Things will be alright… won't they?
Baldur’s Gate 3 is done. Finished. Ended. Wound up and concluded save for future fixes and updates. Developer Larian Studios is onto new and strange things that only it knows the nature of. Frankly? I think that’s all good. I’m very eager to see what the studio does next, and I’m happy to keep BG3 as the singular, special thing that it already is.
But there is one question: What on Earth will become of those characters? None of us walked away from BG3 unchanged: We’ve all got some kind of doomed obsession with one of its beautiful cast of crackpots, mavericks and perverts. I like Lae’zel, personally, but it’s my understanding that most of you can’t stop making TikToks about the vampire boy.
Anyway, from this point forward, your favs’ futures are strictly in the hands of Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) and its parent company Hasbro. In a tweet earlier today, Larian CEO Swen Vincke said that “As for BG3 and its characters—they now belong to WOTC and I think they understand how important they are for the community. I trust that they’ll be treated with respect.”
That’s not really a surprise, of course. With Larian heading off, who else would have control over the characters from its D&D game but D&D’s owner? But it’s certainly not something that occurred to me when I first heard Larian was packing things up in WOTC’s world, and given the company’s often-criticised stewardship of D&D as a whole, I have to admit I’m a little worried about what will become of the party I spent 100+ hours of my life with, or the rest of the game’s characters.
Turns out I’m not alone, as the replies to Vincke’s tweet mostly consists of fans side-eyeing WOTC and Hasbro and whatever plans they might have for the characters in future. “I hope this amazing game I’ve so recently discovered will survive going out of trusted hands,” reads a reply from Alayanabeth. “RIP those beloved characters,” said toherrys.
Then again, at least one group can take heart: original Baldur’s Gate fans who had to endure what those games’ supplementary materials did to their cast (including a particularly dissatisfying fate for the player character). “BG3 fans getting to experience what everyone did with the post-BG2 supplemental materials,” said a Twitter user named exesoterica, “welcome to the fold”. Who knows? Maybe WOTC will do right by the BG3 cast, but if not: Misery loves company.
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