Originally Posted by JandK
Originally Posted by Lake Plisko
You guys realize there are more characters and ideas than just...

Completely unskilled nobody with a hand axe vs. nuclear bomb implanted in your chest by a god/demon because you tried to steal their power/sold your soul to them...

Right?

Of course people understand that.

I think the point is, once you start applying skill, muscles, looks, weapons, abilities... there's a natural inclination toward power creep.

This little thing then that thing. Oh, and maybe it would be cool if...

*

And then you're competing against all the cool ideas everyone else had at the company meeting.

You're in a writing room. Folks are pitching their idea for a new origin character.

You have this really swell idea for a character. Well thought out, interesting person.

But Bobby-Boy, your competition for next week's promotion, is pushing for his idea. He wants folks to play a demi-god with an entire shadow plane of existence buried in his chest.

There's even some talk about putting together a focus group of players to test Bobby-Boy's character idea versus yours. They're looking to see which idea the focus group has more fun with.

How do you think you do?

I think game directors and writers are capable of having restraint, as well as focusing on making a good game as opposed to a theme park ride. And I am not saying Baldur's Gate 3 will be a bad game, I actually think it is going to be a great game. Hell, it might end up being the best RPG ever made.

But if what you are saying is true then every game would end up as an over the top thrill ride. In The Witcher 3 Geralt wouldn't have just been a Witcher, suddenly he would have even more magical superpowers because that could make combat more fun if he was hurling fireballs everywhere and had the skills of a sorceress, right? And they would reveal that Triss' heart was actually a dying star that could explode at any moment if Geralt chooses Yen over her - then she would destroy the whole city she was in. And Yennefer would actually be an alien from a different planet sent on a secret mission to do some random who knows what or whatever else. Ciri being who she is would have lost a lot of its value and impact if everyone else was also some crazy 'child of destiny' along side her.

Game of Thrones is another good example. Some of the characters who are the least powerful in terms of physical ability, stature and strength ended up being the most popular due to their personality, wit and ability to punch up in the world. That show and the books would have been awful if suddenly everyone had a claim to dragons or other magical creatures just as powerful or had magical superpowers that ended up rivaling them.

The point being...

Great fiction doesn't always have to be over the top. Not every character needs some outrageous backstory like the origin characters have. Characters can have great stories that are far more 'normal'. I get the allure of it. I even think the origin characters are, for the most part, really great. Larian could just do with blending in a bit more grounded stuff so that not everything you are encountering is completely out of control. When everything is over the top, then it all starts to lose its impact.