This is not a criticism - I love how much attention this game has been getting. I’m just not understanding why BG3 has been blowing up so much. It seems like BG3 is getting more attention than all of Larian’s previous games combined (and maybe all of Obsidian’s recent crpgs as well). Traditionally crpgs have not lit the world on fire in this way. Is it just timing of the release? Is it a combo of Divinity fans and new D&D fans and Baldur’s Gate oldheads all being stoked about this release for their own reasons? Or something else?
Note:I have not played it yet myself, just curious what folks think?
The short version:
- Game is good, came out at the right time, had a lot of hype and lived up to the hype
Longer details:
- The game is just really well made. It’s extremely fun, very polished (except for a few weird bugs), and complete
- It has a massive IP tied to it. This game had impossible levels of hype and it met those expectations somehow
- The recent D&D movie was a large success, and D&D in general has been the most popular it has ever been lately
- Divinity OS 2 Definitive Edition was very well received, people trust Larian to deliver a good product
- People are sharing this game with their friends. They had a strong marketing push as well as really strong word of mouth
- Final Fantasy 16 left a lot of us wanting a more traditional RPG after FF16 was anything but traditional
- We currently live in an era of games like Diablo 4 which ask for a $70 price tag, and then also have a paid battle pass and paid cosmetics. This game came out at $60 content complete with no additional microtransactions. Ultimately that makes this game much easier to reccomend to people.
It’s not perfect or anything, but it feels like a release with very pure intentions and people seem to resonate with that. No micro transactions, no lootboxes, no DRM (not even Steam’s is implemented), no release day DLC, fast hotfixing, and maybe with the promise of classic expansion packs. The sort of practices that people want to encourage, packaged with a formidable and generally well put together game.
When bigger, more corporate dev studios come out and give it free marketing by saying how unrealistic it is to make games like it… that’s free, excellent publicity.
It’s also bright and colourful and slightly cartoonish in a way that, say, Pillars of Eternity wasn’t. I wonder if this makes it feel slightly more mainstream, slightly more ‘fun’, and a bit less like a stodgy old CRPG from yesterday (and to be clear, I loved PoE the way I loved BG and BG2).
It’s also got enough wild shit in it to grab a few headlines that way.
Yeah, it feels a bit less grimy doom and gloom, despite the narrative and themes. Being fully voice acted, and well, helps to no end with what can otherwise turn in to a wall of text reading slog.
It’s a perfect digitization of D&D 5th edition - it’s like having an automatic dungeon master using the rules and regulations we’ve been playing with on paper for ages.
It has a massive plot that can vary wildly on playthroughs depending on how rolls go, just like the real version.
It’s four-player co-op with PVE in an age where cooperation is increasingly rare outside of competitive team games.
It’s a well designed, properly built, finished product that can be expanded on with DLC, rather than using them to address core gameplay issues. (looking at you Paradox)
Can you imagine what the mod scene for this game will look like in a year or so? It’s going to be amazing.
@ivanafterall @theangriestbird @canis_majoris Did they announce mod support?
https://larian.com/support/faqs/mod-information_77
We loved what our modding community did with DOS2, and we’re excited to see what they’ll do with BG3. Modding will be supported after the full release, though not exactly at launch.
I would expect some news in the coming weeks.
@dingus Can’t wait to have the first two BG remastered à la Skyblivion. Maybe.
My gut feeling is sometime around the original release date? If memory serves, DOS2 got it like the day after launch
Sure, but people were really mad earlier this year because Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns D&D tried to pull some licencing related shenanigans that would have massively fucked over the community. People were boycotting the movie a couple of months ago over that. It’s interesting, that Baldurs Gate seems to not be affected by this at all.
Yeah because Twitter is not a real place. The actual D&D community spoke with their wallets and they said “we like a good, finished product without stupid terms of use” and all bought BG3. People who don’t even play D&D bought BS3 to play with folks who do play D&D.
Ss
First you draw an “S” . . .
then you draw a more different “s” . . .Consummate vees
Trogdor ended up being the big bad of my brother-in-law’s homebrew campaign that he ran for our family D&D group
It’s just a quality Western RPG, the like of which we haven’t seen since Bioware was bought.
Good products create buzz; I really think is is simply that.
DOS 1 and 2 were almost on par with BG3 imo.
Pillars of Eternity was also really good.
How about those Pathfinder games? How do they stack up?
Only played the first one which was pretty good. It’s super big on character customization as it has a million race/class combinations. A bit more extreme than the rest
My understanding is that it is a complete game with no microtransactions to shove along with it. After that I believe it is because it is really really good and not a common genre to get the spot light. Mainly the first part.
I think its based on timing with the state of the game industry being fascinated with various versions of P2W and how to squeeze more out of gamers through monetization of both ‘nice to have’ and ‘need to have.’ Larian and BG3 are a breath of fresh air when all the others are prioritizing greed over quality.
If we could just overcome our addictions and vote with our wallet, EA, Blizzard, Activision, M$, etc. would eventually learn, but we can’t, and this is the true sad part of the story.
It’s just a really good game. It’s complete, unlike the majority of things being released these days. The lack of monetization is really nice, but ultimately the fact that it’s basically an automatic dungeon master for 5e with compatibility for up to four cooperative players makes it the easiest entry point into Dungeons and Dragons in general. You can enjoy it by yourself solo and have a wild campaign that’s totally different than the group campaign you play with your friends.
I’ve always hesitated stepping into the dungeon master role because I’ve always wanted to help tell a story, but this negates the need for me to lead anything and I can bring friends with little to no experience and we have a blast. I can focus on helping people with the mechanics rather than having to focus on running the campaign.
Do you think the game has appeal for people who aren’t into DnD? I keep wanting to try it but every time someone calls it “DnD The Game” I get a bit turned off again. Might just be because I’ve had awful experiences in RL with DnD though.
Vote with your wallet anyway. McDonalds sells a lot of burgers but few would say they are the best.
As someone who has never liked Elvis, it’s quite like the old “50 million Elvis fans can’t be wrong!”
Actually, pretty sure they can be. Also he co-opted his music style from the black community, so fuck him anyway.
Should Elvis really be vilified for liking blues and rock music and playing it himself? How does that hurt anyone?
Like should we be pissed at Django Reihnhardt? Or R.A The Rugged Man? What about Japanese bagpipe players?
There’s also the reaction from other developers claiming that the game “sets an unrealistic standard for what to expect out of a game” despite it being exactly what people want from a triple A studio. Just a complete, well made, functional game with no microtransactions
The game is really, really good.
Genuinely, it’s just a really fucking good game and I think thats most of it.
No in-game store
The game isn’t shit
People are beyond bored of 95% of the absolute trash that’s being pumped out by the asinine asshole accountants. (AAA Studios)
It’s nice seeing something that isn’t even close to trash be released.
It’s Minsc obviously
Marketing. It generally being a good game and part of a beloved series, set in a beloved franchise (D&D). WOTC has been marketing and growing the Hells out of D&D lately. The recent movie and this game are part of that.
Game is good. People like to talk about stuff they like.
Most great games never get anywhere near this much buzz.
I think it’s a product of the genre. BG3 is in the CRPG category, which had a bit of a resurgence lately between Pillars 1+2, Pathfinder 1+2, and (perhaps most relevantly) DOS 1+2. Good games in an existing category of game helps build up buzz in that category and more players. More players creates more demand… but there hasn’t been that much being made in the CRPG bucket lately.
Then, on comes BG3. It fits in that bucket. It has much higher production values than the other recent games in that bucket. It’s got one of the most valuable CRPG IPs attached to it with Baldur’s Gate. And it’s reportedly amazing as a game on top. The last part wouldn’t get it anywhere near this much attention on its own, but in conjunction with the others it’s gotten lots of buzz.
I also feel like Larian handled the early access part really well for keeping the game in discussion without making the game oversaturated in gaming circles. They got a lot of “free” (not actually free, but you know what I mean) marketing out of that.
Are you aware of what a big deal Baldurs Gate series, especially 2, were when they launched back at the millennium?
Okay don’t fall off your rocker grandpa
It seems like BG3 is getting more attention than all of Larian’s previous games combined (and maybe all of Obsidian’s recent crpgs as well).
Legendary brand name which the game actually lives up to.
It’s a great game, but so was Divinity: Original Sin 2. The main difference, besides the rules swap, is the cutscenes and dialogue animations.
I think BG3 is riding on the D&D brand and marketing campaign. In my mind there isn’t a massive difference between BG3 and D:OS2 (or other titles they’ve done) from a pure gameplay perspective.
Regardless, I’m for it. Hopefully we’ll see more innovative and high budget CRPGs.
It’s a combination of good timing, a perfect product and going against the direction of most AAA-studios.
Though BG2 is more than two decades old, a lot of us still considers it one of the best games ever. I think quite a few of us have been eager to return to forgotten realms. That’s one group.
Then there’s a group of Divinity fans (some overlapping the old BG group) waiting for Larians next RPG.
Those two groups would be the critical mass for creating hype. Would the game live up to the old games? Would it be as good as Divinty?
Then comes the first reviews and people get to play the beta, and though the first few months were rough, once we got close to release it was clear, that BG3 would not only live up to its expectations, it would smash through the roof.
Now you have your core fan base talking about how good this game is, how do you sell this to people who normally don’t play this type of game?
Well, talk to them in a language they understand. This game is complete from day 1. No DLC. No ingame shop. Just a complete game that you can play over and over again with new ways of completing it… oh, and you can co-op with your friends. Even on the couch in split screen.
There are simply not anything of major significance to criticize about this game. You may not like it, or the genre is not for you, but as a complete product it’s simply perfect.
As a player you get the feeling that Larian focus on the game first where others focus on money first. That may not be the whole truth, but it’s the feeling this is creating, and hopefully other studios will acknowledge that there are other ways to do things.
As I see it, it’s a confluence of things which have captured the zeitgeist:
- Larian D:OS games have been very well received.
- Baldur’s Gate and the Infinity Engine games are beloved.
- Final Fantasy XVI, the big JRPG for the year, is squarely an action game and some view that as off-kilter. Baldur’s Gate 3, the big CRPG for the year, is squarely an RPG.
- D&D is a big property and new D&D games often gain a fair bit of attention.
- People seem to appreciate having no in-game purchases.
These five things, in my opinion, have pushed Baldur’s Gate 3 to the front of media outlets and, in turn, to the forefront of conversations.
D&D itself is close to the highest popularity it’s ever been at (I suppose with this game now it is at the peak), what with the movie having brought mainstream attention to it and Critical Role and other actual play shows bringing buckets of attention to the game/TTRPG hobby over the last 8ish years.
