

So either they're overreacting (like 90% of the GDPR 'panic' in business seemed to have been, to be honest) or they were doing some of the shady "not declaring in-game player tracking methods" shit for older versions and have basically been forced to include that in a privacy policy since they don't want to stop it and are panicking about that, or it's a metrics grab?

[scriver]

Iirc they've tracked a bunch of ingame stuff like what people play as (it's how they know the majority of people start from the earliest start year and thus say they won't doing any period expanding DLC for Imperator, for example).

And if they've tracked that kind of stuff it's likely they've also tracked more personal info, but I'm pretty sure just game-related information would still breach the new laws as shady "not declaring in-game player tracking methods" stuff.

[MorleyDev]

I'm guessing it to be likely the information isn't anonymised, so they can identity individual players in the data, since anonymised metrics tracking that cannot be used to identify individual players is still perfectly fine under GDPR without needing declare "we're tracking everything you do and keeping it forever and ever and ever" (and so is basic logging to keep a system running and track errors and whatnot).

Even then, pretty sure turning the tracking off for pre-GDPR versions at the server-side would be enough (just have the server-side pretend it's still working if that'd break the game somehow, but not actually record anything), since they're most likely also tracking the game version.

...So, I'm kinda being forced to conclude Paradox have chosen to inconvenience their players by saying they need to sign up to another service (incidentally means they can get even more information), instead of giving up on the tracking information for older versions? Or for some reason, the 3rd party they use for the tracking doesn't have the ability to disable based on a parameter? (In which case, I'd be reevaluating my usage of them in a consent-driven world since that seems like a useful feature).

And since the privacy policy would also need to be 'hard coded' into the release version, instead of being something pulled in over the network to allow them to update it in all versions...man, they ducked that one up.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

The hell is GDPR?

[Kot]

General Data Protection Regulation.

[scriver]

Or, as it might be more commonly known to the rest of the world, "the reason every single outlet had to make you resign terms and conditions for their services earlier this summer".

[Cruxador]

And loads of people, previously concerned about things like their data being sold, got upset that they had to choose whether or not to consent to their data being sold.

I'm pretty sure the people annoyed by clicking a button were not the people seriously agitated about privacy in the first place.

[Broseph Stalin]

I mean it hasn't really changed anything. Before law you knew your data was being sold and the only way to really avoid it was to stop using the services. Now you know your data is being sold and the only way to really avoid it is to stop using the services and also click a button.

[Teneb]

Holy fury is not out yet, but apparently it has a manual.

Strange, but I shan't complain

[Broseph Stalin]

The changes seem extensive enough to warrant a manual. There's new systems for sainthood and bloodlines, mass conversion, you can now make people like you with more tact than just sending them money, lot's of good stuff.

[Zangi]

Holy fury is not out yet, but apparently it has a manual.

Strange, but I shan't complain

Sounds like a well-timed release to increase the hype.