We all have heard the controversy shortly before the release of BG3 when other game studios dissed BG3. But now that I look at the game and the reactions to it, I fear they were in some way right, but for different reasons.
BG3 obviously has problems. Act 3 is a mess, its full of bugs and even the story and characters are not all that great. But nothing of that matters. Why? Because nearly everyone is talking about sex and are simping for the companions. So what does that tell other developers? That they just need to add sex and characters specifically made for sex appeal and "attractiveness", checking off various preferences on a list and they are good. No need to invest much resources in writing and storytelling. This will sadly be the near future of RPGs. Sure there will still be PG13 RPGs without sex (although they too will likely create their NPCs in a way to allow for simping/thirsting) but the flagship AAA RPGs will probably all go into this direction.
What worries me more about bg3 is that alot of people might try out dnd. Only to discover that half of the game follows Larians house rules and not the dnd rules set.
Getting more people in the hobby is great. But not like this. They would basicly be lured in with fake promises. False advertisement, if you will.
And the main problem is also because they changed SO MUCH. No single aspect of the game is free of changes. You couldnt pick up dnd from playing bg3 a few times. Because youd have to go back to square 1 on most things.
So yeah I do think bg3 might do damage but not in the way OP meant.
