Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General In your opinion, why did Larian chose this policy of near-zero-communication ?

For me cinematic dialogue creates immersion, so it is both style and substance to me!

My answer to the OP's question... Larian chose no communication because the easiest thing to do is usually nothing. I don't think there was necessarily any agenda behind it.

Only thing I can think of is that they are afraid of angering one of the many factions of players, or they don't realise that claiming to want feedback is often interpreted as having a discussion.
I would have at least offered up monthly or quarterly updates on what each department is working on. Another game I play in EA does this, and it seems to work well. Having at least one person to communicate on official sites, even if they give canned responses, would at least make it feel less like pointless screaming into the void. More people who can actually answer questions/concerns would be better, but again, I think they are afraid of offending any faction because of how deadly that can be nowadays. One "famous" streamer crying about how upset they would be about something they want not happening could cause a loss of money for the game. They would rather not say anything and wait for more people to buy the unknown product, after which they can ignore any tantrums people have because they already got their money.

I disagree. With the other games I have played in EA or beta testing, early feedback took care of a lot of the issues.

I don't care about mainstream media, would rather decide for myself what looks interesting. I don't usually play this type of game, they are usually TB and isometric, and I prefer fully real time or RTwP and proper third person view. The reason I was interested in BG3 was because I like DnD (don't really fit Crimsomrider's idea of the DnD faction though.) I also only got EA because they wanted help to test out the "evil" path, the game grew on me even though it is usually the type of thing I would wait to buy on super sale and only play if I got really bored.

Agreed. It is one of the things I dislike about the game, also tired of seeing some unimmersive expression on my character's face because the game thinks I should feel a certain way.

They choose to not communicate for the simple and good reason , everyone is crying to have this or that, people seem to have forgotten that their budget is not infinite , have a good idea dont mean it can be implemented. Maybe they already had to make choices and budget cuts.

It's fairly simple. A lot of things were said during the early EA phase that I think aren't panning out in reality. Considering the sheer obsession the fanbase has towards every little word being said (one only needs to look at the 2 year EA anniversary thread for this, for people somehow expecting any sort of announcement not just at the anniversary which would have just looked bad to the wider gaming public, but also at Halloween due to a freaking ghost emoji), what happens when it turns out Larian fails to meet expectations?

The crap over reactions would be nothing compared to the possibility of multiclassing not actually making it in at launch, as an example.

I don't blame them one bit for going radio silent at this point.

I would go with way of the least resistance and say that they dont comunicate more, bcs they simply dont need to.
*They* have everything they could want and much more from us ...
Opinions, suggestions, data, polls, deep decontructions, ... you call it and i bet it will be somewhere here, or on reddit, or on Discord ...

We are the one who is lacking some inside view, or informations ... but why should that bother them ... we get everything we can, in time.

>"How you would have designed their communication, if you had been the person in charge of crafting Larian's communication policy ?"
First of all, if the person who's in charge of Larian's communication policy and the person who's in charge of creating the game itselt are not the same person, it's going to be bad either way - like what we're having (or better say not having) now.
Secondly, I'd run things like the main guy behind Ashes of Creation does (it's a mmorpg in the making), VERY trasparent, participates in a lot of q&a's, interviews with streamers, he even explains stuff in the comments under other people's youtube videos. But you can do it only if you're the main guy behind the game as a whole.

Now it's too late to actually communicate. They would put themselves under an avalanche of high quality and harsh critique from different sides (because they tried to cater to differet audiences, and did it poorly). It would be ok 2, better 3 years ago. I don't think they can change much (if they could, they'd make a good game with alive world and day/night sequence from the beginning), so the critique would only attract attention of people (who otherwise would simply buy the game because of marketing) to the problems and potentially lessen the sales.

My take would be that they most likely get what they need without more back and forth communication - they give playerbase access to what they wanna test, and get back data metrics, gameplay videos and written feedback. They create big showcase with every patch, to get people to play it, and that’s it. They have nothing more to sell, so marketing budget is best saved for each patch, and 1.0 release. It’s not crowdfunding, where people can increase their pledge throughout the development either. We bought what is to buy. We test what is to be tested. Hopefully for Larian, they will make more sales with 1.0. What else is there to want? They seem to be getting what they need on both creative and business sides of the project.

I wonder what the effect on playerbase engagement with every patch would be if communication would be more regular. I bet that with PfH being such a rare event, to the point that the patch and the show gets reported on some gaming news outlets, it generates quite a bit of player engagement. And isn’t that what Larian wants? Release patch => get people to play it => have them take a break until new patch comes out. I know I have fallen into this rhythms.

Would more constant communication have a negative effect on this cycle? Would revealing features worked on kill the hype for each patch? Would more constant communication make PfH less significant? Would clear roadmap and communication make people more likely to skip patches knowing that stuff they are waiting for isn’t making it into nearest patch or even early access at all?

Hey everyone,

At the moment, our team is putting together future communication plans for Baldur's Gate 3, which we hope you'll enjoy!
We're set to release in 2023, so the closer we get to launch, the more you'll hear from us.

If you have any questions, always feel free to reach out to us and we'll provide you with answers; if the information can be shared publicly of course.

Regarding feedback & suggestions...
... Your comments are always super appreciated!
In fact we collect the community's feedback very regularly to check that we have bugs smashed by our teams, features polished & prioritised depending on what you need the most, etc... so keep sending your feedback!

Thanks for your support

Nice, nice, we will await for the time where you can share more things with us.

I also hope we have an announcement soon... ish :P

It's nice to hear, Nicou! Can't wait

Good to hear from you, Nicou.


On the subject of questions, well, I had at least one very explicit question which I asked you in your introductory thread (and there were also a number of remarks which in theory could have been commented on, although, certainly, they were technically not questions). Naturally, the question went unanswered.

I would have been fine with a one-liner reply along the line of "we can't answer that question". It's strictly better than no reply.

In writing and posting my question in your thread, I did cut off two other questions. Partly because my post was getting long, partly because I though I could always ask them later. And I did not ask them later because I saw my question not being answered, so it didn't lead me to think the others would meet a different fate.

More generally, and as I hope you'll understand, if one person asks a questions and gets ghosted (and if masses enquire about the next Patch/PFH, and get ghosted en masse), it does not create a climate where people will naturally assume that the policy is indeed "feel free to reach out to us and we'll [try to] provide you with answers". This statement is certainly good to hear, but it's even better if it's matched by acts (and even better if a climate is installed where this is so obviously true that it doesn't even need to be said, I guess, but one step at a time).


On the subject of feedback, as you have seen (both in your introductory thread, and in this one), there is a number of people who are not exactly convinced that it's still worth giving feedback.

I personally know that Larian has not announced the end of the feedback collection phase, but it's easy to understand why people would generally assume that posting feedback is useless. And perhaps not even collected anymore.

As I wrote in your thread, Salo made made one "thank you for your feedback" post to make feedback collection visible. And both Salo and you aren't exactly posting often around here. The Composer is not the official feedback collector, yet he did send this message more times than Larian. Also, even though he did not do so that frequently overall, the mere fact that he was hanging around here means that it was easy for players to put things together : "The Composer reads-and-collects feedback, plus The Composer is generally present around here, thus feedback is generally read-and-collected". In short, he single-handedly contributed more to making feedback collection visible than Larian did.

So, on the subject of feedback just like on the subject of questions, it's nice to see Larian "say the thing". But I think it would be even better to see Larian "do the thing".


_____________________________________________


Anyway, thanks for all those who have provided ideas/answers on the topic of this thread (and a second thank to those who forced themselves to remain on topic ).

I've been working on replying and commenting further, but I'm quite slow at it (also, there's a lot). I'll get there though.

Hi Nicou... I do have a question, prefaced with a couple of background statements.

Statements of this nature and similar have been made by Larian and their representatives before; multiple times, in fact, since EA started. They have not, to-date, been delivered upon. I have been very dedicated in this community and indeed I've received many direct/private communications and exchanges from team members relating to particular elements of feedback or reports, so I don't wish to imply that no-one is listening... however, in terms of the public face, these communications - these statements that more or better communication "is coming", or comments about various pieces of information that "will be shared", are more or less the Only major communications we've seen, and these statements never amount to anything, or at least, they have not as of yet... so, at this stage, is there anything you can tell us that will reassure us or incline us to trust that when you say "more and/or better communication is coming" this time, that this time it will be different, and this time something more tangible will follow the statement, beyond another long gulf of radio silence before the next hype event?

I apologise for my cynicism; I don't want to come across as hostile, or to make the community space feel unwelcoming at all - very much not my intention - and I definitely don't want to come across as harsh or hostile to you personally, since you are literally the front line on this job, and it's so often a terribly thankless one... I get that... but there are a lot of folks here; good, dedicated and passionate folks who have put a lot of time into wanting to help this game as much as they can, who are nevertheless feeling very jaded and disillusioned right now by Larian's community interaction to date. Many of the best contributors to providing detailed, thoughtful and well-measured feedback on elements of the game no longer speak here, or have more or less fallen silent and given up, in the face of Larian's current to-date PR response. Can you give us anything to restore some faith?

Hey Drath Malorn,

Unfortunately, your message at the time sounded slightly accusatory and this new message doesn't change the case
Pointing fingers at someone and asking for answers is not the best way to go, but I can share some details about our Feedback loop.

• Mainly, Salo and I are working on collecting the community's sentiment about various topics, along with your suggestions & feedback to Baldur's Gate 3.
• Our social networks are read on a daily basis, and we will engage with questions if we can answer them; For everyone to see. Note that we can't comment on each topics to let the community know that their post been escalated: It would make our comments feel redundant. If we don't comment on another thread later, players would then think that it has not been escalated to the development team, which would be wrong. Instead, we will comment if the topic is high priority and requires an immediate-ish response from the company. Note that TheComposer is a very active Moderator and we're glad to have such a dedicated player like him supporting the efforts!
• Then this feedback is analysed, prioritised, reworded in a Report so it is digestable for our development team who will read & comment on these Reports.
• The QA team will try to reproduce bugs & make sure that they are logged & fixed for future updates, designers will discuss ideas and the best way to implement them according to the initial vision for a feature, suggestions will be weighted, etc...
• In the end, the teams at Larian definitely "do the things": the feedback is processed & read by the development team to improve the direction of the game.

Now for the best way to submit feedback:
An idea is always better when discussed by several people with different perspectives, and this is where players can bring their own opinions about the game they play.
It is great if your feedback has the following characteristics:

• As short as possible, go to the point, add granularity if necessary but be concise
• Constructive, explain why this is interesting
• Be kind, do not attack, be supportive
• One post = 1 feedback, do not spread all your thoughts in a single comment.

If you follow these rules, you will increase your post quality tenfold.
Long Posts can be interesting, but you must structure it. Divide your text into 2-3 chapters, and illustrate your thoughts.

Where to post feedback? Our forums & Discord server would be the easiest as you will be able to write more detailed posts. But if you only like Twitter, post it on Twitter in a detailed manner.


Community Managers have a myriad of other tasks, beyond community engagement.
We comment on posts where we have relevant information, to contribute to the conversation. Unfortunately we cannot comment on absolutely every comments, as this time is used for the development of future projects that, I think, you will be happy to see.
Feel free to ping us if you want to make sure we see a post, but keep in mind that your posts will be read. It will only change the priority we give to it. If I'm pinged for example, it means it's highly important and I will have a look at it straight away (possibly pushing others tasks around).

I hope this clears out some of your questions

Looking forward to getting more info on companions and unannounced features in BG3!🎉🐻

Hey Nicou,

I didn't mean for my post to come across as hostile (=accusatory ?). So if you and/or Salo felt offended or singled-out, I'm happy to apologise and confirm that this was not the intention.

For the rest, I'll answer later. Right now, I'll try to finish my update to this thread's topic.

Hey Nicou, nice to hear yourself and BG3 are doing well.

I've got a question about the following quote:
How do we know what's important? Are there guidelines or is it subjective?

Frankly, I feel like I'm out of feedback on BG3; the important things have been said. Would it help if I combed through my posts and gave you the top three most important?

Switching topics, you mentioned "the initial vision for a feature". I would be greatly interested in knowing what those are for features included in early access. I expected EA to come with that information, though I acknowledge that expectation isn't Larian's doing. Still, future EAs might benefit from sharing the designers' intent with players.

Apologies for being blunt but at this stage in development some remarks about forthcoming communication really amount to very little in my opinion, going on prior experience of the last 2 years. 'Forthcoming communication' could literally be the next Panel from Hell. How long ago was the community promised some insight into development decisions and how they parse feedback? It must be well over a year now. This all just sounds like PR, though I would love to be proved wrong.

In all honesty, can Larian really state at this stage of development that they are seriously considering some major changes such as day/night cycle/weather, a 6 person party, replacing the awful party control mechanic, etc.? Again, I wold love to be proved wrong.

Thank you for the insight, it's appreciated - but it doesn't address the concerns that are most prominent here. I appreciate that there's only so much you're able to say, but telling us that you 'do the thing' is still only saying that you do the thing, and it doesn't show us anything meaningful or reassuring. If all that can be spoken about is what 'we (the community)' can do for 'you (Larian)', that isn't taking care of your community; a healthy feedback community requires reciprocation, and without that, you just burn away all the good will and positive energy of the space, and it falls into a majority of vapid squabbling that isn't helpful for anyone. If you compare the posts in the first four months of this EA, with the most recent four months, you'll see a very clear illustration of that.

What can you actually give back to the community as an act of feedback reciprocation?

There are a large handful of Heavily discussed issues here; problems or elements of feedback that have been noted, discussed, weighed and in most cases heavily supported as an element that needs attention, by a very large number of commenter... all of which have never received even the smallest comment of reciprocal feedback to let the community know where they stand, or if they can or should direct their energy elsewhere. A shortlist of each of these heavily discussed elements, and where Larian stands on them would go a very long way here; even if it is as simple as saying "we're commenting on these because they are the top ten most discussed and debated topics", followed by one or two lines that lets the community know how to better direct their focus and energy - to say "this feature/element is locked in to the point that major changes to it are not feasible at this stage" is still a positive feedback reciprocation, as it lets us know that the matter is settled, and we can move on. Saying "We understand the high level of interest in improving this element, but don't have any information we can share about it as of yet." is itself a useful and community-supporting gesture of reciprocal feedback; it's not redundant or meaningless to reach out and say that - it helps support a healthy feedback community.

==

Yes, we ask for answers; that's what asking a question is - a request for an answer. Please don't invite us to ask questions with one breath, and then tell us that asking for answers is 'not the way to go' with your very next breath. All that succeeds in doing is making it look like everything you're attempting to do is little more than a PR deflection, and it undermines the effort you're putting in; to be clear, I appreciate the insight here - it's a longer and more engaging post than we've seen around here for who-knows-how-long. I am, genuinely, hoping to see more engagement of this nature.

They're getting ready for damage control?