It's sad to see so much anger and frustration generated by the fans and antifans of the next installment of one of my favourite games of all time (SoA)
Let me start saying: Take a second to look at this situation and realize that both sides of this coin are right in their own way (The mature people who tries to be civil and talk about things at least)
Fans of Larian and D&D are very happy,and why wouldn't they? This game is perfect for them.
Fans of BG are mad,some because of the combat system,a bit extreme in my book,but hey,they are right,changing the combat system is a big deal on a franchise.
But maybe more moderated people who has been playing all kind of games and systems through the years for hours to no end are just complaining because whenever you look at this new BG game there is NOTHING that vaguely resembles the name it carries. Is that so crazy? No. Is that something to go and insult us for being rational and expecting some BG in a BG game? No
Why don't you try to stop being childish and stop fighting for what is best or what is worst? BG2 sold almost 2 million copies only on PC on a time where players where just ''freaks'' repudiated by society most of the time. You can say whatever you want but BG has been an inspiration for more than 20 years to a lot of developers and a lot of games has been made thanks to BG's influence.
The fact is this: When you look at this game,you recognize it as an impoved version of DOS2 with 5e ruleset or at the very least another Larian game based on DOS2. You would never,in all your life think ''Hey!,is this a new Baldur's Gate?'' AND THIS is where all the problems really come from,and let me tell you one think,they where aware of that and it was a fear inside the studio,I'll look for the interview later and edit this to provide a source.
I know Swen Vincke has a VERY particular vision of how this game should be and I know he wants this game to be the closer you can get on a videogame to the paper D&D and let me tell you,that sounds fantastic but,have you hear me mention BG? No,because their concern is more about D&D than paying homage to the saga and you can argue that BG is a D&D based game so its fine BUT you're using the name of a beloved franchise,a jewel lost in time so you can at least have some amount of respect for that and try to show that this game is indeed Baldur's Gate 3.
Sven Vincke's vision of this game is TOTALLY compatible with making the game more Baldur's Gate,I'm of course not saying change the system,change the game engine,change the graphics etc, but there's A LOT of things they can do to make BG3 appealing to ''almost'' everyone. Colors,effects,assets like cursors for looting,voiced spellcasting,animations,illumination,music,etc. Granted,I know it's apha (a REAL alpha) and a lot of thing are bound to change,a lot of what we've seen could be placeholders,some other things are really easy to tweak and change,but the reality of the situation is that we can only judge what we've seen and that is why so much people is angry (some more than others)
Both sides of this coin,please,I implore you,not for me of for Larian or WotC but for the sake of the BG franchise,see reason, accept that for good or ill,games are bound to change,specially under different developers.
Larian and D&D fans,I ask of you to try to understand the pain and frustracion the original BG fans feel at this moment after 20 years of waiting for the next installment of one of the best crpg's ever made.
And you,Larian and Swen Vincke,if any of you read this someday,I know what you want to do with the game,I know you're hyped and I know you have a very specific vision for this game but please, acknowledge the fact that you can reach that goal without hurting other avid gamers in the process. The game as it is now is going to appeal to D&D and DOS2 fans alike,so please work to appeal to BG fans too and prove that you're not only using Baldur's Gate as a cheap way to get more fans and money.
I understand and respect all parts of this conflict and the only thing I want is to look and this new game while proudly thinking ''This is Baldur's Gate 3''
Thank you all for reading.
English is not my first language so if you have any doubt or something doesn't make sense feel free to let me know.
EDIT: Link to he interview but if you don't want to look for the actual phrase :
"We were afraid that people would say that it was just Divinity: Original Sin 2 with a skin on top of it. We want no one to think that when they see it,"
