Okay here's the part where I'm going to sound like an old man or a dad or whatever but you're lucky you know we would be lucky back in our day you know before the internet cutting edge graphics Etc.
You speak as if it all came by itself. As if the Eru the Iluvatar gave us games, the Internet, graphics, etc.
Many people are involved in the process, in the game, in the production of mods, in fan fiction - and there are also people who play this game, but are developers of other games.
If I was in the Larian team, it would be very important for me to know what the players' assessment of the work I did.
There is a difference between "this is a bad game" and "this game is not bad, but it could be better, and I'll tell you what to do for this"
If there is no feedback, the developers' mistakes will be repeated from time to time.
Games that no one fixes are doomed to be unpopular.
By the way, a modern game is a constructor, like lego. It consists of an engine (everything is fine with it) and individual elements, which are not as difficult to edit as it might seem. You can take a different 3d model or a different texture, reassign the link - and the game will pick up the change without difficulty. Adding a new character is not so difficult. If there is already a plot for it, then the longest and most difficult is the animation of cut scenes. It may take several days. Larian showed that they have enough good specialists to produce cinematics. Therefore, adding one companion is two weeks of unhurried work, maximum. Based on the adaptation of the model, textures for a unique character, writing a grid of dialogues, introducing a number of characters for an individual quest, etc.
It would have been difficult in 1996. It would be difficult for an indie developer. It would be difficult if many new locations and hundreds of characters were required (DLC). One companion is not difficult.
