Why everyone is in love with Baldur's Gate 3
It's the perfect game for slightly older gamers with slow reaction times and guilty consciences.
One of the things I love about video games is that they can still surprise you. I'm not talking about a new game that defies traditional structures or adds a gameplay element that's never been tried before. I'm talking about those moments when everyone in the wide-ranging world of game fans -- from casual to hardcore -- come together to love or hate a new game.
The latest beneficiary of this bandwagon of love is Baldur's Gate 3, a traditional turn-based role-playing built on the Dungeons & Dragons universe (and ruleset). Just as almost everyone decided Elden Ring was fantastic and Redfall was terrible, BG3 is the new head of the class. This is just as true for dedicated super fans who spent almost three years as early access BG3 play-testers as it is for someone who bought the game on its August 3 release date.
I’m surprised by this, but shouldn't be. I recently moderated a panel at the Games for Change festival in New York about the tremendous success D&D has had in educational settings. It helps that the teachers and school administrators experimenting with the game grew up playing RPGs, so there's none of the moral panic that tarnished D&D in schools in the '80s when I played during free periods and in afterschool clubs.
So why do we all love Baldur's Gate 3, even if our D&D knowledge is thin, and we never played Baldur's Gate 1 or 2 (which date from 1998 and 2000)?
I think it's because this game accommodates everyone, including Gen X gamers with Gen X needs. BG3 is slow and turn-based, so you’re never caught by surprise, at least not unfairly. This is unlike Elden Ring, which literally has no pause button for when real-life intrudes on game time.
If your reaction time has slowed, like mine has, you'll appreciate being able to line up instructions for your band of adventurers and fire them off one by one.
More than that, it's a game about relationships and storytelling. Choices have consequences, and playing things chill and smart is better than running in with swords and spells blazing.
Developer Larian says 93% of players chose to create a unique character rather than use one of the game's premade ones. In the opening weekend alone, players spent a total of 88 years in the character creation tool. For some people, that’s the best part of any game. I've probably spent 88 years in Fallout character creation screens myself.
And that's what a certain percentage of the mainstream gaming audience wants. Not to play through a game as some unrealistic muscled badass (sorry Master Chief and Duke Nukem), but as an improved, slightly unrealistic, version of ourselves. Playing these sorts of games as a "good guy" provides at least some anecdotal evidence that this is the correct way to go through life -- negotiating instead of fighting, helping people in need -- all the things we reassuringly tell ourselves we'd do in real life. Plus maybe a little bit of stealing, but only when there's no one around to see it, and there won't be any lasting consequences. Hey, like you never burned a copy of a Netflix disc before sending it back.
Here are some great Baldur’s Gate 3 articles from my Gizmodo colleagues:
I Want to Understand the 368 People Who Finished Baldur's Gate 3 in a Single Weekend
Baldur's Gate 3 Characters Sheets for D&D Let You Put Your D&D in Your D&D While You D&D
Baldur's Gate 3 Has Taught Me D&D's Eldritch Blast Memes Were True
Editor’s note: If you haven’t noticed, I’ve changed the name of the newsletter starting with this edition. "Tech Support” better reflects my career-long interest in helping people with their tech problems, so feel free to email me at danacknyc [at] gmail [dot] com if you have a tech problem to solve.
Subscribe to this newsletter for more: danackerman.substack.com. Tech Support with Dan Ackerman is a regular email series from veteran technology reporter Dan Ackerman where I share stories about how technology affects our everyday lives, plus interesting links and news.
Forward or share with your friends, or they can sign up here: danackerman.substack.com
See more at:
Web: danackerman.com
Twitter: twitter.com/danackerman
Threads: threads.net/@danack
TikTok: tiktok.com/@danacknyc
YouTube: youtube.com/danackerman
Instagram: https://instagram.com/danack/
Gizmodo: gizmodo.com/author/danack
Plugs! 
Buy my book, The Tetris Effect!
“Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth...the story shines” — The New York Times
Techlandia is a modern dungeon crawl adventure where 1-4 heroic tech bloggers infiltrate the high-tech headquarters of the all-powerful Techlandia corporation. The goal: Stop the launch of a new smartphone that just might destroy the world...
“A fun mix of quirky social commentary and Lovecraftian horror.” — Gizmodo