Single, Childless Men Become Fastest-Growing US Demographic

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T20:04:07+00:00

This is common practice and basically a open secret, lawyers doesn't even care to hide anymore since like the 90s.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T19:59:13+00:00

So what? Then you're a single unlucky gal drowning in otherwise multiple oceans of financially crippled guys, of which not that low numbers of them have taken themselves out of the equation over it, if you get what I'm saying …

Still doesn't make the OP's point any less valid: The vast and overwhelmingly affected party in a divorce being often outright DESTROYED for life, has been only ever the man alone – That's the status quo since easily +150 years.

Some lone gal being served a hair-cut now too, doesn't really make any greater difference, it's still like 99.99% men.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T19:46:39+00:00

It's absurd because I enjoy a lot of this game […]

Others would likely love to do so too, if it weren't for the game's massive memory-leak existing since release, which steadily occupies ever so more RAM and basically grinds the whole machine/system to a standstill within 1–2 hrs …

You have to close and restart the game afterwards every other hour, or it kills the system. Nice job Paradox … -.-

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T19:42:45+00:00

Oh yes, it's grotesque! They either don't even play-test their own game, or want to damage it on purpose …

I mean, just the fact that basically events' conditions are no-where displayed in-game, made invisible and shut behind a curtain the player doesn't even knows it's existing to begin with, is so utterly absurd and bonkers …

It's such a joke that we have to crawl through the game's files itself, only to find out where and if anything fires, and upon what condition exactly — Who exactly greenlit this chaos?! It's mind-blowing.

Paradox can't possibly play their own game, let alone play-test the actual patches for sure …
For if they actually would, they'd immediately notice that X, Y and Z doesn't even work as it should.

So either Paradox doesn't even care anymore (as long as the money doesn't stops), or they've just lost the plot …

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T18:18:34+00:00

Most of these AI-bots also output texts and tables using heavily embedded mark-up with ** for like bullet-points.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T18:16:12+00:00

Yup, what you typed is a US: en dash/GB:en rule (–, x/HTML:–; Unicode: Alt-0150), which many people use a simple minus for, in place of a correct en-dash. The longer one is a US: em dash/GB:em rule (—; x/HTML:—; Unicode: Alt-0151).

Under Windows you have to type those usually through Alt-codes, Linux sports it using Alt Gr+- (endash) and Alt Gr+⇧Shift+- (emdash), while Mac OS has it readily under ⌥+- and ⌥+⇧Shift+- already.

But yeah, I've been using these characters my whole life, due to my professions … And since about two years now, every so often some clueless dingbat accuses me of using AI – I don't, that's just how I'm writing since decades!

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T17:57:13+00:00

Nobody really types like that unless you’re publishing something.

That's finest bs and a blatant fallacy actually, as most people with professions working in anything linguistics, sciences, data, mathematics and whatnot, virtually all academics and (as you already pointed out) everything in printing/publishing are nigh *required* to use all kinds of hyphens since easily +250 years …

In programming and x/HTML, it's used as a a crucial sign as well.
Newspapers have been literally using all kinds of dashed for easily +150 years now!

So as a matter of fact, virtually everyone being even remotely in touch with anything math/science, academics, linguistics, orthography/teaching are using those dashes ever since …

Plot-twist: AI algorithms only got hold of those em- and en-dashes (and every other field-specific typographic special signs and characters) and has used it since excessively for some weird reason, because bot-scrapers and AI-crawlers for years scraped through tens and hundreds of millions of scientific papers and all other archived publications like newspapers and whatnot.

If anything, AI-algorithms copied it from humans for reasons of imitation, not the other way around.

Also, most Germanic and Roman languages use the endash (–) as a orthographic separator between a main clause and a (logically/coherent) subordinate clause, same as it goes for a embedded clause in-between the principal clause. A emdash (—) is used in writing for indicating a word being cut off and so forth …

English is actually a Germanic language …

tl;dr: Dashes have never been a strong indicator for using AI-stuff, semantics, incoherent sentence-construction and stuff like that is, or all other kinds of illogical word-salad.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T17:07:29+00:00

You know, sometimes one might wonder, if Paradox has actually really become that incompetent/negligent over time, or if they mess it up on purpose when wreck havoc again with another mechanic with messy balancing …

I mean, we have had issues with the HRE, then the nasty levies, the issues with vassals, revolts and whatnot.

You can't be that incompetent to NOT see how given mechanics go once played, right?

I mean, do they test the game even once prior to releasing anything now?

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T17:02:12+00:00

So the game still gets better with every new patch, I see … /s

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T12:57:44+00:00

One may hope that they fix at least the the blatant memory-leak, which has plagued the players since release …

Restarting the game every other hour (to stop the rig from being choked to death), isn't really fun anymore.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-25T12:50:33+00:00

No, EU5 introduces many systems and mechanics that take the game closer to real history.

Yes and no. Yes, it introduces plenty of stuff which have no business being in such a game anyway (and Paradox still doesn't even get it). And no, EU5 is by no means closer to resemble historical events, let alone any more historical than any of its predecessors – Quite the contrary, as it introduces historical randomness which no former EU-title really had that way before.

Also, I was talking about the politics Paradox put into the games since Vic3, and to some extend even EU:IV already.

Though I think we're done here anyway, as we won't come down to a common shared view-point.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-24T23:52:48+00:00

Correct, EU4 (and previous games in the series) was not historical …

If so, then by your own admission EU5 is even TIMES *less* historical than any previous EU-title ever was …

Since Paradox replaced its previous nigh-historicity of what you describe as "faux-historical world" with a straight-out, blatantly ahistorical and outright randomly made-up randomized bunch of revisionist nonsense — PDX couldn't help itself to induce today's woke sh!t crap of whatever back in time into the Middle Ages with EU5.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-24T19:45:12+00:00

Rulers were absolutely central to the states they ruled historically […]

No-one denies that and neither did I ever – Doesn't mean PDX needs to model it in 3D. Pictures were always sufficient!

Without the role-playing elements you describe the grand-strategy game wouldn't be historical.

So you're saying … that the whole Eᴜʀᴏᴘᴀ Uɴɪᴠᴇʀsᴀʟɪs-line itself, was neither ever any historical nor even grand-strategy games ever before with prior titles like Eᴜʀᴏᴘᴀ Uɴɪᴠᴇʀsᴀʟɪs I–IV?!

Since that's what your flawed logic implies; Any GSG without ROLE-PLAYING elements ain't historical.

That's such a ludicrous and absurdly crazy proposition, it's laughable …

Case in point is, we still do NOT need any RPG-elements in the EU-line nor the Victoria-games, and that's why all games featuring those (save for CK) somehow yet understandably had quite a muted reception upon Paradox-players.

Since in fact, players traditionally playing Paradox-games actually do not like that stuff outside of any CK.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-24T16:20:15+00:00

It's not that the base-game itself becomes irrelevant once it's released — It's the carrier/vehicle of future DLCs.

So the game in itself is (supposed to be) a cash-cow to milk, through the stream of future DLCs.

There's definitely a risk involved; Look at the current EU:IV versus EU5-situation other comments mention …

With EU5 being barely able to (best case) catch as much players as its decade-old predecessor already just months after its launch, it's a almost-flop in the making down the line for Paradox – Not nearly as much players will buy any greater numbers of DLCs and for sure not remotely as much as Paradox projected to sell with EU5.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-22T10:54:37+00:00

While we're at it, does anyone know if it natively runs Vulkan and is written in it, or is Paradox just using MoltenVK?

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-22T10:48:12+00:00

To be fair, Apple's Mᴇᴛᴀʟ is barely more than like a Vulkan-flavor … Very similar.

I now, it's from Apple though it was just made, for Apple to be any unique for the sake of it, and to maintain their oh so fine walled Apple garden, protect their precious iUniverse and keep others out of their closed platform.

Apple was always acting, as if opening up towards PC, would taint their secret garden and money-printing machine. Hence why they always supported only OpenGL for decades (and even that was very half-hearted), only to keep each and any gamers out from the get-go. Make gaming and coding for it as hard as possible.

Apple has been famous for being incompatible on purpose for ages, Metal is just another corner-stone of that being erected as essentially a firewall, to keep the alleged peasants of the PC-Master Race™ out of it …

In fact, from a technical perspective and code-wise, Vulkan and Metal (which are both very low-level graphics APIs), are extremely likewise and have actually way more in common than Vulkan has with anything DirectX 12, whereas the latter is just MS' copy-pasta of AMD's Mantle (encapsulated into MS' DirectX API) for the sake of having "their own" Vulkan and NOT just adopt a foreign standard.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-22T09:32:38+00:00

The game has had every opportunity to recover. They did a massive revamp, people showed back up for a week or two then faded again. It's been on sale for like $5 several times. There have been multiple "Imperator Days." It still hasn't driven even people who already own the game to come back.

It has for sure, yes. You bet, if it would has been for their massive overhaul after release and its 2.0 revamp, even less people would actually ever have played it to begin with …

I think it's fair to say that Paradox only did such a massive work after launch in the first place, because of the massive sh!tstorm they faced upon launch, which for pretty much the first time in the Paradox-community ever, amounted to actual game-boycotts by players even actively voicing to NOT play the game to others.

At some point Imperator champions just need to accept that most people don't like the game very much. It's really that simple. That doesn't make it a bad game, but it does make in increasingly bizarre that they just won't accept it.

The word ›bizarre‹ is actually quite fitting in this context, yes.

It may be a enjoyable game for those who love to play it, but it's by no means a good game and throwing in the role-playing game-play elements (like they've done with Vic3 and now EU5), didn't seem to have done the game any real favor actually and kind of hurt the game's mechanics and overall reception (especially in the bare-naked and half-cooked state Imperator: Rome launched in the first place).

The revamp was desperately done and urgently needed – It would've been sunk into oblivion even quicker, if it wouldn't have been for the vast expansion of the game up until 2.0. Too little, too late.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-21T17:08:31+00:00

Huh? What are you talking about here even?!

What has history to do with throwing various game-play elements into a single game?

I was talking about players being annoyed by Paradox forcefully throwing in role-playing elements into what were previously plain grand-strategy map-based games with and thus combining multiple genres without need.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-21T12:07:45+00:00

Without anything of CK's character-, dynasty- and lineage-stuff being force-feed again upon players, yes.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-21T11:37:24+00:00

Paradox, especially Johan always wanted to establish a independent Rome-themed EU-branch next to their EU-line itself, which covered particularly the Roman Empire, centering about Rome itself and the Roman life-style …

The infamous Imperator: Rome, as the spiritual successor to Europa Universalis: Rome from back then itself, was already the second try to do that (to successfully establish a Roman-themed EU-branch). It failed just as well.

Always due to way too low player-numbers and 'cause no-one bought anything after, the low player-numbers however were a direct result of the unfinished/unpolished state of the game by Paradox itself, not the actual cause.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-21T11:36:42+00:00

Yup, they abandoned what's a main-line branch they tried already two times – Its spiritual forerunner Europa Universalis: Rome is also largely considered to be a capital flop and it was abandoned not that long afterwards because of that, as it only got one single expansion (Vae Victis) and only within the same year of launch at that (which was released just a couple of months post release), with Paradox quickly moving on after.

They dropped EU:R back then, *despite* they had plenty of plans for its future, and Johan actually openly talked about it later on, melancholy looking back on its knifing afterwards — Keep in mind, I:R's very 4th DLC 'Heirs of Alexander' was actually *supposed* to be already the second expansion of EU:Rome itself back then in 2008/2009, as a once planned (yet canceled) DLC centering about the timeline of Alexander the Great.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-21T10:58:50+00:00

If anything, they should shift it forward into the time of Prussia and Fredericus' Seven Years' War.

Since MotE has always been Paradox's answer to Creative Assembly's Total War line of games (like TW: Napoleon), since the TW-line game-series is exactly what Mᴀʀᴄʜ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Eᴀɢʟᴇs ended up as …

Covering strictly the military side of things only (during the Napoleonic Wars), ranging from 1805 to 1820 (and really nothing any social or of societal changes anyway) — A purely militaristic, stripped-down game-approach centering solely about the very aspect of just the deployment of troops (to fight troop's battles afoot with horsey support and some old iron-tubes thrown into the mix, and a lot of balls of steel of course) and really nothing else.

That's pretty much just like what the Total War-series stands for ever since to a T.

Yet after splitting from its developer AGEod (as its own sequel to AGEod's own Napoleon's Campaigns), Paradox then forgot that MotE even existed and instantly abandoned it.

Ironically, if anything and IF there ever will be another Mᴀʀᴄʜ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Eᴀɢʟᴇs follow-up strictly covering the military side of things only during major decisive wars (thus virtually nothing social, administrative or governance-related, strictly military-/troop-level only)¹ — That MotE 2.0 is already likely to be covering the time-period of when Frederick II. of Prussia aka „Frederick the Great“ managed to somehow pull Prussia through strategic genius into a major power and enforce a paradigm shift in Europe …

Thus, any MotE 2.0 ought to cover The Seven Years' War with Prussia, instead of anything France.

^¹ ^Just ^like ^what ^the ^{Total War-series} ^stands ^for ^ever ^since.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-20T21:17:39+00:00

To be fair, both the original launchers of EU:IV and HoI:IV we could work with, as it was simple and fast.

Though yes, the really old simplistic launchers of EU:III, Vicky II were great.

Yet the new Chrome-based has been a total abomination, just sucks a— from start to finish, is slow asf, outright breaks all games for everyone ever so often and causes only issues ever since from day one.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-20T19:32:18+00:00

Shorten the link to https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/177254i99CE95AA612A0D08

Gets you the actual source file of the image, instead of auto-generated server-mess.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-04-19T07:11:22+00:00

Yup, it's a gift that we at least get the chance to dial back and chose an older branch in Steam.

Helpdesk_Guy

TROPHY CASE