My problem with the crappy origin characters Larian is making is that significant parts of their story happen before you can even touch them. Its basically starting Mass Effect with Mass Effect 2 - Gale relationship with a god and even reaching the point to even be noticed by her? You find out about it in the game. Astarions 200 year long life? Yeah, again you read about it, as a player you have no clue. Shadowhearts background? Once again, miss special has a lot happening before you even play her. Same with all the others. You have no authority of the character. Same as with Geralt in Witcher 1 and let's face it, it was a big issue for everyone not knowing the books. Its just a crap way to introduce a player character. This is ok for a NPC because you find out about their past by interacting with them, but it turns you into a spectator when it comes for your own character - you neither experience their past, nor do you have any influence on it, which makes it even worse when it has significant parts of the character building in it that define the character for the rest of the story. That's simply not a player character.
But to each there own. DOS2 was an utterly average game for me and BG3 is turning out to be the same based on the same mistakes they are making.
Well RPGs have some serious market share, but they are still niche. Not everyone has our ready familiarity with it and origin characters can inspire those unfamiliar with the potential of RPGs and excite their imagination. I think it is all to the good, honestly, though I agree these specific characters are way too over the top for my tastes. . .But when I think back to my first characters and how when I would write up their backgrounds, I would pull everything I had ever fallen in love with from all of the books I had ever read and pour it into them and I made a lot of garish characters before I acquired taste and restraint. I don't care for these backgrounds, but I am not overly bothered by them either. And. . .There is evidence some people really love them, and I wouldn't want to destroy something that means that much to someone simply because I don't myself care for it. I care about how the game is written and experienced through game play far more than how those aspects we don't experience were written about.
Just my personal opinion on that, not an argument
