Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Poll.Which option of facial expression do you want to leave in kisses with Ascended Astarion

Exactly. Larian must have had their reasons to implement them in the first place, obviously some liked it, some didn’t, which is fine to have different opinions. But now we have the same issue again, only now a big majority is against the changes. I can’t even reload into all of my AA saves right now because I can’t bear to see the new expressions on my characters. I don’t find them distressing in the same way you do, probably, but it just doesn’t fit them. And I am always all for having the freedom to choose and forcing one or the other narrative in such a game is not good. Personally I think it would add a layer to his romance to have the options.

Seconded!

@Yassi99 now calling the views of others "silly" is disrespectful and unconstructive. If you wish to continue to participate in this thread, please review and act in accordance with our forum rules, particularly those I highlighted above. And while it's okay that people drop a short note explaining why they've voted as they have, the OP clearly stated that the purpose of this thread is not discussion, so please move on once you've had your say and don't keep posting similar points that are likely to draw debate that will derail the thread (and that goes to @Elly as well).

I'd also ask everyone to recognise that however strongly they feel their own view, it is not the only possible one and others can and do have other interpretations and by participating on these forums you are agreeing to comply with our rules, which include respecting the character preferences and narratives of others. I find it really dispiriting to see people who must know how contentious this issue has been here and who have already made the same points repeatedly elsewhere apparently making objective statements that seem to invalidate the preferences of others, such as that they would make the romance not a romance, or are the result of a mistake. It's of course fine, and understandable, to hope that our own preferences will prevail when it comes to the game, but I'd hope that those who take seriously the responsibility we all have as per the rules to make this a safe and positive community would do more to meet the other side constructively.

I'm also going to ask everyone again to stop rising to everything you see as provocative and if you don't feel able to de-escalate at least disengage and don't escalate or enter into a row. Please, can we just try to have one thread about Ascended Astarion where people with different views can discuss with each other civilly?

I am in agreement with this. And firmly in the camp of no. I believe that polished facial expressions across dialogue were necessary, and redoing a mistake because some people got attached to it is unnecessary. Though I do feel for those who liked it, and am happy you've gotten a mod to bring it back!

Gotta admit, “just keep the original animations” has way more votes than I thought!

I even voted to have both despite strongly preferring the patch 6 animations, so I’m surprised and happy to see they are so well liked!

Ahem ...


Please try to recognise when posts are crossing the line of the rules of engagement I laid out above and do not amplify them.

Who are you responding to?

The majority didn't care or liked it, I don't know, Larian changed it anyway, maybe it was a mistake, maybe it was the constant complaints from people like here, we don't know.

Honestly, and this coming from someone who commented their dislike on patch 6 faces, I doubt us saying anything really mattered. People who like ascension are way fewer in number from the various polls I've seen. I was under the impression "polishing facial expressions and emotions across companion dialogues" was more of a sweeping fix? Or would they have had to go through each expressive scene and decide "keep or yeet"? I'm not actually sure how doing a big change like that works on the backend. But I'm curious if anyone does know.

I think that last bit should have read "possibly Larian listened to fan feedback and decided they had a point"?! As I have tried to emphasise multiple times here, let's avoid provocative language and show that here (despite all depressing evidence to the contrary) we *can* have a civil and respectful discussion between people whose views differ and even whose preferences are mutually exclusive.

And I hope you're not drawing conclusions about the majority of fans' opinions from the poll in this thread? That would only lead to derailing the conversation with more discussion of how this poll isn't representative, which I asked early on we didn't get into.

I just suspected it and well, ok feedback, the whole thing doesn't bother me and it didn't exist before patch 6.

If you have a problem with this, I think you will participate in such surveys more often. I took part here just out of curiosity, chose both and wanted to see the result.
The Astarion thing in patch 6 was probably not a good idea.

Oh, I participated in all the surveys I'm referencing! Which is how I know the stat lol. I have no problem with it at all makes sense to me.

Of course, anyone can consider themselves a “majority”. In an international game. With many different sites in many different languages. Saying that the “kisses” of patch 6 were liked by the majority can, of course, be said by anyone who belongs to the “majority” of some community. Somewhere, depending on reasons I can't name, someone considered such a thing to be the right thing to do. But it was very interesting to see how, including in the non-English speaking segments of the internet, players who also paid money for the game reacted to such a thing in a digital product. A game is an entertainment product, not a way to introduce any ideas, and the consumer must not pay with money, nerves and negative emotions for someone else's interests. For some it is “innovation”, but this “innovation” belongs on specialized shelves, not in RPG games that people buy to add some joy to their lives. These people are paying money for it, they are at their jobs trying to do their jobs well, respecting their customers, caring for them and not trying to “teach” and/or insult them anything. These are adults who don't deserve to suddenly be confronted with “content” such as patch 6 faces in the game they paid for. And the people who prefer to buy games for the joy of it and want to see normal romance in a game, with an adequate story, without suddenly having their favorite character murdered by some patch, they have always been and will always be the real majority. It can even be said without applying it to BG3, it will be confirmed by any marketer who is at least a little familiar not necessarily even with the game industry, but with the concept of what a mass consumer is. The mass consumer will never want “it”. “ It” even on special sites is not given out in automatic distribution, so as not to spoil the pleasure of the content consumer who came to the site, “it” on such sites must be sought specifically, “it” for “amateurs”.

I don't wish any innocent person unfamiliar with this artificially inflated “drama” to accidentally stumble upon these “facial expressions” of patch 6. There are already enough people who have already been provoked by it. BG3 is also sometimes played by teenagers. Yes, they're not allowed by age, but their parents may allow it, they may find a way to do it themselves. They play, and that, I think, is understandable to anyone. If such a teenager encounters the D/s scene and they do not understand it or dislike it, it will not be so difficult to explain that, yes, there is such a variant of romantic interactions, it is all voluntary, it is one of the forms of human romantic relationships. Please download the mod and play classic romance. It would be especially good if Larian officially announced that Ascended Astarion's romance content is for D/s audience, it would remove all questions, warn all new players and those who don't like such content will immediately install mods for themselves, if they want to choose this playthrough option. But if a teenager encounters what was in patch 6 - how do you explain it to them when even in a forum for adults you can't use words that describe “it” so as not to cause anyone unpleasant feelings? And what feelings did it evoke in people on their monitor screens? A consumer is not obliged to share or imbibe someone else's “vision” if the content they buy does not match what the producer claims.

I've shown “ it” from patch 6 to people who haven't played the game and told them what it is and why. The reaction - big eyes, and: “Really? This is in this advertised game? Oh my god... Why would you want that? Why haven't you abandoned it yet...” (I'm not going to make value judgments and I'm omitting the rude words that come out of a normal, adequate, polite, adult person who is generally pretty knowledgeable about the advertising business). There is no need to spoil the reputation of a good studio with such things. Larian finished their content for D/s, included another community in the game, if someone from the community of “toxic romantics” is upset that they were “turned off”, I understand that it may be offensive, but as if, such things are not done in classic M-rated RPGs... Well, there is a genre for that, with warnings, tags and other things.

Let's not get derailed by questions of who is in the majority. It in no way invalidates any preferences if they are not widely shared, and it's our preferences we are talking about here.

And @Marielle, your post comes too close to criticising others for finding a different sort of enjoyment and interest in the game than you do, as well as unnecessarily raising a number of sensitive topics albeit slightly coded. This is not the right thread for that.

I feel like they did this by clarifying their post with “maybe”. Following that advice sounds like it would be putting words in their mouth. One could equally say “Larian must have had their reasons for releasing patch 6 the way it was”.

Please don’t enter into discussion about moderation guidance in thread: you can always do that by DMing me.

In this case, I confess I’ve got a bit tired of repeating the rules again and again and decided to mix it up by half-jokingly showing how we can put a positive or negative spin on a similar point. I did not seriously expect them to accept my words as their own. What I want people to do is try to understand others’ perspectives, consider how their words are likely to land and try to avoid using ones that are clearly going to put backs up and try to challenge themselves to try to see others’ perspectives in a more positive light, which are all things we can do to try to engage more constructively as per the forum rules.

Let’s draw another line, please, and contact me by DM if you have any questions.