Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Warnings in the game - necessary or not?

Well, I guess you are a divination mage then . It is not the focus of this topic, but since we discussed it with in mind in that topic, it's not surprisingly to come up here - the whole argumentation of you AA fans was, that it was triggering. But please don't make this in another discussion about the pros and cons of that, I think we cleard it up, that different things can be triggering for different people. It's ok, if you say, why it is triggering for you, which I guess, you did in your post and imo there is no talking away a trigger. People are different and have different expereinces, so it is ok.

But I think, you are not seeing the whole picture - granted, that topic of is very easily triggering, but so can be the scene how you get Us or the whole of Reithwin for different reasons.

As for Haarlep - that is clearly not

I really agree with this. There is a difference there.


You know, I agree with you a lot. It makes me uneasy as well. I guess the reason is that trigger warnings are often misunderstood. They are there to prevent PTSD of common triggers, often DV, V and SV. It is not about censoring, it is about preventing other players getting hurt. And remember again PTSD is not the same as being uncomfortable. It is anxiety attacks, again and again, for weeks, not sleeping, going back over and over to a violent nightmare a person has experienced in real life. It takes time and even theraphy and medicine to get out of. An elaborate, unexpected scene showing real life SV or DV should have warnings. In any game.

For the record I am a horror game fan, I'm looking forward to playing all the scary games this fall. So it's not about just being sensitive. I do avoid games with extensive and graphic SV, like for instance Outlast. And I think Outlast could have described their warnings a bit more than they have done on Steam. Some games do that, and it is appriciated.

Hope it is not too off-topic.. I'm talking in a very general sense here!

@ Fylimar: You're very much predictable, that's all. I will not discuss with you, what different people see as triggering or not. I made my statement, what the official content warning is. If you think the Harleep scene is




which needs a content warning, you are free to let it reviewed by experts.

I kindly ask you *all*, also for the sake of a good together in the community, not to disparage the patch 6 scene in this thread, which caused to a lot of PTSD and depressions. It is inappropiate to compare it to scenes like the Abdirak scene. Thanks.


This.

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To add to Fylimar for the comparision: "violence"

Yes, and this game has a content warning for "violence" for that very reason in their rating. But there are also in-game mechanics that prevent people from coming across some violent depictions unprepared, for example the giving answers or also for some scenes being more or less offscreen. The "Us" scene you mentioned, you are interacting with Us beforehand and can leave, the player is prepared what will happen if you choose the answer to remove it, he is asking you to do this. The answers are explaining, what is going to happen and you can leave the scene in every answer. This "Us" scene was in my opinion very well and carefully done by the Larian Team responsible for that scene, so *thumbs up*

I don't know, what I did here, but I'm not letting a personal attack like this stand. I have said, that I accept it, when people have different triggers, that was by no means an attack against you or that scene. I brought up, what I read, people found triggering and that is it, to show the range of stuff that can cause people to feel unsafe. The topic came up in that other discussion thread and it was imo a very fruitful and peaceful discussion and I said to make it it's own topic to not clutter the other thread, so I really don't get, why you are so riled up, that I brought it up in mentioning for context.

And you should really learn to respect other opinions too, if you want to receive respect. Reported and blocked.
I hope the rest of this discussion is more peaceful.

Let me please clarify, do you imply here that fylimar disparaged the patch 6 scene? If not, maybe it would be better to target your request towards the forum community as a whole. It is kinda impolite to single out people like this, and does not vibe with the whole respect thing you are going for.

Yes, I kindly asked everyone (not a specific person) to be more careful about this sensitive topic about triggers, as comparing it with other scenes like "Abdirak" is inappropiate, harmful and looks belittling other experiences and people, who got harmed by the unexpected scene of patch 6. This can evoke depressive episodes and flashbacks to those, reading here. I didn't mean to attack, but to ask, not to do this.

I agree with GrayGhost, trigger or triggerwarnings are not just about "feeling uncomfortable" or "discomfort" or "offended by" but mainly about ptsd to avoid them reliving a past trauma or people falling back into a mental illness, that's why there are experts for that.

EDIT: For all those who want to delve a little deeper into this topic, *why* some statements like the juxtaposition of "Patch 6" (which was called here as the "face animation") and scenes like the prepared and consensual Abdirak or the "possibility" of being able to kill goblin children, or an inflationary use of the term "trigger", are counterproductive, I have a short, general explanation here from a qualified psychologist who is the head of a center for trauma management, which has an interdisciplinary structure with psychologists, psychotherapists, doctors of psychiatry and psychotherapy and qualified social educators with many years of experience.

What are triggers?




Well said, couldn't have said it better.

@neprostoman I didn't read Zayir's reply as an attack at all. I know it is a sensitive topic that is easy to misunderstand and from misunderstanding comes hate. Please, lets stop.

Thank you , but I just put that user on ignore. I was just listing up what scenes people found triggering in the past, to show, how hard it is to pin scenes down, that can be triggering for different reasons.

I hope we can continue to discuss it with respecting different opinions and views. It worked pretty well so far.

Let's be realistic, nothing is necessary in the game unless the law says otherwise. Since most games try to sell worldwide, they should respect both country specific and international law. We have our right to express opinion on certain matters, but we can't expect the company to follow through. I guess, consumer holds some power over the developer, especially nowadays when the company can be 'cancelled' for unintentionally mistreating some group's trauma. A disclaimer should work well to cover for those risks, I only see it as a net positive. However, I won't like my game pausing here and there to ask me if I am okay with something or not. This is poor QOL. All this stuff should be known in advance as a separate warning or should be clear based on maturity rating.

I also didn't read it as an attack, it was just worded with a certain level ambiguity and I wanted to divert the conversation in a way that would be more constructive.

Thank you. If Fylimar misunderstood my approach, which I actually wanted to give in a good intention, I am deeply sorry. This is a sensitive topic and we shouldn't discuss patch 6 without being affected by it ourselves and put it in a row with abdirak (which is a very consensual and prepared scene), because that patch affected a lot of people who are reading here. They will feel hurt and belittled by this, and it can reevoke depressive episodes and flashbacks, even if it was not the intention. Also putting Abdirak and patch 6 in a row, could also be seen as disrespectful and offensive toward people from the BDSM community, as I felt, when a consensual, prepared and safe scene (Abdirak) and the (non-consent) unexpected scene of patch 6 (depiction of DV, SV/SA, sadistic personality disorder or SSD) are lumped together. That's why I kindly asked not to do this.

I agree with this. Back during EA there was a warning on Steam, before you could buy the game, which I thought was enough. I don't know, if it was still there with full release, but I would think so.
A disclaimer should work well with covering everything. I know that people with specific phobias often ask in the community ( most common for fantasy games are spiders) and in my experience receive detailed description of the scenes, where the fears objects/ things do occur, so that they can decide, if they can put up with it or not. For the more heavy stuff, I think the rating and a disclaimer ( which Larian has, I think?) would be enough.

Ok, from the answers here, I opened your messages again and want to say thank you for the apology.
I actually agree with you about Abdirak, I love the character and think he is totally about consent. His writer confirmed it actually . He even treats an Ilmateri with respect ( they and Loviatans hate each other as much as Sharrans and Delunites). He is one of the better representations of BDSM in modern media for sure. I was just listing up stuff, that came to mind and in the very beginning, back in 2020, when I joined early access, there were discussions, because people feared, he would attack them, if they say no and thus outright killed the poor guy. So I don't agree with Abdirak being problematic, I just wanted to include it for the sake of trying to get all topics covered ( minus the racist, sexist and homophobic ones of course). I did forgot the whole Halsin debate, but we don't need to warm anything up again.

So I hope we can act normally again, I didn't want to disrespect you and am sorry, if you understood it that way.

Well it looks like there's a hole history of something that triggered (pun intended) this thread. But now I'm curious. Are there exsisting games that display intra-game warnings, like suggested ? If they exist, are they more or less violent than BG3 ? ( I'm not a pro-gamer, but I have the impression that there are games outthere that are lots more violent.) Do the players of these games also require these warnings on fora ? Or is this just a campaign targeted at BG3 ?

I don't know exactly, what you mean. I certainly don't target BG3, since it is one of my favourite games of all time. The discussion came up in another thread and I was curious. But seeing, that it is a hot topic, I do regret it a bit.
I think most mature games have a content warning. I don't think, that there are trigger warnings in games, that would be pretty much destroying all immersion.

Ok, from the title of the thread and the first posts, it seemed to me that the question was whether it is necessary to add warnings inside of the game to steer players away from choices that might make them uncomfortable afterwards.

I skipped over most of the later back-and-forth posts (full of abbreviations that I don't have a clue what they mean anyway), but understood it's not just about feeling uncomfortable, but serious anxiety and mental problems. So that made me think, is there something special in BG3 that would require this ? Or are there other games outthere that have this feature and how does it work ?

Don't feel compelled to anwser. I 'm just trying to clarify what I meant in the previous post.

BG 3 has motives of ( I put that in spoiler because of forum regulations) It can be triggering if you have experienced it. I was asking if it would be helpful to put a trigger warning about that somewhere and there was a discussion, if that is necessary or not. Or if it would lead to have more trigger warnings. I think that the game made it clear, that there will be heavy topics from the rating, the trailers and even the infamous bear sex scene.
I personally am not easily triggered, since I do like horror too and weird stuff like The Boys ( which is one big trigger warning tbh), but there were a lot of discussions in the past, where people expressed discomfort, so I thought, I make a topic to talk about it. I used the Haarlep encounter as an example.

Edit: sorry didn't want to put everything in spoiler

There are vastly more violent games than BG3. Ones that are in fact, so violent, they get AO (Adult Only) ratings and/or banned in certain countries (Manhunt got banned in the UK, Callisto Protocol got banned in Japan)

Though, there's a difference between "Violence" and specific topics that can be problematic (Things like sexual assault can affect victims of such things and bring back memories of a traumatic event)

However, as I mentioned previously in this thread, other video games and forms of media don't put warnings for similar sensitive topics.

Whether or not the industry (Or the ESRB and other media rating outlets) should is another matter entirely.

Thank you for your word and your apologize - accepted. We need to make this Forum to a better place and be careful, especially on such sensitive topic, alltogether.

I mean it's not just violence (sexual or otherwise) that is sensitive content, topics like depression or suicidal thoughts frequently feature in content warnings of other media and for good reason. I mention this, just because this conversation seems to be very heavily focused on one type of content while forgetting about topics that are maybe not as visually dominant in nature but can affect the player just as hard.