Originally Posted by Topgoon
The reality is, BG3 is too large of a project for them to purely prioritize a "perfect CRPG experience"

Given the budget of the game, they'll need to appeal to an equally large audience to make this work. Roughly guessing, the audience breakdown:

  • CRPG Enthusiasts (including original BG1/2 players)
  • 5E Table Top Enthusiasts who might try a videogame
  • Returning DOS 2 Players
  • More "mainstream" RPG players (Witcher 3, Mass Effect, Fallout 4, Skyrim players)


I'd argue that the last 2 are likely the biggest markets/opportunities, hence the focus on cinematics. There's a reason why they've made so many adjustments to the rules too (instead of just applying them as written, which is FAR easier and simpler). Hence why you see surface areas, etc.

Does this mean the game is better for it? Not necessarily, but I do understand the business decision behind a lot of their choices.


I understand all that, but it's still disappointing. The game is pretty much marketed towards the first two groups and made for the last two. It's like dangling a piece of meat in front of one dog and then throwing it to another. And then not getting why the first dog is mad at you.

I wouldn't mind cinematics (and I mostly don't, I'm quite neutral on the subject), but high production values work against writing. If everything needs to be voiced and mocapped, tweaking something or adding more lines becomes much more of a problem. I'd rather take a plethora of text-only dialogue options than a handful of fully acted ones.