Comment by cordlesslamp@lemmy.today on ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

We need to support and embrace this kind of games and studios more. They put so much love and effort into the game. But in the end, this game will probably profit as much as what Fortnite make in a couple months.

It’s always sadden me to know that even something as successful as Elden Ring, which sold 20 millions copies and made 1.2 Billion dollars, is nothing compared to what microtransactions make in games like CoD (2 Billion dollars per year) or Fortnite (over 5 Billion dollars per year).

And people complain why they “don’t make good games anymore”.

Pokémon is regularly one of the best selling games out there, so saying most people don’t want turn-based RPGs doesn’t sound right.

I consider computer RPGs to be more in the vein of tactical RPGs rather than Pokemon/Final Fantasy style turn based RPGs tbh. It’s turn based, but positioning is key. Or, at least they scratch the same itch for me.

And Fire Emblem, XCOM, FF Tactics, etc have never exactly had mind blowing sales.

Pokemon is so much less complex than BG3. It’s a bad comparison. If you exclude competitive pokemon, which 99% of people never engage with.

In some ways I agree they are pretty different, but fixating too much on particularities while glossing over core mechanics is a bit strange. We have space for a plethora of FPSs and action games of different styles, why are turn-based RPGs dismissed like this on a regular basis? Every gen or so we have yet another reminder that, yes, people do still like RPGs.

Baldur’s Gate may not have all ages cutesy characters, but D&D-style fantasy has its own appeal.

These things don’t necessarily follow one from another. Just because many fans are casual players, it doesn’t mean they don’t have a liking for the genre. D&D is not inherently repealing to the same group either. As much as Baldur’s Gate targets an adult audience, Pokémon as a series is over 25 years old, there is a sizable number of adult players. Not only there is an overlap, the differences may make it appealing to players with differing interests too.

Mind you, I am an adult Pokémon fan who plays D&D. As much as I understand that not everyone is like me, it’s not like Pokémon fans all evaporate when they hit 18, or they never again care for turn-based games.

Ultimately, the success of the game vindicates that there are people who want that.

There’s definitely some overlap. Almost all D&D players have played at least one pokemon game at this point. Hell even us old M:TG holdouts that thought that “Pokemon was for kids” when it came out when we were teens played Pokemon GO, though I know enough to know that PG wasn’t really a pokemon game.

I will admit that D&D players still make a minority of Pokemon players, but I maintain that’s mostly because people think D&D is way more complicated than it actually is. The rule books don’t help here. In all actuality most players will never read most of those books, because 90% of the “rules” won’t apply to your game.