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We're boned, bros.
- DrRyanSkelton likes this.
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@Cayhr At least everyone here is shitting on that game, it has way fewer apologists than Baldur's Gay 3 did.
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@wan @ChristiJunior @Remi @Cayhr @bleedingphoenix That explains why the romance initiations feel so removed from everything else. They're basically fanfiction.
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@Kyonko802 @ChristiJunior @Remi @Cayhr @bleedingphoenix Can't write people if you've never been one.
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@Cayhr @ChristiJunior @Remi @Kyonko802 @bleedingphoenix BG3's character romances were reportedly (source: some Steam discussion thread that came up when I searched) directed by one Baudelaire Welch, a they/them who would like you to know via her Gamescom Bizcommunitythat she "grew up reading millions of words of Garrus Vakarian fanfiction".
The lead writer over her was one Adam Smith, a former game journo. Also under him was Kevin Vanord, another former game journo. I can't be bothered to follow up the other names, those being Chystal Ding, John Corcoran, Sarah Baylus, Stephen Rooney, Jan Van Dosselaer, Rachel Quirke, and perhaps others, but I'd guess they're spiritually closer to California than Belgium.
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@Kyonko802 @ChristiJunior @wan @Cayhr @bleedingphoenix I read that some characters also don't care if you have more than one romance but only in certain situations and only with certain other NPCs and there's no indication as to who any of these variables are.
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@Remi @Kyonko802 @ChristiJunior @Cayhr @bleedingphoenix We kept having NPC events trigger in weird ways, like the game was unpredictably sharing their relationship states between all human players in the session. It didn't help that all romance gates were presented as a choice between "I will make small-talk with you since we're, y'know, trusting our lives to each other" versus "THE NIGGERPEECEE WILL NOT SPEAK IN MY HOLY HUMAN PRESENCE REEEEEEE" and doing anything other than yelling at them to fuck off apparently registers as a desire to receive their awkward as fuck advances.
Maybe that's the only kind of romance they know?
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@wan >Maybe that's the only kind of romance they know?
It is inevitable that writers will project a bit of their persona into the writing of their work; the writer's bias. A writer who believes in familial bond will find a way to work it into his story, or at least consider it if it is not intended to be part of the current work. However, the modern "brain" -let's say- I believe has never been taught any amount of self-restraint, rationality, or objectivity. When I watch some of the dialogue of newer games unfold, I tend to fold myself inside out.
Which is weird because I don't think Belgium is like the west coast of America, is it? Is Larian filled with... "those types" from California academic institutions? I could believe the writers projecting the promiscuous tendencies of the recent generations into the game's romance if Larian was based in America, but afaik, it is a Belgian studio. I have no experience with the previous BG games so I have no point of reference, but I can't imagine it was historically cringe and despondent...
@ChristiJunior @Remi @Kyonko802 @bleedingphoenix
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@Kyonko802 @wan @ChristiJunior @Cayhr @bleedingphoenix I avoided all interaction with Gale and then halfway through Act 2 I was put into a cutscene during a 'sleep at camp' where he tries to advance romance with the player character under the stars so from what I can tell you can't avoid the conversation at all, you HAVE to say "no" to him at some point even if you never talk to him willingly like fuck off man.
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@Remi @ChristiJunior @wan @Cayhr @bleedingphoenix That was another annoying part. romances are ALL NPC initiated. There's no flirt option to open up that dialogue, you have to turn everyone down one by one and they all want to fuck you. I was ride or die with Shadowheart and had to go "nah" with literally everyone instead of the game going "Okay already in a relationship so disable that"
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@Cayhr @ChristiJunior @bleedingphoenix The writing was superficially okay at times. Much of it – probably through heroic effort on the part of one or two unpozzed staff – managed to rise above the Whedon-poisoned dreck we were bracing for, at least at the line level. There were some clever parts. It even had one or two moments I was able to label "cute", at least in structural terms.
But it very quickly became apparent that Baldur's Gate 3 is about the kind of abusive relationships that artsy proglets somehow keep getting themselves into (:thinking_rotate: ). Every party member was or is in one. The major questline has the player constantly wondering if they're being gaslit.
Legitimate thing to explore? Certainly. Over and over, suffocatingly, from every angle? Tiring. With every single one of these inpatients trying to jump into our pants at even the slightest provocation? Exhausting.
We eventually formed the headcanon that our characters just hung out with Withers at camp because he was the only one who wasn't going to trauma dump and then try to crawl into our bedrolls.
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@wan @ChristiJunior @Cayhr @bleedingphoenix
I enjoyed my time with BG3 but holy shit I am never spending money on it ever. For every right decision made there were two things where I wondered what the writing team was doing.
Gale, fucking Gale. Okay, dude had a relationship with Mystra, and his WHOLE FUCKING THING UP TO ACT 3 is that she abused him and discarded him and then tells him to blow himself up to save the world.
Then come the best ending of his personal quest. If you tell him to be nice to Mystra she basically goes "You know what I'm glad you didn't blow yourself up that was a shit idea on my part" and reveals that the reason hes not in pain anymore is that she's taken the burden of his orb into the weave itself until they can find a cure.
YOU ONLY FIND THIS OUT IF YOU DON'T CALL HER OUT FOR TELLING GALE TO KILL HIMSELF!!
I was so fucking mad. There was so much middle ground in act 1 and 2, but Mystra pissed me off because you couldn't even go "Okay thank you, but next time talk to us instead of acting like a god who doesn't give a shit"
BG2 definitely clears.
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@wan >boring abuse victims masquerading as people
Geez, the writing is THAT bad? How the hell do people stomach that game then...
@ChristiJunior @bleedingphoenix
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@bleedingphoenix Starfield I didn't see anyone really defend, but at least for BG3, I can see the arguments for the decent DND style tactics. That being said I refuse to buy it because of the... STUFF in it, let's just say.
Unfortunately it was real quick how some people jumped to totally shut down all criticism of BG3 with "But it was a good game though???" Idc, I don't want to subsidize my ideology enemies lol
@ChristiJunior
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@Cayhr @bleedingphoenix Like nigger, play (aka pirate) BG3 if you so desperately need to experience that game, but don't fucking try to portray it as anything other a vice you fall victim to.
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@ChristiJunior @Cayhr @bleedingphoenix I had fun playing it alongside my SO but the progsludge and other bad writing eventually gummed things up so badly that we could no longer offset its stink by making fun of it. The creepily cloying AND THEN THE ANGEL WAS BUTCH LESBIANS ending to Act 2 combined with the realization that we no longer cared what happened to any of these boring abuse victims masquerading as people meant that we never started Act 3.
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@ChristiJunior @Cayhr i felt like i was in upside down world when Starfield and Baldur's Gate 3 had apologists here. Cyberpunk is another example but i don't think that will ever end.
Cayhr
Christi Junior
Kyonko802
獣耳会社ｗａｎ
Remi
WhiteExodite
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