#KaiPlaysBG3

[kaija-rayne-author]

I guess the discourse today is about Astarion being the favourite poster boy of the devs to the detriment of the other characters.

Yes. That's unequivocally true. Wyll having so little compared to Astarion is also an example of racism.

It's also capitalism. Larian can't make more games unless BG3 does well. So far it has, so in their choice of poster boy they chose correctly.

Every business, especially entertainment ones, follows a similar model. Develop stories or games that the previous game helped fund. It's common in book publishing too.

(Which, tbf, is my realm of knowledge, but the business facts are the same.)

What you, if you're indie, or the publisher, if not, chooses to spend time on is the thing/character/aspect/story that will sell the most copies so they can stay in business.

They bet on Astarion being popular because:

1. Vampire, vampire stories don't seem to get old. People want more.

2. White hair, if you're at all into gaming or anime, you should recognize the white-haired anime boy coding Astarion has.

3. He's pretty. In games & books like these, people want to get turned on or be sucked into emotions, that's rather the point. So, of course, they made him pretty and gave him an angsty backstory about it. Have you noticed that his vampire fangs are the more traditional style and the rest have funky (and likely more efficient) chompers with the fangs on the front teeth?

4. Twink, you'd have to be really not paying attention to not notice that one. They tend to be attractive to the largest section of players.

6. Slow burn, a lot of people prefer slow burn romance.

7. Classically handsome. You could turn him into a statue (and can!) and he wouldn't look out of place.

I don't experience this type of point form character building, my characters tend to march fully formed into my head and demand I write them.

But Astarion was built as a fictional character that would (hopefully) capture a broad cross-section of players and give the game some more sex appeal.

Sex sells.

I'd lay money I don't have on every aspect of Astarion's character having been a deliberate choice to encourage sales.

And that's fine. That's what capitalism does. Don't like it? Start voting for social support programs and things like ubi so that people can create without worrying about the bills.

Is it fair to the other characters and to the gamers who love other characters more than Astarion? Absolutely not. I do hope Larian gets the message and produces more content to make them all equivocal.

Especially for Wyll, they did him so dirty.

Is Wyll having the least lines and scenes racist? Yup.

Larian, despite their faults, produced something that so few games companies have done recently. A single purchase, single player RPG without micro-transactions that was an excellent game straight from release.

Other games companies are bitching about that because it's like sand in the oyster of their business models.

Which, for a while now, has been to roll out a game that wasn't ready yet and use the players as unpaid, uncompensated labour to find bugs etc. As a gamer, I've really hated that.

Did Larian fuck up? Uh, yeah. On several issues. But they also made an amazing game that was awesome from release.

It would be a shame to lose sight of that.

It's important to call out the shite when we see it, but the current 'it has to be perfect for me, or I won't play' attitude rampant on the 'net these days is disturbing to say the least.

I've read Larian has a feedback thing on fridays. If this really bothers you, hustle on over and participate in the feedback session.

They're still actively working on the game. They can still make changes and they seem reasonably responsive to fan feedback.

But just remember... the reason Astarion is the poster boy with the most content is because of capitalism. It was likely a cold, business focused decision vs anything else.

Which doesn't make it better. I just figured inserting a bit of entertainment business knowledge might be helpful to the discussion.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Gale is utterly killing me with his romance (in the good way). I'm just a melted puddle after playing some of those scenes. Totally agree with people who think he's demisexual.

Dating Gale and Friend Gale are so completely different, too. Night and day, really.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Ew. Just saw a pic of the 'modded to look younger' Astarion and ick.

Youth worship culture has gone way too far. He looks like a ken doll ffs.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Wyll is the perfect prince charming trope. Elegant, reserved, a hero to the people, committed to his honour, polite, gorgeous, charismatic, noble birth, and romantic! 😍

I love it so hard that he's Black.

Gimme all the tropes but diverse.

It's not overused until everyone has seen themselves in the tropes, y'all.

I can't wait to make a character to Romance Wyll. He's really wonderful.

My current Durge is all heart eyes for Astarion, and Halsin is still a question mark.

I doubt Wyll and Durge are gonna work well together 😅.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Okay. Got Gale's love scene last night. That is just so freaking gorgeous.

I mighta taken a lot of screenshots. Maybe. Just a few.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Karlach is bloody adorable! Gods, I really wish I could do polyam with her and Astarion, or Astarion and Shadowheart. Guess us bi females are out of luck unless we like Halsin and Shadowheart. Blurgh. Halsin has yet to grow on me.

He might, I guess. He's just rather cis guy feeling for my particular tastes.

I can't get over how awesome it is to have BOTH a non-binary option (and the NPCs all use they/them pronouns MY HEART!!!) AND polyamory. I'm just picky and want all characters to be polyam so my polyam ass has just as much choice as everyone else.

I honestly don't care of it's hard to do. It's obviously possible.

It's also a little odd IMO that Astarion and Shadowheart aren't an option. Unless there's something plot relevant I haven't encountered yet. They're both on the middle line of morality. It seems a natural potential.

I don't think any of them are straight or gay/lesbian, I read somewhere that you can Romance them all regardless of gender and sex, so? Dunno.

Who ends up pairing off with whom if the player character doesn't pair up with them?

[kaija-rayne-author]

LMAO... It's not really romantic unless the fictional character LI holds a knife to your throat at the first meeting, right? 🤣 I'm absolutely broken, I know.

Astarion is a massive brat. I'm looking forward to getting to know him. I can absolutely confirm the VA did an amazing job!

I also think I've figured out why people keep comparing Anders and Gale. It's something in the tenor of the VAs voices. Anders original VA in Awakening has a very similar sound to his voice. I just came from Awakening and the similarity is definitely there.

Only had to restart once, that's not bad for me.

This game is bloody gorgeous and fun as all get out. So glad I could get it.

Made a really great birthday 🎂.

[kaija-rayne-author]

I gotta say how much I utterly adore the age marks on the Baldur's Gate characters. Not only does it make my middle aged gamer ass feel happier to play, but it’s so much more realistic! I utterly adore Astarion's and Shadowheart's age lines. They're so beautiful and gah. Thank you, Larian!

[kaija-rayne-author]

I will never refer to Shadowheart as that awful nickname people keep calling her.

She's a complex, gorgeous character with an amazing backstory, awesome questline, and she's pretty damned hot too.

A shart is something you find on your underwear.

What's wrong with just Shadow, or Shad? Even Shade would do, and even fits her story. Heart might feel too gooey for some people, but even that's better that fucking shart.

[kaija-rayne-author]

I wasn't sure about Halsin, tbh, for a polyam lover, but he grew on me. I swear, whoever wrote his dialogue understands how to talk to someone they're interested in! Yes please on honest yet heart (and unders!) melting compliments.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Urgh, Wyll's dance scene was awesome and it killed me to say no. But I'm not romancing him right now. I'll do one for him though. Augh, Larian is almost too good at facial expressions. My heart aches.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Holy shit, Larian went super, super dark with the Dark Urge run. I'm just in awe at the writing and modelling skill of whoever wrote the scene in act 2 after the butler shows up and you defend the inn. I'm floored at the emotions I just experienced.

Thank you to whoever suggested I play durge with Romancing Astarion. It's freaking phenomenal. That scene! Auuugh. All the emotions!

Also so, so, sooooo dark. I love dark fantasy and this hits the right emotions just perfectly.

[kaija-rayne-author]

The underdark is both gorgeous and just fascinating. I can't even begin to say how much I'm enjoying the dungeon aspect of this game. I think a lot of fantasy takes the concept of 'dungeon' a little too literally. Bg3 has so many different types of 'dungeons'. Old wizard towers, hag huts, defunct and despoiled temples, a forge... and I'm not even half finished yet.

I also really love that rogues are incredibly useful, like they really should be? The disarm traps and lockpicking mechanics are so much fun for me! It helps that the assassin who I fell for the moment he had his blade at my character's neck can actually pick said locks 😅. (I'm very unwell about Astarion.)

I love Zevran DragonAge, don't get me wrong, but why can't he pick locks? Did they just forget he was supposed to be able to and not select those boxes?

Anyway, Bg3 is worth every penny even at full price. Totally worth it and I just love so much about it.

Is there a preferred way to let Larian know positive feedback? Or do they just stalk tags? I'm a creative and I know how much positive feedback means.

[kaija-rayne-author]

CW discussion of CPTSD and abuse regarding some Baldur's Gate 3 discourse.

Please tell me the nonsense about Gale 'breaking boundaries, red flag, red flag! Clutches pearls' isn't because the word boundary was used in the discussion?

Mystra's boundary with mages isn't the same as an interpersonal boundary peeps. As we move through life, we encounter all sorts of boundaries. They're not all the kind that require overthinking or worry about relationship stuff, y'know?

Hells, the white lines on a road are a boundary.

The 'no cutting into line' is a social boundary, something widely accepted as necessary by a society or culture.

She's gatekeeping magic with that, not saying 'uh, hey, yeah, but that thing you did is a boundary issue for me and I need you to respect that'.

I have a boundary my friends need to respect. I have pretty bad CPTSD, my friends cannot do the 'sneaking up behind me for funnies' thing for *their* safety as well as mine, because when I'm shocked or made afraid, I'm likely to punch someone. I haven't yet because I have quick reflexes, but I worry, deeply, that it could happen.

I don't want to punch my friends, ergo, people who want to be friends with me cannot sneak up behind me no matter how cute they think they're being. I've had to end relationships with people who won't listen to me about it. It's exhausting, and can be frightening, and it's disrespectful as well as being an actual relationship red flag.

That's an interpersonal boundary that should have red flags associated with someone who doesn't listen to and respect that.

Keeping wizards away from magic so they can't ever threaten her is an abuse tactic. Y'all can see that, right? It's the same as Cazador keeping all the power to himself, y'all can see that, right? Right?

I mean, y'all do know that words can have different meanings based on context?

Please tell me it wasn't because the word boundary was used in that game convo. Please tell me people have better reading comprehension than that?

Yes, I'm actually praying people have better reading comprehension than that.

[kaija-rayne-author]

I love Astarion a lot. I was worried I wouldn't because I really ended up loathing Fenris DragonAge, even though I have a rather deep thing for elves.

But the character development and writing are phenomenal so far (and I'm barely finished with Emerald Grove). I love the little flashes of vulnerability we see through his posturing and in his voice. Neil did such an amazing job!

Wyll is smoking hot, I love Shadowheart, even though she's still a bit cool with me.

And Gale lovers, don't hate me but he makes me feel like he's trying to sell me a used car. 😅

It's like he's trying to sell himself as useful and you can sorta see the why. I just don't apparently have enough approval to move past the used car salesman routine with him.

Still working on finding the rest of the companions. I'm the type of player that explores everything, so it takes me a while. I've also restarted twice now, but I think the character I have now works for me for the first run.

This is such a gorgeous game. Larian really did a phenomenal job. You really feel like you're playing D&D. Since I haven't been able to do tabletop in a really long time, it's such a lovely thing.

I'm getting such a kick out of the dice roll mechanic.

Oh! Really love the goblin designs. It makes them feel real.

[kaija-rayne-author]

More power to all y'all who like him but I really don't get the Gortash lust.

All I want to do is punch him. I seriously just want to fry his ass from the first moment he shows up on screen. Especially right before the Iron prison segment. (I'm blanking on the name for the underwater prison. Sorry.)

To each our own, though. World would be really boring if we were all the same. (I've only played Durge so its not like I don't know their history.)