I am still highly questioning the real motivation for creating this thread, seeing as a few people are still a little too over-eager to keep injecting subtle political narratives into their arguments.
Also, spending the last couple pages solely complaining about how WotR doesn't have multiplayer support isn't going to suddenly change it into having multiplayer, the same way BG3 won't suddenly implement RTwP despite all the complaints early on about it being purely turn-based. We all already know. We just choose not to care.
At this point, multiplayer support is an exception due to games these days needing bigger budgets compared to the old cRPG days, and there is an argument to be made that the exact multiplayer support is behind a lot of the more questionable aspects of BG3.
('Toilet Chain' system. The hideous inventory management that happens to be less of an issue in multiplayer. Origin system acting as a way for players in multiplayer to pick a pre-loaded build, but also indirectly resulting in the writing for the companions seemingly being awkward to the level where you can't tell if each companion is supposed to be an actual companion or all acting as the party leader at once, and leading to the companions being as largely devoid of personality compared to other cRPG companions as they currently are with the exception of Shadowheart. Though if Larian wanted quick pre-loaded builds, they should have just done actual pre-loaded builds without the entire rest of the origin system. It feels like an excuse to lock entire cutscenes behind playing as a specific party member, but I've noted that a lot of the datamined origin exclusive cutscenes so far are mostly inner thoughts stuff, and we already have a convenient plot device that should allow us to interact with it as a custom MC anyway. It's like they are taking 'replay value' to a bad conclusion that doesn't respect the player's time, because a lot of the stuff gated behind the origin system would be much better off enhancing your experience with a custom MC. And as a result, it's going to result in that first playthrough being a lot less magical than it should be, and if it isn't magical enough, people will be less naturally inclined to pursue multiple playthroughs to begin with.
Like instead of all this effort being sunk into the origin system, we should have increased emphasis on backgrounds for the player character instead, which is how the origin system worked in Dragon Age Origins. Actually, I'm not even sure why Larian chose to name their system the Origin system, unless it was to invoke comparisons to the system of the same name in Dragon Age, even if the actual function of both is completely different.)
I have actually taken the latest BG3 patch for a spin. There were a few more interactions between your companions than I remember, but it seems that past the Grove, they really stop trying to banter. It's probably still a work in progress, but I have noticed subtle hints at recycling certain plot beats from D:OS2 that I feel contributed to the heavily excuse plot narrative of that game as soon as you got off that end of act 1 boat. As in, hints that the antagonists and eventually the party may be competing with each other for something later on. The big difference would be that the 'something' would be a lot more ambiguous this time. This competition narrative is also something that I feel only existed in D:OS2 because of multiplayer.
Like, I'm sort of getting this deep vibe that a lot of the design in BG3 seems to be pushing towards the game subtly making choices for you in the end, rather than you making choices on your own volition. I don't get that same feeling in WotR for whatever reason, despite that game being far more railroaded than BG3. It might be because the latter game has a lot of smaller choices that contribute to the player feeling like they are molding the personality of their player character on their own terms.
