Originally Posted by Ixal
Of course it was delibetate.
Larian realized that they had a broken, disjointed mess at their hands and decided instead of trying to deliver a epic adventure like BG1/2 did to go for the lowest common denominator. That meant both removing all consequences for your action (tadpoles, which required complete story rewrites to shove the Emperor in last minute) and putting sex front and center.

Both in marketing, the prominently placed bear sex scenes, the constant mentioning of the possibility of sex in interviews, highlighting that they used intimacy coordinators despite the result not really warranting them, the rather useless genital customization that got highlighted, and so on.
And in the game, often to the detriment of gameplay and story, by rewriting characters to be more bland, "waifu" and most importantly, willing, by basing their characters on the common visual novel templates and Twilight novels, adding some more side sex scenes and pillow talk which in its worst cases devalues otherwise interesting characters like Rafael and also basing the choice of companions to implement not on what would be best for the game, a new class or race for example, but one who the EA players thirsted for the most with the only content added being aggressive polygamy.

And the sadest thing is, it worked. BG3 gets praised to no end, not because its a good BG game with a story worthy of its name and impeccable mechanics, but because the aggressive sex marketing drew in lots of people with no interest in RPGs and no frame of reference about its quality who are only interested in Astarion/Shadowheart being hot while shouting over any requests for improvements to the actual game and story with demands for more kisses! and sex with Driders/other character!

I completely agree with you, just with every word.

Sex is shoved wherever it can be, zoophilia, illithidophilia, threesomes, brothels. Yes, I appreciate romantic story lines in games. But romantic story lines with a well-written plot and aggressive polygamy are, after all, different things. It was very sad to learn that BG3 was originally intended to be a normal classic RPG with a single companion romance. It feels like it's now a dating simulator where everyone around you is out to get Tav. Or a sex store, rather than an RPG where you're encouraged to pick out items to taste. No roleplaying, immersion, much less sincere and deep attachment to a companion character is out of the question. Just choose your "department" and "product". For example, Astarion, after Ascension, now becomes a "product" for those who like to be strangled on their knees, shoved and punched in the face. It's okay that among the players who choose this path, there are a lot of players who just hate this content or are even traumatized by these scenes.I'm not talking about the damage it does to the story, so much so that it becomes physically impossible to play. It truly angers me that I could have avoided every possible perversion in this game as much as I wanted (ew, gross, okay, nonsense, no one's forcing me, that's how I thought of it all before), but still I was just forcefully shoved into the perversion, with no choice, forced to experience it all. "Oh, there's a choice not to ascend him" - no, sorry, I'm not choosing a pixel dildo for myself, I'm immersed in an RPG, some people are capable of deep attachment to their companions, and are not at all interested in him "being hot", but interested in his well-being. It's not a romance appropriate for an RPG, it's really a template for a visual novel, and a third-rate novel at that, no hint of roleplay, and the logic and story are just crumpled up and shoved in one place for the sake of hype and "moral lessons" on "Why deep monogamous relationships are evil".

I'm not against polygamy at all, I don't care at all, but monogamous players exist too. The players exist, but the lines for them don't. You can't tell your companions in the first act that you're already in a relationship, there are no such words because the game has a "second place", the game thinks you came here then to sleep with two companions at the same time or in parallel. There is genital customization, though. How about customizing roleplay-appropriate lines instead? Even in the second act you can't say no to Halsin properly, you can't ask that oak-faced bear if he's blind. Can't he see that you're in a relationship? You can only talk about your relationship in a way that makes it sound like you're kind of okay with "kissing the bear" too, but kind of pondering. Monogamous relationships are exposed as "possessive", "stuffy", doesn't that sound like aggressive propaganda? Sure, you can show all forms of relationships between people, but show them, not impose them. Otherwise, the "good hero" goes around the world happily f**king everyone to great applause, while the "monogamous villain" has to realize his/her own inferiority.

I've read players' outrage that they didn't do this and that, bugs and all, but they did "kisses". I'd be so damn happy as a kissing-affected consumer of this content, if Larian had instead listened to the requests of those players who asked for other, non-sexual content.

I used to like romance in games. But a classic monogamous romance between a man and a woman, without perversions, with the possibility to bring the beloved companion to such a final, where he is satisfied and does not suffer (to the "evil" final, if this companion is evil), it is, of course, very difficult to do, it is capricious players do not want to understand the great and ingenious idea of "sex education", do not want, you know, to realize all the "advantages of free relationships". In all games where romance is provided for at all, there was such a possibility. All of them.

I really hope this is still Larian's "experiments" and not a trend of modern RPGs. Obsidian are making their next game without romance, and that sounded like a great advertisement to me, though I didn't think so before. The sexualization of the game in BG3 reaches such heights that I want to see games without it at all, just so long as I don't see it anymore.

Last edited by Marielle; 17/04/24 04:14 PM.
One life, one love - until the world falls down.