I'll probably get it once the bugs have been ironed out and gameplay has inevitably changed

Seems unlikely, I barely have time to play videogames I already own.

Nope. Watched a few videos on it and read a few reviews that all said it had „great potential“, which in the context of Paradox just means the base game’s fun for a few hours before you discover the game’s mile wide and inch deep and to go any deeper you’ll have to pay >100€ for DLCs once they release in a few months

Nope. I tried 3 or 4 years ago and I felt lost the entire time. I watched many videos on how to play it, still felt lost.

I suppose I just am not smart enough for this series.

No. I won't even pirate it.

I played EU4 quite a bit. I even own the game and two DLCs (Art of War and Common Sense) - kind of surprising given I almost never buy games. However Paradox managed to burn any shred of goodwill I had towards it.

It isn't just the predatory DLC policy and its gameplay consequences (like the power creep and a few "pay to win" situations). Or the way they handle negative reviews in Steam, often through ad hominem (TL;DR: "you played the game [a lot | almost nothing] than you're arguement is invalid lol"). It's the game design itself, or how it transforms a cool concept into a trainwreck.

Eventually, if the opportunity presents itself. Not going to buy it though. The paradox dlc saga isn't for my wallet.

It's a paradox game, with awful dlc practices. I have wanted to play an EU(3,4,5,etc) game for a long time, but never tried because of the financial model. I'm not sure if the high seas even has a version, because I almost don't never sail around, if you know what I mean.

These games are way too complex for me.

I've been playing The Planet Crafter which is perfect for me after setting lower difficulty.

From what I've heard, performance is dogshit and it frequently crashes. I'll give it six months of post-launch performance patches at least before I bother touching it.