My main question is this; you posit that Dragon Age: Origins isn't a crpg but BG3 is. And you also say that Pathfinder and Pillars of Eternity are crpgs.
Sure, to be honest I am torn on Dragon Age: Origins. I have rewritten my post above 3 times changing my mind if I would categorise DA:O as cRPG. I decided not to, but I honestly won't fight on that hill.
I think it taps a lot into what cRPG players find appealing in those games. Where I decided to draw the line (and I think it is a very thin line between Dragon Age, BG1&2 and PoE) is that games that I would consider a cRPG give player agency regarding actions they take - of course, your options are limited due to the nature of the game, but you have a constant access to verbs - talk, fix, attack etc. and you can use those verbs at your discression.
Dragon Age doesn't do that. You are following set path and what actions you can take is scripted. You can't decide to do anything, unless it is one of few options presented by the game. Dragon Age has some nice choices to make, but so do narative adventures.
To some extend it is not so different then cRPGs - creating believable characters requires handscripting and writing, and that means pre-determined, linear quests. I think almost all cRPG expect players to nicely follow paths set for them for a good experience. As such I don't think playing DA:O feels that much different then playing a cRPG. However, as the game removes player ability to act unless permitted is the point for me. It doesn't present players with situations and asks: What do you do? It asks will you do A or B. For example unless Bioware scripted such a possibility attacking an NPC is not an option. You see I wouldn't call KOTOR a cRPG, and I just see Dragon Age:O as a bigger, more branching KOTOR. Would I dare to say that Dragon Age:O is closer to a jRPG with a lot of branching paths, then a cRPG? Maybe I would, but I don't think I know jRPGs well enough to sign my name under it.
BG3 on the other hand gives a lot agency to the player - the table-top feeling of players deciding what they will do is ever present. The quality and result is a seperate thing - I do think that BG3 is so open, that our choices lack impact. Due to game master being pre-made cRPGs will be by their very nature limited. But I can see how Larian and WotC would thing that this is a great way of translating table-top D&D experience into a computer game. I might even consider Neverwinter Nights a cRPG, but I do consider it more of a toolbox then a game.
Due to game master being pre-made cRPGs will be by their very nature limited.
And that's where I am conflicted, as this limitation could be used to defend Dragon Age: Origins or even Witchers or Mass Effect - afterall, how hard the limitation need to be for the game to move from cRPG, to RPG, to a game with RPG elements. I think at some point it becomes people ways of expressing their experience with the game, rather then academic definition. To me personally, there is a difference is enough to consider Witcher3 and Mass Effects as narrative driven action games/RPG hybrids, and Dragon Age a narrative driven adventure, evoking classic Baldur's Gate RPG. Where's in PoE, as limited as it was, the first test I did is attack the caravan master, and journal entry changed to reflect the choice - and I smiled as it's been a long time since Bioware allowed me to think for myself.
Edit. I also have to say, that I think BG3 goes again a what I would consider a
spirit of a cRPG - stuff, like not really allowing us to characterise our PC well, or choices being more player driven then character driven. In a way I had better roleplaying experience with Pentiment (which is definitely NOT a cRPG or even an RPG) then I did with BG3, but that's stuff I would attribute to game's priority, focus and quality of it's features. BG3's devotion to mutliplayer and origins is not something I will hold against it cRPGness - afterall, tabletop is a multiplayer experience by default and in some ways Larian might be better translating D&D to PC then classing cRPGs (ccRPGs? spcRPGs [single player cRPGs])? Changing structure, and focus doesn't necessarily move genre, but might require clarification - therefore my suggestion for coop cRPG.
