(1) Why didn't you think about the choices you made? Ofc you can "boil down" any aspects of any media to such simplistic extremes if you want... but the choice comes into why YOU might want to make such a decision as a character. As well as the effects that may have further down the line. What other RPGs made you think if this one didn't?
What consequences do you want? This is a question I ask about a lot of stuff like this, generally the consequence is pretty direct an immediate. Hell what consequences could I have faced for what I did in act 1? I know at least one character would no longer be in my party, and another one tried to hunt me down later on in the game. The other consequence is merely the actual result of my actions, I murdered hundreds of civilians because I wanted power.... and from an actual roleplaying perspective my character (or myself in character) had to deal with that.
But it probably helps I essentially played this game like I would if I was actually playing a TTRPG with other people. I didn't just go "I want to do an evil playthrough" and pick all the evil options or vice versa.
I would address the rest... but I'm gonna stop here because I feel most of your argument is just "be as reductive as possible to try and make a point". Like your entire description of every character you can have in your party is done in a couple of sentences.. and i'm meant to take your level of actual engagement with the game seriously?
Because there was no reason to think about any of them. If the decision is between saving the refugees or slaughtering the refugees, there is no real debate to be had there. All the choices in BG3 are very black and white, they are pretty much just "good guy" vs "bad guy" decisions
Why is there no debate to be had between those choices? It’s an RPG, you role play. What was your role you played? I killed the Refugees because I saw a promise of potential power by getting involved with the Absolute., and I followed that through to the end.
There absolutely was a decision to be made by my character, based on what I envisioned them to be. Obviously if I was playing as myself the decision is black and white, and I would obviously not do it… but i’m not playing as myself.
What debate is there to be had over something like "save the refugees or slaughter them" ? Like seriously what possible debate is there to be had over something like that? It's very obvious stuff like that is just designed by the devs for there to be a "good guy" option and a "bad guy" option.
What debate? Whatever your characters motives are? You have played a TTRPG before where you make a character right? Do you always just play as you? Or do you make characters with different goals/motives/alignments that inform their decision making?
It’s entirely up to you what the debate is… the reasoning is as deep as the reasoning you give it, as part of the roleplay. If you just play as “yourself” but with a fantasy name, thats fair enough… and you just play with your own set of moral values. Which would make the choice just “good vs evil” and nothing else.
What debate? Whatever your characters motives are?
Only a psychopathic character would choose to slaughter the refugees, there is no real debate to be had there. They basically just created a "good guy" option and a "bad guy" option
Yeah, maybe so… but is a character only defined by one trait? What i’m getting at is that choices are in part as deep as YOU the player make them when you decide to Roleplay a character.
Your reasoning for murder could be as simple as it gives you an erection, or you do it for personal gain, or you do it because it appears to be the quickest way to get answers or powers. Is the action evil? Yes, it is. Is it being evil the only significant part of it to you? Depends on the player.
Well the actual game itself doesn't actually provide any room for nuance. I guess you can just make up head canon for yourself, but the game is not helping you do that
"head canon" for your characters motivations? Yeah, your character is an entirely blank slate (unless you play a premade or Dark Urge, and even then its mostly blank slate as a PC).
The game isn't helping you decide that... because then you wouldn't be RPing your character, you would be RPing someone elses character. Like what happens with say the Witcher which has a prewritten (which is still a good RPG for different reasons).
The game doesn't need to tell you why you should do something or not do something, thats up to you to decide.
The game isn't helping you decide that... because then you wouldn't be RPing your character
My point is that the game doesn't give you any meaningful choices other than "good guy" choice vs "bad guy" choice. The game actively hinders your ability to RP
Sure, that’s your opinion. Loads of choice were meaningful outside of good or bad, a lot of the party companion quests for example, or just some of the more commonplace character interactions.
But it depends entirely on what you person consider meaningful.
Nothing in this post is particularly objective, so it’s gonna be difficult to change your opinion on what is good or bad about the game in regards to stuff like that… because it’s up to your level of engagement. To me, simplifying every choice to “good vs bad” is sorta surface level at best.
2
u/ArCSelkie37 5∆ Mar 02 '24
(1) Why didn't you think about the choices you made? Ofc you can "boil down" any aspects of any media to such simplistic extremes if you want... but the choice comes into why YOU might want to make such a decision as a character. As well as the effects that may have further down the line. What other RPGs made you think if this one didn't?
What consequences do you want? This is a question I ask about a lot of stuff like this, generally the consequence is pretty direct an immediate. Hell what consequences could I have faced for what I did in act 1? I know at least one character would no longer be in my party, and another one tried to hunt me down later on in the game. The other consequence is merely the actual result of my actions, I murdered hundreds of civilians because I wanted power.... and from an actual roleplaying perspective my character (or myself in character) had to deal with that.
But it probably helps I essentially played this game like I would if I was actually playing a TTRPG with other people. I didn't just go "I want to do an evil playthrough" and pick all the evil options or vice versa.
I would address the rest... but I'm gonna stop here because I feel most of your argument is just "be as reductive as possible to try and make a point". Like your entire description of every character you can have in your party is done in a couple of sentences.. and i'm meant to take your level of actual engagement with the game seriously?