Greentext

It was honestly the design choice to make it procedural generation and then leaving the universe as a new game plus. That killed it completely.

Knack 2 was a blast in coop... we spouse and me played it in December on cozy winter nights, maybe it's garbage but scratched an itch.

DoS is an adjustment after BG3, but I've come to prefer the combat and character build mechanics. I bounced off it soon after BG3 and got really into it after trying again later. If you thought you might enjoy it, worth another try.

I hope their next game is DoS 3 (or a Shadowrun game if I dare to dream).

For more D&D combat and mechanics I also highly recommend Solasta, and Solasta 2 will be coming out this year.

The more I read about BG3 the more I wonder if I fucked up somewhere that lead me to not liking the game...

It's literally not as enjoyable as drawing a map, thinking about myths or just reading stories

Former game studio guy who got out and into general software dev and doubled his pay back in like 2012 and haven't looked back...

This is correct... that plus a couple other things :

1. Western game studios have ZERO qualms burning through people because they believe an endless fresh crop of 20-somethings can be brought in to burn out by forcing 96-hr work weeks for garbage pay

2. Even many of the "once-great-studios" got rid of / severely reduced the bonuses / profit-sharing you used to get when a game was successful and just lay people off or close studios right after the games ship (even when they're "successful...") which means if you ever want to be a home owner, or have time to set aside for a family, or just not be terrified you're going to be financially ruined... you're kinda screwed.

So what this means you've got a bunch of people who largely have ZERO experience on each project, and are in survival mode, learning from mistakes that otherwise experienced devs would help avoid as they grew, usually making sequels to popular games that are worse than their previous entries - at least as far as tech goes (see Far Cry series where they show the tech used in FC2 vs newer entries), and when it's done, they are laid off or have their studio shut down and then have to struggle amongst a now even more competitive job market to find another position somewhere else... or they bounce... like I did.

The only outliers (besides tiny indie devs hoping to make a hit) among the major game companies are based outside the U.S. along with only a handful of studios in the U.S. (whose games I guarantee you love) and - surprise surprise - when you look at their teams... they're a bunch of guys in their 50s and up who've been making games since the 90s and aren't being let go after each project ships or being asked to stay at the office and work over the weekend until Sunday at 3am for the entire 4th quarter of the year.

Straw men don't have security details

You appear to be agreeing with the meme; it didn't say anything about the size of BG3, only the quality

Or CD Project Red from Poland (The Witcher series, Cyberpunk, GOG.com). Or Larian Studios from Belgium (Divinity Series, Baldurs Gate 3). Or Platinum Games from Japan (Bayonetta Series, NieR:Automata, Vanquish, Astral Chain).

You're correct, it's the unhinged US turbocapitalistic corporatocracy that just produces more and more trash. Won't change either, best is to just treat names like "Ubisoft", "EA" or "Microsoft" printed on games like huge red flags and avoid them, no matter how good the manipulative marketing is. Saves money and nerves.

Usually whan people make this argument with BG3 as evidence it comes with the implicit assumption that Larian is a AA developer, not a AAA one. I haven't done enough research on what constitutes AAA vs AA and where Larian fits in that so I don't know if that's reasonable, but that's the argument.

And Japanese AAAs don’t under deliver?

The best culture will always come from cooperatives, when artists are fully invested in what they do and not just salary men building stuff based on soulless profit metrics.

Kinda a weird take, because BG3 is just Larian recycling their old tricks, and Elden Ring is just FromSoftware recycling their old tricks. Seems gamers don't have too much of an issue with companies making similar games in a niche.

Think the issue is more that Bethesda has never had a clear vision for Elder Scrolls as a series and changes the formula up for each game, as opposed to iterating. Elder Scrolls has lost more mechanics than its added over the years. I think Elder Scrolls 6 would be a lot more interesting if old tricks like spellmaking and levitation were brought back.

Hell, even Divinity Original Sin 1 would put the storytelling and roleplaying aspects of Elder Scrolls on the floor.

Then again, Bethesda learned nothing from FO76, which resulted in Starfield being what it is (devoid of meaning, story or anything other than space dungeons). I doubt they learned anything from it, either.

BG3 might not be a healthy reference for videogame development for different reasons, but it's definitely remarkable how nothing has made me less excited for ES6 than Starfield.

I can't predict how long it'll take until it releases, but I'm doubtful it could be enough to fix whatever mess is already making its way through production—if they even planned to fix it, that is.