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.
Ehhh....I mean I have complained LOUDLY about some of Larian's (ill considered) homebrew choices (HASTE SHOULD NOT WORK LIKE THAT IN PARTICULAR), but I think some of their OTHER homebrew choices have actually been good. Even though I am a wizard main who LOVES CC spells, I actually agree with some of their CC nerfs (although I would not have nerfed them down to 2 turns from 10, that seems a bit harsh, particularly with how easy they also made it to wake up sleeping characters...). And I think the different weapon actions are genuinely fun. (I think a ot of the problem is actually down to absurdly unbalanced gear that they give you, along with the tons of superpowered consumables). I definitely don't think BG3 is so alien that people would be completely unfamiliar with 5e if they tried it out.
