What is Baldur's Gate?

Above all, I think BG was the best visual representation of what the world of AD&D was like at the time in the imagination of the players. And we could evolve in it with the real rules of AD&D!

Like many other AD&D players, I already knew about classes, races, monsters, spells, magic items, artifacts and even the Forgotten Realms.
With this game, I was offered the opportunity to live a video-game adventure in a universe that was already very familiar and that I loved. It was just amazing!
Baldur's Gate is inseparable from D&D.

The popularity of Baldur's Gate is obviously due to the combined talents of Bioware, TSR and Black Isles (and also Interplay, which we often forget) but it is also a story of context and period which largely contributed to its fame .
All these talents could be found in the right place at the right time and quite simply gave birth to a historical reference in the history of video games and to THE REFERENCE in the history of cRPG.

We could venture to define BG according to technical criteria (isometric, rtwp fights, 6 playable characters, D&D rules) and artistic criteria (story of the Bhaalspawns, representation of the Forgotten Realms, scenario and dialogues, music) but I don't think that would be enough.
It would be like wanting to analyze music that we love without ever being able to define the essential: real magic. The one that gives birth to unforgettable emotions and experiences.
Because yes, for me, Baldur's Gate is a masterpiece of its kind and has gone beyond the simple framework of a video game.

I guess behind the initial question of this topic that another question is hidden: now that you have said what Baldur's Gate was, how can a game deserve the name of Baldur's Gate 3?
 
The first obvious ingredients are:
- D&D rules
- the Forgotten Realms
- a story which has a relation with the previous BG if not why the 3?

In the useful ingredients to strengthen the identity of BG, I would put:
- rtwp fights (much more dynamic and demanding than TB)
- 6 characters
- numerous references to the previous saga

In the ingredients that have nothing to do in the BG franchise:
- a universe and a gameplay too marked by another license (big problem of identity!)
- a story that has absolutely nothing in common with previous games
- half-respected D&D rules (with ignored, neglected and other invented rules)
- designers and developers who have neither a real desire to respect the BG franchise nor the talent necessary to succeed in making a quality game, well written and with a BG identity.