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So, Baldur’s Gate didn’t delve deeply into politics like, say, Disco Elysium did, however I agree with the sentiment of the article.
So very few stories that center LGBT+ characters are about who they are outside of LGBT+ trauma. The beauty of the story of Baldur’s Gate 3 is that it envisions that world, where people are allowed to have trauma, but that trauma is not related to their sexual orientation.
That’s huge, because while that trauma continues to be real, it’s good to be able to envision a world where that’s not the case. The characters in Baldur’s Gate 3 all clearly have lots of trauma, but hardly any of it relates to who they choose to have sex with and/or love, or how many partners they love. Their trauma is about who they are, but trauma related to their sexuality is nigh nonexistent. They are allowed to have trauma outside of that scope instead of being pigeonholed into that kind trauma.
It’s great at escaping LGBT+ trauma narratives, which are plentiful, and it also allows the LGBT+ characters to live out as fully fleshed out characters on their own, where they are themselves first, and their sexuality second. Too many narratives use LGBT+ status as an easy way to give a character trauma, and soon their sexuality becomes the centerpiece of their character, disallowing them growth outside of that pigeonhole. This narrative allows these characters to break free from that and become fully fleshed out characters, much like LGBT+ people in real life are so much more than their LGBT+ trauma.
Sure, it didn’t get into “politics,” in terms of heady theory and “taking sides.” It had something else “political” to say, and I for one, am glad for it.
I mean, that’s kind of by design, because they chose to make everybody polysexual. Sexuality was a player choice, even choosing for the NPCs, not a factor into the story.
It’s nice that they gave everybody choices in whoever they want to ship and how, but I do think it subtracts from the story a bit, because people’s sexuality is part of their identity. It doesn’t have to be about trauma, or any sort of centerpiece to the story. I think the LGBT+ community, like any other marginalized community, wants this part of their identity to be normal, not a centerpiece. It just is.
But, a character like Astarion just feels like he’s going to be bisexual AF, and it seems like that part of his identity was accidental, because of how Larian was crafting the romance system.
After elder ring winning goty I stopped listening to these awards. Elden ring is trash, and if that what passes for game of the year, fuck that award and any other like it.
It’s OK that you had a bad experience, but don’t blame these awards – pretty much everyone loved the game and it got GOTY from awards but also from critics and the public
Pretty much everyone loved the game? Really? Google “Elden ring is bad” or anything along those lines, it is filled with thousands of threads from different sites where people agree with me about how trash the game is. It’s gotta be the most divisive game of the year I’ve ever seen.
- 92% positive reviews on Steam out of 588K reviews (94% from recent reviews)
- 94% on OpenCritic
- 96% on MetaCritic
- 4.74★ on playstation (so ~95%)
But sure, if you look for them, you’ll find people complaining on forums. You’ll find people saying the earth is flat too 🤷
As if most of those reviews aren’t paid for lol that’s why I just go to forums where players are talking, not corporations
I was kind of disappointed with Elden Ring too, from what I played of it.
Just out of curiosity, what was it that you disliked?
A lot of repetition, empty, hollow, ugly world, Sub par graphics, Punishing gameplay (I’m not a fan of spending an hour dying over and over) After like 20 hours of playing I have no idea what the story was or what the game is about.
I reached a point where I just got sick of grinding with no idea why, and to explore more of a world that was utterly uninteresting
Note: it’s the first game I’ve played from the souls series, cause I had no idea it was until I was playing it
So you did not inform yourself before buying it and did not like the Genre? Isnt that Kind of unfair to assume that everyone thinks that way when most reviews were positive? What other games Do you play
I didn’t buy it. I borrowed it. Also when a game is given Game of the Year, accessibility should be high up on the list. If it’s a niche genre that won’t appeal to most and I have to inform myself about before diving it, then it doesn’t deserve game of the year.
