Why is BG3 called BG at all?

Ares2382 · Post by **Ares2382** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:39 am

Well I actually know the answer but I think it kinda sucks.

Let's face it:
First 2 games with expansions were all about the Bhaal Spawn. And we know that story is over(it is over right?). So it is not a sequel based on the story.

We don't know(but you can bet on it) that this game will not be using the infinity engine, so it's no a sequel based on that.

Heck this game won't even be using the same version of AD&D rule set. 3.5 instead of 2.

The only reason I see this being a BG game is because of this supposed appearance of ancestors of some of the characters from BG.

But mostly I think they are keeping the name to make a load of money, because, as I am sure many will agree, most gamers are more likely to buy a sequel to one of the best RPGs ever rather then a brand RPG.

Thoughts, comments, spelling corrections

?

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:47 am

Well - why shouldn't it be called BG?
We don't even know if the city Baldurs Gate will be present in the game or not.

But of course - capitalizing on the name is proberly also a large factor, but untill we hear some hard cold facts I can't really be all that upset or annoyed.

Instead of worrying to much about that this and that will be bad, then wait until information is released.

koz-ivan · Post by **koz-ivan** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:37 pm

[QUOTE=Ares2382]I think they are keeping the name to make a load of money, because, as I am sure many will agree, most gamers are more likely to buy a sequel to one of the best RPGs ever rather then a brand RPG.

Thoughts, comments, spelling corrections

?[/QUOTE]

game companies are in the buisness of making loads of money, so they would be idiots if they didn't try to use the bg name to their advantage, like they did with the playstation verisons.

that being said, i don't mind the ploy being used, and if bg3 can stack up w/ 1 & 2, i'll be very happy.

and if the sales can match 1 & 2, they'll be happy.

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 2:51 pm

Well, for that matter, why was Shadows of Amn called Baldur's Gate II when the city of Baldur's Gate didn't show up at all?

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 3:15 pm

[QUOTE=Gwalchmai]Well, for that matter, why was Shadows of Amn called Baldur's Gate II when the city of Baldur's Gate didn't show up at all?[/QUOTE]

Because it represented a continuation of your character and the gameplay from BG1? That makes a kinda sense.

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 4:22 pm

[QUOTE=fable]Because it represented a continuation of your character and the gameplay from BG1? That makes a kinda sense.[/QUOTE]Heh. Well, exactly my (unsaid) point!

If Shadows of Amn can be called ‘Baldur’s Gate’ without the city of Baldur’s Gate showing up in the story, then the future Baldur’s Gate III can deserve the name even without the Bhaal-spawn story line by virtue of it’s setting in the early days of Baldurs Gate (according to PC Gamer magazine).

me0w · Post by **me0w** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 5:03 pm

However, BG3 will not be a continuation of the plot, unless it shows the begginings of the Bhaal spawn saga, where you, Elminister and Gorion kill the priest of Bhaal who was your mother in 1/2. - Hmm, thinking about it, this is quite plausable.

However, if that isn't the case, BG3 will have no association to #1 or 2, other that it being based in Faerun, which shouldn't make it another BG game. Its like all books based in Faerun sharing the same key name. All it is, is another forgotten realms game. Icewind Dale had its own name, but shared same engine and location (.. ish)...

koz-ivan · Post by **koz-ivan** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 6:29 pm

[QUOTE=me0w]However, BG3 will not be a continuation of the plot, unless it shows the begginings of the Bhaal spawn saga, where you, Elminister and Gorion kill the priest of Bhaal who was your mother in 1/2. - Hmm, thinking about it, this is quite plausable.

However, if that isn't the case, BG3 will have no association to #1 or 2, other that it being based in Faerun, which shouldn't make it another BG game. Its like all books based in Faerun sharing the same key name. All it is, is another forgotten realms game. Icewind Dale had its own name, but shared same engine and location (.. ish)...[/QUOTE]

which brings us back to sales, iwd & iwd2 did poorly compared to bg2, both in sales and w/ the community at large (take mods for example, the icewind games spawned a fraction of the mods compared to the bg series.)

so it's a bit of a devil's bargin, the name "bg3" carries market clout, but high expectations. if they turn out a very good game, i suspect the community will forgive them for using the name.

Ares2382 · Post by **Ares2382** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 6:30 pm

Don't get me wrong I am not complaining, just wanted to start a discussion while we all wait for more information to come out. I'll be the first to defend this game if it's as good as the first two games.

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 1:37 am

The name is being used to sell the game. Apparently it will also involve the early days of the city, too. However, aren't they still doing concept work right now, let alone story or game work?

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 2:37 am

Even for the original game the name 'Baldur's Gate' wasn't exactly on target. Sure, a large part of the game played itself out in Baldur's Gate, but a title like 'The Bhaalspawn' or 'The Alaundo Prophecies' would've covered it better. Just my 2 euro

Paranitis · Post by **Paranitis** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 7:57 pm

but a title like 'The Bhaalspawn' or 'The Alaundo Prophecies' would've covered it better.

Sure..if you are a hardcore FR fan and have read everything dealing with FR..it might have covered it better. But Baldur's Gate is a somewhat major city in the FR setting, so people that are relatively new to playing in the FR setting would have heard of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter, Waterdeep (especially Waterdeep where it seems almost every pencil/paper game starts from), Amn, Cormyr, and so on.

Here is another example which worked..the movie trilogy entitled...

BACK TO THE FUTURE

The first BttF movie went from the 1980's back to the 1950's (didn't go into the future yet), the 2nd one made it into the future..something like in 2015 or something like that (marty mcfly looked to be about 20 or 30 years older than he was in the first movie, and he had kids that were in their late teens), then the 3rd one hit and they were sent back into I believe the mid 1800's.

Sure, it used the same characters, same concept of going through time..but in the 3 titles, they went into the future only once..now that being said..the BG game does deal directly with the city of Baldur's Gate atleast once..and it's sequel deals directly with the previous title, so there is the connection there..so if there is a prequel dealing somehow with the story, or even being where Baldur's Gate will end up being built..then it is well deserving of having the name.

See..if you truly look at it..the BG series dealt directly with Baldur's Gate once. Icewind Dale dealt with the city of Icewind Dale once, Neverwinter Nights dealt with the city of Neverwinter once. If anything we should just rename all of these games to..

"Forgotten Realms: Baldur's Gate Chronicles"
"Forgotten Realms: Icewind Dale Chronicles"
"Forgotten Realms: Neverwinter Nights Chronicles" (Even though..Shadows of Undrentide didn't relate at all directly with NWN, and Hordes of the Underdark dealt directly with Shadows of Undrentide with only a couple of the NPCs from NWN showing up..not even the supposed "Hero" you played was mentioned.)

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 10:48 pm

[QUOTE=Paranitis]<snip>
"Forgotten Realms: Neverwinter Nights Chronicles" (Even though..Shadows of Undrentide didn't relate at all directly with NWN, and Hordes of the Underdark dealt directly with Shadows of Undrentide with only a couple of the NPCs from NWN showing up..not even the supposed "Hero" you played was mentioned.)[/QUOTE]

Well - the NPCs from NwN OC do mention the Hero of Neverwinter at some points in their tales.

As for "Back to the Future" that referes to that Michael J. Fox a.k.a. McFly has to get *back* to the future from the past he accidently ended up in, and almost messed up, so that title fits quite right.
The second one - should maybe not really have been called "Back to the future", instead of something like "Back to now" or "into the future" - but hey ... not many would have liked that.

It seems very much that titles of these games main title are named by where they take places (thus Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale) instead of what they are actually about (The Bhaalspawn, The Old Ones etc...). And that Baldurs Gate 2 was called Baldurs Gate 2 was due to it being a sequel of the first one.

I can understand the confusion of Baldurs Gate 3 being called Baldurs Gate 3 - because it isn't a sequel, but the rumors point to a prequel. Thus there may be some connection to the story which could validate it to many of the "disbelivers"

D ).
However - we don't even know if BG3 will infact be called BG3.
(It will most likely due to the following of BG1/BG2 and try to capitalize on that group as well)

The Z · Post by **The Z** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:48 pm

Maybe it's about the NPC's...like Jaheira, Nalia, Imoen, Valygar...maybe even Sarevok's struggles with having only part of a soul.

Paranitis · Post by **Paranitis** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:55 pm

I would rather not see the story focus on previous playable NPCs.

And I was trying to agree that I think the titles of those games do fit since the sequels continue on the storylines. I actually can't remember if the Icewind Dale ones do..I played IWD only about a year ago (BG about 2 years ago or more) and I can't remember anything at all about the IWD series other than in one town there were ginormous trees..heh

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 12:13 am

[QUOTE=Paranitis]I would rather not see the story focus on previous playable NPCs.

<snip>[/QUOTE]

I agree. I wouldn't want to play/focus on characters I already know the ending of so to speak.
Playing Sarevok in his early days knowing he is going to get killed by the hero of BG1/BG2, and so on.

I'd like new characters with possibly cameos from various "high profile" NPC from BG1+BG2 like Gorion. But I wouldn't want to play Gorion.

Paranitis · Post by **Paranitis** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 12:21 am

The thing that bugs me a little bit is that Gorion is the guy that is basically your father in BG1..yet he is taken out my Sarevok..yet you beat Sarevok and you can only get upto like..level 6 or something like that..so Gorion couldn't exactly be as strong as I would consider a "high profile" type character to be since he got whooped on by probably a level 6 or 7 character.

Hell, it took my pure thief like 30 seconds to take him down..and my pure fighter took around 4 seconds to take him down.

And Drizzt was a wussy stupid guy who didn't understand how to walk around a freaking lake to get to the island I was shooting him with arrows from!

Anyway..the name fits, so shaddap!

Fred83 · Post by **Fred83** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 7:45 pm

[QUOTE=Xandax]Well - the NPCs from NwN OC do mention the Hero of Neverwinter at some points in their tales.

As for "Back to the Future" that referes to that Michael J. Fox a.k.a. McFly has to get *back* to the future from the past he accidently ended up in, and almost messed up, so that title fits quite right.
The second one - should maybe not really have been called "Back to the future", instead of something like "Back to now" or "into the future" - but hey ... not many would have liked that.

It seems very much that titles of these games main title are named by where they take places (thus Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale) instead of what they are actually about (The Bhaalspawn, The Old Ones etc...). And that Baldurs Gate 2 was called Baldurs Gate 2 was due to it being a sequel of the first one.

I can understand the confusion of Baldurs Gate 3 being called Baldurs Gate 3 - because it isn't a sequel, but the rumors point to a prequel. Thus there may be some connection to the story which could validate it to many of the "disbelivers"

D ).
However - we don't even know if BG3 will infact be called BG3.
(It will most likely due to the following of BG1/BG2 and try to capitalize on that group as well)[/QUOTE]

What if they rename the games? Think of Starwars 4 5 6 and 1 2 3 =]

Fred83 · Post by **Fred83** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 7:48 pm

[QUOTE=Paranitis]The thing that bugs me a little bit is that Gorion is the guy that is basically your father in BG1..yet he is taken out my Sarevok..yet you beat Sarevok and you can only get upto like..level 6 or something like that..so Gorion couldn't exactly be as strong as I would consider a "high profile" type character to be since he got whooped on by probably a level 6 or 7 character.

Hell, it took my pure thief like 30 seconds to take him down..and my pure fighter took around 4 seconds to take him down.

And Drizzt was a wussy stupid guy who didn't understand how to walk around a freaking lake to get to the island I was shooting him with arrows from!

Anyway..the name fits, so shaddap![/QUOTE]

Agree =] Hope that doesnt mean your hero is gonna be a wimp.
let's face it, Atleast I find it hard to go back to BG1 with 7 level cap (or whatever) when you've played tob and became lvl 40 with so many abilities and spells.

me0w · Post by **me0w** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:38 am

"The thing that bugs me a little bit is that Gorion is the guy that is basically your father in BG1..yet he is taken out my Sarevok..yet you beat Sarevok and you can only get upto like..level 6 or something like that..so Gorion couldn't exactly be as strong as I would consider a "high profile" type character to be since he got whooped on by probably a level 6 or 7 character."

Fair point, although remember Gorian was an oldie, perhaps his abilities have suffered due to that and sitting in a library for the last 20(?) years.

Like sheesh, 20 years off your life (I'm assuming) and your still levl1, you leave the place then in like 19 days you levl 4. Thats a pretty big difference.