/r/TNOmod and the Reddit HOI4 modding community - When a subreddit for a video game mod turns to utter insanity

Apparently the government of Canada is now considering TFR an "extremist recruiting tool".
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I'm not the only one who was reminded of these posts right? I know that I'm on KF, but I really don't see any value in archiving either of these accounts. From a quick glance, neither lucky52903's, nor HenrySzy9384's accounts are that interesting. Maybe Henry's account contains some good laughs, but considering his profile banner has political countryballs, he's at most 16). It's a similar story with the posts too. I'm not a techbro, so maybe I'm buying into alarmism, but I'd rather not contribute to wasting space that could go to more important things (such as the terrible hitpiece).

As a warning, this post was most likely typed out by Canadian hands.
The Fire Rises Critique: Introduction

In the past several months the mod The Fire Rises has received a lot of praise by the HOI4 community all around, being compared to ambitious and popular mods such as The New Order or TNO. If you go on a paradox youtuber or streamer's comments or chat, you are almost guaranteed to see a couple guys commenting about how their content creator needs to check out this new "schizo mod" and how amazing it is.

Today however, I want to talk about my serious concerns about this mod, TFR's community, and how the rest of the HOI4 community has been reacting positively to it.

Time for me to be burnt at the stake, but lets talk about TFR first :)

The Glorification of Radicalism

Particularly right-wing radicalism. Officially the modders have stated they do not promote any "harmful ideologies" presented in the mod- and that the content is written from the perspective of that group. However this is very questionable because despite the disclaimer that you aren't promoting ideologies, you are still glorifying them in the way the content is being presented. There is especially the sensitive topic I can bring up about how a very controversial modern US President has his own path in the mod, but I am not going to go into that because that will fall on deaf ears to some- especially since the devs are openly supporters of said candidate and the content of that candidate is more glorified and "accurately portrayed" as to what they believe than others.

It is also just kind of questionable when a majority of the American paths are right wing and half of the American civil war states with content are literal Nazis and fascists- regardless of whether its the atomwaffen or not.

Poor Taste Portrayals

This is one thing that still irks me a lot about this mod, its portrayal of left-wing politics (or at least from the perspective of the developers). In particular, one thing I wanted to talk about is the alternative events and alternate history group names. Here are some examples:

BLM --------> The Movement

The name of literally any nazis or fascist leaning militias or groups in the US -------> Patriotic Front, National Socialist Movement, Atomwaffen.

Antifa ------> Antifa (???)

Actual victims of police brutality --------> Fake people

There is no rhyme or reason for any of this. However other stuff from this mod has made this rub off the wrong way, especially when apparently "the movement" are violent, unreasonable radicals- even referred to as anarchists, this name is as if they didn't want to get criticized for calling a real left-wing group violent. Furthermore, the fascists and Nazis rubs off as they didn't want to get in trouble for glorifying real right-wing groups and militias but they still wanted to "write from the perspective of" (read as glorify) Nazis and fascists.

The next thing I want to talk about is how exactly "leftists" are portrayed in this mod. If I am being completely honest, when I did a playthrough as the communists, it felt more like the writing was more neutral than it was glorifying, the way it to be honest should be. However again, this is very strange when the other content glorifies right-wing politics in a cult-like way. Furthermore, there are thinly-veiled insults and conspiracy theories about left-wing politics in the communist path I played, however I cannot confirm if this is also true on the Democrat path. For example: one focus in the communist tree is about "critical race theory" and the image for the focus is "1+2=5" and other focuses with weird stereotypes conservatives have for leftists.

The Fire Rises Community

The Fire Rises community I have honestly not have had good interactions with in general. I joined the discord briefly to suggest they actually be neutral when it comes to politics in the mod and not shove their values into the content, specifically I was talking about the critical race theory thing I mentioned previously, but at the time I was under the impression it was under the democrat path and not the communist path. After I said anything, the community came out of the woodworks to make fun of my suggestion and fans of the mod were spamming "erm Nazi mod??" :|

I left the discord shortly after but not until after I did a bit of research in it. Jesus Christ the amount of slurs they use are insane- the R-slur in particular.

Not only this, but I also looked at the discord profiles of a couple devs, one in particular seemed very obnoxious to put it lightly. The man has an edited photo of the President's mugshot but edited to give him the "chad" face and furthermore he set his discord pronouns to chudhim/chudthem or something like that and I think he proudly declares himself a worshipper of God in his bio after all that (nothing wrong with being religious, but it rubbed off very wrong in this case). I am trying to stay professional here, but my eyes nearly rolled out of my head looking at that.

For more toxicity you could look at from the TFR community, go look in the comments if this post does end up getting attention! But seriously, I said and explained what I didn't like about the mod on the workshop page as well and I got multiple messages from dudes telling me I am stupid and that I couldn't make a better mod (um ok?).

The Broader HOI4 Community

Honestly I wish I didn't have to say I am disappointed with how other people are giving this mod so much positive attention. As I said before, it is a good mod, but the things I have mentioned above really disturb me and I think these are valid things to critique regarding TFR. However I see almost nobody else, even among "progressive" members of the HOI4 community, talking about these very glaring issues with TFR and all of its content glorifying just Naziism and fascism in general. If I am being completely honest, I am very disappointed in how the HOI4 community has been normalizing the idea of fascism and Naziism more than usual lately- of course not outright accepting it, but being okay with *this* type of thing.

To Conclude

I don't hate the devs and I don't hate the community, I need and want to make that clear. But I honestly cannot just sit here and pretend there is nothing wrong with TFR as a mod. It frustrates me. I honestly really hope the mod does succeeds, but I genuinely think the American content in general needs to be revamped + rewritten and the devs need to just not make content that glorifies any harmful ideology instead of just being lazy and stating "we don't promote it." This actually doesn't completely cover everything I find to be questionable in the mod, but I believe I got the most important details in there.
I'd like to include TFR dev and Reddit janny u/TheLunchKing's reply.
Hi, I’m the head mod on the TFR sub. After reading your post (and the follow up edit you made on r/hoi4, where you’re actively encouraging people to spread the post), I’ve come to the conclusion that this isn’t constructive criticism. It’s a poorly thought out rant, clearly designed to discredit, defame, and paint TFR as some sort of right-wing propaganda, which is patently false. I'll answer things as concisely as possible.

Starting with your claim that our mod promotes right-wing radicalism, I think this is a really silly point where you’re more so projecting your own biases onto the mod to suit your worldview. TFR presents every playable country as the hero of their own story, even if they’re objectively evil. That’s the entire point. History is full of people who did horrific things because they believed they were justified. We’re not here to moralize every few events with a pop-up saying "Hey, by the way, you’re the bad guy!" That’s not good storytelling. It’s patronizing. But even then, if you’d actually played through the content instead of cherry picking what offends you, you’d notice we do include events that highlight the darker sides of certain factions' actions. I.e. PF killing liberal professors, burning books, or dismantling democracy. If you need a flashing neon sign spelling out telling you how to feel about this, maybe you’re not engaging with the material in good faith.

Your argument about there being more right wing factions than left wing ones is equally misguided. This was an intentional design choice to flip the usual cliche on its head. In most HOI4 mods, the left is fractured, disunited, and often weak compared to the right. We deliberately avoided that trope. In TFR, the left is represented by a massive, overpowering communist faction with the best geographic position and a huge military advantage. The right, in contrast, is fragmented and needs to work together to stand a chance (and that aspect of disunity is only being expanded upon with the upcoming content for the LOS). If this answer doesn't sate you, the upcoming 1.1 update is adding content for 3 leftist factions.

The Movement™️ was conceptualized back in 2019, long before the George Floyd protests. It was intentionally kept it fictional to avoid getting that very touchy topic in the mod.

You seem upset that we used real right wing organizations, but… why? These are actual groups, and we portrayed them as accurately as possible. That’s not glorification, it’s historical accuracy in an alternate history setting. The same goes for leftist groups. In fact, a ton of the APLA ministers and generals represented in the mods have seen their portrayal and were thrilled about it. All of them liked it (with the notable exception of Caleb Maupin, who is permanently grumpy).

And seriously, complaining about a focus icon? Are you kidding me? It’s an icon. It’s not a manifesto. If that’s the hill you’re dying on, I’m not sure what to tell you.

You were bullied on the discord because you said some amazingly stupid shit.

"I mean tbf you could tell me this discord has secret klan meetings and I wouldn't be surprised"

Your words, not mine.

Moving on to the dev team’s politics, again, you’re wildly off-base. The team is ideologically diverse. We’ve got people from all over the political spectrum, including at least a third who are communists. The only reason it might seem like we seem more chuddy is because we don’t automatically exclude conservatives. Shocking, I know. I’m nowhere near being a rightoid, but I can exist alongside people I disagree with. The former dev you singled out for having a Trump profile picture? Yeah, he’s a MAGAt. And? If the idea of sharing an online space with someone who thinks differently than you is unbearable, how do you cope living in a country where over 70 million people voted for Trump?

It's just so disrespectful, honestly. Not just to the devs, but to the insane amount of work that went into this mod. I’ve watched these motherfuckers pour everything they had into TFR. Countless hours spent writing, coding, sacrificing their free time, their energy, their mental health, to create something they’re proud of. They pushed through obstacles you’ll never see or understand. And despite all that, despite all the people saying that it would never release, despite the haters, the mod released successfully. It exists because people gave everything they had to make it happen. We recently passed EAW (which we hold in high regard) in subs, and things are only looking up from here.

TFR wasn't made for you. It wasn’t made for people who need everything to conform to their ideological bubble. It was made for the devs, because they wanted to tell interesting, complex stories in a world they created. The design philosophy isn’t changing because someone got their feelings hurt. We’re not going to water down the content or strip anything away just because it makes a few people uncomfortable.

For everyone else, those who’ve supported us, given genuine feedback, and engaged with the mod in good faith, it's just getting started.
Interestingly enough, lucky52903 would actually return 10 months later to have the last laugh.
Just saw this now.
Just have to say- average TFR fan/dev when they receive criticism:

Honestly the post I made 10 months ago was more of a criticism of the community- I mean I am pretty sure y'all had people spam decapitation photos and various horrific shit earlier this year. Y'all bloody crashed out hard when I posted this too- its quite amusing to see someone try to take a moral high ground when to this day I still get notifications on reddit of the community harassing me because of an opinion I shared on the state of the mod and community.

I have no intent to be disrespectful- but if you feel disrespected, that really just means you can't handle polite criticism about serious flaws relating to you even on the internet.

I wish you the best but I stand by what I said completely to this day.

While HenrySzy9384, who wrote a critique of how certain ideologies are portrayed, probably didn't whine to Canadian journos, on account of him being Brazilian, I'm still going to post this.
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Hello everyone. Before starting, I want to clarify two things:

  1. This analysis is not meant to insult or attack the TFR devs or team. Its goal is to examine how ideological biases appear in-game and how they can influence players, even in something as “minor” as ideology descriptions.
  2. Credit where it’s due, most ideology descriptions in The Fire Rises are well-written and concise, though some are either too brief to convey substance or too long, diving too deeply into ideological detail without clear reason. The examples I’ll discuss show this.
"Neoliberalism"

This is a topic people have strong opinions on (I personally dislike it), but it’s still important to analyze ideologies objectively, even those we oppose, to identify bias.

The description mentions the Washington Consensus, a set of 1980s–1990s economic policies promoting fiscal discipline, trade liberalization, deregulation, and privatization. While neoliberalism isn’t entirely synonymous with the Washington Consensus, describing it as dominant after the fall of communism fits the mainstream understanding of the 1990s–2000s global order.

The claim that neoliberalism is “diametrically opposed to leftism” is an oversimplification. Neoliberalism rejects state-controlled economies, but not all forms of left-leaning economics. This phrasing likely exaggerates the contrast for ideological effect.

The most striking part is:

“Modern neoliberalism uses progressive ideas... supports LGBT rights, feminism and minority rights, using the state to maintain such policies.”

This is controversial and inaccurate. It blends economic neoliberalism (focused on markets) with social liberalism (focused on civil rights). While some argue neoliberalism adopts progressive rhetoric to appear modern and global, it doesn’t inherently promote those causes. The framing here aligns with a culture-war narrative, portraying neoliberalism as weaponizing progressivism to spread Western cultural values, a common theme in non-Western conservative discourse, especially where social liberalism is viewed as an extension of U.S. cultural influence.

"One country, Two Systems"

The mod’s portrayal of “One Country, Two Systems” shows a clear pro-Beijing and conservative bias. It present's the arrangement as a benevolent compromise rather than a political tool of control. It also tends to downplay the autonomy and democratic aspirations of Hong Kong and Macau, while framing dissent or local movements as destabilizing or foreign-influenced, echoing mainland Chinese narratives (People's Daily/Xinhua).

The description often romanticizes unity and stability under the central government, ignoring the erosion of freedoms and civil rights. This framing also shifts sympathy away from the local populations and legitimizes state authority as the natural or moral order. You could claim this description is made this way on purpose, like "it's meant to be CCP's vision of it" but if that's the case, why are other ideologies described in such neutral and non-specific ways? This, in my opinion, shows inconsistence.

"Neo-Socialism"

The mod’s portrayal of Neo-Socialism carries a Western liberal bias, depicting it as a somewhat "failed" or authoritarian ideology while overlooking its historical complexity. It conflates Neo-Socialist movements with totalitarian socialism, ignoring their reformist roots and focus on technocracy and national unity seen in interwar France and Belgium.

As noted by historians like Zeev Sternhell (Neither Right nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France, 1986) and David Roberts (The Totalitarian Experiment in Twentieth-Century Europe, 2006), Neo-Socialism blended elements of left and right in response to the crisis of liberal democracy. The description simplifies this into moral binaries, presenting Neo-Socialism as inherently oppressive rather than as a hybrid political experiment shaped by the era’s instability.

In conclusion:

TFR presents ideology descriptions that, while often well-written and informative, reveal subtle but consistent biases shaped by a conservative, multipolar worldview. Neoliberalism is portrayed as a tool of Western cultural dominance, One Country, Two Systems as a harmonious Chinese alternative, and Neo-Socialism as an incoherent or failed movement. These framings mirror real-world geopolitical narratives, particularly Russian and post-Soviet critiques of Western liberalism. While such perspectives can (and do) enrich worldbuilding, they also risk reinforcing ideological assumptions rather than encouraging critical thought. Recognizing these biases doesn’t diminish the mod’s quality, but rather it highlights to me how even small pieces of text can carry deeper political meaning.

While there weren't any devs who responded, many Redditors did the needful and did it for them. Most importantly being that HenrySzy9384 got TFR's Neo-Socialism (Neo-Marxism) mixed with the similarly named beliefs of France's Marcel Déat. Lastly, Unlike lucky52903 who seemingly ran to loving embrace after being told to fuck off, Henry would actually engage.
I did. What a pathetic, easely fixable, dumb mistake

Let me correct then, im so sorry for this

So, as i see, the mod’s description of Neo-Socialism (again, very simplistic and short) reflects a conservative/post-soviet interpretation of modern left-wing movements. Their framing presents identity-based social struggles (race, gender, sexuality) as a departure/dilution of “true” socialism, echoing traditional marxist critics often found in Russian and right-wing discourse. In reality, modern socialisty thought (especially in the Global North) has evolved to recognize intersecting routes of oppression, an idea rooted in intersectionality. It doesn’t reject class struggle, but rather integrates it with other social contradictions.

By portraying Neo-Socialism as “deviating” from Marxism, the mod implicitly suggests it as "ilegitimate" or "corrupted"

Anyways, it's astonishing just how cucked the Canadian race has become. Like, weren't they the guys who invented war crimes?
 
I'm not the only one who was reminded of these posts right? I know that I'm on KF, but I really don't see any value in archiving either of these accounts. From a quick glance, neither lucky52903's, nor HenrySzy9384's accounts are that interesting. Maybe Henry's account contains some good laughs, but considering his profile banner has political countryballs, he's at most 16). It's a similar story with the posts too. I'm not a techbro, so maybe I'm buying into alarmism, but I'd rather not contribute to wasting space that could go to more important things (such as the terrible hitpiece).

As a warning, this post was most likely typed out by Canadian hands
The canadian century of humiliation continues. I hope canadas content adds albertan seperatism and diagolon/second sons to really make retards like this melt down.
 
Also a funny thing that could be added is that the World Government can Taiwan itself to Canada if they lose to the catharsis. Otherwise you could have China taiwan to Canada if they loses the Great Asian War.
Ottawa gonna be looking like 1941 London with all the governments in exile next to one another
 
Ottawa gonna be looking like 1941 London with all the governments in exile next to one another
Nah Canada will be able to change it's capital to Brampton or Surrey. Imagine WEF, EU, Chinese, Islamist, and African leaders all playing hoi4 together in a small jeet apartment in Brampton (the most they can afford due to prices in Canada)

Also I could see Canada changing it's head of state from the king/queen of England to the Chinese Emperor if the Chinese People's Empire forms.
The canadian century of humiliation continues.
And we've never even had a golden age like the Qing did.
Anyways, it's astonishing just how cucked the Canadian race has become. Like, weren't they the guys who invented war crimes?
The article is worse than random Redditors since it was directed funded by the government. Modern Canadians are completely different than those who fought in the world wars and Korea, and recent Canadian military history isn't great, for example the failed peacekeeping mission in Rwanda during the genocide. Also keep in mind unlike other countries, Canadian Reddit is a genuinely good representation of the people here, as unfortunate as that is.
 
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Thanks to the Canadian government for confirming the quality of my favourite mod.
Almost everything the Canadian government is against ends up being something good lmao, and everything they're for is usually the opposite. Also there might unironically be "Canadian fatigue" if they keep doing things like this.
 
This is from a late 2017 dev diary by Panzer.
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Incredibly prophetic.
 
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This is in response to how the government only cares about the far right in the game and not the far left.

I think it’s gonna have the opposite effect than what you think.

Also, nice job down playing the jucheists or the jacobites. That definitely makes total sense.
Chinese various flavours of Totalitarian communism, Ultraglobalism of WEF and US Glowniggery...
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Also while not as extreme as Adamwaffle Chinks can obliterate India Saar and Grorious Nippon
 
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This is in response to how the government only cares about the far right in the game and not the far left.

I think it’s gonna have the opposite effect than what you think.

Also, nice job down playing the jucheists or the jacobites. That definitely makes total sense.
I mean, they're not wrong. The Left in TFR is comically moderate to their right wing counterparts. One would hope their new additions will be more war crimey, since ones a black supremacist organisation anyeays.
 
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this post was most likely typed out by Canadian hands
The first line of the hit piece was that Trenton is from Michigan. Why am I retarded?

Anyways, potentially interesting development as yesterday u/Inquisiter_beef apparently emailed (who I assume to be) Zak Vescera about how his article's framing of The Fire Rises is incorrect.
Inquisiter beef's email to 'the journalist'
Dear Mr. ----------

- an----ng to talk to you about your recent article about the video game modification 'The Fire Rises', in which you elaborate on how video games can be used to promote militancy among those still vulnerable to political radicalization. In particular you wrote about how the modification glorified specific far-right leaning groups and 'accelerationist narratives' through its gameplay.

As an avid player of Hearts of Iron IV and having been exposed to the mod throughout my interactions with the community, it came as a surprise to have it described as an overt fetishization of right-wing ideology when in fact I never received that impression. White I don't doubt that Trenton from Michigan might have thought that the mod and the developers behind it had right-leaning sympathies, I myself had the same idea before I actually interacted or played the mod, the real game is much more complex than that.

The Fire Rises has a large amount of content that tries to provide a semi-realistic depiction of an America descending into civil war. It has a large amount of factions beyond just the Patriot Front, NSA or Atomwaffen Division, which are explicitly described through events and their ending as being horrible for both their domestic populations as well as the world at large (the ATW is never portrayed as anything better than the world-ending blight that they are).

The American People's Liberation Army alone has 4 variations that provide it with more complexity than Trump's or any other right-wing faction. Going beyond just America, there are 8 socialist paths for France, 6 for Russia, 5 for Germany and significantly more for the People's Republic of China. This does not even account for upcoming content, a roadmap can be found if searched up on the subreddit, which seeks to add more diversity to the American Civil War. If you go deeper than surface level, it has a significant amount of detail for all sides of the political spectrum, and does not seek to glorify them in any way, but provide a wider commentary about the rise of radicalism at large.

In response to the claims made by Trenton about the community, I do believe every online forum contains certain elements that do not represent the whole population. There will always be people who overreact and exhibit immature behavior that can ruin the reputation of the wider fandom, but in all my interactions with them, I've never been treated in a similar way to Trenton even when being critical of the mod.

I don't necessarily want to call for a retraction, as I do believe some video games in the world can serve as gateways towards radicalization. However I think The Fire Rises should be represented in a way that allows it to 'speak its case' so to speak.

The Fire Rises developer team did actually respond to your article in a reddit forum, claiming that they did not receive your email through any channels. A more efficient way to reach them could be through their official discord page (available on the steam workshop), or through their reddit r/TheFireRisesMod, where u/TheLunchKing is the most active community respondent.

Thanks, -----
the journalist's reply
Hi, -----

Thanks for writing to me. I'm sorry to hear the mod team didn't receive our request -- I can confirm I did send it, but I'll reach out to u/TheLunchKing today. I definitely want to hear their perspective on this and it's not an intentional omission.

For your interest, I'm also sharing the document produced by Canada's -------------------------------------- that we refer to in the story. To be clear, that's where the "accelerationist" quote comes from. It's not our perspective and our reporting on it doesn't constitute an endorsement of it.

All the best,

-----
Do note that anything I couldn't make out, intentional or otherwise, were replaced with dashes corresponding to how long I think they are. Edit because I think spoilers for these are awkward.
 
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This whole drama about GOI4 and the community is AIDS and is the reason why the founders of Reddit should be deported. Everyone knows that Swedish people are lazy kikes who would bait people into thinking their game with be fixed. That mentality extends to the modders of this shit game with the amount of teasers that you will never get to play at all. We should honestly nuke that country (it’s filled with niggers anyway) in order for others to create a better strategy game that isn’t heavily focused on one aspect of humanity. All recent instillation of Paradox franchises are shit anyway.

There’s gotta be some studio that can make a good strategy game so that I can pirate off of them. What you guys would recommend?
 
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