Probably the PC game Victoria 2.
At the time, I was already a big fan of grand strategy games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Total War, and I’d played Europa Universalis. Victoria 2 had a really wonky and annoying combat system… then I dug into the depth of the economics, internal politics, and social evolution. And I realized that Victoria 2 was really about those things. Now, just shy of 15 years later, it’s one of my favourite and most played games of all time.
Although, I’ve mainly been playing Victoria 3 lately which, much like Crusader Kings 3 vs CK2, fixes a lot of the QOL elements and has a slick modern feel to it, but lacks some of the grit and variety of the earlier game - although, both games have seen a number of additions, yet, despite being newer and having more initial backlash, I think Victoria 3 is a lot closer than CK3 to fully eclipsing its predecessor whilst simultaneously expanding beyond.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
