Baldur’s Gate: 20-Year Anniversary Contest (Winners Announced)
JuliusBorisov
Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,754
December 21, 2018 marks the 20-year anniversary of Baldur’s Gate. 20 years! Twenty whole years! Let’s say it again for folks in the back. TWENTY YEARS!
The world has changed dramatically since 1998, but we still love Baldur’s Gate. Over the last two decades Baldur’s Gate has become an important part of video game history, influenced the design of countless RPGs, and entered lives of many people around the globe.
Baldur’s Gate is a work of art. For many fans, Baldur’s Gate isn’t just a game, the characters, quotes, and events found on this journey through the Sword Coast have become embedded in the memories of millions of players. Not only that, the community of players, artists, and modders surrounding Baldur’s Gate continues to thrive today.
To celebrate this incredible milestone, we’re holding a contest!
Share a story about an experience you had with Baldur’s Gate in this thread. Submissions must be made before the end of December 19, 2018.
The world has changed dramatically since 1998, but we still love Baldur’s Gate. Over the last two decades Baldur’s Gate has become an important part of video game history, influenced the design of countless RPGs, and entered lives of many people around the globe.
Baldur’s Gate is a work of art. For many fans, Baldur’s Gate isn’t just a game, the characters, quotes, and events found on this journey through the Sword Coast have become embedded in the memories of millions of players. Not only that, the community of players, artists, and modders surrounding Baldur’s Gate continues to thrive today.
To celebrate this incredible milestone, we’re holding a contest!
Share a story about an experience you had with Baldur’s Gate in this thread. Submissions must be made before the end of December 19, 2018.
Post edited by JuliusBorisov on
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Comments
As for the amount of attempts in each pool - do as you like more!
I distinctly remember the enjoyment of the game but the specifics are hard to recall after 20 years (I'm old)
I went on to buy all the other IE games etc (and have all the EE versions today)
While not my first CRPG it's the start of a series I always come back to
(And sorry for my grammar, english isn’t my first language)
And yeah, I use Minsk’s prhrases in my daily life
(And of course, Edwin's epilogue was/is absolutely hilarious and I can't forget about the poetic phrases from Haer'Dalis)
Also werewolf island, the romance with the werewolf there. Always sad you can't keep her with you. I was pretty depressed about it the first time.
On one of our weekend trips, I went to stay with my old friend. He was showing off the one and the only Baldur's Gate, which had just come out. I had to have it. I was definitely going to ask my mom for it when we got back home.
Fast forward to later that same night, and my friend's girlfriend comes over. We're playing video games in his room for a while, but then I notice that I'd gotten really good at whatever game we were playing. Like, I can't lose. My friend SUCKED. Oh. Because he and his girlfriend were making out.
I left the room and played Baldur's Gate the rest of the night.
And I haven't talked to that friend in YEARS.
The first time I played an evil character and agreed to take Edwin's quest to kill Dynaheir and he joined the party, I almost fell out of my chair from shock. I thought he was just a quest giver!
Every time somebody called my name, my answer was always "I'm savin' the worrrld!"
Good times.
In the earlier days of sound though I got used to hearing catch phrases. I'm told that one of Minsc's is "Full plate and packing steel", but it always sounded like something rather more aggressive than "packing" to me
If I were to choose one specific memory, it'll be the ending stories to BG2, that got me real hard as I was very invested into the story in the first playthrough, feeling very close to the characters and what was happening, and when the endings reflected the choices made in the game, it was a really special experience, parting with close friends.
I played through BG1 with my daughter. She was asking me what was at the bottom of Durlag's Tower. I explained that an evil demon knight is down there who is too powerful for us to face. Right after we were attacked by some sirenes. Neera's Wild Surge goes off and summons a Death Knight (altered from a demon by the Spell Revisions mod). My daughter was terrified that the Death Knight had heard us talking about it and had come to get us... except that the knight was a friendly summon and stalked off to chop up the sirenes. We decided that the knight wasn't that bad at all, just a bit misunderstood, and let him keep his tower.
I was a console player, as were my children, and we had no computer. So we used to buy the magazines for playstation ect. and they had an article about BG. For ages I read about the game, every article and review that appeared in the various magazines. Almost dreamt about playing it.
Eventually my sister gave me an old computer and I bought it within a few days. We used to have a little ritual whenever we bought a new game, go to the shop, do any shopping in town we needed, go to Pizza Hut and look at the discs and manuals.
There were so many discs, and a big thick book/manual, and a map!!!
All of which I still have, but the box is very battered and held together with tape, and it's still with all the other games on the shelf.
I finished BG, never restarted during the game (never occured to me to do so, I was on a quest), struggled through, didn't really properly understand the whole Iron Throne business and then that old PC broke.
Cut forward a year or so, I managed to get another PC but it played the game really badly, so many crashes.
(households with young children are a very bad enviroment for discs to survive anyway and the PC was a bit crap)
My husband very kindly brought home a newer edition which included the discs with "Tales of the Sword Coast".
Went to Werewolf Island, didn't see or notice anything about the way through the caves to where the ship was, killed everything (and I mean everything) and was eternally stuck there. Automatically assumed it was because the game simply wouldn't work on the PC (no internet).
Basically, I spent more time dreaming about being able to play BG than I ever did actually playing it for a long time. Consequently the game achieved something of a mythical status for me.
It wasn't just a game, it was the Holy Grail of games, virtually unobtainable.
In the Firewine Dungeon, after making my way through kobold commandos and traps all the way to the wizard Lendarn, I suddenly found myself hit by the mage's powerful lightning bolt, which, amplified by the extremely narrow corriders, bounced through my entire party of six multiple times, except for my druid, Kalis, who - being the main character and this being a no-reload game - was positioned at a safe distance, and far away from the others.
The devastating result: All five of my companions were permanently gone, their equipment scattered across the halls. Kalis remained alone. I do not remember how I was able to get past Lendarn, though I think I had already killed the ogre mage at an earlier point, using the secret entrance to the ruins. What I do remember is me being determined to continue, save as much equipment as possible, recruit a new party - after all, BG1 has an abundance of party members. So I used my newly acquired shapeshifting abilties to improve Kalis' meek strength, so he'd be able to carry as much of the valuable equipment as possible, even some armor pieces. I made several trips up to Gullykin in bear form to rescue at least the magical items and ended up recruiting a whole other group of rarely used companions, and from this day on, I've made it a point to always have my main character wear the Boots of Grounding in BG1. My tenacity payed off: After many more trials and tribulations (including the loss of most of another party at the hands of Hareishan in the Cloakwood Mines, once again due to a lightning bolt), this - depiste the odds - ended up being my first successful trilogy no-reload run.
I was a kid and I had never seen Dragons in a rpg game, at best we had talked about them in a few D&D games, but never met one.
So when I saw him for the first time I was both scared and curious about his hoard: my greed bested me and I had to absolutely see what he had in his inventory.
The problem, though, was that my party was made of level 11 goons and I had to actually lower the difficulty.
But hey, we got our acid armor
- When my wizard found himself fighting Firkraag all alone (as the other five party members had been obliterated by his fire breath) and all hope seemed lost, in a last desperate attempt with the little life he had left in him, he tried casting finger of death and to his astonishment the beast was slayed!
- While patiently romancing Aerie and later Neera, day after day...
- When I finally managed to beat the game solo in the Legacy of Bhaal mode
When I first played Baldur's Gate, that was, without a doubt, the defining moment of my life. It has changed my course and I've gone on to play RPGs, get into modding, seek a life path in game development, and become a general gaming afficionado.
But despite its importance to me, I can't actually recall much of my first playthrough, in fact, I'm not even sure what character I made first. I just remember that by the time that wonderfully dark intro cinematic was wrapping up and that unfortunate guy had landed on the cobblestones beneath the Iron Throne headquarters, my young mind was blown and I was already fully invested.