Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback WOW so Baldur's Gate has gone from fun GAMe to borderline cartoon porn?

I’m finding it harder to keep my mouth shut on this thread now I’ve broken my silence once, and am going to give in to temptation and make one more post before zipping it again.

I am in favour of there being an easy way to skip extended explicit sex scenes, and would certainly make use of such a function myself if such scenes are as wonkily animated and jarringly out of character for my custom MCs as I fear they will be (but will be delighted, though astonished, if Larian find a way to implement such scenes in a way that I would find convincing and engaging).

But the ability to censor every instance of nudity, vulgarity and swearing in the game seems a much bigger ask, just because those are a significant part of the way Larian seem to be envisaging the world the game is set in. Of course they didn’t need to go in this direction, and a cleaner, more family-friendly interpretation of the Sword Coast would no doubt have better suited many gamers, but I for one am glad of the artistic direction they have taken and would be disappointed to see them compromise on it, even if I wish they’d implement it slightly more subtly sometimes.

I wouldn’t tend to roleplay a crude, sweary character myself, but I find it realistic and interesting that even the purest paladin I might want to play would need to navigate a world in which they have to interact with such characters. In fact, I think one of the biggest triumphs of Early Access is the portrayal of the goblins, who are so irredeemably rude, vulgar and awful but nevertheless clearly people. I don’t think the impact they have could have been achieved in a game that was worrying about its players being exposed to vulgar content. And while I don’t have any objection in principle to Larian offering a censorship option for such content, I hope that they don’t shy away from producing a game in which such an option would be difficult, expensive, intrusive and immersion-breaking.

I’m not happy that this would no doubt alienate some gamers, I wish everyone could appreciate the darker, dirtier, raunchier world that Larian seem to be aiming for and it will be sad if some people who would otherwise have enjoyed a BG game feel excluded by its aesthetic in this area. But given that I think the game would be far less to my taste if it were good, clean family fun, I reserve the right to be pleased that Larian’s artistic vision seems on the whole, though not universally, to be in line with my own preferences!

With respect to nakedness outside of sex scenes, I have no problem with this as long as it seems appropriate in context and is not blatantly salacious. And as long as the same approach is taken to all genders, rather than there being female but not male nudity. Done correctly, I would find seeing some nudity far more realistic and less startling than seeing everyone with naughty bits conveniently and somewhat implausibly covered up. I personally wouldn’t use an option to censor nudity, as opposed to extended sex scenes, were one offered.