Well, in the recent PAX panel, Swen himself went and addressed online discussions exactly like this and confirmed that they see these things, but regardless are deciding that they have no desire or intent to make any further changes to the game, and are moving on from it entirely. This is obviously a bummer for all of us who are still very unsatisfied with the state of the game, especially seeing as Patch 7 has only gave people more reasons to be disappointed as the evil endings are a really big let-down after how much they were hyped. So I just want to say two things to conclude this discussion, as stewing on our disappointment and shouting feedback into a void isn't going to accomplish anything from here on.
1) Again, as the title of the post has made clear, I'm forever going to be disappointed in Larian for calling it quits on development of the game. I obviously have massive respect for them for being able to admit that they simply don't have passion for the game anymore and would rather do something else, but it's really sad to see developers get tired of their own game as a player who is only really here as part of the DnD fanbase and not the Larian fanbase as a whole. Seeing more updates to this game or news of a released enhanced edition in a few years would excite me far more than any news about whatever Larian has planned next (although I'm sure it will be spectacular, whatever it is). I still hold on to a little hope that someday, they'll come back and revisit the game (I would gladly pay full price for an enhanced edition), but it really seems like that's never going to be the case. The age of BG3 has sadly come to an end.
2) Just because Larian is never going to make the changes people want, doesn't mean that we can never see these changes. I really hope that the modding community for this game explodes in popularity and pushes the tools at their disposal beyond what Larian could imagine them being used for. I know it's incredibly difficult, but I think there are definitely ambitious and capable modders in this community who can put their minds towards working with the games script and engine to make changes to the narrative content and add new cinematics to create an alternate version of the story. I would love to get into modding myself and I definitely plan on learning how the tools work so that I can tinker with things for my own satisfaction. One day, I hope that there will be a sort of community-made "Definitive Edition" of BG3 that represents the culmination of everybody's work and tells the full, original story that Larian had. Obviously for legal reasons, these would have to be unvoiced dialogues and cutscenes, but I'd still rather see them without any actors than have to deal with the frustration of wondering about what could have been.
I love this game and I'm so sad to see it's life cycle end in such an unsatisfactory way, but it's been awesome to know that there are others who feel the same way and want to see the game supported (by the community instead of the developers) for years to come. Love yall.
Really well said. I haven't watched the panel but it's good to know for sure that they're aware of the issues and have decided to move on anyway. I still love the game and while I recognize that Larian's passion for it is what made it what it is, it feels wrong that they don't intend to return to it after some time has passed to rectify it's shortcomings. Maybe one day their passion will be reignited, and they'll give BG3 the same care they gave their past games post-release. But their admission that they're happy to permanently leave a game in a less than satisfactory state does make me cautious about getting so invested in their future projects.
I admit that as an artist this is hard for me to understand because even when my inspiration or passion for something is gone, I will go back and improve on it as the years go by, oftentimes more than once. If I truly care about something the drive will return because I want it to be as good as it can be. Then again I guess it's different for everyone. I have a friend who like Swen will put something out of their mind forever when they're ready to move on to their next project. But even they agree (in regards to BG3) that when your project is a monetized product that needs work as BG3 does, it's incumbent upon a company to remedy that.
I had more hope and excitement about what the modding community would be able to accomplish before Larian described what they would and would not be offering the community. It seems the tools they're releasing are pretty limited, and are primarily meant to be a way for console users to access mods. While I respect and appreciate the work that will go into that, it won't allow for the kind of improvements I had hoped it would. Modders are very talented and while I'm sure they will continue to create tools for us to use, for me this is just another disappointing decision on Larian's part. Because they've said the modding support is them handing off the game to the community. So to me it's just another concerning decision that's reflective of a dismissive mindset.
