Taril, no, ARPG took time before becoming popular. Diablo was controversial within the RPG genre as it didn't feature any roleplay element except playing a class and choosing some skills.
Yes... But Diablo 1 released in 1997. But by the time Divine Divinity came out in 2002, Diablo 2 had come out and took the world by storm in 2000.
When Larian released their game, ARPG was THE biggest thing because of D2.
Anyway, your argument isn't good, ARPG sells more than TB games, people will most likely play a RDR2, TW3, TES... than a TB game. No, they have decided to follow the standardized route like Bethesda did many years ago, like CD Projekt is doing, Ubisoft... which leads to less creativity overall, and less risks taken.
What on Earth are you going on about?
They made ARPG games back when ARPG games were popular because they wanted to make money.
After they made their money, they started making TB games, the games they wanted to make.
They're following a route of making games they like. Which is what CDPR does too, they like to make story driven games so that's what they make.
This is different to Bethesda/Ubislop who are banking on selling the same game ad infinitum just with a different coat of paint. Which is plainly evident in how games have changed over time.
Larian and CDPR have been refining their games. Making mechanics better and more polished. Bethesda/Ubislop are making the same games with no improvements besides some graphical updates.
I've never heard of sex being a taboo in video games, that's a first in 45 years of gaming I have...
Then you must have been living under the worlds largest rock.
There have been numerous controversies in regards to nudity and sex in video games and continual decisions to never include nudity even during sex scenes used in video games (Which still caused some media outcry for being too raunchy just because 2 characters in their undies rub against each other)
Like, there's a reason why we have plenty of violent video games that are rated 12+ or 15+ but any nudity instantly makes a game 17+. With it only being in very specific cases of extreme violence such as Manhunt or Calisto Protocol where violence is given an 18+ or AO rating.
No wonder BG3 is one of the most sold TB game (if not the most), it includes something the market wants, sex, and kinks.
Yes. I never denied that it is popular among consumers.
Taboos are a societal thing, not an individual thing.
Sex is very frowned upon by society. Which is why current governments are going so hard against pornographic sites on the internet because "Won't somebody think about the children!" meanwhile violence is shown all over the place, including actual real world violence like the viral videos of Alex Pretti's execution.
It's also why age ratings are much harsher on sex than anything else (Even profanity and drugs can still get 12+ or at worst 15+ ratings. Nudity is the ONLY thing that instantly makes media 17+) and is the most prominent reason for Watershed in TV scheduling.
Other D&D games are relevant to make a comparison.
But they are literally irrelevant.
They have nothing to do with how Larian produces games. They are not evidence of Larian producing games, as Larian didn't make them. Nor are they evidence of what Larian uses for inspiration because they have nothing to do with Larian or their interests.
It's like if I started talking about CoD as a representation of how Larian makes games. CoD only features humans (Except the newest one which went off the deep end) thus Larian only makes games with humans in and will only make games with only humans in.
It's asinine because it has no tangible relation to them.
Anyway, you bring another argument in favor of less creativity and more standardization based on what sells, which is the opposite route of creativity and taking risks.
You might want to get your eyes checked, because that's not what I said at all.
I merely pointed out that non-standard characters they have made have been popular. Thus there is more evidence to show that taking a risk will pay off.
Had these non-standard characters not been popular, then there would be less chance of taking a creative approach or making risks because it would be shown that doing so isn't likely to pay off.
Just because something has shown to not be a mistake doesn't automatically mean "Less creativity and more standardization". It simply means it's more tenable for similar actions to be used again.
