In the most recent dev diary for Hearts of Iron 4, one of the the developers at Paradox Interactive added an extra section at the end to discuss a topic not related to the upcoming 1.11 “Barbarossa” patch. Specifically, why Paradox Interactive has been a little less responsive to the fans than it used to be.
Tragically, fandoms generally tend to become toxic over time. Once a group of people have based their identity around a piece of pop culture, even minor differences of opinion can lead to fighting and toxic behavior. This is especially true when fandoms intersect with contentious real-life issues, like politics, race, or religion. Which means that Paradox's historical grand strategy titles, which deal with all these topics, have especially tense fandoms.
In his update, the developer talks about getting tips and feedback from the Hearts of Iron community. He mentions about how, at one point he greatly appreciated that the forums gave them a direct line to talk with fans where he didn't have to go through marketing. But he also notes that this same direct line has taken a mental toll on them. He points out that when the game is less than perfect, the developers are seen as either lazy or incompetent and it is incredibly demoralizing to see the things they've created be "torn to shreds" by the fans. With all the negativity, it becomes no longer worth it to look for suggestions in the forums, so useful feedback goes unheard.
The Europa Universalis 4 community has also been going through something similar with the recently released Leviathan DLC. The DLC has caused a number of issues and made the game incredibly unstable and prone to crashing, which has led to toxicity on the Europa Universalis forums as well. When a fan on Twitter suggested shutting down the forums in response, Fredrik Wester, Executive Chairman of the Board at Paradox, expressed a similar sentiment to the one on the forums. He says Paradox is always eager to listen to feedback, but calls for employees to be fired are never acceptable.
It's obvious why Paradox's developers feel this way. Fandom can be toxic, and being exposed to that day in and day out can be bad for anyone's mental health. It's no wonder they've come to start avoiding fan-dominated spaces. Even if there might be useful feedback there, it's probably not worth the toll on their mental health. Hopefully Paradox's fans will learn to express their opinions without being toxic before the release of the next Crusader Kings 3 DLC, so that the developers of that game don't have to go through it as well.
Source: Paradox Interactive Forums