D&D (2024) PC Gamer: It's clear Hasbro, the custodians of D&D, have no idea what to do with Baldur's Gate 3's success

[Azzy]

Rising up in armed rebellion against oppression is "evil" now?

Well, that what the oppressors will tell you.

 

[Hussar]

it sounded more like there is no cross pollination to me

I see. So, I clarify your misunderstanding three times, and you double down by insisting that we stick with your misunderstanding?

Yeah, good talk.

 

[mamba]

I see. So, I clarify your misunderstanding three times, and you double down by insisting that we stick with your misunderstanding?

Yeah, good talk.

take it as me pointing out the source of the misunderstanding if you want to insist on it being one, rather than a straightforward reading of what you wrote

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

It's been over a decade and I mentioned fuzzy memories. There was some kind of gameplay change that turned me off on top of the whitewashed world already mentioned. The two combined left me dropping the game pretty quickly compared to my usual tenacity with games.

They switched from tactical real-time-with-pause like the original Baldur's Gate games in DA 1 to a button mashing arcade style system in DA2.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For the third time clarifying.

I said that there IS NO EVIDENCE that there is any cross pollination between people who play BG3 and people entering the TTRPG hobby.

Hey, remember when WotC published D&D Diablo? I do. Most popular video game of its time. How many people did that bring into the hobby? AFAIK, none. It completely flopped and vanished. How about when D&D tried attracting WOW players with WOW inspired mechanics in 4e? That was a spectacular success, right? Brought in millions of TTRPG gamers... oh, wait.... no it didn't.

Do you have any actual evidence that there is a way to bring in CRPG players into TTRPG's? Anything other than, "lack of evidence doesn't mean I'm wrong"?

Pretty sure you are right. Video games do not bring people in to tabletop gaming, no matter how successful the game. Why play a tabletop game when video games do it better?

The only thing that gets people interested in tabletop games is streamed actual play. And then they are disappointed when the other players are not as entertaining as professional actors.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I seem to remember when Baldur Gate 3 was in beta or pre-release there were a lot of folks unhappy with the state

Mostly to do with not using old school “the only good goblin is a dead goblin” moral absolute alignments.

There were also a few too many no win gotcha scenarios - but those were quickly fixed.

 

[Nightfly]

I said that there IS NO EVIDENCE that there is any cross pollination between people who play BG3 and people entering the TTRPG hobby.

I play and run a lot of games with strangers on Warhorn, Discord, etc. and more than once I've encountered players who are surprised (and sometimes annoyed) that something in 5e works differently than it did in BG3. I would say that's pretty clear proof that BG3 brought those people into tabletop D&D, at least in part.

And of course there are players like that, because how could there not be? People literally have BG3 tattoos and you can't imagine that some of them are interested in checking out the game upon which it's based? I promise you there are such people -- just maybe not as many as there might be, because I'm not sure Hasbro knows what to make of the golden egg that dropped into their lap.

How about when D&D tried attracting WOW players with WOW inspired mechanics in 4e? That was a spectacular success, right? Brought in millions of TTRPG gamers... oh, wait.... no it didn't.

Yes it did. I don't know about "millions", but 4e absolutely brought waves of people into (or back into) D&D. I should know, I was one of them. And I knew many, many others. There was certainly an issue with 4e alienating the existing player base, but 4e did a good-to-great job attracting new players.

 

[pukunui]

They switched from tactical real-time-with-pause like the original Baldur's Gate games in DA 1 to a button mashing arcade style system in DA2.

Uh. I don’t know about the console version, but you can still pause the game in the middle of combat to issue orders to your companions and such in the PC version of DA2.