I saw some of your discussion. Specifically about the Haarlep scene.
I think that scene happens very fast and it is tempting for some players (like myself) to see how far things will go in game, and you are not always prepared on a first playthrough. I have seen others belittling other players shock at what happened to their Tavs, I think players have all the right to be shocked. While it was not triggering to me personally, I can see it being that for others.
I also think (I know we are all sick of talking about expressions, but) Tavs expressions during and after the scene that shows them smiling content is important to not make that scene worse than it is. If it was different I probably would have a problem with it to be honest.
While the game has horror elements it is not a horror game. And hearing about horrible events are quite different from experiencing them through your Tav. The Haarlep scene as it is now is on the fine line for me. With the Patch 6 added companion warnings, all the other in game warnings and the content face, I feel it is ok. It doesn't need a trigger warning, imo.
In my opinion trigger warnings should be present if it is a unexpected, elaborative scene and it is presented in a way that makes it true to real life horrors. Even more imporant if the trigger is a common one that will affect many people.
You are right, that different people get triggered by different things. I was pretty shocked by the whole Haarlep thing, but not trigger warning shocked. You can just kill him and be done with it. But I think, it might be hard to put a trigger warning for a lot of stuff - I know some people, who were shocked by the scene, where we can save Us. I mean, yes, that is pretty deep in body horror territory, but for someone familiar with DnD mindflayer lore probably only a Tuesday afternoon. So it pretty much depends on ones background.
DnD has a lot of horror topics and some of the gods are pretty gruesome. You can't be a Bhaalist without killing people and what Sharrans do, we learned in deep detail. So a Baldurs Gate game is for me a warning in itself, since it was clear, it will be dealing with Bhaal in one form or another again. Somehow, gaming studios like the god of murderhobos a lot.
Yeah, the topic came up in one of AA kiss face animation discussions and I decided to move it over here since there were already a lot of side topics going on.
I admit, that I sometimes think, there might in general be a bit too many trigger warnings in media, but on the other hand, anxiety and ptsd are things. I know a friend, who didn't want to play BG3, because she is very afraid of spiders and I had to list up all incidences, where spiders will appear and give her a way to avoid them (she will probably never open the Necromancy of Thay, but that is ok). Others laugh about that, but she has severe arachnophobia. And I'm the last one laughing about fears and phobias.
