Many people commenting on BG3 and the Forgotten Realms generally seem to be under the misapprehension that the Forgotten Realms was ever a serious attempt at creating a fantasy version of pseudo-medieval Europe
Eh. Yes, FR had a bunch of different settings crammed into one world, but the general expectation of medieval fantasy,
particularly along a pseudo-European geography like this part of the SC, is that there's going to be a kingdom there and that kingdom, if it has traditional knights and such, is probably going to be European. Not even necessarily pasty white men, but something vaguely like Europe, since you're borrowing so much of the culture, and since other areas are home to races that are specifically black or Arab, implying that the areas that aren't are probably different.
And even if you want to make a different race there,
even though this is specifically a sequel to Baldur's Gate, a game that showed at least a sizable amount of white people there in typical Medieval dress, go ahead. But there's going to be some distinct group of people there, or even groups, and they're going to have distinctive characteristics, since travel isn't that easy. They're not going to be a mix of random races slapped together so much so that you can't tell who the locals are at all. At least if you want an ounce of believability.
This isn't something I'm saying Wizards or TSR did on purpose, or wanted to have. This is an assumption players are going to naturally have, since the setting isn't suited to creating abject melting pots. Sure, you're going to have lots of races in a specifically mercantile city - merchants, refugees, what have you. But it's not going to have
zero distinctive demographics for the local humans, which lore-wise are supposed to be a majority.
But BG3 takes it a step further. Not only is there no distinctive human culture, but humanity itself looks to be a minority. This just makes the setting feel preposterous. It's a city less cohesive or homogeneous than any large modern city. And in a modern city, travel is so easy that you can go from the other end of the world to LA in a day.
You're correct that Forgotten Realms had its problems and that there are better settings, but even with those problems, BG1 was at least playable without wandering around slapping your forehead in amazement at how the worldbuilding couldn't be more trash if they tried. Not that I'm praising BG1's simplistic world specifically, just saying that it was tolerable. But then, I doubt there was anyone looking over their shoulder at the time, making sure they added enough Diversity.
Also, hat's off to the Murder In Baldur's Gate authors for naming the negro duke "
Ravengard". He's black and he was a guard. Real subtle.
