Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[Swen]

SKALD: Against the Black Priory

That actually looks interesting enough to make me ignore my habitual disregard of pixelart shit.

Here's our thread: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...k-priory-retro-rpg-inspired-by-ultima.126611/

Looks really cool. Larian should buy all small indie devs and fund them with the endless money stream from BG3.

Imagine Larian becoming a CRPG focused publisher. BASED

 

[Lyric Suite]

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

That's a lot of manpower involved for a simple "joke". All the time to write and animate that sequence could have been put into adding a couple more quests.

 

[Swen]

A new dichotomy is being born in front of our eyes

Putting my armchair sociologist hat on:
We've got a generation born in the early 2000s which lives on the internet. Natural social contacts, relationships, romance, and sex, are all things that happen to other people, who narrate the experience on youtube. That they are looking for the things that hormones tell them to look for, but they are looking at the wrong place, is only natural. The internet and videogames are they only spaces they know to look for anything. And the proclivity to look for the magic pill to solve every problem has only increased since the 90s generation.

Woah, there. That's putting yourself in someone else's shoes! Grunker might accuse you of being one of those people! :O
I'm kidding, Grunker. It's behind us.

I actually think there's merit to your theory. However, the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it? Do the devs share the same issues as the demographic or did they cater it to said demo? Also, there's looking for the unobtainable in media, but why SO much of it in a sword-and-sorcery game and why SO much of it seemingly orientations and kinks that are fine, but a very small percentage of the population, yet seem to be over-abundant in the game? Why the bear-fucking? Mass Effect had sex. The moral panic over that was ludicrous. However, sometimes I think that the slippery slope theory I once mocked might have had some truth to it, after all. Why does the new Baldur's Gate, of all games, need to be so horny? Why not GTA?

These are all sincere questions, but possibly dumb ones if there is info I'm unaware of that's making me assume the extent or nature of such things in the game I've not yet played. Normally I wouldn't even be a part of this conversation until I had played it, but it's sort of one that will yield answers that may help my decision to play it in the first place.

Does it have to be more complicated than “sex sells”?

It’s just that unlike yesteryear, you can’t sell chainmail bikini sex because it’s politically incorrect, so everything is veiled progressiveness instead.

Agreed. When looking at the game and how far it pushes the "acceptable" moral limits, imagine how much critique BG3 would get without the woke shit.

 

[Elthosian]

the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it?

To some extent the demographics intersect. There are lots of people in their 20s in Larian, including its writing team, aren't there?

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

Didn’t people play Arcanum? Might be a good moment to set up some re-education camps and force everybody to play it 24/7 before being allowed back in.

 

[Lyric Suite]

A new dichotomy is being born in front of our eyes

Putting my armchair sociologist hat on:
We've got a generation born in the early 2000s which lives on the internet. Natural social contacts, relationships, romance, and sex, are all things that happen to other people, who narrate the experience on youtube. That they are looking for the things that hormones tell them to look for, but they are looking at the wrong place, is only natural. The internet and videogames are they only spaces they know to look for anything. And the proclivity to look for the magic pill to solve every problem has only increased since the 90s generation.

Woah, there. That's putting yourself in someone else's shoes! Grunker might accuse you of being one of those people! :O
I'm kidding, Grunker. It's behind us.

I actually think there's merit to your theory. However, the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it? Do the devs share the same issues as the demographic or did they cater it to said demo? Also, there's looking for the unobtainable in media, but why SO much of it in a sword-and-sorcery game and why SO much of it seemingly orientations and kinks that are fine, but a very small percentage of the population, yet seem to be over-abundant in the game? Why the bear-fucking? Mass Effect had sex. The moral panic over that was ludicrous. However, sometimes I think that the slippery slope theory I once mocked might have had some truth to it, after all. Why does the new Baldur's Gate, of all games, need to be so horny? Why not GTA?

These are all sincere questions, but possibly dumb ones if there is info I'm unaware of that's making me assume the extent or nature of such things in the game I've not yet played. Normally I wouldn't even be a part of this conversation until I had played it, but it's sort of one that will yield answers that may help my decision to play it in the first place.

Does it have to be more complicated than “sex sells”?

It’s just that unlike yesteryear, you can’t sell chainmail bikini sex because it’s politically incorrect, so everything is veiled progressiveness instead.

If sex sells, why are women always ugly in modern games?

Why can't you people just fucking accept this is a political religious cult and that it has shit to do with "making money"? Unless you want to count DEI or ESG enforcement.

 

[Grunker]

the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it?

To some extent the demographics intersect. There are lots of people in their 20s in Larian, including its writing team, aren't there?

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

We’ve been over this - the squirrel clearly marks it as a joke and it is TYPICAL Larian humor, but these people *need* for it to be true degeneration and honest bestiality

I wonder whether these people also think the terribly unfunny ogre sex scene is in there because Swen has a hardon for fat women and not just because Belgians have a shit sense of humour

 

[perfectslumbers]

That's a lot of manpower involved for a simple "joke". All the time to write and animate that sequence could have been put into adding a couple more quests.

It's a very short scene using already existing assets. They could not spend that time on several quests.

 

[F. J. Rothchild III]

the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it?

To some extent the demographics intersect. There are lots of people in their 20s in Larian, including its writing team, aren't there?

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

Didn’t people play Arcanum? Might be a good moment to set up some re-education camps and force everybody to play it 24/7 before being allowed back in.

I adore Arcanum.
I remember a selectable backstory where your character is a literal brain-damaged retard who is still aware enough to know it gets them sympathy and uses that to their benefit.
Pretty nuanced. deep. un-PC and beautiful, great game, aside from the combat.
Which of BGIII's traits being discussed requires Arcanum re-education?

 

[Elthosian]

the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it?

To some extent the demographics intersect. There are lots of people in their 20s in Larian, including its writing team, aren't there?

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

Didn’t people play Arcanum? Might be a good moment to set up some re-education camps and force everybody to play it 24/7 before being allowed back in.

I adore Arcanum.
I remember a selectable backstory where your character is a retard who manipulates people's sympathy. Pretty nuanced. deep. un-PC and great game, aside from the combat.
Which of BGIII's traits being discussed requires Arcanum re-education?

Specifically? Complaining about the bear sex joke when Arcanum had a sheep sex joke with an actual sheep.

 

[Swen]

Well, well, well

The score on opencritic also keeps rising.

Now nr3 of ALL TIME

 

[volklore]

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

That's a lot of manpower involved for a simple "joke". All the time to write and animate that sequence could have been put into adding a couple more quests.

Larian put a ton of effort into putting their jokes everywhere into DoS1 and 2. There isn't anything that much different about this compared the typical larian joke. Though I don't believe they didn't expect the virality. If they didn't they wouldn't use it in their big stream a few weeks from release. They fully knew what they were doing with that.

 

[Swen]

the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it?

To some extent the demographics intersect. There are lots of people in their 20s in Larian, including its writing team, aren't there?

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

We’ve been over this - the squirrel clearly marks it as a joke and it is TYPICAL Larian humor, but these people *need* for it to be true degeneration and honest bestiality

I wonder whether these people also think the terribly unfunny ogre sex scene is in there because Swen has a hardon for fat women and not just because Belgians have a shit sense of humour

What's up with the "belgian humor sucks" meme?

We have great humor.

One of the most watched humor skits on the internet is from a flemish show;

 

[AwesomeButton]

That's a lot of manpower involved for a simple "joke".

Against the background of the work the whole game involved, shooting this scene was a drop in the ocean.

 

[Elthosian]

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

That's a lot of manpower involved for a simple "joke". All the time to write and animate that sequence could have been put into adding a couple more quests.

Larian put a ton of effort into putting their jokes everywhere into DoS1 and 2. There isn't anything that much different about this the typical larian joke. Though I don't believe they didn't expect the virality. If they didn't they wouldn't use it in their big stream a few weeks from release. They fully knew what they were doing with that.

And there isn’t really that much effort put into the bear scene when compared to, well, pretty much any other scene in the game. Might as well complain about the dancing squirrels.

 

[F. J. Rothchild III]

the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it?

To some extent the demographics intersect. There are lots of people in their 20s in Larian, including its writing team, aren't there?

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

Didn’t people play Arcanum? Might be a good moment to set up some re-education camps and force everybody to play it 24/7 before being allowed back in.

I adore Arcanum.
I remember a selectable backstory where your character is a retard who manipulates people's sympathy. Pretty nuanced. deep. un-PC and great game, aside from the combat.
Which of BGIII's traits being discussed requires Arcanum re-education?

Specifically? Complaining about the bear sex joke when Arcanum had a sheep sex joke with an actual sheep.

Well, my question was "Why bear sex?". I wasn't aware it was a joke. It may very well be one, but to say it is JUST that is disingenuous. They absolutely knew it would cause people to talk and, ultimately, would be good press, whether controversial or not. Bestiality has long been said by more reactionary fearmonger-y people than I as the next thing to become normalized, along with MAPs, etc. I don't see this happening, but if Larian are moden humans and online humans, they know of this, and were absolutely poking the proverbial bear, so to speak, just to ruffle some fur and "make all the right people mad" as politically-minded people so often say. At the very least, it's not JUST a joke.

Arcanum? Filled with tons of jokes. Any sheep-fucking joke in that game was in THAT GAME's context, not the context of a photo-realistic game that's already filled to the gills with non-joke sexuality that everyone has an opinion about. I think comparing BGIII to Arcanum is also disingenuous. Not intentional on your part, I'm not accusing you of that. You clearly bought and are enjoying/defending the game, however, and no one likes to see something they paid for beign mis-represented or criticized, especially by people you ideologically disagree with, so I can see it being easy to go "Arcanum had a sheep sex joke. Same thing. Check and mate,"

I suspect that it's not quite as simple as that, personally (and Larian not expecting it to go viral or be "a thing" seems like BS to me, too). However, others might, and I respect your view, despite disagreeing.

 

[AwesomeButton]

We’ve been over this - the squirrel clearly marks it as a joke and it is TYPICAL Larian humor, but these people *need* for it to be true degeneration and honest bestiality

I wonder whether these people also think the terribly unfunny ogre sex scene is in there because Swen has a hardon for fat women and not just because Belgians have a shit sense of humour

The interrupted ogre sex is the kind of scene you can get form any B-movie Hollywood comedy form roughly the 2000-2010s. Say, something in the lines of American Pie, Meet the Parents, etc.

Maybe the tone already comes off as a tad too old for the internet generation.

 

[dukeofwoodberry]

I don't know about others but party members and interactions is one of my favorite aspects of party based rpgs. For all bioware criticism they always delivered on that aspect for me. I always had that male comradery and that really made me feel like we were brothers who had each other's backs in life and death situations.

You had Garrus in mass effect. Loved the moment when you did the shooting competition with him and you could miss on purpose and he said the line about this being his favorite place in the citadel. Actually hilarious and great male comradery.

Alistar was awesome in DAO. Great bro and funny. I was happy to marry him with the queen and encourage him to be king because he was my boy.

I don't expect these faggots and soys at Larian to ever be able to capture the vibe and comradery between two masculine men (especially warriors/soldiers) bonding and forming a friendship

Edit: also had Canderous in Kotor.

 

[Grauken]

SKALD: Against the Black Priory will be a non-horny game:



A new dichotomy is being born in front of our eyes.

let the horny vs the non-horny wars commence

 

[Desiderius]

A new dichotomy is being born in front of our eyes

Putting my armchair sociologist hat on:
We've got a generation born in the early 2000s which lives on the internet. Natural social contacts, relationships, romance, and sex, are all things that happen to other people, who narrate the experience on youtube. That they are looking for the things that hormones tell them to look for, but they are looking at the wrong place, is only natural. The internet and videogames are they only spaces they know to look for anything. And the proclivity to look for the magic pill to solve every problem has only increased since the 90s generation.

Woah, there. That's putting yourself in someone else's shoes! Grunker might accuse you of being one of those people! :O
I'm kidding, Grunker. It's behind us.

I actually think there's merit to your theory. However, the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it? Do the devs share the same issues as the demographic or did they cater it to said demo? Also, there's looking for the unobtainable in media, but why SO much of it in a sword-and-sorcery game and why SO much of it seemingly orientations and kinks that are fine, but a very small percentage of the population, yet seem to be over-abundant in the game? Why the bear-fucking? Mass Effect had sex. The moral panic over that was ludicrous. However, sometimes I think that the slippery slope theory I once mocked might have had some truth to it, after all. Why does the new Baldur's Gate, of all games, need to be so horny? Why not GTA?

These are all sincere questions, but possibly dumb ones if there is info I'm unaware of that's making me assume the extent or nature of such things in the game I've not yet played. Normally I wouldn't even be a part of this conversation until I had played it, but it's sort of one that will yield answers that may help my decision to play it in the first place.

Does it have to be more complicated than “sex sells”?

It’s just that unlike yesteryear, you can’t sell chainmail bikini sex because it’s politically incorrect, so everything is veiled progressiveness instead.

If sex sells, why are women always ugly in modern games?

Why can't you people just fucking accept this is a political religious cult and that it has shit to do with "making money"? Unless you want to count DEI or ESG enforcement.

It also makes money though because it's now passé and that's always where the fat part of the market is.

 

[Grunker]

SKALD: Against the Black Priory will be a non-horny game:



A new dichotomy is being born in front of our eyes.

let the horny vs the non-horny wars commence

it shall be glorious

 

[Grunker]

the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it?

To some extent the demographics intersect. There are lots of people in their 20s in Larian, including its writing team, aren't there?

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

We’ve been over this - the squirrel clearly marks it as a joke and it is TYPICAL Larian humor, but these people *need* for it to be true degeneration and honest bestiality

I wonder whether these people also think the terribly unfunny ogre sex scene is in there because Swen has a hardon for fat women and not just because Belgians have a shit sense of humour

What's up with the "belgian humor sucks" meme?

We have great humor.

One of the most watched humor skits on the internet is from a flemish show;

That is hilarious, I thought it was dutch. A pity the standards of your gaming jokes don't raise to that bar

 

[Elthosian]

the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it?

To some extent the demographics intersect. There are lots of people in their 20s in Larian, including its writing team, aren't there?

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

Didn’t people play Arcanum? Might be a good moment to set up some re-education camps and force everybody to play it 24/7 before being allowed back in.

I adore Arcanum.
I remember a selectable backstory where your character is a retard who manipulates people's sympathy. Pretty nuanced. deep. un-PC and great game, aside from the combat.
Which of BGIII's traits being discussed requires Arcanum re-education?

Specifically? Complaining about the bear sex joke when Arcanum had a sheep sex joke with an actual sheep.

Well, my question was "Why bear sex?". I wasn't aware it was a joke. It may very well be one, but to say it is JUST that is disingenuous. They absolutely knew it would cause people to talk and, ultimately, would be good press, whether controversial or not. Bestiality has long been said by more reactionary fearmongers than I as the next thing to become normalized, along with MAPs, etc. I don't see this happening, but if Larian are moden humans and online humans, they know of this, and were absolutely poking the proverbial bear, so to speak, just to ruffle some fur and "make all the right people mad" as politically-minded people so often say. At the very least, it's not JUST a joke.

Arcanum? Filled with tons of jokes. Any sheep-fucking joke in that game was in THAT GAME's context, not the context of a photo-realistic game that's already filled to the gills with non-joke sexuality that everyone has an opinion about. I think comparing BGIII to Arcanum is also disingenuous. Not intentional on your part, I'm not accusing you of that. You clearly bought and are enjoying/defending the game, however, and no one likes ot see something they paid for beign mis-represented or criticized, especially by people you ideologically disagree with, so I can see it being easy to go "Arcanum had a sheep sex joke. Same thing. Check and mate,"


I don't think it's as simple as that, personally. However, others might, and I respect your view, despite disagreeing.

The scene has a squirrel looking dumbfounded at the scene while dropping a nut. It’s pretty clear that it was intended to be a joke. Was it expected to cause a scandal and get attention? Maybe, I don’t really bother taking into account a dev’s marketing tactics while playing a game and the culture war shtick is little more than gringo drama to me so I really can’t be bothered to look more deeply into it.

Anyway, sexual jokes might be not that common in Arcanum, but the developers had a pretty obvious penchant for that kind of content. It was extremely blatant in Fallout 2 where you even had sex-related perks and could do your own pornstar career. And of course, Bloodlines had a similar amount of sex-related stuff.

Now, we can talk all day about whether that stuff fits some settings better than other but I think it’s pretty obvious that Troika devs always loved to make games with that kind of content.

 

[Raghar]

Just got the Wyll dance scene, I've never felt so embarrassed for an NPC in my life. I agree with what BrotherFrank said before, it feels so harsh and even if you reject him in the nicest way he looks at you like you've ruined his life. I guess props to the actor for capturing the emotion well but nobody wants to play a romantic rejection simulator

You know what we say. Don't hire black (non drow) into the party. If you didn't hire him, you wouldn't be disappointed.

Even if you go by the figure of 7.1% of people being gay or bi (which is almost certainly high), the chances of all 4 romanceable characters of the same gender as the PC being gay or bi are about .0025%.

And that is if we are assuming that in whatever universe your playthrough takes place in the characters of the opposite gender are either straight or bi.

If we go off of all 8 romanceable characters actually being bisexual it is drastically more unlikely by many orders of magnitude.

No real point to this post. I just felt like doing the math and wanted to present it as food for thought.

Homosexuality is about 0.5 percent, it kinda results from genetic equation because of heritability of gay genes.

Now bi isn't that rare because morons mimics it, especially in the army.

However with Larian characters, if there would be a sex machine usable for free as an alternative to a final boss, I suspect all would turn into sex machine room and stay there until boss would go to do something more important than fighting them.

 

[Renfri]

This was nice touch when it was playing tbh, song with minor spoiling:

 

[Grunker]

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

That's a lot of manpower involved for a simple "joke". All the time to write and animate that sequence could have been put into adding a couple more quests.

Though I don't believe they didn't expect the virality

Like I've said before, as someone working with viral marketing by way of controversial stuff, 99,9% of the time when shit actually blows up, you had no idea it would.

The last 0,1% is because you're writing about the Mohammed cartoons