this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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If reception to Baldur’s Gate says anything, it’s that people hate microtransactions in their AAA games.

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[–] [email protected] 195 points 1 year ago (5 children)

That article completely misses the forrest for the trees.

It’s a complete game. It was created with vision, passion, love, and complete creative freedom. It has a great story and interesting characters. It provides lots of player agency. It is unflinchingly candid, mature, and uncensored. Your choices, actions, and inaction ACTUALLY MATTERS. There is no DRM. There are no live service strings. You can play alone and/or with friends. There are no strangers or PvP to ruin your game. And yes, there are also no micro-transactions.

The lesson that BG3 offers isn’t just one thing… it’s a LOT of things. But the best way to sum it up is: it’s a great game and it treats players/customers with respect.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the most important part is that it launched without DRM on GOG and was able to be pirated from day 1 and it STILL was a huge success because people knew that the game isn't trying anything shady to get even more money from you

It's just something people actually want to support and not like people feel like even if they buy the game they only have half an experience if they don't spend more money later

I really hope the next financial report from Larian is making people think differently about the necessity of putting aggressive DRM in their games

People don't pirate because they don't want to pay - they pirate because they don't trust the game to bit pull more shady shit later and not be worth it in the end

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

-800k concurent player on launch

-no drm and can be pirated on first day

-some exec: that could've been higher if you get Denuvo in it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Omfg, I'm 100% sure there are corporate cunts who are saying that

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Same execs who think it's such a waste not adding $15 outfit DLC to BG3

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have avoided reading much about the game. I am loving it, but I have no idea at what point in the game that I currently am. It could end in the next ten minutes and I'll be satisfied with my purchase, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's another 10+ hours. This is what I was waiting for Bethesda to release as the next Skyrim successor if they hadn't decided to milk that cow until troll cheese came out. It's everything I want in a game. Story, gameplay, length, affordability, fun, and no microtransactions making my efforts feel worthless.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I legitimately have no idea how much more game I have. I finally got to the edge of Baldurs Gate and have been chilling here for like 10 hours, haven't even gotten inside the city proper yet.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

So far, every article I've seen about Baldur's Gate 3's effect on the gaming industry has been horse shit. Other studios and publishers are not "panicking," they're not going to rethink microtransactions, and they're not going to be daunted by this release; some devs have said as much already along the lines of "Yeah don't expect this breadth and scope from us going forward, because it doesn't work for our games."
This game is not the industry-spanning "gotcha" these writers have been trying to make it out to be. AAA devs or publishers are going to continue their nonsense because people will continue to buy their shit anyway, and they know it.
All that said, BG3 is the best game I've played in a number of years and hands-down the best cRPG I've ever played. It smokes Divinity, Icewind Dale, the previous BG games, NWN, etc. So if any studios do happen to have a positive takeaway from this, maybe we'll see at least some of that polish in games down the line.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

It’s also a rare example of where a massive budget without restrictions (relatively speaking) can lead to amazing results.

Usually one of two things happens: the publisher is tired of dumping money into a project then force it to market too early, or scope creep happens and the developers bite off way more than they can chew and there’s nothing they can do past a certain point.

Larian managed to dodge both of these bullets. Not by luck, of course. But they dodged them nonetheless.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Not to mention it's built on top of an already super popular brand