Good day internet.

It is Thursday October 24th.

I'm your host Rob Zachney and today I've got something a little different for you.

This past weekend I attended Paradox Interactive's PDXCon 2019 in Berlin at Paradox's invitation

at their expense for travel and lodging.

While I was there, I had a number of interesting interviews that I'll be sharing with you over

the coming days.

But perhaps none so interesting is this conversation with Paradox Creative Director Johan Anderson.

I've known Johan for about 10 years.

When I first met him he was heavily involved in the day-to-day design and programming of

just about every game that Paradox made.

At the time since then Paradox has gone from being a small niche strategy studio to one

of the most important names in PC strategy gaming.

And Johan has gone from building games almost by hand to being the creative lead of a studio

that employs hundreds.

Johan and I met at the end of a long day and these two topics were a front of mind for both

of us.

Johan has become what most of us would call rich after a lot of lean years in Paradox's early

days.

Second, his game designer for whom financial and business success are becoming increasingly

estranged from creative success.

I was talking about how your generation of paradise guys all came up pretty well with the

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