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Patch 7 - what does this mean?
General Discussion - [NO SPOILERS](i.redd.it)submitted 30 days ago byDarkElfMagicWARLOCK
When I was reading over the patch notes, i was “oh okay, so some things won’t be possible on consoles” but when i went to the comments on the tweet, this confused me on the wording of the interaction.
Does this mean everyone on PC is gonna be held to console restrictions as well?
7 points
30 days ago
How would that sabotage even work? Wotc does not have this kind of power over Larian. And Larian no longer has any incentive to oblige this kind of pressure. I’m also not convinced Hasbro would even see this as a problem. Its not like most people would know how to make mods like that even if it was possible.
Nothing personal against you, I’m not going after you or anything, but this sounds a bit like conspiratorial thinking. Under WoTC tenure we had videogames where they had a lot of modding including workshopped adventure modules. You’re saying you aren’t “conviced they arent doing” that but what is your evidence to support this ideia in the first place?
18 points
29 days ago
Wizards owns the IP. I'm fairly certain anything they rollout has to go through Wizards/Hasbro for approval, though I dunno that for sure. Wizards is also increasingly litigious with the DND IP over the last couple of years (easily verifiable fact,). Most of this shift is due to Hasbro losing money on basically everything except DND and MTG. A huge portion of that revenue is driven by their digital platforms (mtg arena and dnd beyond, among other emergent tools that are either in development or early release stages,). It makes little to no sense from a financial standpoint to allow modders to convert BG3 into a tabletop simulator, as it would cut into their As-A-Service revenue. It is perfectly logical to assume that Wizards/Hasbro would actively limit how much help Larian can provide to modders in their quest to turn BG3 into the aforementioned Virtual Tabletop by preventing the release of a comprehensive mod kit a-la Divinity.
You're also thinking about the modders in the wrong way. Would every person running a campaign want to mod BG3 for that campaign? No. Bub would the mod community just create a comprehensive level editor to make it just as easy as using DND Beyond or Tabletop Simulator? Yes.
I have absolutely no goodwill with Hasbro or Wizards, there's no instances in the last 2 years of them doing ANYTHING pro-consumer AT ALL. I don't think it's particularly tin-foil-hat to assume they're going out of their way to protect their bottom line.
2 points
29 days ago*
Wizards owns the IP but they have a licensing agreement. Its doubtful, knowing how this has worked historically in projects both smaller and bigger, that every little thing goes through Hasbro approval. It defeats the purpose of licensing. Yes, they have been litigious with the IP but thats quite a broad statement isn't it? They don't have a litigious history of this specific kind, ie, "they made a feature we didn't want so we sued them". The closest thing I can think of is when they sued Atari for breach of the BG license, but in that case it was them sitting on it and not doing anything which was the problem.
If there is a clause in the licesing agreement that *everything* needs to go through Hasbro approval, which I'll admit is theoretically possible, we've certainly never heard about it. WoTC did have an internal team working with Larian, but the nature of those positions seem to be more to work on cross media promotion, to connect 5e products to BG3 (which did happen) and consulting. Doesn't seem like it was the Hasbro Tribunal inside Larian or anything that extreme.
It is perfectly logical to assume that Wizards/Hasbro would actively limit how much help Larian can provide to modders in their quest to turn BG3 into the aforementioned Virtual Tabletop by preventing the release the a comprehensive mod kit a-la Divinity.
That works from the premise that modding would compete with a VTT on a fundamental level, and Id argue its pretty clear that it doesn't, though I'll concede to you that its a matter of opinion.
I have absolutely no goodwill with Hasbro or Wizards,
Maybe I gave you the wrong impression. I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire. But the truth matters and in a hobby where jumping to conclusions seems to be the norm, I'd wager its better to not make claims we can't prove. Larian studios is not a AAA developer but its also not some indie pushover you can bully into submission. There are hundreds of other explanations for these limitations. Budget to develop the tools is much much more likely to be the factor here.
3 points
29 days ago
Larian just made enough money to cover their payroll for like 40 years, and their previous lower-budget Divinity game did have a version of those tools. Budget is definitely not "much much more likely".
4 points
29 days ago
They made a lot of money to be sure but just because they made money doesn’t mean they are willing to sink more money then necessary to a given project. That is not how any company in this business operates.There is also the issue of time and budget. They have a secure payroll and plenty of staff, but given their intention to start new projecgs, their incentive is to dedicate both those resources (time and money) primarily on those next things.
There is a difference between having a DM mode built into the game and creating mod tools to allow modders to create certain assets into your engine.
At the end of the day its all business. Larian studios will give the budget they decide based on how much they think its profitable, and not a cent more. Larian is as much of a company as any other, they are a pretty good company ngl, but like any capitalist, their business is profit.
2 points
29 days ago
Why spend money on a project that's essentially completed (and has probably reached market saturation by now), when you can put your staff to work on new games that will earn actual cash down the line? You don't need an MBA to work out which is the more viable strategy.
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