The Baldur's Gate Paradox
This is Why We Don't Have Nice Things
I love strategy roleplaying games. It’s probably my favorite genre of video games. I first encountered the genre at ten years old. I have played and beaten Shining Force more than any other game. I used to rent the game from a local video store because I didn’t own the game. When SFII came out (not Street Fighter II, the much more common SFII), I probably spent enough to buy it twice over renting it from the video store as well.
I borrowed Adam Duke’s Saturn to play SFIII. I attempted to learn emulation to play the other two chapters of that game. I walked into the theme to Shining Force at my wedding twenty years later. I have cosplayed as Max. My wife has given me Shining Force themed gifts.
John Nolan (not the one from TBS) played X-Com: UFO Defense on his computer and I watched enamored. Shining Force took me to Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics and from there to NIS. Playstation 2 was loaded with classics like “Soul Nomad and the World Eaters” and “Makai Kingdom.” I’ve played cRPGs (computer roleplaying games) - Heroes of Might and Magic, Ultima, Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, Fallout and so many more.
If a game put tactics in the title, I was going to try it. Fallout Tactics, Suikoden Tactics, Tactics Ogre, etc. It is a genre mostly defined by Fire Emblem in the East and X-Com in the West. Both are killer series with some of my favorite games of all time. This is a genre that combines two niche, hardcore genres. The games are typically very long and require intense dedication to play.
Enter the Divinity
Video gaming in this niche saw a huge boost in the modern era from Kickstarter, but also from developers like Firaxis (which makes X-Com and Civilization, two of the greatest series of all time). X-Com had a stellar revamp with Enemy Unknown, a modern that reinvigorated interest in the tactical RPG genre. Wasteland 2 spawned the exceptional Wasteland 3 and truly brought the original Fallout into the modern era (as much as I love New Vegas).
Somewhere along the way (2014), Larian Studios made a game that took the best parts of CRPGs and SRPGs and made Divinity Original Sin. I discounted the game because of Divinity II Ego Draconis, an ambitious but flawed action roleplaying game by Larian.
D:OS followed in the wake of Dragon Age: Origins, which was Bioware’s modern love letter to classic CRPGs. Dragon Age was immediately a stone cold classic. D:OS took a little longer to build their buzz, but by the time Original Sin II came out three years later, they had made it.
They had incorporated the tactical gameplay of the best SRPGs with the exploration and character development of the best traditional RPGS. Divinity is held up as on the of the premiere examples of the genre and rightfully so. It incorporated co-op multiplayer, a dynamic story and amazing gameplay. When Larian got the rights to Baldur’s Gate, people deep into this hobby were understandably excited. One of the most lauded cRPGS was getting handled by people who clearly love the genre and were going to treat it well.
The response has been amazing. The game is currently getting rave reviews and has bled over into mainstream gaming in a massive way. It is hugely popular, getting praise for not including microtransactions or any other anti-consumer tactics that are all too common in modern video gaming. It has video game fans and Dungeons and Dragons fans excited, as the game is based on 5e D&D and translates easily for fans of the tabletop game.
It is a game made for fans, by fans, with a massive budget and a six year development time. The game was in early access for three years, reacting to fan feedback and fine tuning the game. Larian has done everything right and has been rewarded for it. Fans are heralding this as a wake up call to an industry that exploits it’s consumers to the tune of ~$190 billion dollars a year now. They showed it could be done, video game journalism is flooded with BG3 articles. Reddit is awash in hype and anti-hype for this game, with almost everyone agreeing that Larian made a masterpiece. The anti-hype is mostly centered around the push from fans for more of this from video game publishers.
Avernus vs the Hells
If Larian can do it, why can’t Bioware? Or Bethesda? Ubisoft? They can make these massively sprawling worlds that are a lot like Twinkies. Empty calories, sweet in small doses, but you’ll get sick if you get too much of it. Generic, bland imitations of a better desert mass produced to be as generally appealing and as cheap to manufacture as possible. Profit over quality. Quantity sold over quality.
Bioware, Bethesda and Ubisoft have done it. Dragon Age, Morrowind, the original Assassin’s Creed and so many other great games in their repertoire that have been sanded down and sanitized for mass appeal. So much that they’ve lost what made them originally appealing. Games become brands - EA has made that an artform, their sports department is essentially a cut and paste year to year. Look at Activision and Call of Duty. Video games are like any other commercial art, when something becomes successful, what made it successful gets commodified. Watered down. Mass produced until you’re sick of it.
Disney goes through this cycle routinely. Currently Star Wars and Marvel are being ran into the ground, but they did it with their animated movies before the revival in the 80s. The live action remakes are mostly soulless interpretations of their most successful products. It has allowed them to become the biggest media producer in the world, but also a company that produces some of the most generic product.
Those companies aren’t going to respond to Larian because there’s no financial reason to. Video games are in industry now. People are in it to make money, not to make a quality product. And that’s the Baldur’s Gate Paradox in a nutshell. Quality games will get a great response, will make a lot of money and will be well loved, but they won’t make as much money as an inferior product. The companies that have the resources to make those games choose not to and they dominate the marketplace.
They’ll even point to CD Projekt Red’s troubled launch as a reason to NOT do things the so-called “right way” from the point of view of the consumer. You’ll hear it in all the conversations. Units sold, money generated from microtransactions and season passes. Success is measured by financial gain. Money is the only reason people do this right?
Larian shows that isn’t true. They did this because they wanted to make a great game and they did. Most people don’t go into this world to create generic products with the sole intent of selling a lot of games. They want to create art. Tell stories and make people feel. Make people think.
How much of your life is dictated by the amount of money something will generate? How often are you told that profit is a sign of success? Is profit really success?