this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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And that's why I generally prefer indie games. Many indie games are made with passion, with money being down the list of priorities. AAA games are made with money first, though there is certainly passion as well, it's just not the top on the list. As studios and budgets get bigger, so will their expectation of profits.
So if you want better games, buy from smaller studios. Show them that you value passion over high budget.
But when a game like BG3 comes out, with all the stuff no indie studio can afford to do and it has this level of passion without sticking its hand in your pocket, it absolutely reminds us that AAA doesn't have to be like it is.
As good as indie RPGs are, Disco Elysium was only able to afford voice acting after being a giant commercial success. No small budget team is going to be able to have mocap work on the level of BG3. These things cost a lot of money and involve paying a lot of workers. BG3's Kickstarter got to be carried by the name recognition of Baldur's Gate and Dungeons & Dragons in general, following a huge popularity surge for the latter thanks to the rise of real-play podcasts and such.
Do games need hundreds of voice actors and incredible mocap to be good? No. But it's something that only AAA studios have the ability to add, and it's a shame that it's all going into the next fifa/COD/whatever other money pit GAAS the industry is shitting out.
Agreed. But I'd much rather sacrifice AAA features like mocap, voice acting, and RTX if it means a higher chance of playing a game with a lot of passion put in. Those are nice to have, but not the reason I pick a game.
Yeah. BG3's exceptional because it doesn't need to sacrifice that stuff.
Yup. And I wish more AAA titles took more risks in gameplay and storytelling, but those seem to be few and far between.
Starfield is a fantastic example. If you asked me to describe a Bethesda game set in space, it would look a lot like Starfield (but I probably would've missed the procedural generation). Usually AAA games are pretty much as expected, with one or two surprises on the side, and that's it.
BG3 basically delivers on Cyberpunk's promises (branching storylines, mocap, great visuals, etc), and it did so on launch, which is really rare.