Some of the posts on this page got RPG history backwards.
Dumbing things down / "streamlining" had been the name of the game ever since the early to mid 2000s, safe for a couple tiny indies (Spiderweb with Jeff Vogel et all). No genre had been as fucked with as RPGs, numerous studios and major publishers closing for good prior. Even Immersive Sims at least had Arkane... The few remaining RPG studios meanwhile did everything they could to hide that they were actually still in the business of still making RPGs. Targeting crowds who'd prior never touched one before.
This only ever turned around when Kickstarter and digital distribution rolled around. Which Larian were a part of... and which lead to BG3. So for BG3 to occupy the spot somewhere in between is actually kind of providing the transition games that have been missing all along. Bioware et all stopped making even stuff like Kotor or Dragon Age Origins, which were basically baby's first RPGs (the original Baldur's Gate had hardly been a hardcore RPG to begin with).
Originally Posted by Thunderbolt
I am curious to see where Owlcat goes from here.
I'd love them to target quality over quantity for once. With three huge games in the space of but five years plus countless DLC, they are basically the assembly liners of CRPGs, and it shows in all aspects including quality of content. But it seems part of their business to keep pumping out releases like that so that they have new stuff on the shelves at all times generating income. But that's a bit OT.
