Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General So who is the game ultimately trying to appeal to at this point?

Fans of the originals? Pretty much wrote them off during the earliest days with the turn-based combat, 4-man party and other details, though the densest ones (as in, those who couldn't see as to why some changes were made) would occasionally keep asking "why turn-based?" ever so often even now.

Those who wanted a faithful adaptation of the ruleset? It's been almost 3 years of EA and a month prior to the release we hear of significant changes to the ASIs and multiclassing that are meant to be in line with the "newer" vision of the ruleset but from the outset it seemed like the PHB was the aim. Not to mention that there are still explicitly homebrew things present, there's no attunement, no tools, no languages, and Paladins are all wrong. At least we got Stealth to its somewhat accurate form (but still with the vision cones...).

Classic CRPG fans in general? Things seem to be getting much too streamlined and dumbed down, at least from an outside perspective. It really feels like the mindset of "no choice is a wrong choice" is being pursued here. It's an extreme that's just as unrewarding in the end as "there's only rigidly right and rigidly wrong choices" like in Owlcat games. And the game's cinematic focus may just take away from the cosier storybook-like feel they're supposed to embody. And speaking of Owlcat games, and Solasta - the lack of customizable difficulty settings feels like such an obvious oversight that I am surprised it actually happened.

With how the last PfH and the trailers and now that Kotaku interview look, it really starts to seem like the target demographic has been reduced (or, rather, expanded?) to the least pleasant Bioware fans and not in the least bit perpetually aroused shippers to whom RPGs are glorified dating sims, now complete with an ability to make a futanari they always wanted (because - perhaps I am narrow-minded, but - what other excuse except for a blatant fetish would one have to plaster opposite-sex genitalia on their character whose body is clearly anything but androgynous?) and with an array of pixel blobs to lay at their leisure, including an ability to be a sl... ahem, to be polyamorous.

It's not like it wasn't clear from the outset that the game will have some raunchy content in it, but it's now seemingly being used as the main selling point, because there was barely a different point apart from it and from how the character creator is so powerful as to allow making any kind of self-insert or sexual frustration expression outlet the players want (...while still having a handful of faces per race and no finer customization options for body (apart from what's dangling or not down below) or head...) in the latest promotional material. Why not detail the backgrounds for custom characters? What about being able to pick the city of origin - will everyone still be from BG like in Early Access? What about the Origin characters getting unique backgrounds?

Are those boosted sales really that good of an achievement when the demographic (and the potential future target customers) are going to drag the genre back into the muck it was in during the early-to-middle 10's?

No choice is the wrong choice is the best kind of approach. You might end up down an evil path or a good path or somewhere in the middle but the goal should absolutely be for every ending to feel good and satisfying in its own way. Nothing more annoying than games that treat endings as nothing more than as a measure for how much of the side content you completed or simply as failure states because you didn't select the obviously good choice of the two the two text boxes at the end of the game.

In terms of who this game appeals to...a lot of people, clearly. Because the game is currently 2nd in the best sellers list on steam and the game in 1st is a $15 game, while BG3 is a full price $60 AAA game. I believe Swen also mentioned that the preorders for BG3 are orders of magnitude higher than DOS2 and DOS2 sold enough for Larian to expand to 400 people and fund the development of BG3. I think at the end of the day this will be by far the best RPG ever made with the most agency players ever had in terms of driving the narrative of a game. Most people aren't completely unreasonable about oh this isn't strictly like DND 5e or not being exactly like BG1/2 to the point of not buying the game. A lot of things are different, yes, and you might not like some of those changes, but the game also brings a lot of incredibly good things that the first two games didn't do.

In terms of the sexual content in the game, it's all purely optional. You can simply choose not to romance anyone and you'll never see any of it. There is a lot of choice in this game and you don't have to engage with any of the things you don't like.

The widest audience possible?

You know what sticking to the classic crpg mold gets you? Nothing.

No one's going to remeber solasta or Wotr in 10 years

Baldurs gate broke the mold.

Dragonage broke the mold.

Mass Effect broke the mold

The Witcher III broke the mold.

We still talk about these games because they pushed the entire industry forward, the casted a wider net and became all the more belovid for it.

This game is for


Rpg fans.

Cinematic story fans

Souls like/combat focused fans.

Lgbtqa fans.

Shipping fans.

Dating Sim fans.

Hentai game fans.

D&D fans.

Horror fans.

Adventure/Exploration fans

Gamers.

Why are the triple A studios scared of this game? Because most of their games only do one or two of these.

I am an old school CRPG gamer. Baldur’s Gate is one of my favorite series of all time. From ages 11 to early 20-something I played through BG1 at least once a year (though in many ways BG2 was a pure evolution of the first, BG1 did a few things I appreciate quite a bit that BG2 doesn’t, and I only mention this to show what an absolute nerd I am).

I am a tabletop player. I DM, I paint mini’s, I build campaigns and puzzles and massive dumps of lore that I never even tell my players unless they happen to ask.

I am square, dead center in the key target demographic for this game, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Furthermore, the rings of intersecting demographics around me are great. Lots of people are old school D&D players with all sorts of interests. I don’t care about dating sims, sex scenes, or futanari, but that is some people’s jam, and that’s okay. Anything that gets people interested in D&D is a good thing. It’s a phenomenal game that builds friendships, real life connections, and helps people discover things about themselves they might not have otherwise realized. Everyone who respects others is welcome to join. The more the better.

Yeah i dont like the current direction i feel like the game had more potential 1 pfh ago.


However i still plan to have lots of fun playing bg3 and making the most out of what i like about the game

I never was a fan of larians writing style or even palate choices, but baldurs gate is my all time favourite rpg so i guess iv got a lot of cope?

And have tried to find things to like

Regardless of the things i dislike wich unfortunately is a lot

I still believe there is a good game underneath the combat is fun
The reactivity if not perfect in reacting to every crazy thing you can do is good enough that it encourages you to try new things

The enough diffrent classes i can replay a lot of times and still be intrested, but sadly this is tinged with losing the structure of races because of the stat changes, i dont really play a race for its appearance although it matters fundamentaly that i like the look, i play it like a math simulation and i like to try out combos that effect stat numbers, now everyones numbers are the same bg3 has lost some of what made dnd special for me

I had high hopes for fun and still do

I had hopes this would be my modern all time favourite rpg, and have been left disapointed

I know now it will be a good game i get many hours in, but i had hoped for so much more

Races arnt the same, they get diffren proficiency abilities and weapon bonuses.

I'm a fan of the old BG games, I'm an avid D&D player, I love the older BioWare games and good stories.
I'm excited for this game for many reasons, but mostly the story sounds exciting so far.
I think, like Warlocke, that this game will appeal to a lot of people.
And I'm not bothered by the sex scenes. We all know, that sex sells and I can decide, If I want them in there or not.

I played BG3 with people who usually wouldn't even touch a CRPG with a 10ft pole. They aren't casual players either, they played their fair share of action RPGs, FPS and MOBA. The strength of Larian games over other games in the genre is that they are appealing to people outside the small club of persons who usually play those games.
You might think of the last PFH as some twisted fetishistic thing, but I can assure you that normal people see it as just another game inside the game. I can also assure you that the general public doesn't care about backgrounds for custom characters or city of origin, what they care is seeing and playing a fun game.

I think Larian hit a home run for its modern fan base (casual RPG) or older people that don't mind having a salad bowl mix of everything in their RPGs.

I personaly like my RPGs SIMPLE, restricted, yet deep and more focused. Very much old style. I still play BG1/2 Planescape and old DOS games. There is a charm to the simplicity/restriction of the systems yet the storytelling and atmosphere is still great. The closest modern RPG in that kind of feel that I could of played is Disco Elysium.

BG3 isn't my cup of tea but I get it that people nowdays likes it.

I know it appeals to me and a pretty wide array of my friends, tbh.

I don't get what OP are on about. You don't have to appeal to anybody in specific to make a good game, and people seem very exited for what it is right now. Who cares if its not a perfect copybook of the old baldur's gate game/ruleset if its fun to play

Ummm…as many people as it possibly can …but d&d/rpg enthusiasts are top of the list.

This must be the most wholesome take on BG3 and DnD in general that I've read lately. No seriously, great answer.

Well...it certainly appeals to me a great deal....and I'm an old RPG nerd with decades of gamer history. My first CRPGs were the likes of Dungeon Master, Wizardry 7 and Realms of Arkania. I was there when Fallout came out and when BG1 was the big thing. I played BG2 to exhaustion. And I've been a tabletop GM for longer than that. So, very much both a classic RPG fan and fan of the originals.

Please tell me why BG3 wouldn't appeal to me?

Turn-based combat? Not my first choice but that's just game mechanics. If it works, I'll deal with it. I certainly do have concerns about it (See my thread about incentivizing ambushes too much) but I'm reasonably certain I'll be able to make it work for me. If you're an old CRPG gamer, you absolutely should be able to adapt to it!

Being unfaithful to a specific ruleset? Man, I''ve played so many rulesets, believe me: rulesets are completely irrelevant for roleplaying. It would take effort, but BG3 could be translated into a different ruleset with all of the world's lore, its characters and stories intact. So rulesets might be more important in a CRPG than in tabletop, since you can't deviate from them if necessary, but they're still secondary. What counts is the world and its lore, the characters, and the stories. And in that regard, I am quite excited about BG3.

Banging the bear? I won't do it and it's likely to be five seconds in a game of 200 hours. So what? Why the heck should I care that the game has a few seconds of content that does not interest me?

Romance in general? I'm generally critical of people who place too much importance on this element, but I do like it's there and I occasionally engage with it to great satisfaction. Most romance scenes in games make me laugh but I don't have any objection. And by what we've seem of BG3 this might actually be quite good.

So is the game for people like me? Yes, it absolutely is. And if it is not *only* for people like me: that's very, very good!

I just hope the game sells more and more copies. Money speaks.
If other developers see that making really good CRPGs, with good story, complexity, great sound, music, VA, player agency etc then it can only encourage them to excel in the games that they are working on.

People who are not that fundamental about game ideology but like an interesting and good looking CRPG? I'm not a BG or a DnD player and so I don't care how BGx was or not. I don't like several aspects of BG3, like no visual shields and sheaths, the camera angle, overdone shoving, too many magical items, the water nuke, Haste, the new tadpole ability tree, some character visuals, to name a few, nevertheless I think the game will be a great experience and I would buy it asap if I hadn't bought it years ago.

People who like turn based rpgs who don’t have hyper specific requirements about it being exactly the same as a 25 year old game or a 40 year old rule set designed for a different experience entirely. If you compare the sales of this to Pillars 2 that’s obviously a good idea.

Okay, my patience is getting a bit thin, so any thread not at least started with a basic level of constructive intent, consideration for others and recognition, where relevant, that this is a global, diverse community is getting locked.

Including this one, for its implication that polyamoury is sluttish and apparent rude dismissiveness about trans representation (that I might have put down to accident and ignorance had the OP not already made clear their attitudes previously). These forums are a safe, friendly space for everyone interested in the game no matter their sexual orientation, gender identity or preferred romantic or sexual configurations, and making them so means that those of us who, for whatever reason, are inclined to be judgemental about others' lifestyles need to quash the urge to tout it about here.

The OP is welcome to try starting the thread again without those elements and a generally more constructive approach.