Stellaris

About

Stellaris is a 4X grand strategy game by Paradox Interactive, in which players manage a large space-faring empire set in the year 2200.

Gameplay

In the game, players select a species, code of ethics and a variety of technologies to begin exploring space, planets and other areas. Players can claim territories, negotiate with alien races and govern their empire in the later portion of the game. Additionally, crisis events can occur, which force players to deal with a variety of impending threats.

History

On July the 23rd, 2015 the studio manager for Paradox Development Studio uploaded a post to the Paradox Plaza Forums, where he hinted at a game named Project Augustus. In August, the game was officially announced as Stellaris during the Gamescom annual conference. On May 9th, 2016, Stellaris was officially released for Microsoft Windows, OSX and Linux operating systems.

Expansions

On February 27th, 2017, Paradox Interactive released a trailer for the upcoming Utopia expansion, allowing players to create superstructures like Ringworlds and Dyson Spheres (shown below). The DLC is scheduled for release on April 6th.

Online Presence

On July 30th, 2015, the /r/Stellaris^[5] subreddit was launched for discussions about the video game. The following day, the Stellaris Wiki^[7] was created. On August 3rd, the Stellaris Facebook^[1] page was launched, followed by the @StellarisGame^[2] Twitter feed that same month. Over the next two years, the Facebook page gained upwards of 26,200 likes and the Twitter feed received more than 18,500 followers. On March 24th, 2016, a page for the game was created on TV Tropes.^[4] On May 4th, YouTuber quill18 uploaded the first in a series of Stellaris Let's Play videos, gaining over 759,000 views and 920 comments over the next 10 months (shown below).

Related Memes

Blorg

The Blorg are an extraterrestrial race revealed in a Twitch stream by the Paradox employees "cKnoor" and "Wiz" as an alien race determined to gain as many friendships as possible. Their methods are often described as clingy and aggressive, and they are typically depicted wearing apparel printed with the phrase "Make Space Great Again" caps parodying Donald Trump presidential campaign slogan.

Mercedes Romero

Online, jokes about the death of the Blorg scientist Mercedes Romero are often posted within various Stellaris fan communities. On April 7th, 2016, Redditor bluetigah posted a photoshopped picture of Romero wearing an anime character wig and a #MakeSpaceGreatAgain hat ot /r/Stellaris^[9] (shown below).

On April 16th, YouTuber Joao Santos posted a Hitler Reacts video in which Hitler discovers that Romero is dead (shown below). On May 9th, a post titled "RIP Mercedes Romero" was submitted to /r/Stellaris.^[6]

God Emperor K'reel I

God Emperor K'reel I is another character introduced in a Twitch stream, who is described as the leader of the galactic empire known as Kingdom of Yondarim and is often portrayed as having a god-complex or inflated ego leading to flamboyancy.

Search Interest

External References