Baldur’s Gate 3 was voted Game of the Year in 2023, overcoming strong competition. Not every gamer could understand this and still wonders what is so good about the Larian role-playing game. One of them has now experienced firsthand why Baldur’s Gate 3 is such a big deal for many fans.
This is the success of Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Baldur’s Gate 3 was released in August 2023 and won so many awards at the Golden Joystick Awards that the head couldn’t carry them all. It was named Game of the Year with the best storytelling, best visual design, and more.
- At the shortly thereafter awarded Game Awards, Baldur’s Gate 3 was awarded “Game of the Year” along with several other awards. Head Swen Vincke accepted the award in knight armor.
- The developers themselves did not expect the popularity at all. Instead of the expected 100,000 players, over 700,000 gathered on Steam during the first weekend. Since then, Baldur’s Gate 3 has recorded sales or player numbers in the millions.
That’s why a fan was skeptical: Already at the 2023 awards, there were major controversies surrounding Baldur’s Gate 3. The game had won against hits like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Alan Wake 2. Hogwarts Legacy wasn’t even mentioned, which was already a sticking point for many.
On Reddit, a user now explains that he was quite confused back then that Spider-Man 2 didn’t win the award. He thought Baldur’s Gate 3 was just “nerdy D&D bullshit.” Then he tried it himself.
His first playthrough took 360 hours. The user explains that he wanted to be really evil, “Shao Kahn-level evil,” but couldn’t pull it off completely. He often had to think seriously – something that games today hardly manage, as he says.
“The Unquestionable Proof of Not Judging a Book by Its Cover”
Baldur’s Gate 3 taught the user that he shouldn’t judge hastily, as he explains. The community, on the other hand, is somewhat puzzled by the initial attitude: If one is already into comic stuff like Spider-Man, it’s strange to label Dungeons & Dragons as “nerd stuff.”
Others retort: D&D is still, unlike comics, a niche within a niche. Superheroes have become socially acceptable through films and cinema. Pen and paper still has to make that leap, even though Baldur’s Gate 3 or films like Honor Among Thieves have done a good job.
In a further comment, it states: Actually, the original skeptic is quite right. D&D is “nerdy bullshit”, but people do not understand that it’s just really good. Nerds have been right for a long time, now they should just join their club.
Even though the thread creator is met with a lot of head-shaking, there are plenty of users in the comments who acknowledge that he has grown with his realization. He tried something and was proven wrong. The tone may be a bit strange, but at least he was able to admit his mistake.
That the user couldn’t really be evil is likely known to many gamers, although Baldur’s Gate 3 explicitly has a character designed for evil playthroughs. But even with this character, the game keeps reminding you of all the evil things you do: I wanted to be really evil, but Baldur’s Gate 3 keeps rubbing it in my face
