t is the transversal from "design by artistic process" to "design by sales expectations". The same thing happened with Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. The reason it didn't resonate was because Pillars 1 was a work of art, whether you liked the combat or linear balance or not, it was a crafted experience. Deadfire was a backer driven mess of schlock romances and pointless ship combat.
You see the same parallel with DOS to DOS2 where DOS, despite some flaws like the dialogue system and the barely 2-tier paper-rock-scissors combat, was a crafted work of passion. DOS2 was an ego trip... it just so happened to also be a successful one, which is why there is so much of that fan momentum pushing BG3 forward. Egos need to be stroked.
Divinity: Original Sin is an uncut diamond, DOS2 turned it flawless. I dont think its about ego though, its more like success brings a certain set of expectations. And what I think happens then is that developers listen too much on feedback than just making a game that they want to play. The phrase "we listened to the community and improved alot for the sequel" is standard these days, and I'm not so sure its so great? People become fans of the developers and if expectations arent met they get irrationally mad and start demanding change. There are probably some interesting things psychology can teach us about this behavior. As an armchair psychologist myself I suggest that people get so emotionaly invested that they feel entitled: "YOU are not ruining MY game!".
Anyways, I dont think devs should listen too much to the community (I realize the irony of this post) but instead do what feels right. It took Larian decades to get a breakthrough hit. Not sure what the secret ingredient was (probably several) but I doubt there was statistical analysis of some nebolous idea of "what people want".
