Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Why can you toggle nudity off but not extreme violence

I just find that odd. I would really like to be able to mask some of the more extreme violence and gore.

Simply because nudity is less accepted.

Streaming sites do not allow nudity. While violence and gore are fine and dandy.

Is it odd? Yes. But that's modern society for you.

I do appreciate that some games offer a lower violence setting for those of us that are more squeamish. I'm not a big fan of nudity in games either but given the choice between healthy lively nudity and a mutilated pile of meat I would definitely prefer blushing over barfing.

I wish it wasn't so pervasive that I had more choices in games than "Saturday Morning cartoons" and "slasher gorefest" especially within RPGs. I pretty much have to default to playing old games if I don't want to be treated to buckets of gore.

because nudity is easy to toggle with code... its a simple yes / no to show the under clothes

And gore isn't? It should be a simple Boolean on off to show blood or not, to keep a character model intact instead of mutilated, etc.

you could turn the blood off yes but you would still be aware that a guy got hit by a big sword and is now dead

I know, but I don't need to see anyone's innards. I don't see why there couldn't be a mode removes the most extreme content of at the least obscures it via camera angle or filters. Would it be excessively difficult for a modder to work at this? Not every DND fan is a splatter horror fan.

In the game options under "Accessibility" there is a setting to toggle off "sexual and violent cinematics" which I think is different than the "Show Nudity? Y/N" that comes up when you first launch the game. Might give that a try.

Probably not everything you're after though. I can imagine a Mod or game setting that simply removes the blood splatter on character avatars or as an environmental thing (with like the pools of blood), but for other stuff I guess that would be harder - say where it's built into the area design. From the Nautiloid brain surgery on, which is first Roll of the game, kinda baked in there. Chop Chop, and Orin and all that.

I'm pretty sure I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum for blood squeamishness. I just watched Evil Dead Rise and thought 'Oh wow! Queen Aslaug deserves the Oscar for best Necromite!' hehe.

If it's Hollywood horror I'm down for whatever, like give me the full Shining, but then I still don't really vibe on gore in a medical context. So sometimes I have to put up one hand, say with the Surgeon in Act II. But of course the Twisted Sisters at the House of Healing are some of my favorite characters in the game, so none of it makes much sense on my end.

I have some irrational food phobias from childhood which are more powerful than anything with the blood and gore. I mean don't tell Lae'zel, but I can't even eat Ranch dressing! I find mayonnaise to be the most disgusting substance in all the Realms. It skeaves me out like nothing else. I do feel like I made some progress on that count owing to BG3, but it's hard to know what will ring the bells ya know. My favorite animations in BG3 are when Monsters get burned to a crisp with Firebolts or Guiding Bolts and such. To me that's the BG3 equivalent of the BG1/2 chunk out animations I was so fond of. But I get the desire for a no Blood mode. My ex was a phlebotomist, so it makes sense. Not everyone wants a Fury Road probably. That said, I think they earned some goodwill from me by leaning into it so hardcore. I mean they basically gave us the BG version of that lawnmower scene at the end of Dead Alive lol.

Anyway, not sure cause I've never clicked it. But uncheck that setting to see if it handles some of the more extreme things maybe.

ps. Here's the option, under the tab on the righthand side...



It's kinda hidden away there. I only noticed it cause I always check Accessibility to see if they somehow added Y axis inversion for controllers.

I've spoken on the Steam forums and that option only disables stuff in prerendered cinemas. Blood and gore is still in the game proper, which seems rather pointless of an option. I'm not really sure I'd even say I'm squeamish, I've just noticed that witnessing realistically rendered gore and dismemberment in media has a negative effect on my psyche. It depresses me and makes me feel dehumanized.

I used to be very into horror and violent media, I wouldn't bat an eye at this. I don't know if it's the realism of the graphics or just being unsettled at the trivialization of death and desecration of corpses for entertainment, but it's not something I can enjoy anymore and it actually detracts from not only my enjoyment of the game but affects my mood in real life.

I think they added that "no violent cinematics" option because they went all in on the violence in the new bad endings from patch 7.

I sometimes worry about the people that write these stories.

I don’t — otherwise I would have to worry about myself, too. And about my Cthulhu roleplaying group.

There is freedom in being able to express a darker part, too. As long as that’s not the only thing you do (and they also wrote wonderfully romantic love stories for the game).

Well, I wonder myself why I engage with such things sometimes. I'm not saying all dark or violent content is a bad thing by nature, but it's like: sometimes, why is it a thought that needs to be shared? I remember sitting through "Terrifier"a few years ago and wondering what destroyed the souls of the people that would willingly watch or make such a film. Things that revel in destruction and mutilation to that point are beyond having redeeming value.

People derive enjoyment from different things.

For some people, excessive violence and gore is entertaining. Hence why slashers and horror exist as a genre.

Personally, I have a thing for B-Movies, which are often violent to such extremes that they become parodies of violent films. With the idea being that these films are so cheesy and awful that it amuses people.

Humans have had macabre interests for thousands of years. Be it things like gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome, to public executions as a form of entertainment (Among other things, human history is rife with things like human sacrifice and torture showing that there's some deep rooted hunger for violence within the species)

For other people, it's less about the violence itself and more about the worldbuilding it provides.

Much like Gabe Newell's old statement about "When someone shoots a wall, they expect a bullet hole" this directly leads to things like "When you hit someone with a giant axe, you expect them to be chopped by it". Add in the natural violent nature of society (Especially in fantasy settings and more notably, video games which are predominantly focused on violence for gameplay) and you get scenarios that lead into violence - Especially if you want to depict someone/a group as being "Evil" you make them do shockingly violent things to make people react negatively to them.

I'm definitely overthinking this but I do wish there was a low violence option. Some games are kind enough to offer it. Especially as DND has made significant inroads with people other than the stereotypical traditional gamer in recent years.

It's especially disappointing when it's the only option for a new single player DND gaming experience in the past couple of decades.

I also like low violence options, but for me this means having non violent options to deal with problems. It's alright if the violent characters are portrayed as violent and their actions turn my stomach (act 2 has some great examples) but I don't want to be forced into committing these acts myself. In this regard, I am very happy with the game because it offers me alternatives to violence in a lot of situations - I know this doesn't solve your problem. I just wanted to bring it up because I do appreciate how chill the game can be if you want it to.

How would you combine such an option with the overarching plot?

I just tried picturing that, but I don’t see a way to make the plot work without violence (except with sweeping changes to most dialogues and large-scale scenario alterations).

Watching, reading or playing horror can be therapeutic. A lot of famous horror writers said, that they control their anxiety by writing those stories. Basically, if you bring your fears to paper, you can manage them better. Same with watching a horror movie or playing a horror game.

But I do seem to remember that there was a violence slider in the menue now. Did you try that?

It's simple, just remove graphic gore and mutilation. Don't have it in focus on screen.

How do you do and so forth without gore? Would you create a full second set of assets and a PEGI 12 approved alternate story? If you don’t see what I’m talking about without showing the spoiler, you see what I’m talking about ☺