- cross-posted to:
- gaming@kbin.social
- cross-posted to:
- gaming@kbin.social
While Baldur’s Gate 3 is being widely celebrated by fans and developers alike, some are panicking that this could set new expectations from fans. Good.
While Baldur’s Gate 3 is being widely celebrated by fans and developers alike, some are panicking that this could set new expectations from fans. Good.
Despite capitalism.
Baldur’s Gate 3 flies in the face of how capitalism generally impacts video games. They were given six years, hundreds of millions of dollars, and basically full autonomy. They did not have top down pressure to do anything other than what they were promising. They set their own goals and metrics and were given seemingly limitless resources spanning multiple countries and a massive development team to make it happen. Boards do not generally like those kind of gambles, because frankly they could have chopped that budget up into 4 pieces, released 4 decent games, and it would have been a safer bet that would’ve generated a lot of money faster. Instead, they put all their eggs in one basket and chased massive scope, which we’ve seen many developers fail at while attempting again and again.
BG3 is the exception, not the rule. They were given an opportunity to show what they could do when given free reign. Then they didn’t deploy micro transactions or DLC. Two versions of the game on virtually every platform except the switch (even Mac OS native release next month) regardless of the market share each platform has. 
Decision after decision shows that they were basically artists/professionals who showed us what they were capable of when the pressures of capitalism were not at play in the same way everyone else feels. And make no mistake, you should not just let every developer do whatever they want with boundless resources. But the fact that they got to pretty much do that, at least relatively speaking to everyone else, is once again despite capitalism. Not because of it. 
Counter point: Baldur’s Gate is selling well within capitalism because it satisfies what the customer wants, which capitalism rewards in an environment with lots of competition, and video games have lots of competition. As big publishers like Ubisoft, EA, Activision-Blizzard, and Take Two have scaled back their offerings of lots of different types of games, including the type of RPG that Larian makes, it’s no surprise that the likes of Larian are rewarded for making that type of game. It’s why companies like Embracer, Anna Purna, Devolver, and Paradox are going to be growing a ton over the next decade.
@acastcandream @Murvel
Trust me, I get it and I agree, #capitalism sucks. Mostly.
But that’s not how it works.
You can’t just take an arbitrary event and claim it came to be despite the circumstances, not because of them.
Like, that’s not how causality works.
Besides, It’s a way stronger argument to point at the overwhelming amount of bad games and bad features and say those got produced under capitalism and that’s why it’s bad full stop.
You have an argument here, but you also can’t just take an arbitrary event and claim it to be because of the circumstances as a result.
 I’m not convinced for instance that this game could have been made by an American studio with American publishers because of how we deploy capitalism in the video game industry.