I've got a bit of controversial one for ya- I like Baldur's Gate 3. I know, wild one. And the thing is- so do a lot of people across the world who have found themselves brought closer to the ludicrously giant brand of Dungeons and Dragons through it's rampant and raging success. Larian took the licence for the property, through a hefty fee, and went off practically on their own to create what would come to be known as a studio defining masterpiece, as a follow-up to their last studio defining masterpiece. Baldur's Gate 3 shouldn't have happened, by the natural laws of reality, and though I'm glad it did I think we all await for the elastic band to snap back into place and return reality to the masses. That band being the fact that the owners of Dnd are currently a bunch of weird little gremlins that delight in squeezing as much blood out of property as humanely possible- and Larian handily just gave them the keys to the Baldur's Gate engine.
Besides the perfect gameplay and gorgeously expansive story with layer upon layer creating opportunity for players to craft such personal stories that until a few weeks ago one of the origin companion specific player endings had been viewed a grand total of thirteen times- (That is insanely rare, good god!)- what makes Baldur's Gate is really it's cast. Iconic characters all, those faces and personalities seem to wiggle perfectly into the hearts and minds of players through the way they grow close or further apart in step with the adventure in a manner that feels truly authentic and not in rhythm to the comparatively lethargic Bioware shuffle which I very much suspect we're going to get an example of in the coming months through Inquisition. (A chance to see just how great of a job Baldur's Gate did. Prepare for the unfavourable comparisons.)
So how do those two facts coincide? Simple. If you are the owners of DnD and you're looking to create an easily manipulated mascot for the current new life of Dnd- what do you use? That used to be Drizzt and his gang of ever-suffering friends; but they've kind of grown ridiculously over-exposed across the years. What we need are some newer, fresher, faces that still kick with an 'oomph' factor that those old hats don't. More modern, more metrosexual, more appealing. Maybe take characters that were left in the hands of community and just, you know, pluck them back out of those 'uncouth' hands to dance a bit more for their newer, less artistically inclined, masters? All for the delight of an audience only very slowly coming to terms with how the characters they love are slowly being turned into commodities.
But what is a commodity and how does that differ from the characters we know? Well, I suppose it's this kind of vapid image of brand engagement wherein people are drawn in by the faces they are extrapolated as interest within the containing brand and thus those images are utilised as fly traps to draw attention where it best suits the broader company interests. Need people to be more interested in you DnD edition coming out? Why not print of the image of the Baldur's Gate team on the front cover and make believe there's any real connection there? Need to pump up the existence of your printing label? Baldur's Gate 3 comic series, on the way! Animated shorts? Never say never! But within all of that the spark that made them special will slowly, inevitably, diminish.
Characters are driven by inexorable purpose and drive. We follow people who are on a journey that changes and moulds them, which made the Baldur's Gate 3 cast so an interesting group to manipulate and watch reshape across an entire playthrough. But icons, which are what DnD main are looking far, can't really be dynamic, can they? You can't really make adventures about Ascended Astarion the tyrannical vampire dictator trapped in a corrupted cycle of fruitless vengeance, or burned-out Karlach, or recently-suicided Lae'zel. Nah, they need those characters captured perpetually within their perceived primes! Trapped within a glass jar to be viewed like a model on a museum plinth. Pretty. Complacent. Non-living.
For the time being it is fun to see these characters persist past Baldur's Gate 3 and live in the hearts of the actors who helped bring them to life. Neil Newbon in particular seems protective over Astarion for the amount of his heart and soul he imbued into that story and as long as they are combined together at the hip I have some belief the character won't be bastardized. But that's kind of the thing, isn't it? These characters won't be joined with their actors forever- not when the cast start to move on to newer roles. And then what? Larian have given them to Wizards- no one with respect to how these characters are and what they represent will be left safegaurding them and they'll be free to be turned into marketing machines from that point onwards.
What really scares me is what they're going to do with the property next in terms of a follow-up, because there is a non-zero chance that Dnd are currently receiving a plethora of offers to work on a new Baldur's Gate game and I'm no so certain they're going to be turning away unsatisfying attempts. BG3 had to be earned by Larian, but right now Wizards have themselves a deficit of player trust with is being bridged by a successful movie and an even more successful game- I'm pretty sure standards within in the face of hard reality. Will we get a follow-up game utilising this same cast of characters outside the control of Larian? And will such a sequel go the extra mile to take into account the branching web of possibility that makes up Baldur's Gate 3?
Honestly I do want there to be a Baldur's Gate 4- and I think there's enough left over story for it to follow this same cast of characters. And in that light, given that Larian aren't going to be the one's on the helm, I can kinda justify the proliferation of these characters in order to keep them in the hearts and minds of the community. Better that then to let them fade entirely from the zeitgeist. But only if it's going somewhere significant and these aren't just desperate corporate marketing plans to try and robotocize the very living and breathing hearts of the Baldur's Gate 3 game. I just want a bit of respect on the game that brought Baldur's Gate back to the forefront of gaming- pretty please?
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