Originally Posted by night lunatic
Originally Posted by fylimar
But if you go into the feedback section on Larian Discord, most suggestions are dealing with romance stuff: more kisses, more hugs, different romance ending with Halsin/Astarion/Karlach/Whoever, more sex scenes... It never ends
I brought up Dragon Age as an example of dating sims gone wrong. If anyone remembers when DA2 came out and it was being criticized non-stop the Bioware forums were simply the thirst lords shielding Bioware from any sort of criticism or constructive feedback. IMO, it's one of the big reasons that Bioware went downhill over time. You simply cannot cater towards them because every time you do you end up with a worse product. Just look at Halsin.

Also,, lot of the companion stuff is locked behind the romances making the friendship route feel meh. I really dislike is how this game doesn't have the "RPG Bro". The Eder, Iorveth/Roche, Garrus, Alistair...etc type of friendship is simply missing in this game.

Originally Posted by Jordaker
You can also read the writing on the wall with the BG3 mods over on Nexus - for every 5e/RAW or QoL mod there are a dozen cosmetic mods. Sadly, I think that this is the fate of RPGs - maybe we should retaliate by joining SIMS fora demanding more tactical combat.

Yeah, compare it to Skyrim/Oblivion mods for every sex mod there is like ten combat overhaul, quest, spell, and town mods.

Originally Posted by Jordaker
Owlcat are still flying the flag for RPGs - WH40K Rogue Trader is a blast.

Here's where we disagree though. Owlcat games are just bloat and the writing is awful in every sense, from dialogue to companions. Did you reach act 3? The decision a certain character makes is so unbelievably stupid it makes no sense in the 40k lore. Also, whoever wrote that Linzi stuff in Kingmaker should be fired.

So I didn't want to weigh in on the "dating sim" argument because I think it's dumb, but I just have to speak up about it now. I think you're wrong, I think you are entirely wrong on this topic. I see the argument you're making but I think conflating this game with being a dating sim is entirely off base and I honestly think that the argument in general, not just yours, is overblown. Who exactly is this "dating sim crowd" that people are talking about? Furthermore, whatever problems DA2 had, romance was not one of them. I think those characters are absolutely brilliant, and as a whole they're one of the best realized party's in any game I've played.

I agree that the relationship writing in BG3 can get clumsy and the friendship routes aren't as well-realised as they could be, but it's not pandering to some imaginery thirst crowd that's just sitting waiting to corrupt rpgs. And finally, I entirely disagree with you about Owlcat games. Their writing is leagues better than what we have in BG3 certainly. They're not perfect, but they're pretty damn solid, and their overall story and plotting is good. I haven't played rogue trader yet since I'm not a fan of 40K, so maybe there's a problem there, but I'd take their games over BG3 any day.