Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback PFH reveal feedback.

I am actually sure that with the amount of options BG3 has, it will be possible to have a completely serious playthrough, if someone wants one.

I cannot believe I'm expressing the opinion that explicit bestiality or paedophilia is not fine in a videogame and there's people pushing back because it's 'just a joke'. Consenting adult? Give me a break. People enjoying consensual sex between adults is exactly NOT who this caters to, this should be patently obvious. I am not offended, I am appalled, it made my stomach turn and I'm very sad this is going to be something people associate with the name Baldur's Gate. Larian absolutely doesn't deserve you bending over backwards for them on this.

I cant believe i have to explain to an adult(i pressume?) that someone dressing up as a bear is not bestiality. Not to mention the fact that it's animated, so even if it depicted a "real" bear it still wouldn't be.

So you're okay with people being able to murder everyone they meet in game, including children and squirrels, but are offended because they showed a scene where an elvish vampire spawn can have sex with a sentient Druid shapeshifted into animal form.

In both cases you of course can choose, in your play-throughs, to have your character not murder children nor squirrels and you can choose not to have your character have sex with a sentient Druid shapeshifted into an animal.

Perhaps your time would be best spent examining why the first doesn't offend you but the second one does.

I'd be glad to discuss and clarify myself, but not to someone condescending to me. Explaining why magical shapeshifting isn't equatable to a fursuit would be patronizing of me.

I didn't mean to be condesending, but yes it is exactly the same thing. It's just that since the forgotten realms have magic, their fursuits are much more real than the ones you can get a hold of. The reason bestialty is bad is because they can't consent, halsin can in his beast form.

The thing is it isn't about catering nor is it trying to, it is about telling a mature richly expansive unrestrained story for the purpose of adventuring, having fun and bringing Faerun to life, which happens to be simultaneously uplifting and horrific, serious and lighthearted. It is about richly portraying what life in Faerun is like and not what life in Faerun should be like according to sensitive Internet people who clearly don't know the world nor lore. It makes the world feel alive and immersive by having such a wide range of choices.

Are you aware that you can slaughter innocent children in this game and that your character can be roleplayed as an immoral monster without any remorse that actually enjoys it while doing so? According to your logic, this is catering to people fantasizing about sadistic acts upon children. But that ain't true... the truth is so much simpler; it is just a story trying to portray the wide variety of life in Faerun as much as possible by covering as many bases as possible to make it as believable as possible.

Don't want to witness appalling things? Then simply don't make bad choices leading to appalling things and leave the real-world moral pretense out of it. That simple. This ain't a fairytale, but it also ain't a horror show either. It is a mature fantasy world where actions produce reactions and everything can go good or bad. It will be what you make it be.

Absolutely. From a storytelling point of view, it would possibly be weird if this wasn't an option.

Premise 1: characters in this game can have sex
Premise 2: characters in this game can be druids who can shapeshift into animal form

Can druids in animal form have sex? If not, why? I think the closest you could get to a meaningful answer to that would be to say that in their animal form they lose the capacity to consent, but that has huge problems wrt them making choices in combat

If both above premises are correct, you need a better reason for not having sex in animal form than "it squicks some people"

Yes, I see what you mean here - the purpose is the same. I just don't think it's the same thing at all even if the purpose is. Physically transforming into a bear is not the same as a costume. As far as I'm concerned that's a "real" bear that sodomized Astarion, which fits the definition of bestiality. In my opinion the fact that it's bestiality but without the moral baggage makes it more problematic, not less. Reminds me of the born sexy yesterday trope, just in reverse.

While I think your reasoning is sound, I'd prefer not to talk about the morality of evil in BG3 here because I'd inevitably start talking about my issues with Larian writing in general, the Dark Urge and other things that would derail us off topic. I'll just say that offering evil choices in games is fine because it's made abundantly clear that they're morally wrong, whereas this scene portrays sex with a bear as a wholesome romantic interaction. It brings to life a fantasy where shagging an animal is moral, which I find problematic. There's areas where Larian approaches this well, such as goblins being very humanized instead of just disposable monsters. This isn't such a case imo, but I get that it's not an opinion that everyone shares.

I completely concede that involving a bear sex scene wasn't about intentionally catering to zoophiles on Larian's part, that's just an unfortunate side effect. But it's absolutely not about building a more rich and mature world either. Baldur's Gate 1&2 built a rich world without druids engaging in bestiality, so did Icewind Dale, the books by Salvatore and others. This has been about one thing and one thing only - Larian gaining publicity by stirring up some ponds. They knew exactly what they were doing when they pitched that scene, approved it, implemented it and decided to present it publicly as one of the few highlights of their massive game. It has nothing to do with worldbuilding and lore, it was intended to be provocative and edgy and I consider that to be very low on their part.


One final thing to add - if there's nothing explicit in the game, I'll shut up and try to have fun.

I think alot of people in this thread should go back and listen to Svens talking a explaining how this game, will challange people with darker aspects of humanity, and how we the players choose to handle it... and both Sven and the game warns you, ERSB 17 M rated...

I can understand that people have opinions but im sorta flabber gasted, there is plenty of books and movies created handing these darker aspects, are you saying we should deny the free speech ?... i can understand this isnt for everyone, nothing wrong with that, but like alot of things in life, very few games is ERSB 17 M rated, and there is plenty of other games... you dont like that movie couse its M rated, well dont watch it...

And we all know that the game would include these things, its been debated for years, i even necroed a thread about what some claim is cartoon porn... well, is it ?... again some things are M rated !

Again, as i wrote above, go look at that part of the presentation yesterday, where Sven talks about the game, they want us to battle these darker aspects, they want these things to be part of the game, they want it to be part of choises, and its up to us if we give in to these morally darker urges... and as such the game is also M rated... right or wrong, well im not going to argue how someone chooses to write a book, make a movie or a game, its their creation... i as a consumer can either play it or not...

and again we known these darker things would be part of the game as we been more the aware of them in the EA, hell there is a thread debating "cartoon porn" thats two years old ?!?!

Well, BG3 in general seem to be a joke - including gameplay design. Who is the punchline? Characters? Players? Twitch streamers? Twitch viewers?

I know comedy is subjective, but I don’t appreciate Larian’s humor - it reminds me of a teenager making a crass jokes. It’s just embarrassing.

Except everyone in the audience wanted to see exactly what would happen and they all laughed at it and were thrilled to see the variety of choices. So is it Larian intentionally trying to be "edgy & provocative" or did they simply show the wide variety of wild choices by giving people exactly what they were yelling for. I personally couldn't stop laughing during this segment and the squirrel at the end utterly killed me, it was brilliant.

If they wanted to be provocative and edgy, they could have simply shown Dark Urge dismembering a live child and eating its limbs while it's still breathing so that dumbass Kotaku can write another anti-white article about the game. So sorry to say, but I disagree with your mindset which you're trying to justify when the actual reality of things is entirely different from it. I do not think there is a single person romancing Halsin that would not be even slightly curious about all of the choices presented just for the sake of seeing how far the story could go.

Yup, only person making sense here. 100% agree.
The sex is a joke. Agree or disagree with it, its just to my eyes incredibly silly looking and over acted. Trademark Larian comedy. Was it designed to turn on pre-teens?
So I'd rather not have it (in its current form) in my Baldur's Gate D&D game.
I can skip it?
Swell.
Too bad its overstated everywhere , like trying to ignore a naked oily body builder at the airport.

Yes there will be a modesty filter... probably sohuld be explained what exctly this will do...

Then I'll simply have to agree with @Wormerine above that Larian's juvenile humor is just not for me. Plus, I see Sven yelling "this is all your choice" as an embarrassing attempt to throw us off. THEY made the creative choice to put that in the game when they absolutely didn't have to and the Forgotten Realms wouldn't have been any poorer for it, and THEY chose to present it to an audience where most people picking the craziest option is a safe assumption.
It's not presented as a dark urge but as a wholesome thing. I mean, fair enough, it's their free creative choice, as repulsive and underhandedly presented as it is.

To make a example, if you walk into a store and see a frying pan, will you call the staff and tell them to change the design couse it dosent suit you ?... no matter how vulgar or silly the frying pan is, its the creators choise... and if its a M rated frying pan, i guess it does lued things... but i think you get the point...

Now, that being said, i know all thse dark, silly, lued things exist in the world, as it ispart of a universe that have vile gods, succubusses in lore, and all kind of lore supporting it... and i will try navigate the game while playing it, not turning into the monster, or allow myself to give in to temptation or other forms of desires... Sven even directly states this is one of the main aspects they want us to fight in the game, its our choise to make as its part of the lore and verse... tell me if it wasent part of the game how do you allow people to fight these urges ?

No, but if I pay in advance for a frying pan, it gets delivered to me three years later and I only then find out there is a tasteful drawing of a man getting f*cked in the ass by a bear on the handle, I'll have a chuckle and then probably ask for a refund.

You know, that other thread that got necroed, called cartoon porn thats a few years old... its no secret that these things would be in the game as they been in EA more or less since the start... and so has the ERSB 17 M rating ?

and EAs is allways a risk... hell some games wont even make it to the shop...

To be completely fair, I had no idea you could kill children in the game. The only scene I saw that there was possible child death was the Kahgra(sp) scene and I spent a fair amount of time reloading to make sure the little girl didn't die. I am 100% not at all ok with children being killed and didn't know this was an issue in the game. I don't think this should be ok either.

Either way, this is a forum for feedback. This is my feedback. I highly doubt Larian will do much with it now. It is what it is. I wont' be playing the game. I'm not interested in exploring the darker sides of humanity, I can read the news if I want to do that. I was interested in playing a compelling and well crafted RPG video game that would draw the excitement of adventure, fun, and fear. I had played Divinity II and saw a darker tone being promoted in that game, but maybe the topdown / more cartoony aspect of the game provided a distance that didn't cause such a reaction in me personally.

Also, I do not take any of this as a joke, considering they've spent 10s-100s of millions of dollars to produce this content. If Larian wants to produce a 10s-100s of millions of dollars joke, then so be it, but I'm giving the game the due respect it seems to be asking from me.

It is what it is. I wish I had known what this game was going to be when I purchased it. I was on the side of excitement for this game before the panel. I'm not now. That's my feedback for Larian.