Maybe Bungie can learn from this? (Destiny)

by INSANEdrive, ಥ_ಥ | f(ಠ‿↼)z | ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ| ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Saturday, August 05, 2023, 14:06 (475 days ago) @ cheapLEY
edited by INSANEdrive, Saturday, August 05, 2023, 14:30

I’m not sure Diablo 4 is a game anyone should be looking to as an example of how to do anything correctly, and definitely not in the way this article talks about. Would you really want to play more Destiny if it took away all your gear and upgrades and made you start from zero every three months?

I wish they’d learn from something like Baldur’s Gate 3 instead (based on what I’ve seen about it so far).

Two Things:

1: In the event that Xbox Series S doesn't screw things over, I will be getting Baldur’s Gate 3. My First foray into DnD!

2: Baldur’s Gate 3 is likely to be an anomaly, not a standard. There was a bunch of Dev. chatter about this a few weeks ago actually, in fact (which was then quickly picked up by the "be outraged" youtubers). Here is an unrolled thread talking about such.

Like a lot of people, I'm deeply excited about what the lovely folks at Larian accomplished with Baldur's Gate 3, but I want to gently, pre-emptively push back against players taking that excitement and using it to apply criticism or a "raised standard" to RPGs going forward
1/10

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

You can't separate a game from the process used to build it, so let's look at what Larian is taking into the development and final version of this game:
2/

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

1) Dev cycle stretching back to ~2017
1) Two massive games--and their Definitive editions--worth of tech and institutional knowledge to draw from
3) Super successful Early Access period lasting 3 years, providing crucial community feedback, bug hunting, and cash flow
3/

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

4) Over 400 developers in 7 different offices around the world [not including outsourcing partners]
5) The license, brand, and world of one of the largest entertainment IPs in the world (D&D), at the apex of its popularity with the rise of the actual play movement, and a movie
4/

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

This is a small, incomplete list.

Larian is coming into this game SWINGING, with a gigantic weight of expectation to deal with--but they're also doing it with an *immense* amount of wind (direct experience + resources + specialty tooling +++ etc.) at their backs.
5/

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

As a TL;DR:
In an era of megagames, Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the largest attempted, built by a specialized group of people using mature tech specially built to make *this specific game*, reinforced by invaluable mass player feedback AND market validation ahead of its launch
6/

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

This is not a new baseline for RPGs--this is an anomaly.

Trying to do the same thing in the same way, especially without the same advantages, could kill an entire GROUP of studios.
7/

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

If they go as big or bigger with their next title, Larian themselves could die! That's the risk and reward of the megagame.

We are an industry dangling elephants over cliffs, pointing at the ones that don't collapse under their own weight as indictments to the ones that do.
8/

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

So please, celebrate the achievement represented by Baldur's Gate 3. It looks like a massive amount of effort is about to pay off in a big way, for one of the brightest voices in the medium...
9/

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

...but if you shout that "EVERY RPG SHOULD BE LIKE THIS GOING FORWARD, YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE--"

You've not just missed the point, you've created the expectations and conditions to ensure your favorite creators may never be able to give you the thing you love ever again.
10/10

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

Great thread. The conditions under which BG3 was made are atypical. This is in no way a slight against the game or the people working on it, who are clearly passionate and talented.

Having the foundation set and the funding to build things on your own terms is invaluable. https://t.co/DpEgZqP1oc

— Josh Sawyer (@jesawyer) July 9, 2023

Edit: Oh hey! Look! You scrolled down. Neat. It occurred to me that I need to say one more thing. Business types... are stupid. No stupider than the rest of us (in theory anyway), but the power they wield is often done so (in my experience anyway) in a very monkey see monkey do mentality.

What's that saying? I fear no man, but these fuckwads scare me. Or something like that, I may be paraphrasing.

Once the Game Industry STANDS-THEFUCK-UP and Unionizes like other creative industries, and "Crunch Culture" becomes a well overdue relic of the past, among other things, then yeah... let's hit it. Learn from something like Baldur’s Gate 3, indeed. But not before the gosh-darned meat grinder jaws that often get switched on to serve to shareholders on a silver platter get disabled and reworked into something actually useful for everyone involved, "meat" included. Otherwise, I'm afraid Mr.Nelson Jr. over here may be on to something. Unfortunately.