How is this game so good?

[nebula | 381 DAYS UNTIL GTA VI]

I've been playing since August and just finished my first playthrough yesterday. I bought the game after a friend recommended it to me and after watching the infamous squirrel scene. I immediately started a new save after finishing my first run and during said run I was thinking of different ways to approach each situation and how I would do things differently in my next playthrough. (Did you know in the Owlbear Nest you can move the Selune Gilded Chest to the Goblin Camp to kill the Goblins? :o)

Why are new AAA games not like Baldur's Gate? How is this game even possible in a time where profit is prioritized over creativity? Why does it feel like the gaming industry has not progressed but declined in recent years? Will the success of BG3 show game developers that putting in the effort is the best thing they can do to not only make a profit but also be respected by the community? Look at the Madden franchise, it's the same game every year but people buy it every year and it's the same with Call of Duty. If these AAA developers know they can make a garbage game loaded with microtransactions and make a bunch of money, why don't they?

[Hobocop]

Being publicly traded and beholden to shareholders, reaching for the guaranteed return on investment to please them, mostly.

[Ironwu]

The developers love the genre and respect the customer.

Unlike some AAA studios I could point at.

[Hobocop]

Originally posted by Ironwu:

Originally posted by Hobocop:

Being publicly traded and beholden to shareholders, reaching for the guaranteed return on investment to please them, mostly.

Where did you get THAT information about Larian Studios from?

Sorry, should have been clear that I was referring to other AAA studios. Larian isn't really any of those.

[Ironwu]

Originally posted by Hobocop:

Originally posted by Ironwu:

Where did you get THAT information about Larian Studios from?

Sorry, should have been clear that I was referring to other AAA studios. Larian isn't really any of those.

Yes. After I posted I realized what you probably meant and removed my post.

My apologies. :(

[Cosgar]

Remember when AAA devs "Said don't expect this level of quality from us" when they spoke out about Baldur's Gate 3? I'm starting to think instead of saying they won't make a game as good, they're lamenting that they can't. Larian is technically an indie studio, meaning they have full autonomy over their products. No greedy CEO that takes $50 of the profit when they can't do a single line of code and no shareholders to call 5.2 million copies sold a massive failure. Also BG3 was a passion project, through and through.

[Ironwu]

Originally posted by Cosgar:

Remember when AAA devs "Said don't expect this level of quality from us" when they spoke out about Baldur's Gate 3? I'm starting to think instead of saying they won't make a game as good, they're lamenting that they can't. Larian is technically an indie studio, meaning they have full autonomy over their products. No greedy CEO that takes $50 of the profit when they can't do a single line of code and no shareholders to call 5.2 million copies sold a massive failure. Also BG3 was a passion project, through and through.

Tell you what, those other developers and publishers dang well better get their act together. For I am sure not buying any of their products until I have full information on the game and how it plays and the overall quality.

That is how I avoided that dumpster fire that is Starfield.

They have to step up or step out.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by nebula:

How is this game so good?
I've been playing since August and just finished my first playthrough yesterday. I bought the game after a friend recommended it to me and after watching the infamous squirrel scene. I immediately started a new save after finishing my first run and during said run I was thinking of different ways to approach each situation and how I would do things differently in my next playthrough. (Did you know in the Owlbear Nest you can move the Selune Gilded Chest to the Goblin Camp to kill the Goblins? :o)

Why are new AAA games not like Baldur's Gate? How is this game even possible in a time where profit is prioritized over creativity? Why does it feel like the gaming industry has not progressed but declined in recent years? Will the success of BG3 show game developers that putting in the effort is the best thing they can do to not only make a profit but also be respected by the community? Look at the Madden franchise, it's the same game every year but people buy it every year and it's the same with Call of Duty. If these AAA developers know they can make a garbage game loaded with microtransactions and make a bunch of money, why don't they?

Main owner of the Larian Studios is also the creative head behind Larian Studios.
It is as if Apple would be lead by Steve Jobs.

This topic reminds me of this video which I like to recommend as it is quite worthwhile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IaCcTD_wKk
and it also covers many thoughts about the nature of the game and its surrounding.

And I did not know about the chest, but have seen similar stuff like that throughout the game. The fact that the game invites you also for more obvious approaches, like spiking the drinks of the goblins with poison only underlines that this kind of game takes the players serious, while a lot of other games do not.

The question should be less how Baldur's Gate 3 is so good, but more why the majority of other games are so bad. It is not just bad stuff, as you can enjoy Nintendo house developed games with almost constantly high ratings and great joy. Also, there was that special gem Dave the Diver last year which deserves always an honourable mention alongside Baldur's Gate 3.

[Cosgar]

Originally posted by Ironwu:

Originally posted by Cosgar:

Remember when AAA devs "Said don't expect this level of quality from us" when they spoke out about Baldur's Gate 3? I'm starting to think instead of saying they won't make a game as good, they're lamenting that they can't. Larian is technically an indie studio, meaning they have full autonomy over their products. No greedy CEO that takes $50 of the profit when they can't do a single line of code and no shareholders to call 5.2 million copies sold a massive failure. Also BG3 was a passion project, through and through.

Tell you what, those other developers and publishers dang well better get their act together. For I am sure not buying any of their products until I have full information on the game and how it plays and the overall quality.

That is how I avoided that dumpster fire that is Starfield.

They have to step up or step out.

I have friends in the industry and they said the absolute worse thing (aside from the sexual harassment and discrimination) is being motivated to make a fun game and the publisher comes in to make you shove monetization into it, make you us an in-house engine that you have no idea how to work, or sit through meetings on studying the addictive nature of mobile games to encourage player retention.
If it wasn't for indie gaming, we probably would've seen an industry crash. Probably ~2010ish when every publisher used confirmation bias to say nobody is buying the genres they're actually known for and burned their houses down out of fear they'd catch fire

[Lani]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Main owner of the Larian Studios is also the creative head behind Larian Studios.
It is as if Apple would be lead by Steve Jobs.

Latter day Steve Jobs I hope. Not the narcissistic Steve of the Macintosh era.

[Dr.Abscondus]

Games are a business, but Larian has never really run their studio like a business. I have no idea why. Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin 2 were both crowd funded because they couldn't raise money from the usual industry sources. They were always close to bankruptcy so the money people thought them a bad risk. The success of the Divinity games funded BG3 and allowed Larian to initially develop the game, but they were still forced to go to early access in 2020 to raise more money to finish the game (still not finished). It's very unlikely you'll ever see any other game company being willing to take such a huge gamble. Swen Vincke, Larian founder and CEO, is just a very unusual type of businessman. He has a definite vision of what he wants and will not deviate from it. People like that either become hugely successful like Elon Musk, or fail spectacularly and are forgotten like John LeLorean. I'd put Vincke down as a success.

[Cosgar]

Originally posted by Dr.Abscondus:

Games are a business, but Larian has never really run their studio like a business. I have no idea why. Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin 2 were both crowd funded because they couldn't raise money from the usual industry sources. They were always close to bankruptcy so the money people thought them a bad risk. The success of the Divinity games funded BG3 and allowed Larian to initially develop the game, but they were still forced to go to early access in 2020 to raise more money to finish the game (still not finished). It's very unlikely you'll ever see any other game company being willing to take such a huge gamble. Swen Vincke, Larian founder and CEO, is just a very unusual type of businessman. He has a definite vision of what he wants and will not deviate from it. People like that either become hugely successful like Elon Musk, or fail spectacularly and are forgotten like John LeLorean. I'd put Vincke down as a success.

Pretty sure having a father that owns a jewel mine in apartheid Africa isn't a way to measure success. I agree with the rest though.

[Recjawjind]

Originally posted by Dr.Abscondus:

Games are a business, but Larian has never really run their studio like a business. I have no idea why. Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin 2 were both crowd funded because they couldn't raise money from the usual industry sources. They were always close to bankruptcy so the money people thought them a bad risk. The success of the Divinity games funded BG3 and allowed Larian to initially develop the game, but they were still forced to go to early access in 2020 to raise more money to finish the game (still not finished). It's very unlikely you'll ever see any other game company being willing to take such a huge gamble. Swen Vincke, Larian founder and CEO, is just a very unusual type of businessman. He has a definite vision of what he wants and will not deviate from it. People like that either become hugely successful like Elon Musk, or fail spectacularly and are forgotten like John LeLorean. I'd put Vincke down as a success.

I'd say Miyazaki is another such example, of the head of a studio working passion, rather than money oriented.
But let's not bring musk into this conversation, he's absolutely not a good example for this.

[kbiz]

Originally posted by nebula:

If these AAA developers know they can make a garbage game loaded with microtransactions and make a bunch of money, why don't they?

When a group tries to control something, the free market allows for someone else to jump in and supply the demand. Or things like indie gaming spring up.

Larian bucked the trend. But the garbage you mention is not a primary reason for success. Does bring a ton of goodwill to Larian though.