Grand Strategy and 4X

About

Grand Strategy is a genre of video and tabletop games that places focus on grand strategy, the use of an entire nation's resources in order to achieve its military, cultural and geopolitical goals. 4X (an abbreviation of "Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate") is a an overlapping genre of games which revolves around building, advancing and maintaining an empire in a large game world. Some of the best-known examples of grand strategy games are Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron and Crusader Kings, with notable 4X games examples being Civilization and Stellaris. Paradox Interactive is a notable developer and publisher of grand strategy and 4X video games.

Starting in early 2010s, grand strategy games have frequently been referenced in memes over their gameplay often appealing to military and history buffs, and the genre still being considered niche and inaccessible to the general audience due to their complexity despite having a significant fandom.

History

The genre of grand strategy games takes its roots in board games such as Risk and Diplomacy. The earliest recognized video game implementation of the genre is a 1983 video game Geopolitique 1990 developed by Strategic Simulations, in which the player controls the United States in a hypothetical conflict against USSR. Other popular early grand strategy video games developed in the 1980s and 1990s are Nobunaga no Yabou, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Svea Rike, the latter developed by Target Games which would eventually become Paradox Interactive.^[1][2]

In 1991, MicroProse released Civilization, an influential game which helped popularize the 4X genre.

The grand strategy genre saw popularization in the 2000s with the release of titles such as Europe Universalis, Total War and Hearts of Iron, with Swedish company Paradox Interactive becoming a publisher specializing in the genre.

Multiple sequels within the popular franchises followed in 2010s and 2020s. Some of the notable modern grand strategy and 4X games include Hearts of Iron IV, Europa Universalis IV, Stellaris, Sivlization VI, Crusader Kings III and Victoria 3.

Gameplay and Features

Gameplay of grand strategy games usually involves the player overviewing a global map in which they control a certain territory. Gameplay often involves reviewing a multitude of changing conditions in the game via information screens, and adjusting parameters to respond to them. The games can often be paused in order for the player to get acquainted with new information and make decisions. Some games can take place over large historical periods exceeding thousands of years, while others focus on shorter timeframes.

The goal of the game is often to lead one's nation to success, be it military or diplomatical. Players often set their own goals: for example, attempting to conquer an entire continent.

Use in Memes

Online, grand strategy games have a reputation of appalling to history and military buffs and being somewhat inaccessible to a general audience due their complexity and lack of visual gloss. Memes about grand strategy games and their players often reference ability to commit various atrocities in them, their gameplay being to complex and slow-paced for a general gamer, and some player's fascination with certain nations and states such as the Holy Roman Empire (examples shown below). Some memes insinuate that grand strategy players tend to be neurodivergent.

Out-of-contexts screenshots of internet discussions of grand strategy games, most notably of Crusader Kings have repeatedly went viral on social media (example^[3] shown below).

In memes, grand strategy games are often referred to as "Paradox games" due to Paradox Interactive being a dominant company in the industry.

Search Interest

External References