Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Was BG3 overly sexualized?

Yes and no. I mean, you have a lot of opportunities to have sex, but you can nearly completely ignore them. I for example had a nice conversation with the drow twins about their dreams for the future ( a farm) and if they are treated well here (they are) and then we wished each other a good day and went on our ways. Haarlep is icky, but you just can send Astarion or another stealther in - he mumbles in his sleep and you can hear, where the passcode is and stealth to the painting. Or just stealthkill him. I found out, because after I talked to him and gave him a 'hell no' on his proposition, he just turned my whole party and I was sitting there with a summond water myrmidon and Us to fight him. So I tried the more stealthier routs.

Leaves the companions: Shadow and Astarion are ok, because they leave you alone, if you don't bring the stuff up. Lae'zel leaves you alone, when you are already involved with someone else, Karlach makes kind of sense, so I'm ok with her asking me, Gale got better and I really liek his friendship route now, Wylls dance is awkward, but he never asks again, after a No.
Minthara, I never had in the party, since I prefer teh good route, where the tieflings are alive, so I can't say much about her.
Halsin is very problematic up to the point, where I just don't inetract with him apart from story stuff.

I think, they should fix the companions coming at you - maybe like with Shadowheart, where a scene can ahppen, that can end in friendship or romance.

About the small races: tbh: most dwarven ladies look much nicer, than the elves in the vanilla game, same goes for gnomes and halflings. But yeah, people want to f... their elves, that is, why we have Halsin in the first place, instead of maybe a nice dwarven fighter, a dragonborn monk or a halfling bard.

TLDR: I think, they could tone it down, but having played a few times, I know, how to avoid most of it.

I will admit that most are not a graphic as Minthara, but she also proves your point above false as she can be gotten to in under two hours EASY. I did it and was not looking to sex her nor had ever even tried to recruit her.



What purpose? I mean do you have deeper relationship in game through the romance? Does it actually do anything to drive the main storyline or would the story be essentially the same without it? Does it add a deeper interaction. Can you fight better with that companion at your side because your now closer and understand how the other thinks and moves? There is no real advantage to the relationships beyond maybe some small narrative points. If even having a friendship with the companions does nothing for the adventure experience then sex does less than nothing beyond what we are discussing.

I'll just copy paste what I wrote in the same thread from last month:


https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=880068&page=1

I completely agree. You put the whole thing into words wonderfully in a way that I never could myself.

The appeal for me is learning more about the characters. You get the extra scenes, and more dialogue options. You learn more about their needs, wants and vulnerabilities. That's a reward in and of itself. There does not need to be a mechanical reward or narrative purpose beyond that in my opinion.

I agree with Zentu. Enhances how?
Sex serves no purpose and the character development stays the same even without sex. The only thing it serves is for marketing.
When you want to see it done better look at Arushalae in Wrath of the Righteous where having sex, or at least the possibility, is tied to her development and her fear of falling prey to her succubus instincts.

BG3 has nothing like that. Sex is (early because of EA) payoff to attract certain kinds of players, nothing more. And Larian made sure everyone knew it by prominently showing (bear) sex, genital customization and kept talking about sex, intimacy coordinators, ect.

In 2 PT's I 've witnessed 3 "intimate scenes". Only because I was actively pursuing them.
- Shadowheart at the druid"s victory festivity in camp
- Minthara, idem but for the other side
- Mizora in chapter 3.
And finally I also accepted the Drow's service at Shares Caress. But really, that last one looked like a prank, a joke to rise expectations and then give you the "nah nah, we got you !" I'm sure this wan not Larian's purpose, but I found it really badly done.

Except for the short Mizora fondling, which emanated some eroticism (maybe because of the wings and horns ) none of the scenes were truly erotic, arousing or even very sexy. The only oversexualisation that I can see is the hype that is given to this (tiny) aspect of the game by journalists, players, influencers and maybe Larian itself. Also if you don't go try to find the scenes yourself, you won't see anything. I simply stayed friends with Gale, Lae'zel and Wyll. Mostly ignored Astarion and Halsin and never had anything lewd happening with them.

I guess Larian didn't really know how far they could go and so produced these half-baked romance scenes. I thought a nice, suggestive scene was the test with the Dryad at the circus. Where you must answer questions about "your lover" and can approach one pace with every good answer. The visuals of the dryad herself evoked some eroticism. I would have loved more romantic scenes like this to evolve to a deeper romance and lovemaking.

So anyway I answered "no" to the question is it oversexualised.

I like some degree of sex in the sword and sorcery genre. But I can imagine that if you make a product destined for all ages and all cultures, it is a difficult exercise. But as a reference, I could cite the orgy scene in Tulsa Doom's lair from John Milius 1982 film "Conan the Barbarian". It was erotic, esthetic with some nudity but not too much, and perfectly fit the story , atmosphere and characters.

I guess we all have our own views on what does/does not lend itself as a benefit or enhancement to a game.

If looking for strict utility, then the sex scenes do nothing. No extra abilities or items. You are correct.

But for people like me who play RPG's for rich character progression and story purposes, it enhances a lot.

You mention Wrath of the Righteous where sex is a prominent thing tied to the development of a character and, in my opinion, that's exactly what the sex scenes of BG3 achieve. You are, of course, fine to disagree.

But when looking at the character of Astarion, who's whole life is about control and his inability to have agency over his life, a person who's body was literally used as a tool for someone else's gain, a person who's first defense mechanism is to seduce and enthrall as an instinct, his sex scenes are all about learning that side of him. He literally talks about how his seduction of you was all for protection and then his journey afterwards is helping him reconnect with his intimate side without needing sex to be a weapon or a tool for control.

I'd say that qualifies as character information you wouldn't connect with nearly as strong without his sex scenes.

Sex was definitely sold as a marketing gimmick and there are definitely less mature players out there playing the game solely for the sexualized parts; that we can agree on.

But for people who thrive on getting to know characters and who crave knowing just that one extra detail about a character that we otherwise would not have known, the sex scenes do that and then some. So it's incredibly immersive from that point of view to have these scenes.

There is no doubt in my mind that Larian knew what they were doing with the Minthara sex scene + the 'under construction signs over the other companions giving a certain impression of the game prior to launch. Certainly the Halsin/bear scene was there to generate buzz/controversy right before launch. The game was very much marketed with a 'sex sells' attitude-it feels very intentional even if they didn't outright state it-can't fault Larian for their marketing savvy-they ran a slick game in that department, at least.

Now I don't think that the sexualization in BG III necessarily translates into maturity though. For all their promotion of the sex and relationship side of things, I don't think Larian has really crafted an experience where the relationship experience is anything revolutionary or handled with any more nuance than the Lion's share of rpgs out there that tackle such material.

Polyamory with Halsin is ofc handled very poorly as the discussion in that regard is ample testimony to. The relationship with Lae'zel transitions to a conventional relationship whether or not you wanted to IIRC, and Minthara basically drops the drow relationship power dynamic she exhibited when you first meet her immediately after you get her back which might be unfortunate if that appealed to you.

I voted yes. I simply try and avoid all dialogues leading in that direction. So far into ACT 2 no sex.

And I do.
No companion arc in BG3 is influenced by sex and would happen exactly the same way without it or less graphical ones which would leave more resources for more important things.

Gale is the best example for this. Him having sex with you, thus being unfaithful to Mystra should have a big effect on his character development. But it has not, his arc continues exactly the same way as if he did not have sex.
This shows that BG3s sex is not there for character development.

And don't only focus on how easy and meaningless it is to have sex with companions as evidence of BG3 being oversexualized. Also look at how much effort was spend on it. Why was there a need for customizable genitals (which Larian proudly mentioned for marketing purposes, answered my own question there) or intimacy coordinators?
Was there a need for a bugbear fucking an ogre in a barn? To read about dragonborn mating practices (which does not even match the genitals Larian were so proud of) or a detailed account of Raphaels bedroom performance? Or even a brothel with drow twins? Does any of that enhance the game? No. But Larian put it in anyway as distraction from otherwise pretty generic and predictable plotlines and to cater to the bear sex demographic Larian worked so hard to attract.

Not sexual enough. Pretty average, expected better.

I felt drastically more engaged in DOS2's romances and its one spicy night, and that was achieved with just text and voice acting.

My only complain with sex scenes is that they put waaay too much effort on the gay stuff to the point that there are more cool option for gay men than straight men and I absolutely doubt that enough gay men play the game to justify screwing your straight audience over them.

Other than that sex sells, always did always will and I don’t mint it in my games . I was very disappointed with games like the Fallout series that when you make an effort to have a romantic partner all you can do is lie next to them then it’s black screen and nothing … at least in BG3 you get some more graphical approach and it’s fun because it’s not a generic on scene for all, different companions prefer different things in sex so their scenes are somewhat way to show some more from their personalities.

So anyways I do think the game is sexualized, wouldn’t call it over-sexualized because as a straight man , the only sexual scenes I have seen and ever was interested in are Minthara and Shadowheart and none of the others, I have zero interest in gay content or freaky alien sec with green alien woman etc.

Weeeellll.........

I am an RP whore, I will take weak game play with great RP any day. When I think of "great" RP though I do not see that in BG3, good for sure just not great. When I think of a CRPG and relationships I image something like Drizzt and Belwar. As their friendship grew they became very synchronized in battle, from a game mechanic point of view this would be a special move they could do when together. I also image the deep friendship, with snappy banter back and forth that would increase as the relationship grew.

I do get how romantic relationship an evolve but even those should add something to experience. Image having a deep relationship with Karlach and if something happens to your character, goes say under 25% health, she goes berserk. Going out of the player control as she attempts to demolish any enemy attacking the PC until the fight is over. In this way the relationships, in my opinion, would feel deep and meaningful. Way more so than a quick sex scene and a couple of cut scenes of soul baring.

BG3 has some great dialog and writing. However it feels like they said here is a cinematic and then let is drop.

Also to me the RP is limited in that if you want to pursue a deeper relationship with a companion it has to go sexual. There is no way, again using Drizzt and Belwar as an example, to create a deep friendship, any attempt heads straight to courtship and sex.

It would be great to have this type of reactivity for all the romances!

I didn't answer the poll because the issue feels a little more complicated to me.

I'm okay with the sex when it's appropriate for the setting and story. When it enhances the characters and the world. There are times where I think this works in BG3, or at least gets close enough to working to call it appropriate. Where it brings more to the table than it takes away.

But there are other times where I think it absolutely breaks the setting, and I can see the writer, so to speak.

So. If it helps the setting come alive, great. If it's obviously there for the sensibilities of a modern audience, though, it's detrimental.

I don't think Baldur's Gate 3 is overly sexualized, I think it's just more sexualized than the average game of its type. I think Phoenix's points are pretty much my opinions on the matter as well. However I also agree that the game doesn't really do anything special with romances, nor are the sex scenes all that interesting. Personally I don't think the scenes are really good enough to justify their inclusion overall, but I'm not upset they're in there. I also agree that I think the capacity for deep friendhsips with the companions is lacking. Part of that is because of the way character relationships are written, that's true. Romances are treated as the gateway to seeing the deepest parts of many companions. However I don't think that's the only reason or perahps even the main reason. I think an equal or greater cause of that lack of deep friendship is because our character never really gets to be more than an empty husk of surface level traits dictated by class and race. We're not able to really express our attachment fully through our characters even during romance.

As for tying character relationships to mechanics, I'm of two minds on that. I think it could be cool, but I feel like tying it specifically to romance only encourages the divide in bonding between romance and friendship. I also don't think roleplay needs to be tied to mechanics to be deep and meaningful, and indeed tying things to mechanics can have the opposite effect, where suddenly character relationships aren't about bonds with the characters, they're about which character has the best relationship bonus.

Too sexualized ? Well, yeah. Thankfully you can switch it all off.

This is limitation of RP in CRPGs. In table top the relationship would play out with some game advantages naturally. There would be no "mechanic" needed as the players would build a rapport and just naturally do things to compliment the other. In CRPG the RP elements are limited in depth and so the natural benefits of an RP relationship, friend or otherwise needs a bit of game mechanics help to work.

It is in essence much the same as a reputation mechanic. As you do nice things for the villagers (slay the local monster, drive off a bandit raid or recover an item for someone) they respond more positive you (at least a good game would this happen) resulting in you seeing lower prices for services or perhaps special quests you could not get otherwise. The same goes for going negative where prices go up, or perhaps cannot do business at all, might even have the villagers actively try to kill you. It is a mechanic to reflect the result of how you act to people around (RP)

The same could be implemented as discussed for more direct personal relationships and BG3 does this every so slightly. You can make a companion so mad they leave you. The issue in BG3 is a lack of nuance. They either hate you, want to have sex with you or just are there.



BTW, thank you EVERYONE taking part for a mature discussion on this.