Originally Posted by Traycor
Originally Posted by robertthebard
The problem with confirmation bias is that you can find it everywhere you look. A lot of people came in wanting x, but expecting y, and what do you know, they found y. It's hilarious, and popcorn worthy to watch them circle the wagons on someone that disagrees, especially if it happens to be someone that never played y. So far I've been told that I can't cite story reasons for things that happen in the game, despite the game explaining to us that something is up. Talk to Volo in the Grove about the goblins if you want a precise example of what I'm talking about. Then there's "barrelmancy". Ok, it's funny to read, but this is something that people act like it never happened in games before Divinity. I'd imagine they'd be shocked to learn that it not only has, but predates Larian by years. Then there's the "rule lawyers" that don't understand the rules, but just know that Larian got it wrong.

Some things they do have wrong: Being able to change armor in combat springs to mind. Other things seem a whole lot more like "but I don't like that someone else can, or will do this, so it needs to be removed". Things like save scumming? They'll sing the praises of BG 1 and 2 all day long, but "conveniently" forget that that's where people that do save scum a lot learned it, or, at least, that's the original origin of the Save Scummer's Guild of Planet Earth motto, Trademark pending. "Save early, save often, save before and save after". Why did BioWare want people making all these saves? So that if things went sideways, they could reload, w/out losing a few hours of gametime in the process. This, like the "camp abuse" thing are things that are well within their control to eliminate, all they have to do is not do it, but that's not enough, it has to affect everyone, or they haven't lawyered their rules appropriately. They're not unique here, you can find them anywhere save mechanics are included in games.

I was multiple 10s of hours into gameplay before I figured out you could "Short Rest". I had been using food to heal up. Even after discovering it, I still tend to save it for an emergency. I've seen "but ground effects aren't DnD"? I linked to a video from Outside Xtra for that one. Maybe you've heard of Merilwyn's Meatgrinder? Two ground effect spells in one encounter, in an actual PnP game, the absolute horror. Someone was going on about dropping rocks on someone. Admittedly, I'm far from an expert in every encounter in the game, but I found one place where I could do that, well, two, but it was way more effective at the door to the temple than it was against the ogres... It didn't seem to do much to them at all, except make 'em mad, anyway.

Then there's the house rules argument. The problem, of course, is that WotC has to approve everything that gets into the game, and they are quite heavy handed when it comes to that, in case nobody's noticed all the PC changes they've been making to games, including things like Magic the Gathering. It's a talking point, I guess, but it ignores the fact that if it's in game, it's been approved.

Save scumming shouldn't bother people. That's a player's choice that doesn't affect the game itself (and is very Baldur's Gate). Not sure why you associate save scumming with barrelmancy. A 5e game should at least have the illusion of realism, and players carrying (and tossing) multiple large barrels that would weigh 100+ lbs each... that flies in the face of (fake) realism. You can't even pretend your characters can do that unless this is a cartoon. It removes all narrative weight from the story. Also, the game will by necessity be balanced for exploding barrels making them mandatory for proper play.

EDIT: Also, WotC likely spent most of their "approval" time going over the Forgotten Realms and how to handle their property. It is highly unlikely that someone from the small WotC staff is combing over every proposed rules change at Larian. The rules will only be evaluated by WotC at a broad level, and likely only a few times a year, if that.

You should check out the lawsuit that the Dragonlance creators have filed against WotC/Hasbro to see just how wrong you are about their creative control.