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Is Baldur's Gate really popular?

ShapiroKeatsDarkMageShapiroKeatsDarkMage Member Posts: 2,428
in Archive (General Discussion)
I was thinking about this during the day and i've got some doubts about the popularity of the series. Do you think Baldur's Gate is popular? Even during the period when the games came out?
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Comments

  • ajwzajwz Member Posts: 4,122
    Moderately popular when it came out.
    Moderately popular now.

    It would be doing it a disservice to call it a cult hit, but neither was it a blockbuster release exactly.

    It was/is the most successful D&D iteration of all time, but it probably never hits the sort of numbers of bioware's far inferior mimicry attempts do.
  • ChildofBhaal599ChildofBhaal599 Member Posts: 1,781
    ajwz said:



    It was/is the most successful D&D iteration of all time, but it probably never hits the sort of numbers of bioware's far inferior mimicry attempts do.

    *cough* dragon age 2 *cough* :)
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    edited April 2013
    from wiki

    Baldur's Gate was released on 30 November 1998. The game was published by Black Isle Studios, an internal division of Interplay.
    Baldur's Gate received positive reviews from virtually every major computer gaming publication that reviewed it. At the time of the game's release, PC Gamer US said Baldur's Gate "reigns supreme over every RPG currently available, and sets new standards for those to come."[18] Computer Shopper called it "clearly the best Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) game ever to grace a PC screen".
    Maximum PC magazine compared the gameplay to Diablo, but noted its more extensive selection of features and options. The pixel-based characters were panned, but the reviewer stated that "the gloriously rendered backgrounds make up for that shortcoming." The main criticism was of the problems with the path finding algorithm for non-player characters. Despite this, the game was deemed an "instant classic" because of the amount of customization allowed, the "fluid story lines," and the replayability.
    According to IGN, Baldur's Gate did much to revive the role-playing video game genre. John Harris of Gamasutra wrote that it "rescued computer D&D from the wastebasket."
    The game was a financial success, selling over two million copies worldwide. According to GameSpy, "Baldur's Gate was a triumph the [sic] single-handedly revived the CRPG and almost made gamers forgive Interplay for Descent to Undermountain".

    Legacy

    Baldur's Gate was the first game in the Baldur's Gate series. It was immediately followed by the expansion pack Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), then the sequel Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) and its expansion pack Throne of Bhaal (2001). As of 2006, total sales for all releases in the series was almost five million copies.[22] The series set the standard for other games using AD&D rules, especially those developed by BioWare and Black Isle Studios: Planescape: Torment (1999), Icewind Dale (2000), and Icewind Dale II (2002). The novel Baldur's Gate (1999) by Philip Athans was based on the game.
    almost 5 million copies for the entire series. 2 million for the first one alone. Compared to Diablo which as sold 2.5 million copies worldwide also according to wiki.

    Define popular? Because it was critically acclaimed dark horse release. Bioware was pretty much still in its infancy when it was released so hype surrounding it was limited. It also might not have been popular for "core" gamers, however, it might of introduced gaming to another market, pnp players who were being let down by other CRPGs at the time.
  • ChildofBhaal599ChildofBhaal599 Member Posts: 1,781
    edited April 2013
    Anyway, nobody I know has ever heard of it. I am glad I decided to play it before ME3 (when I was a fan) because I tried this due to my love of ME1 and 2. Now it is among my favorite games. Very superior to DA2 or ME3.
    Post edited by ChildofBhaal599 on
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    You really have to put reference around it. In the Gaming and RPG community, it is quite popular and successful. I'd go so far as to say that it is generally considered as one of the all time best CRPG games to come out. However, if you mean is it mainstream? Can you compare it to something like Battlefield or Call of Duty? Nay.
  • ShapiroKeatsDarkMageShapiroKeatsDarkMage Member Posts: 2,428
    the_spyder said:

    You really have to put reference around it. In the Gaming and RPG community, it is quite popular and successful. I'd go so far as to say that it is generally considered as one of the all time best CRPG games to come out. However, if you mean is it mainstream? Can you compare it to something like Battlefield or Call of Duty? Nay.

    Or Final Fantasy?XD
  • EudaemoniumEudaemonium Member Posts: 3,199
    Final Fantasy is, without a doubt, more popular. But FF is a franchise whereas BG was just a short series. Also, FF wasn't really popular before FF7, which is when it blew everyone away with its awesome CGIs and terrible translation.

    This Bhaal are sick.
  • LordsDarkKnight185LordsDarkKnight185 Member Posts: 615
    It's like asking "Is Dungeons & Dragons popular"

    I love it. Millions of people love it. It makes money, even though it may not make as much as other things.

    How important is popularity?
  • reedmilfamreedmilfam Member Posts: 2,808
    More than popularity, I'd recommend you look at how beloved it is by the players. It's also seen as one of the best games of all time by multiple publications, so I'd answer 'yes, it is popular'.
  • CalmarCalmar Member Posts: 688
    It's definitely overshadowed by Baldur's Gate II...
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,675
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,964
    ginormously popular
  • AnduinAnduin Member Posts: 5,745
    Asking if Baldur's Gate is popular in this forum is the equivalent of the snotty insecure kid who has to ask eveyone if they are there friends before sobbing to the teacher when the curious kid just says no to see what happens...

    In other words completely pointless.

    However in answer to your question, is Baldur's Gate IS popular. Yes. Especially with the Priests of Umberlee as it is the only place in all of Faerun that they have a temple... (Betcha didn't know that!)

    ...

    Uhm... 5 million copies... This would have more weight if we new how many PCs in the world at the time was capable of playing the game... I still lamented the loss of my Atari ST and the Amstrad Mega-PC (It was class, slide the slider across the disk drive and it converted itself to a mega-drive... them were the days...

    1998 was a completely different world... I played a Sony Playstation and thought it was NEAT I could play music CDs on it as well... I had a Nokia Phone that could store ten text messages before it ran out of memory...

    The biggest problem that year was I reduced to weeping when I couldn't run x-wing on the new fancy windows... What the hell was wrong with DOS... I could use DOS... Nothing has been the same since... (maybe blurring the years 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98 here... all lost to underage criminality of one sort or the other... I could still pass as a child buying train tickets well into my twenties...)

    ...

    Sorry digressed... Errr the answer is 4.
  • kamuizinkamuizin Member Posts: 3,704
    As some people says, it's not the music of the moment (It never was), but for people whom like real RPGs (and note adventure styled ones), Baldur's Gate is well know.

    We can say that, people with good taste knows baldur's gate :)!
  • kajeliskajelis Member Posts: 8
    @dstoltzfus yes there was, it wasn't a very good one but there was a novel. Actually there were two if i'm not mistaken.
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    I would imagine that for most young-ish gamers who were coming upon the last decade it's probably not a well very known game. Most of them have likely not played it. For folks who were around when it was released, and love RPGs, it's the Holy Grail, though.
  • ChildofBhaal599ChildofBhaal599 Member Posts: 1,781
    kajelis said:

    @dstoltzfus yes there was, it wasn't a very good one but there was a novel. Actually there were two if i'm not mistaken.

    quiet, nobody can know this. if the novels are found, the user will go berzerk. this could turn very tragic if it used in a public area. the resulting chaos will be unpredictable! we have lost the ability to remove curse, he will continue to kill until put down. that is why the secret of the novels must be protected.
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    edited April 2013
    Among rpg players it was quite popular . In fact, Infinity Games were the best AD&D adaptations at the time ( and I believe that, in essence, they still are ).
  • LockLock Member Posts: 84
    I would've thought that if you played PC games in the late 90's then the chances were better than average that you'd played Baldur's Gate.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
    "Is Baldur's Gate really popular?"

    "Is this really a question?"

    "Yeah it's a question. But it's not really a question. It's one of those questions that people give incompetent answers to. It's a yes or no question. It's not a question that you can really give an explanation to. It doesn't deserve a real answer because it's not a real question"

    "Wait, but... Every question is any question. Any question is some question. Some question is no question.
    No question is a brain teaser. The brain teaser is the truth and the logic is to deliberately annoy the participant. Thus it is a philosophical question as one uses logic to discover the truth of the question"
  • SCARY_WIZARDSCARY_WIZARD Member Posts: 1,438
    ChildofBhaal599 said:

    kajelis said:

    @dstoltzfus yes there was, it wasn't a very good one but there was a novel. Actually there were two if i'm not mistaken.

    quiet, nobody can know this. if the novels are found, the user will go berzerk. this could turn very tragic if it used in a public area. the resulting chaos will be unpredictable! we have lost the ability to remove curse, he will continue to kill until put down. that is why the secret of the novels must be protected.
    I found them in Southwest Florida, and nobody...oh, wait. Is that why heat lightning kept occurring more and more frequently for a stretch of time?! !;___;!
  • snowofthronessnowofthrones Member Posts: 3
    Anduin said:

    Especially with the Priests of Umberlee as it is the only place in all of Faerun that they have a temple... (Betcha didn't know that!)

    Hey, wasn't there a Temple of Umberlee at Brynnlaw in Baldur's Gate 2?

  • ChildofBhaal599ChildofBhaal599 Member Posts: 1,781
    SCARY_WIZARD said:

    ChildofBhaal599 said:

    kajelis said:

    @dstoltzfus yes there was, it wasn't a very good one but there was a novel. Actually there were two if i'm not mistaken.

    quiet, nobody can know this. if the novels are found, the user will go berzerk. this could turn very tragic if it used in a public area. the resulting chaos will be unpredictable! we have lost the ability to remove curse, he will continue to kill until put down. that is why the secret of the novels must be protected.
    I found them in Southwest Florida, and nobody...oh, wait. Is that why heat lightning kept occurring more and more frequently for a stretch of time?! !;___;!
    Well, you must be very strong willed to resist the curse. The secret is how badly written it is. It drives you mad, and you just lose control and kill everything. But it is very strong magic. It must have dispersed and caused the storm instead when it couldn't affect you.
  • SCARY_WIZARDSCARY_WIZARD Member Posts: 1,438
    ChildofBhaal599 said:

    SCARY_WIZARD said:

    ChildofBhaal599 said:

    kajelis said:

    @dstoltzfus yes there was, it wasn't a very good one but there was a novel. Actually there were two if i'm not mistaken.

    quiet, nobody can know this. if the novels are found, the user will go berzerk. this could turn very tragic if it used in a public area. the resulting chaos will be unpredictable! we have lost the ability to remove curse, he will continue to kill until put down. that is why the secret of the novels must be protected.
    I found them in Southwest Florida, and nobody...oh, wait. Is that why heat lightning kept occurring more and more frequently for a stretch of time?! !;___;!
    Well, you must be very strong willed to resist the curse. The secret is how badly written it is. It drives you mad, and you just lose control and kill everything. But it is very strong magic. It must have dispersed and caused the storm instead when it couldn't affect you.
    Well, I was browsing Portal of Evil fairly regularly. I think between Bad Comics and William Shatner cults, there was enough deflection.
  • kajeliskajelis Member Posts: 8
    ChildofBhaal599 said:

    kajelis said:

    @dstoltzfus yes there was, it wasn't a very good one but there was a novel. Actually there were two if i'm not mistaken.

    quiet, nobody can know this. if the novels are found, the user will go berzerk. this could turn very tragic if it used in a public area. the resulting chaos will be unpredictable! we have lost the ability to remove curse, he will continue to kill until put down. that is why the secret of the novels must be protected.
    I tried reading the first one but just couldn't get through it, it was so bad i stopped mid way. I fought the urge of insanity. My power of will is great but my curiosity did get the best of me.
  • ChildofBhaal599ChildofBhaal599 Member Posts: 1,781
    edited April 2013
    kajelis said:

    ChildofBhaal599 said:

    kajelis said:

    @dstoltzfus yes there was, it wasn't a very good one but there was a novel. Actually there were two if i'm not mistaken.

    quiet, nobody can know this. if the novels are found, the user will go berzerk. this could turn very tragic if it used in a public area. the resulting chaos will be unpredictable! we have lost the ability to remove curse, he will continue to kill until put down. that is why the secret of the novels must be protected.
    I tried reading the first one but just couldn't get through it, it was so bad i stopped mid way. I fought the urge of insanity. My power of will is great but my curiosity did get the best of me.
    curiousity get to us all. that is why we have reloads!

    i have just been informed that reloads are the aspect of a video game, and hitting q on my keyboard does nothing outside of games. well, at least mass effect 3 has taught me that my decisions won't matter in the longterm!
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    @ChildofBhaal599, your "q" key does nothing outside of games? Mine causes a small letter "q" to appear in documents. If I press "shift-q", it even makes a capital "Q" appear. (kidding)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,675
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
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