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

I'm not even sure if that would or should be a Cleric of Shar's reaction to such a deed re: The Dark Urge killing Gale.

Larian's writing is still the worst part of all of this to me. Watching the PFH footage, I can tell the story is still absolutely sewer water.

The most cringeworthy part of the whole panel to me wasn't some comically framed sex scene, it was when Dragonborn Tav's horns totally blocked Karlach from camera when they were talking about going on a date.

Don't forget Shadowheart's head and neck floating above her armour completely detached with background showing though the gap behind, Sozz ^.^ Very professional-looking.

You've expressed it very well, it's really good to know I'm not alone in feeling this way about Larian. I mourn the BG3 we could've had if Obsidian or Owlcat had taken up the mantle instead on this kind of budget.

I wish I could say no, but I'm afraid this is exactly what playing the game felt like to me. When I recently returned to it after years the first thread I made here on this forum was about the stealth system. In only about two hours of playing this one broken mechanic completely ruined my desire to further engage with combat, because why bother when it can be completely circumvented by one character with a bow and zero effort? The writing wasn't any better. The whole story opening with a tentacled spaceship flying through hell, with mind-flayers, devils, dragons and the protagonist falling from the sky - so much spectacle before anything really happens. I was intrigued by Lae'zel at first and looked forward to her playing the role of the soldier from an alien culture, serious and abrasive but measured and pragmatic, like Regill from Pathfinder WotR or Sten from Dragon Age Origins. Then in the first conversation I have with her she begins insulting my nose like some petty teenager. Maybe I'm focusing on the wrong things and being too negative, but I can't help it, this is the genuine impression the game has left on me.

Larian didn't have to go there. No one asked them to. But they decided to spend resources on such scenes anyway.

Maybe it's a clever marketing plan. Most of the marketing / PFH was focused on sex and romance. So I guess that's what the majority of players are into in 2023. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I'd prefer solid gameplay over this video game cyber romance fluff any day. With or without animals, watching Larian's explicit sex scenes mostly just makes me embarrassed for them. It's game porn. For storytelling it would be more impactful to leave most things for player imagination.

Agreed. Through the whole EA I had like 20 playthrough and only did romance twice, one with Shadowheart and another with Wyll, because they had the least cringey dialogue lines. We live in the age of internet, a lot of people basically live online and forget what the human interaction between partners looks like. May be those are the target audience.

Always find it extremely funny the overreaction to sexual content.
The same people don't bat an eyelid for the huge amount of humanoids we get to kill in bg3.

I found the scene hilarious.

Wasent asked to go there ?... lol... Im fairly sure Sven and team new exctly what they wanted to do from the start and have since the start of this project... As stated, Sven directly tells us one of the main themes is allowing the players to have choices and to wrestle with darker aspects of humanity, game is even labeled ERSB 17 M with strong sexual content, and we have known for years Larian was taking this path... And priorities, its baffling to me, that they allow us the choise to murder hobo a entire city with children and all... but your hang up is consenting adults having sex, so yea, priorities lol...

And the flaming continues.

Do you care that people can murder a whole city including children? I think not.

Face it your just a troll twisting peoples words and intent.

what people wanted from BG3 was a chance to play a paragon play-through, have civil companions.

Larion put its deepest efforts into playing as a psychopath and even made a character dedicated to it.


No Aurora42, I suspect that your the one who gets off on killing woman and children.

And you can play a very civil play through, in fact, of most RPGs i played in a long time, your choices in BG3 matters alot... if you choose to be good, civil and nice, you can actually not only avoid most combat by simply talking yourself out of it... and to my knowledge the scenes of asexual nature can be avoided...

And i havent attacked or flamed anyone, its you that is name calling people... but if people post on a forum, i will debate and argue their statements... now are you going to stand by your stance of going down the path of calling me a troll, just couse i have a diffrent opinion then you ?... and do you think calling me a troll, makes your case or argument any better ?... here is a kind advise, debate the argument not the person behind that same argument... thank you !

Arguing in bad faith and trying to antagonize those who do not share your opinion sure is a key characteristic of a virtous paragon

What people wanted from BG3 may vary a lot depending on who you ask, you might want to play as a hero, but some people might want to burn a couple villages and kick a few squirrels, the idea of following an evil path in video games is nothing new, in fact it was already a possibility in both BG1 and BG2.

Roleplaying an evil character doesn't make you an evil person, videogames aren't real life.

If you trolled unintentionally, then be aware that you inferred that people in this thread don't care about inappropriate violence.

Personally that was the most disturbing thing on the PFH. In good faith I purchased BG3, not silent Hill.

I would be, at this point, ashamed to admit I play this game to my coworkers.



As far a sex goes, I think everyone should go in the closet. I really don't care if some one wants to bugger a bear, go to the woods pretty please.

There is this trend in the world that says "It's my right to have any sex I want, and I'm gonna make you watch".

This brings up the greatest offense of all: Larian brought politics into my game!

This is supposed to be recreation, and they have sullied that with their political agenda!


That PFH was completely disrespectful and totally unnecessary. They gave two middle fingers to the world with their political statement, and embarrassed the entire community.

Those that wanted evil options got them in spades, so be happy. They did not need to be thrown in the worlds face, or mine.

I didn't get the cool options I wanted.

Let people vent and leave them alone. If you don't like a post then ignore it.

Okay, I'm still trying to finish spilling the beans from my experience in Ghent and am not able yet to pay proper attention to what's going on in the rest of the forums, so I'm not sure what all the context to these last posts is but they're giving me cause for concern.

We are all entitled to our own views on the game and to be able to express them, but we need to refrain from making it personal and do our best especially when discussing potentially emotive and controversial topics to avoid turning discussions and differences of opinion into arguments.

It's going to take me a while to properly review this thread and the others going on and catch up properly on the discussions, but in the meantime I'm going to just ask everyone to help me out and PM me if there's anything that gives you any concern about the ways discussions are progressing (given the bug with post reports not coming directly to me that I mentioned in another thread).

And fair warning that any post I receive more than one complaint about is just going to get locked until I've had chance to properly review it!

Gonna repost this comment in an attempt to get people discussing the substance of the arguments instead of flaming:

I think I am seeing two strains of thought, philosophically, in this chat and I think we can focus more on the forms of the arguments than on arguing with each other:

On the one hand, this makes sense WITHIN the universe it occurs and is NOT AT ALL bestiality WITHIN the universe it occurs, given it occurs between two consenting adults under temporary magical conditions.

On the other hand, from OUTSIDE the universe WITHIN our OWN universe, it is unarguably a portrayal of a serious sexual taboo in its APPEARANCE at the very least.

Can we agree on that point?

(For example, if I were playing the game in a concrete bunker with no outside world, and fully immersed in the game, there would be absolutely no problem with what was shown because it truly makes sense in context. When placed in the context of our world completely separated from the game, however, it shows IMAGERY which can be thought of as an allusion to an illegal taboo.)

Edit:
Further, I would apply this rule to vivid depictions of violence, torture, and general illegal or immoral activity. In the context of the world of the game, it may be very sensible. In the context of the world beyond the game, at least as far as IMAGERY is concerned in its details, it can be difficult to explain.

Edit 2:
However, adults can distinguish between the contexts of the game and the real world, and most adults can distinguish between right and wrong, so I would not call any of these depictions justifications, rationalizations, or "titillations" of their real world counterparts.

Me too.

I actually ran an enjoyable TT club at school with older students last term. Can't continue due to scheduling, but I would not want parents to draw a connection. There's now a 2nd reason to discontinue.

That's the thing though, if you can't openly talk about an aspect of your hobby, something's not right. PFH crossed a line there. It's not the game that's the issue, that stuff is buried for players to discover, it was the PFH coverage.

That said, I really don't want to dwell on it. Creative endeavours push limits and cross lines occasionally. I'm too excited for BG3 and the Karlach date looked wonderful.

Wait, you were there ?
I'll definitely apply to be a moderator too for BG4

Did you talk to them about my issue ?
(that's not a serious question, I know you haven't haha)

I have a feeling Red Queen puts in a lot of work moderating this forum judging by her activity. Careful what you wish for.

Of course, Larian is creating a world scene for us... and as Sven told us, they want to give us choise, and that choise allow us to in this case do rather unspeakable things, and or good ones... and as i stated earlier, i dont know any RPG like this where you can avoid and actually have a as peacefull diplomatic path, alsmost all encounters can in some way be mitigated, again key word choise... and there is alot of possible choises in BG3 i disagree with and would never take, but i aprichiate that they are there, as that allows the spectrum of choises to be more immersive...

As i said earlier, Larian and the creators have every right to create a story of their choosing, good and evil, dark and light, etc... i as a consumer have to decide is this a product for me, and that takes me back to choise... i played and tested EA for so many hours, and even i know we can slougther the entire druid grove, or that we can get intimate with some of the companions, its allways my choise where and how far i take this... isnt choise a good thing ?, my problem with some of your posts, is that you make it out like your forced to endure these things, like you dont havea choise...

Then as for posts, these forums is for Larian to hear our voices, and opinions, if you state something, i will agree, argue or debate it depending, as i exepct people do with what i say... but i will never call a person a troll based on their opinions, their just as right as i am... even if we disagree... ultimatly its up to larian to listen, and they do have made little tweaks upon what we said... but that being said, i doubt choise is going to go away, or that BG3 is a ERSB 17M with strong sexual content, and blood and gore...

Thank you, and if we dont agree we can allways agree to disagree

I honestly don't get this argument.

Because an individual or group of people thinks something is revolting or unacceptable, they should just opt out instead of requesting its removal?

With that kind of principle, how on Earth could any legislative body have any legitimacy in make anything illegal on the basis of morality if it's entirely dependent upon the individual's subjective ethics whether or not to participate in the transgression?

"If you don't want to watch kiddy p*** on the internet, just don't actively choose it."

The killing of innocent children isn't presented as some fluffy feel-good romantic thing to do. People who would choose to do that are generally conscious of the fact that they're roleplaying an act of evil.

But Astarion and Halsin aren't presented or perceived as evil or morally deficient for that little escapade which at the least could be called morally dubious.

It's because of this framing that this, unlike the killing of innocent children, contributes to moral subversion, especially with people who already have frail ethics as it is.



That scene was cringe as hell, and it has nothing to do with people being prudes as some would say.

However, I would not categorically dismiss this romance option to be present in the game (I find romance options overrated by the way, not restricted enough, and the related pornographic content completely unnecessary), if in the Forgotten Realms it is somehow not frowned upon (I hope it is). And if it is, has negative consequences with the rest of the world (if caught in the act), including companions who would be intolerant to such behaviour and at least show some moral boundaries pertaining to the field of sexual perversities instead of this modern 'anything goes'-mentality when it comes to "love" and sex.

While I was uncomfortable with the scene, art has historically played the role of the conceptually transgressive. When we remind ourselves that this is not only Larian's product, but also Larian's artpiece on choices and decision-making, we can see that there is more room for nuance in discussion of an event within a fantastical world.