Honestly I don’t care about CRPGs. Well, I do, they’re one of my favorite genres and BG3 is by far my game of the year. But I don’t hope the lesson other studios take away from BG3 is that they should make more CRPGs, because although I would like that I don’t think that’s the important lesson they should be focusing on.

The important lesson I hope they all learn is that it doesn’t compromise on what it’s supposed to be. BG3 is a whole-ass CRPG, not some watered down flavorless action-adventure-RPG hybrid. It goes hard on its core elements and doesn’t include anything that doesn’t belong. It goes deep on story/lore, characters and the game ruleset. It doesn’t have any mechanical skill expression.

It’s a great example of making something that people like because it’s great, not because it appeals to them. It’s not that it doesn’t try to appeal to a wide audience, it’s that it doesn’t sacrifice anything in order to do so.