Boomer nostalgia LoL more like Xer Nostalgia (all 6 of us)… the good ol days when pixels ment something heh heh heh!
Exactly! So full disclosure, but depending on how you slice it, I'm either the youngest Gen-Xer or the oldest Millennial, and I think whoever made that call sort of fucked up the math a bit lol. Or maybe it's because the school year doesn't follow the calendar year? I'm 1981 class of 1999, which makes me the target for everything and precicely nothing I guess.
I certainly identify culturally with the older cohort most times, but the reality is that I'm right there on the line. Sure, generational divides are complete and total nonsense anyway, and I'm certainly not my parents. Not yet anyway - good grief! But yeah, I mean lets not conflate the BG era too hard with what came earlier. I'm old, but not that old! lol Or maybe I am. But also, too young - too young for Star Wars in it's unadulterated form and probably too young for D&D if I'm being honest, maybe a little too old for other later things as well, doubtless - but I will claim that BG1 computer game till the dying day. That one was mine. It hit at the exact right moment in time!!!
To the main subject though, I fully understand that the 6 person party controlled by a single player in a cRPG was largely a technical limitation/compromise at the time. Or also that anyone who really wanted the full PnP D&D experience with other people, wouldn't be truly satisfied with it. The tech barrier no longer exists in the same way, and we've seen what AI companions or henchmen look like in modern RPGs. It's cool, and it's a thing now, for sure, but also a rather different thing with a different spirit. You can't look at old BG and get a good sense of how to make a single player = single character D&D BG computer game hum, since that's not what it was. It was the god mode gold box version, single player with your own personal DM and a team of 6 heroes that gave you your D&D cookies, but in the form of icecream. Just a different deal. I also like the idea the Composer mentioned of just being a PC and nothing more in some games. It's also not what I want from a Baldur's Gate 3 game. Not that my tastes and preferences on this one are any more valid than someone else's, but since we're here to tell them what we actually want, that's what I want... 6.
I also don't know if my 'player/party
is the worms!' idea from the previous page works for everyone, but it seems like it could do the trick in this context, similar to the godmode concept from the earlier BG and SSI entries. 6 is the sweet spot for me. Nail that and 4 will be great and I'll enjoy that too, but lowering the ceiling down to 4 and it just can't quite do what it needs to for my sensibility. Not just for the gameplay, but for the whole thrust of the thing. It's just too small.
