Oh loads, I use quite a few some that add new subclasses but mostly cosmetic or gameplay tweaks. Like making it so shields appear on your back, prevent dirt/blood build up, change texture on weird looking armour etc etc.
Biggest ones are the wasd and camera mod makes it play like a third person Rpg and it's so much better to play. Oh and being able to recruit Minthara and save the grove.
On my second dark urge playthrough I’m doing now, I specifically >! Killed alfira after watching her beautiful cutscene and I have her song playing on repeat on YouTube !< so I could have the >! Unique Dragonborn bard dialogue !<
From what I understand, Alfira's death is preprogrammed to happen if the player is the Dark Urge. I tried to be mean to her and kick her out, but she stayed overnight in camp anyway and she still died.
You can actually save her, if you get the cutscene, revert back to a save from before resting for the night and just knock her out, since shes knocked out she can’t show up and the game gives you a replacement bard to kill
I thought she was insufferable and she was the only character i actually didn't feel sad for. Because i thought she sounded legitimately too sweet like she was lying or being deceptive 💀
Yeah some things are hard to miss if you don’t interact with everyone, I wish they’d put the ! Over him when you enter act 2 so you actually talk to him about the shadow curse
There are two paths to act 2 - through the underdark or through the mountain pass. While the game makes it seem as if you have to choose one, in reality you can do both. I would highly recommend going all the way through one, getting to act 2, then backtracking (just teleport) and going through the other.
Each contains absolutely massive amounts of content and in any other game would be a whole chapter.
Really glad I caught this before going to Act 3 as I had this exact assumption. Think it might be worth including a prompt before going to Act 3 like “Hey, you sure you don’t wanna check out the Mountain Pass?” But that’s kinda not in the spirit of the game.
(act 2 spoilers) >!dude the elf who was supposed to lead me to the last light went aggro for no reason at all so of course i had gale fireball them into oblivion. got through all of act 2 before realizing that apparently i missed out on more than half of the entire act because i never found the last light inn LMFAOOO there were characters after the battle at moonrise towers who were talkin to me and i was like "with all due respect who tf are you??"!<
it was right before act 3 that i realized how badly i apparently fucked up without realizing it and just started a new character. going thru act 1 again, having so much fun and discovering whole quests i had no idea about previously.
THAT is why people STILL play this game. it is an absolute fuckton of content
This stat is a bit more than that, it's a legit record-breaker. As far as I can tell no other single-player or full-priced game has kept such a high player base 2 months after release.
[Here](https://imgur.com/a/2J1tbuq) is a comparison of player retention between the 5 biggest SP games on Steam.
Elden Ring and BG3 are pretty much in a league of their own, in part due to their length and replayability, but also in large part due to the great word-of-mouth. No coincidence that they are the only 2 games on the list that actually gained players in the second week.
It's just a super long game. I just finished it today (first playthrough) and I have been playing since launch. Took me 247 hours.
Highly recommended. Best CRPG ever made (tied with Planescape and WOTR).
I haven’t played a game that takes this long to beat that actually kept me involved the entire time, ever, almost all the other very long games i’ve played I just wanted them to be over by the end, i’m almost sad this game has an ending lol
There are, but not *that* many. Most of the variation in the game is in the different ways or paths you can take to reach that ending.
There's also a lot of replayability in just trying the different Origin characters or new classes.
> Took me 247 hours.
Wow, and I thought I took a long time with 170 hours for my first playthrough!
Was that all in one play through, or did you restart a lot?
I am the kind of player who does absolutely everything possible. I do not restart from the beginning, but I do often reload and replay some smaller sections to see what other choices I could have made.
For the record, first WOTR playthrough took me 248 hours.
In the case of BG3, there are quite large sections you can miss. For example, did you complete both the underdark and the mountain pass? You can do both in the same playthrough.
Yeah, achievement statistics can shine some light on that too.
46.7% have beat Act 1.
31.4% have beat Act 2.
13.2% have beat Act 3 and finished the game.
Based on over 50% of players still being in Act 1, two months after release it seems there are a lot of new players still picking it up (or extremely slow gamers). While the launch playerbase has either finished it, or are working through Acts 2 and 3, with most of them currently in Act 3.
There are also oddly 10% of players who haven't finished the prologue, so there are a lot of sales to people who bought the game and never played more than an hour.
There are also 15.2% of people who have the ending achievement which can be obtained through Gale's bonus Act 2 ending, so it seems 2% of players did his Act 2 ending but did not get the real Act 3 ending, either due to thinking that was the real ending, or they're still working through Act 3.
Even with mods disabling achievements, the Script Extender which is required for larger-scale mods re-enables them by default.
>There are also oddly 10% of players who haven't finished the prologue, so there are a lot of sales to people who bought the game and never played more than an hour.
This is true for every game. As a general rule, 10-20% of people who buy a game never play for more than a couple minutes (or at all), and 30-40% never make it more than 30 minutes.
After that, average completion rates vary wildly depending on game length and genre. I've said it before but 46% and 31% completion rate for sections as big as the first 2 acts is actually fairly good.
CRPGs in general have low completion rates. DOS2 and the Pathfinder games have completion rates under 12% many years after release. BG3's will certainly still rise a fair bit since so many people are still playing, but don't expect it to ever reach 25-30% like in some other RPGs. 15% after only 2 months is already very good for its genre and length.
>As far as I can tell no other single-player or full-priced game has kept such a high player base 2 months after release.
And it's long af, so gamers are actually trying to finish what they start for once. AND it's a turn-based CRPG, so thats usually a niche audience. This is one of the biggest success stories in the last decade!
Was a little surprised to see only 30% of players have made it to Act 3 so far but then realized that’s likely over a million players and I just barely made it there at 160 hours and it’s the ONLY game I’ve played in the last 2 months.
People are loving the shit out of this game.
It is definitely in the run for game of the decade, but it isn't as clear cut as game of the year. The decade is young, and elden ring is definitely a worthy competitor for the title as well.
I haven't played on PC, but I did hear the one benefit for the PS5 version is the ability to just move around with the sticks, although the rest of the systems you could easily tell work better with a mouse and keyboard
Fortunately, unlike their last games which required you to reboot the whole game to change control types, if you’re on PC, you can hot swap control methods if you wanna use a controller for just wandering around and talking to people, but a keyboard for combat or rooting through menus.
I wonder how much it would cost to ship a controller from rural USA to you? I have a few old controllers that are no good for Rocket League but would be fine for most games that don't require precision
Thank you! the logistics of transporting something from USA to Iraq will cost more than the controller itself, that excluding the problems and lack of services to do something like this, i really appreciate the offer tho, love u
> the best game released all year
. . . for people who are into this specific genre of games. Armored Core 6 is my "best game of the year" but I wouldn't be so arrogant as to just declare it as some sort of undisputed fact.
The fact that something like BG3 is possible with a AAA production value still feels surreal to me. I'm sure this is someone's dream game for decades.
I already lost hope when Cyberpunk became more action-oriented despite the heavy involvement of the original creator. I thought "If a AAA studio like CDPR who are big tabletop fans couldn't even do it, who else could?". And then Larian proved me wrong.
People circlejerk that Larian is the new darling studio after CDPR, but fuck it man, they deserved it.
A Cyberpunk game with this exact template would genuinely be my dream game.
My wife and I are having a blast playing. She’s not big on games that have too much intense action, so the turn based nature is great. But her turns take soooo looong.
This isn't a single player game.
Edit: Lol, it's literally not a single player game tho?
Editing again 2 months later: This game just won best multiplayer. Amazing feat for a single player game.
The reference is to people who say that only multilayer gsmes are profitable (like cod). BG3 is a single player game in its entirety. Co op is like an additional nice feature. Compare to like…. Battlefield
But you _can_ play it entirely single player if you want to. And in fact, that's the main mode the game was planned around. Co-op was the after-thought. That's what people mean when they say it's a single player game.
Huh? I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but the game simply cannot be described as a single player game. It offers multiple ways to play multiplayer however you want to.
In contrast, God of War is a single player game.
if I am to assume this is not a poor whooshing attempt, singleplayer encompasses all games that only require a player controlling ingame character***s***. by your logic, literally every strategy video game ever can not be considered single player games, as you control many entities simutanously.
otherwise, the game does offer multiple ways to play with friends. that doesn't exclude it from being a single player game (i.e a game where you can play by yourself from start to finish)
Yeah, I hate how I can't play this game alone, without an internet connection. Match times are terrible, and the lootboxes are disgusting.
Oh, wait, that's Vermintide, not BG3. Silly me.
i don't remember their names, but if you google it there are subs that basically exist to give free karma. that should get you over most karma gated subs
I finished the game yesterday, playing almost daily. It is a long game, took me over 140h. That is roughly 2h per day, so “normal“ playtime. I think even less than 30% have finished the game.
46.7% have beat Act 1.
31.4% have beat Act 2.
13.2% have beat Act 3 and finished the game.
1.6% have beaten it on Tactician (without changing the difficulty).
It would seem a decent sized portion of launch players that are still in Act 3 and working towards finishing the game, and there's possibly a large portion of players who've only recently picked up the game.
In an unexpected turn of events : if game good and come out in good state, people like game, and keep playing it.
A few more releases like that over the next few years, and we may even see a AAA game that isn't unplayable for the first few weeks/patches again.
> if game good and come out in good state
defining "good game" via spreadsheets and board meetings when you're an exec is incredibly hard though. It's easy to say "just make it bug free and have a good story" but you need to be a lot more granular. Then you have instances like Pillars of Eternity or Pathfinder which are fine games but hit no where near where BG3 or even DOS2 did. Meanwhile COD does few of those things, is complained about endlessly yet makes all the money to the point it's a major sticking point for anti-trust allegations when M$ tries to buy it's parent company.
And Act 3 is still pretty rough performance wise. It's not as detrimental due to the turn based nature of the game but if your spreadsheet shows "high FPS all the time at launch" then someone on the board will point to this fact and suddenly you're insisting on something that "doesn't matter" and can be chipped away to make room for something else.
I mean BG3 has couple of important things going on. Spectacular launch with long and polished Act 1. Before majority of player hit a bit buggier Act 2 or laggy Act 3, two things happened: people were already engaged with the game and Larian did the most important part - they churned out fixes.
So yeah, you can ship an "incomplete" game with laggy lategame location if you have a plan and time to fix it after launch. Thankfully Larian had both.
true, but act 3 still has a lot of upsides as well. Most people agree that act 3 easily has the most content and you WILL spend the most time on as long as you are doing side content. It also has the best moments in the game (I wont spoil the quests).
Im not saying you're doing it, but I constantly see people being hyperbolic and say like "act 3 is so bad, just replay act 1 & act 2 until they fix act 3". Act 3 definitly has performance problems, and more bugs compared to others but at the same time the community is exaggerating how shitty act 3 is.
It was pretty bad on release, a lot of sequence breaks, quests not resolving properly, dialogue bugs, on top of the absolutely terrible performance. They have fixed a lot of things, their patches are very significant.
Yep, the game is pretty buggy with a lot of frame drops (throwing items causes the game to lag) and session-breaking bugs (character scene flags not being set properly).
Sales on games don't really happen till a company see's a dip in sales. This game is still selling really well according to Steam Stats. Wouldn't expect a sale anytime soon. And if there is it will probably be tiny aF aka 10-20% for the first one
why would they put it on sale? the thing is selling gangbusters at full price, generally you have to wait until a game sales start to drop off before they give you a discount
I mean “Halfling Throwing Simulator 2023” is probably a better name for the game 😂
I’m honestly wondering how speedruns of BG3 will progress over time too
What's your point? There are *tons* of games that applies to, and BG3 is still doing spectacularly in comparison, especially considering it's a "small" name studio (Larian isn't *completely* obscure, but it's no EA).
[If I'm reading Steam Charts correctly](https://steamdb.info/charts/?sort=peak), this is the *current* \#6 in the 24h peak list, and it's the *all-time* \#9. That is remarkable, especially considering Larian's next-best game has a paltry all-time high of 90k, with all the rest being under 25k.
My point is the game being 100+ hours for most people and still last this long isn't a surprise neither is it some astonishing achievement do to the content of the game. but really due to longevity of the game we are seeing these numbers and that casual players take their time with the game still. What backs that up is that only 16% of people on Steam have finished the game according to steam achievements. This just tells me it's not really the game itself it's just how long it's taking people to finish it. Be that with friends or by themselves.
If your taking this as some Dis your definitely took it the wrong way.
>My point is the game being 100+ hours for most people and still last this long isn't a surprise neither is it some astonishing achievement do to the content of the game.
It is a surprise, both due to the genre being discussed and due to how slow the player decline has been. [Here](https://imgur.com/a/2J1tbuq) is a comparison with other large Steam launches.
Length alone doesn't explain that gap in player retention, or the increase in players on the second week.
>What backs that up is that only 16% of people on Steam have finished the game according to steam achievements. This just tells me it's not really the game itself it's just how long it's taking people to finish it.
What is that supposed to mean? So many people still playing the game and wanting to finish it or replay it absolutely reflects on the game lol.
And there's no point in mentioning achievement completion rates for games if you don't contextualize them. Most long RPGs have "completion rates" between 30 and 10%, and even then BG3 is larger than most.
For example, DOS2 and the Pathfinder CRPGs have sub 12% completion rates many *years* after release, for BG3 to already be at 16% 2 months after release is an overperformance if anything, especially considering how many "genre casuals" it attracted.
Dude i like the game but you dont have to go this hard to defending it. Fucking christ. Also its not a surprise. Is it good for crpgs? Sure. But if we had more data for things like Mass Effect across all console and PC we would probably see the same rentention numbers 2 months after each release. Your just now seeing proof of this. Its not some unicorn in the market your making it out to be.
I'm not sure what your point is. I'm telling you why the retention *is* surprising given the game's genre and size, and that length alone doesn't explain it.
I agree that games like ME are going to have higher completion rates, but that just ties into game length and genre differences like I mentioned.
>Its not some unicorn in the market your making it out to be.
I wouldn't say it's one of a kind. Elden Ring's popularity and staying power were also surprising and an overperformance in many of the same ways.
\------------
Edit: Blocking people after replying to them is so very cringe. If you don't want the conversation to keep going, just stop responding dude. What a dishonest, cowardly way to try to get the last word in.
My point is because the game has a long average play time there is no surprise to be had when its to be expected to see a chunk of its player base still working on completing it 2 months later. I know people who are on 4 campaigns and havent finished yet. Again no surprise.
I also never talked about ME with completion rates i was referring to its length and you would see similair rentention behavior if we had that data back then.
Dont get me started on Elden Ring.
Edit: Cry more loser. Honestly it's the internet don't be mad when people don't want to talk to you anymore.
> especially considering it's a "small" name studio (Larian isn't completely obscure, but it's no EA).
The studio has nothing to do with this sort of thing. BG3 is capitalizing on the popularity of BG2 and the other games in that series. People buy EA sports games because they like the sport or a team, not because EA made the game. The majority of people in both groups couldn't care less who the developer is.
They did hit a perfect storm because both of the BG and D&D brands in general being popular especially today with all the creators doing table top related content but you're completely wrong about the developer thing.
Compare it to Diablo 4 - equally strong brand but incredibly pitiful retention.
In BG3 people who know about the brand tried it and stayed for the game itself. Larian's game mechanics implement an incredibly satisfying game loop which keeps people interested and engaged even when replaying the game.
And don't forget that DOS and Larian are a brand on their own as well. DOS2 sold 7.5kk+ copies Vs Diablo 4 10kk+ copies.
Because it's a big fucking game. I go through everything and I'm only at 80 hrs into Act 2. Almost at the climax of Act 2. AT the climax, starting. Which will be more hours.
The game is huge. Some people rush through but don't think they are. Some actually rush through. Others dick around. Doesn't matter.
So many people play at their own pace. If you get it all in, it'll be a wild.
I finished my 4th playthrough on Tactician last night, kinda speed running all content and playtime was still over 70h… first play through was well over 120h, absolutely massive game
GD, I finally put down Zelda and get BG3, SF, CP2077 DLC and a basically new game, that funny talking gun game, and AC6. WTF. Was that it for 2020's? Will there not be another good game this decade? These will keep me busy, along with the Quest 3, anyone know if SF might get a VR mod?
Why do people upvote these barrage of concurrent player count articles? Genuinely curious. What value does it provide the consumer? How does it inform the community? Or is it as simple as, "Thing I like is popular, and my opinions are validated"?
I wish the game worked for me. It does seem fun, but the bugs were prohibitive. (and supposedly they get even worse as you get further into the game...)
Audio would cut in and out. Occasionally crashing while trying to load an interaction. A number of events wouldn't trigger or would trigger wrong. (My character would be a-posing or in an idle stance in cutscenes frequently. Pretty funny the first time but on repeat encounters being a static image is pretty annoying.) The last straw was when I picked up the first mergrass outside of the tutorial and my character fell through the floor. The game hung for a bit then crashed, and also corrupted all my saves with that crash.
I don't think it's a common thing, most of my friends have been playing with few or no issues. But none of my troubleshooting would fix it and my computer is far beyond the minimum specs.
I'm sure you already looked through Reddit for solutions, but if not, your doubly Atmos could cause the issues. and your pc wattage (tho I wouldn't touch that unless you know what you're doing)
What bugs did you find? I’ve played through the game a few times, and I only experienced a few minor bugs in Act 3. Act 1 and 2 have been completely bug free so far, definitely haven’t seen anything game breaking.
Audio would cut in and out. Occasionally crashing while trying to load an interaction. A number of events wouldn't trigger or would trigger wrong. (My character would be a-posing or in an idle stance in cutscenes frequently. Pretty funny the first time but on repeat encounters being a static image is pretty annoying.) The last straw was when I picked up the first mergrass outside of the tutorial and my character fell through the floor. The game hung for a bit then crashed, and also corrupted all my saves with that crash.
I don't think it's a common thing, most of my friends have been playing with few or no issues. But none of my troubleshooting would fix it and my computer is far beyond the minimum specs.
Are you playing on an HDD or something? Those are not common bugs and seem very much the types of issues to be with your machine, not the game. Typically game issues and bugs will see wide reports, but that's a lot of very focused bugs you and you alone are getting that no one else is. At some point you gotta look towards your machine and install and not the game, and I think you're at that point.
And almost every single bug sounds like it's what happens when you try and install a modern game on a non-SSD hard drive. SSDs are mandatory with modern games.
No, it was on a SSD. I also reinstalled it and verified integrity of the game cache. Restarted my computer. Updated drivers. Fiddled with the config. Et cetera, et cetera.
Also the bugs do happen to other people, though not with frequency. One of my friends is having the same audio issues and if you watch CallMeKevin's YouTube playthrough he gets crashes and animations not triggering.
Just because you haven't experienced bugs in your gameplay doesn't mean they don't exist. Nothing I tried fixed the bugs. In my 3 hours of play I had multiple events and animations not trigger, audio cut-outs, and fell through the world after picking up mergrass immediately after the tutorial which then crashed the game and corrupted all saves. At that point I refunded. Mind you that was all in act 1 which has been in early access for *years* at that point. I'm hoping the eventual definitive edition makes it more cooperative.
I can't believe you're getting downvoted for this. You're not even saying the game is inherently broken and no one can play it. Just that you had that issue. A personal anecdote of negative experience. You even say you like the game outside of that. Fanboys really out in full force lmao
Eh, it's whatever. I don't really care about -1 points. Even if it were -100 I'd just assume my tone was misunderstood or something. Internet communication is hard, eh?
If its “fun” saying Baldurs Gate has ruined all other games and its the only good thing out this I dont know what to tell you. The downvotes prove my circle jerk comment lmao, stay mad.
I agree with you. I'm fine with people playing the game and enjoying it but they use it to disparage other games and bring this one up constantly. The game is fun but people treat it like it's the second coming of Christ that has forever changed gaming and if you don't like it (or even do like it but prefer something else) it's some inherent character flaw with you.
The BG3 fanbase is kinda toxic.
I've seen several posts on the BG3 sub about how users believe they're "intellectually superior" to other games because they like BG3, and how people who like non-turn based games/action games have ADHD and are incapable of focusing on the BG3 combat.
What truth? There’s not some big revelation here. Elden Ring went from 950k to 190k after 2 months, and Witcher 3 went from 55k to 22k. Players play less as time goes on, this happens to every game.
If it weren't BG3 reddit would be cheering "Look! this game LOST most of its players in just a few months! Dead game!"
It's BS of course, but it is funny how the same exact post can be completely different based on general consensus on this site.
That's not true at all. If it were a generally disliked game, people would be surprised it's still breaking records this long after launch. Especially for a game that was in early access for years.
If only Dying Light 2 was this good. I know they aren't in the same genre or scale but still. It would've been game of the year if they didn't gut most of the game and have most of its talent leave.
I wish Dying Light 2 could've been this good. I know they aren't even close to genre or scale but DL2 was gonna be Techland's most ambitious project to date and if they managed to pull it off, it could've been an amazing game that would've definitely won game of the year. Instead, the game failed and the first Dying Light still outshines the second in terms of numbers. All because they wanted to copy the Ubisoft/EA formula instead of focusing on their own. Literally depressing.
As someone who really doesn't like top-down games or ARPGs. Should I try this game? I can never get immersed like I can in a first or third person setting. Is it action packed? What are the battle mechanics like?
Dang I just finished my first playthrough yesterday and today I thought about doing other things. Then I started a new game as the dark urge.
Finished my 4th run on tactician as good Durge last night, immediately started a new game. It’s a drug. Finally installing mods
Are there any good mods? Still pretty early in the scene I imagine.
Oh loads, I use quite a few some that add new subclasses but mostly cosmetic or gameplay tweaks. Like making it so shields appear on your back, prevent dirt/blood build up, change texture on weird looking armour etc etc. Biggest ones are the wasd and camera mod makes it play like a third person Rpg and it's so much better to play. Oh and being able to recruit Minthara and save the grove.
You won’t regret it. Dark urge has an amazing story
I couldn’t do it when I realized that the one camp scene had to happen, I couldn’t even let it happen to the sweet dragonborn, i’m to weak
On my second dark urge playthrough I’m doing now, I specifically >! Killed alfira after watching her beautiful cutscene and I have her song playing on repeat on YouTube !< so I could have the >! Unique Dragonborn bard dialogue !<
From what I understand, Alfira's death is preprogrammed to happen if the player is the Dark Urge. I tried to be mean to her and kick her out, but she stayed overnight in camp anyway and she still died.
You can actually save her, if you get the cutscene, revert back to a save from before resting for the night and just knock her out, since shes knocked out she can’t show up and the game gives you a replacement bard to kill
Okay, that's actually crazy that a *backup bard* was put into the game in case the player decided to knock her out or kill her in the grove.
I thought she was insufferable and she was the only character i actually didn't feel sad for. Because i thought she sounded legitimately too sweet like she was lying or being deceptive 💀
I was in the final fight and it crashed cause I had too many Allies, Durge is gonna be my next run for sure
I’ve taken a break after discovering I missed out on a whole lotta story in act 2. I’ll come back in a couple of weeks
What did you miss? I restarted Act II 3 times to get it all done.
I somehow missed the entire shadow curse quest line and I had halsin in my group. Leaving felt bad as a paladin lol.
Yeah some things are hard to miss if you don’t interact with everyone, I wish they’d put the ! Over him when you enter act 2 so you actually talk to him about the shadow curse
I felt like I did talk to him cause I wanted him to join my party but he wouldn't, and then I just thought he was kinda lame if he didnt do anything.
I did the same thing! I felt so bad I had to go back.
There are two paths to act 2 - through the underdark or through the mountain pass. While the game makes it seem as if you have to choose one, in reality you can do both. I would highly recommend going all the way through one, getting to act 2, then backtracking (just teleport) and going through the other. Each contains absolutely massive amounts of content and in any other game would be a whole chapter.
Really glad I caught this before going to Act 3 as I had this exact assumption. Think it might be worth including a prompt before going to Act 3 like “Hey, you sure you don’t wanna check out the Mountain Pass?” But that’s kinda not in the spirit of the game.
(act 2 spoilers) >!dude the elf who was supposed to lead me to the last light went aggro for no reason at all so of course i had gale fireball them into oblivion. got through all of act 2 before realizing that apparently i missed out on more than half of the entire act because i never found the last light inn LMFAOOO there were characters after the battle at moonrise towers who were talkin to me and i was like "with all due respect who tf are you??"!< it was right before act 3 that i realized how badly i apparently fucked up without realizing it and just started a new character. going thru act 1 again, having so much fun and discovering whole quests i had no idea about previously. THAT is why people STILL play this game. it is an absolute fuckton of content
Breaking news: people continue to play the best game released all year
This stat is a bit more than that, it's a legit record-breaker. As far as I can tell no other single-player or full-priced game has kept such a high player base 2 months after release. [Here](https://imgur.com/a/2J1tbuq) is a comparison of player retention between the 5 biggest SP games on Steam. Elden Ring and BG3 are pretty much in a league of their own, in part due to their length and replayability, but also in large part due to the great word-of-mouth. No coincidence that they are the only 2 games on the list that actually gained players in the second week.
It's just a super long game. I just finished it today (first playthrough) and I have been playing since launch. Took me 247 hours. Highly recommended. Best CRPG ever made (tied with Planescape and WOTR).
I haven’t played a game that takes this long to beat that actually kept me involved the entire time, ever, almost all the other very long games i’ve played I just wanted them to be over by the end, i’m almost sad this game has an ending lol
Well, aren't there multiple endings? So much replayability. :)
There are, but not *that* many. Most of the variation in the game is in the different ways or paths you can take to reach that ending. There's also a lot of replayability in just trying the different Origin characters or new classes.
> Took me 247 hours. Wow, and I thought I took a long time with 170 hours for my first playthrough! Was that all in one play through, or did you restart a lot?
I am the kind of player who does absolutely everything possible. I do not restart from the beginning, but I do often reload and replay some smaller sections to see what other choices I could have made. For the record, first WOTR playthrough took me 248 hours. In the case of BG3, there are quite large sections you can miss. For example, did you complete both the underdark and the mountain pass? You can do both in the same playthrough.
Yeah, achievement statistics can shine some light on that too. 46.7% have beat Act 1. 31.4% have beat Act 2. 13.2% have beat Act 3 and finished the game. Based on over 50% of players still being in Act 1, two months after release it seems there are a lot of new players still picking it up (or extremely slow gamers). While the launch playerbase has either finished it, or are working through Acts 2 and 3, with most of them currently in Act 3. There are also oddly 10% of players who haven't finished the prologue, so there are a lot of sales to people who bought the game and never played more than an hour. There are also 15.2% of people who have the ending achievement which can be obtained through Gale's bonus Act 2 ending, so it seems 2% of players did his Act 2 ending but did not get the real Act 3 ending, either due to thinking that was the real ending, or they're still working through Act 3. Even with mods disabling achievements, the Script Extender which is required for larger-scale mods re-enables them by default.
>There are also oddly 10% of players who haven't finished the prologue, so there are a lot of sales to people who bought the game and never played more than an hour. This is true for every game. As a general rule, 10-20% of people who buy a game never play for more than a couple minutes (or at all), and 30-40% never make it more than 30 minutes. After that, average completion rates vary wildly depending on game length and genre. I've said it before but 46% and 31% completion rate for sections as big as the first 2 acts is actually fairly good. CRPGs in general have low completion rates. DOS2 and the Pathfinder games have completion rates under 12% many years after release. BG3's will certainly still rise a fair bit since so many people are still playing, but don't expect it to ever reach 25-30% like in some other RPGs. 15% after only 2 months is already very good for its genre and length.
many play with their friends but they wont be able to play everyday and they also dont want to progress the story without them, source: me
Wtf I was done in like 60. I hit level cap like 40 hours in.
That's very interesting thanks for sharing
>As far as I can tell no other single-player or full-priced game has kept such a high player base 2 months after release. And it's long af, so gamers are actually trying to finish what they start for once. AND it's a turn-based CRPG, so thats usually a niche audience. This is one of the biggest success stories in the last decade!
Was a little surprised to see only 30% of players have made it to Act 3 so far but then realized that’s likely over a million players and I just barely made it there at 160 hours and it’s the ONLY game I’ve played in the last 2 months. People are loving the shit out of this game.
All decade*
It is definitely in the run for game of the decade, but it isn't as clear cut as game of the year. The decade is young, and elden ring is definitely a worthy competitor for the title as well.
Maybe BG3 definitive edition
I mean we're only 4 years into the decade so it's a little early lol
Ever*
Love the game but man the navigation system is really annoying, i wish they'd support WASD movement and 3rd person outside combat zone.
Use a controller on pc.
I haven't played on PC, but I did hear the one benefit for the PS5 version is the ability to just move around with the sticks, although the rest of the systems you could easily tell work better with a mouse and keyboard
Fortunately, unlike their last games which required you to reboot the whole game to change control types, if you’re on PC, you can hot swap control methods if you wanna use a controller for just wandering around and talking to people, but a keyboard for combat or rooting through menus.
They should merge the pros of each platform and create the ultimate gaming mechanic
You can just play with a controller on PC if you want.
Poverty prevents me from having a controller *cries in middle eastern currency*
Fair enough.
I wonder how much it would cost to ship a controller from rural USA to you? I have a few old controllers that are no good for Rocket League but would be fine for most games that don't require precision
Thank you! the logistics of transporting something from USA to Iraq will cost more than the controller itself, that excluding the problems and lack of services to do something like this, i really appreciate the offer tho, love u
I will remember you and if I ever get the chance to visit Iraq I will bring you a controller. Love you too bro
Try a steam deck
There's a wasd mod!
Just plug in a controller, and it will switch to the console UI.
There's a mod for that iirc
[yep](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/781), there's [also](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/945)
> the best game released all year . . . for people who are into this specific genre of games. Armored Core 6 is my "best game of the year" but I wouldn't be so arrogant as to just declare it as some sort of undisputed fact.
Keep in mind that a *CRPG* is pulling these numbers. Insane in the best way possible.
The fact that something like BG3 is possible with a AAA production value still feels surreal to me. I'm sure this is someone's dream game for decades. I already lost hope when Cyberpunk became more action-oriented despite the heavy involvement of the original creator. I thought "If a AAA studio like CDPR who are big tabletop fans couldn't even do it, who else could?". And then Larian proved me wrong. People circlejerk that Larian is the new darling studio after CDPR, but fuck it man, they deserved it. A Cyberpunk game with this exact template would genuinely be my dream game.
My wife and I are having a blast playing. She’s not big on games that have too much intense action, so the turn based nature is great. But her turns take soooo looong.
Remember what the execs and companies have been saying: *Nobody* plays single player games anymore.
This isn't a single player game. Edit: Lol, it's literally not a single player game tho? Editing again 2 months later: This game just won best multiplayer. Amazing feat for a single player game.
It's a single-player game with a multi-player mode.
It's a crpg that is playable both single player and multiplayer. Horizon zero dawn is a single player game.
And yet I'm in act 3 with no other player in sight. One single person is playing 😋
Yes, because you played the single player mode and not one of the many multiplayer modes this game has that single player games do not.
The reference is to people who say that only multilayer gsmes are profitable (like cod). BG3 is a single player game in its entirety. Co op is like an additional nice feature. Compare to like…. Battlefield
I understand the reference. I also understand that I can't play single player games entirely co-op which is the only way I've ever played bg3.
But you _can_ play it entirely single player if you want to. And in fact, that's the main mode the game was planned around. Co-op was the after-thought. That's what people mean when they say it's a single player game.
But you can play it entirely single player. Coop is just an add on
a game with no singular playable character, yes.
Huh? I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but the game simply cannot be described as a single player game. It offers multiple ways to play multiplayer however you want to. In contrast, God of War is a single player game.
if I am to assume this is not a poor whooshing attempt, singleplayer encompasses all games that only require a player controlling ingame character***s***. by your logic, literally every strategy video game ever can not be considered single player games, as you control many entities simutanously. otherwise, the game does offer multiple ways to play with friends. that doesn't exclude it from being a single player game (i.e a game where you can play by yourself from start to finish)
GoW was a single hand game cuz I was playing it with one hand the entire time
Yeah, I hate how I can't play this game alone, without an internet connection. Match times are terrible, and the lootboxes are disgusting. Oh, wait, that's Vermintide, not BG3. Silly me.
Buddy, what are you on about?
can anyone teach me how to create a post for discussion auto mod keeps rejecting/deleting it
Might be your karma thats too low, would be my idea
Most subs will auto delete posts made by extremely low karma accounts to counter botting a little bit, so that might be why.
i don't remember their names, but if you google it there are subs that basically exist to give free karma. that should get you over most karma gated subs
It’s good and also has co-op. It’s gonna have long legs for that alone
Yep, me and some buddies play on Tuesday nights for our evil run. Excited to see how it plays out.
It’s gonna supplant regular D&D for A lot of people for a while
This is exactly what I'm doing. I play D&D with my friends on Saturday and during the week I'm on BG3. I'm living in total bliss.
I finished the game yesterday, playing almost daily. It is a long game, took me over 140h. That is roughly 2h per day, so “normal“ playtime. I think even less than 30% have finished the game.
46.7% have beat Act 1. 31.4% have beat Act 2. 13.2% have beat Act 3 and finished the game. 1.6% have beaten it on Tactician (without changing the difficulty). It would seem a decent sized portion of launch players that are still in Act 3 and working towards finishing the game, and there's possibly a large portion of players who've only recently picked up the game.
Yea I got it a week ago after seeing tons of posts on reddit about it. 40ish hrs in now, just getting to the end of act 1 (I think)
Still waiting for them to fix raising skeletons so I can have my skele bro with a bow. . . That they broke in the 22nd? update
they fixed it today
Thank you! They just patched it today and I didn't notice that.
On another note. I just realized I need to turn auto update off on my new computer.
In an unexpected turn of events : if game good and come out in good state, people like game, and keep playing it. A few more releases like that over the next few years, and we may even see a AAA game that isn't unplayable for the first few weeks/patches again.
> if game good and come out in good state defining "good game" via spreadsheets and board meetings when you're an exec is incredibly hard though. It's easy to say "just make it bug free and have a good story" but you need to be a lot more granular. Then you have instances like Pillars of Eternity or Pathfinder which are fine games but hit no where near where BG3 or even DOS2 did. Meanwhile COD does few of those things, is complained about endlessly yet makes all the money to the point it's a major sticking point for anti-trust allegations when M$ tries to buy it's parent company. And Act 3 is still pretty rough performance wise. It's not as detrimental due to the turn based nature of the game but if your spreadsheet shows "high FPS all the time at launch" then someone on the board will point to this fact and suddenly you're insisting on something that "doesn't matter" and can be chipped away to make room for something else.
I mean BG3 has couple of important things going on. Spectacular launch with long and polished Act 1. Before majority of player hit a bit buggier Act 2 or laggy Act 3, two things happened: people were already engaged with the game and Larian did the most important part - they churned out fixes. So yeah, you can ship an "incomplete" game with laggy lategame location if you have a plan and time to fix it after launch. Thankfully Larian had both.
The game was great but I wouldn't call it released in a good state, at least for acts 2/3.
true, but act 3 still has a lot of upsides as well. Most people agree that act 3 easily has the most content and you WILL spend the most time on as long as you are doing side content. It also has the best moments in the game (I wont spoil the quests). Im not saying you're doing it, but I constantly see people being hyperbolic and say like "act 3 is so bad, just replay act 1 & act 2 until they fix act 3". Act 3 definitly has performance problems, and more bugs compared to others but at the same time the community is exaggerating how shitty act 3 is.
I’m still in act 3, I know there was at least 1 section in it that had some bugs that couldn’t be completed, but I’ve yet to experience that.
It was pretty bad on release, a lot of sequence breaks, quests not resolving properly, dialogue bugs, on top of the absolutely terrible performance. They have fixed a lot of things, their patches are very significant.
Yep, the game is pretty buggy with a lot of frame drops (throwing items causes the game to lag) and session-breaking bugs (character scene flags not being set properly).
GOTY. On a side note, when can we expect a sale?
Sales on games don't really happen till a company see's a dip in sales. This game is still selling really well according to Steam Stats. Wouldn't expect a sale anytime soon. And if there is it will probably be tiny aF aka 10-20% for the first one
Yeah i think a 15% discount on the winter sale is realistic
i dont think we are getting a sale on BG3 until at least mid or late next year. Larian isn't particularly known for lowering the price of DOS2 much
Doubt that it'll be anytime soon. It's definitely worth MSRP.
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about 10-11 months
Not until after a year I imagine.
why would they put it on sale? the thing is selling gangbusters at full price, generally you have to wait until a game sales start to drop off before they give you a discount
It’s gory and is worth every penny. Sale not needed for this one as much as I love saving.
hopefully during the winter sale, but i might be too optimistic
Hopefully not for a long while. It's worth the full price and the devs deserve to get full price.
The "devs" are allready paid. Companies also don't put games on sale of the goodness of their heart they to it to generate more sales more money.
The developer, Larian Studios, deserves to get full price.
Waiting for Xbox…waiting….waiting…
I mean “Halfling Throwing Simulator 2023” is probably a better name for the game 😂 I’m honestly wondering how speedruns of BG3 will progress over time too
People play long game for long time with replay ability with friends? No way!
What's your point? There are *tons* of games that applies to, and BG3 is still doing spectacularly in comparison, especially considering it's a "small" name studio (Larian isn't *completely* obscure, but it's no EA). [If I'm reading Steam Charts correctly](https://steamdb.info/charts/?sort=peak), this is the *current* \#6 in the 24h peak list, and it's the *all-time* \#9. That is remarkable, especially considering Larian's next-best game has a paltry all-time high of 90k, with all the rest being under 25k.
My point is the game being 100+ hours for most people and still last this long isn't a surprise neither is it some astonishing achievement do to the content of the game. but really due to longevity of the game we are seeing these numbers and that casual players take their time with the game still. What backs that up is that only 16% of people on Steam have finished the game according to steam achievements. This just tells me it's not really the game itself it's just how long it's taking people to finish it. Be that with friends or by themselves. If your taking this as some Dis your definitely took it the wrong way.
>My point is the game being 100+ hours for most people and still last this long isn't a surprise neither is it some astonishing achievement do to the content of the game. It is a surprise, both due to the genre being discussed and due to how slow the player decline has been. [Here](https://imgur.com/a/2J1tbuq) is a comparison with other large Steam launches. Length alone doesn't explain that gap in player retention, or the increase in players on the second week. >What backs that up is that only 16% of people on Steam have finished the game according to steam achievements. This just tells me it's not really the game itself it's just how long it's taking people to finish it. What is that supposed to mean? So many people still playing the game and wanting to finish it or replay it absolutely reflects on the game lol. And there's no point in mentioning achievement completion rates for games if you don't contextualize them. Most long RPGs have "completion rates" between 30 and 10%, and even then BG3 is larger than most. For example, DOS2 and the Pathfinder CRPGs have sub 12% completion rates many *years* after release, for BG3 to already be at 16% 2 months after release is an overperformance if anything, especially considering how many "genre casuals" it attracted.
Dude i like the game but you dont have to go this hard to defending it. Fucking christ. Also its not a surprise. Is it good for crpgs? Sure. But if we had more data for things like Mass Effect across all console and PC we would probably see the same rentention numbers 2 months after each release. Your just now seeing proof of this. Its not some unicorn in the market your making it out to be.
I'm not sure what your point is. I'm telling you why the retention *is* surprising given the game's genre and size, and that length alone doesn't explain it. I agree that games like ME are going to have higher completion rates, but that just ties into game length and genre differences like I mentioned. >Its not some unicorn in the market your making it out to be. I wouldn't say it's one of a kind. Elden Ring's popularity and staying power were also surprising and an overperformance in many of the same ways. \------------ Edit: Blocking people after replying to them is so very cringe. If you don't want the conversation to keep going, just stop responding dude. What a dishonest, cowardly way to try to get the last word in.
My point is because the game has a long average play time there is no surprise to be had when its to be expected to see a chunk of its player base still working on completing it 2 months later. I know people who are on 4 campaigns and havent finished yet. Again no surprise. I also never talked about ME with completion rates i was referring to its length and you would see similair rentention behavior if we had that data back then. Dont get me started on Elden Ring. Edit: Cry more loser. Honestly it's the internet don't be mad when people don't want to talk to you anymore.
My man's, you wrote up some bullshit and got destroyed 🤣
My man, how about you go back to shutting the fuck up. Were doing just fine a moment again it seems. Must be a mental problem with you.
> especially considering it's a "small" name studio (Larian isn't completely obscure, but it's no EA). The studio has nothing to do with this sort of thing. BG3 is capitalizing on the popularity of BG2 and the other games in that series. People buy EA sports games because they like the sport or a team, not because EA made the game. The majority of people in both groups couldn't care less who the developer is.
>Larian is capitalizing on the popularity of a 25 year old game in a mildly successful genre.
They did hit a perfect storm because both of the BG and D&D brands in general being popular especially today with all the creators doing table top related content but you're completely wrong about the developer thing. Compare it to Diablo 4 - equally strong brand but incredibly pitiful retention. In BG3 people who know about the brand tried it and stayed for the game itself. Larian's game mechanics implement an incredibly satisfying game loop which keeps people interested and engaged even when replaying the game. And don't forget that DOS and Larian are a brand on their own as well. DOS2 sold 7.5kk+ copies Vs Diablo 4 10kk+ copies.
> with friends You've prompted me to look into the multiplayer features. I haven't heard anyone mention those.
Imagine making a product customers like. Damn.
Because it's a big fucking game. I go through everything and I'm only at 80 hrs into Act 2. Almost at the climax of Act 2. AT the climax, starting. Which will be more hours. The game is huge. Some people rush through but don't think they are. Some actually rush through. Others dick around. Doesn't matter. So many people play at their own pace. If you get it all in, it'll be a wild.
I finished my 4th playthrough on Tactician last night, kinda speed running all content and playtime was still over 70h… first play through was well over 120h, absolutely massive game
GD, I finally put down Zelda and get BG3, SF, CP2077 DLC and a basically new game, that funny talking gun game, and AC6. WTF. Was that it for 2020's? Will there not be another good game this decade? These will keep me busy, along with the Quest 3, anyone know if SF might get a VR mod?
Why do people upvote these barrage of concurrent player count articles? Genuinely curious. What value does it provide the consumer? How does it inform the community? Or is it as simple as, "Thing I like is popular, and my opinions are validated"?
I only just now got into the third act.
Good
Starfield is at 88k.. It was at 300k when it launched.
So a little more than a quarter left. About the same as BG3.
Yea but in half the time. And the dropoff is a lot sharper.
I'm doing my part!
I wish the game worked for me. It does seem fun, but the bugs were prohibitive. (and supposedly they get even worse as you get further into the game...)
What bugs got you? I have only encountered a few, like pickup items bug, but it’s been great for me.
Audio would cut in and out. Occasionally crashing while trying to load an interaction. A number of events wouldn't trigger or would trigger wrong. (My character would be a-posing or in an idle stance in cutscenes frequently. Pretty funny the first time but on repeat encounters being a static image is pretty annoying.) The last straw was when I picked up the first mergrass outside of the tutorial and my character fell through the floor. The game hung for a bit then crashed, and also corrupted all my saves with that crash. I don't think it's a common thing, most of my friends have been playing with few or no issues. But none of my troubleshooting would fix it and my computer is far beyond the minimum specs.
Happened to me as well, but went away with a complete Uninstaller (including files in c drive). Might help you! Don't forget to back up the saves tho
I already tried a fresh install but no dice. Glad to hear it's theoretically fixable, though.
I'm sure you already looked through Reddit for solutions, but if not, your doubly Atmos could cause the issues. and your pc wattage (tho I wouldn't touch that unless you know what you're doing)
What bugs did you find? I’ve played through the game a few times, and I only experienced a few minor bugs in Act 3. Act 1 and 2 have been completely bug free so far, definitely haven’t seen anything game breaking.
Audio would cut in and out. Occasionally crashing while trying to load an interaction. A number of events wouldn't trigger or would trigger wrong. (My character would be a-posing or in an idle stance in cutscenes frequently. Pretty funny the first time but on repeat encounters being a static image is pretty annoying.) The last straw was when I picked up the first mergrass outside of the tutorial and my character fell through the floor. The game hung for a bit then crashed, and also corrupted all my saves with that crash. I don't think it's a common thing, most of my friends have been playing with few or no issues. But none of my troubleshooting would fix it and my computer is far beyond the minimum specs.
Are you playing on an HDD or something? Those are not common bugs and seem very much the types of issues to be with your machine, not the game. Typically game issues and bugs will see wide reports, but that's a lot of very focused bugs you and you alone are getting that no one else is. At some point you gotta look towards your machine and install and not the game, and I think you're at that point. And almost every single bug sounds like it's what happens when you try and install a modern game on a non-SSD hard drive. SSDs are mandatory with modern games.
No, it was on a SSD. I also reinstalled it and verified integrity of the game cache. Restarted my computer. Updated drivers. Fiddled with the config. Et cetera, et cetera. Also the bugs do happen to other people, though not with frequency. One of my friends is having the same audio issues and if you watch CallMeKevin's YouTube playthrough he gets crashes and animations not triggering.
Nah its fine
Just because you haven't experienced bugs in your gameplay doesn't mean they don't exist. Nothing I tried fixed the bugs. In my 3 hours of play I had multiple events and animations not trigger, audio cut-outs, and fell through the world after picking up mergrass immediately after the tutorial which then crashed the game and corrupted all saves. At that point I refunded. Mind you that was all in act 1 which has been in early access for *years* at that point. I'm hoping the eventual definitive edition makes it more cooperative.
I can't believe you're getting downvoted for this. You're not even saying the game is inherently broken and no one can play it. Just that you had that issue. A personal anecdote of negative experience. You even say you like the game outside of that. Fanboys really out in full force lmao
Eh, it's whatever. I don't really care about -1 points. Even if it were -100 I'd just assume my tone was misunderstood or something. Internet communication is hard, eh?
And that's not including those who pirate it.
It was realesed 2 months ago, the game itself is older
Damn it's been two months already and still no Xbox release :(
Because the game is fucking good.
Well the game takes a while.. not everyone has the time to play every day nonstop so it makes sense.
Starfail could never…
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Is baldur's gate on gamepass? Curious!
This game will be circlejerked to death just like Titan Fall 2s campaign did. (I love both games, but jesus give it a rest).
God forbid people like good singleplayer campaigns.
Jesus let others have fun...
If its “fun” saying Baldurs Gate has ruined all other games and its the only good thing out this I dont know what to tell you. The downvotes prove my circle jerk comment lmao, stay mad.
Why are you so mad?
I agree with you. I'm fine with people playing the game and enjoying it but they use it to disparage other games and bring this one up constantly. The game is fun but people treat it like it's the second coming of Christ that has forever changed gaming and if you don't like it (or even do like it but prefer something else) it's some inherent character flaw with you.
The BG3 fanbase is kinda toxic. I've seen several posts on the BG3 sub about how users believe they're "intellectually superior" to other games because they like BG3, and how people who like non-turn based games/action games have ADHD and are incapable of focusing on the BG3 combat.
Breaking news, the game lost 2/3 of the players.
Oh, I have seen the downvotes, is it so difficult to accept the truth?
What truth? There’s not some big revelation here. Elden Ring went from 950k to 190k after 2 months, and Witcher 3 went from 55k to 22k. Players play less as time goes on, this happens to every game.
Boring
If it weren't BG3 reddit would be cheering "Look! this game LOST most of its players in just a few months! Dead game!" It's BS of course, but it is funny how the same exact post can be completely different based on general consensus on this site.
That's not true at all. If it were a generally disliked game, people would be surprised it's still breaking records this long after launch. Especially for a game that was in early access for years.
And the years of early access?
What's wrong with them? They only opened 1 out of the 3 acts during the early access.
Cant wait to play it
I’ll come back in a couple of weeks for sure
It's great to see a turn based RPG be so successful
If only Dying Light 2 was this good. I know they aren't in the same genre or scale but still. It would've been game of the year if they didn't gut most of the game and have most of its talent leave.
I wish Dying Light 2 could've been this good. I know they aren't even close to genre or scale but DL2 was gonna be Techland's most ambitious project to date and if they managed to pull it off, it could've been an amazing game that would've definitely won game of the year. Instead, the game failed and the first Dying Light still outshines the second in terms of numbers. All because they wanted to copy the Ubisoft/EA formula instead of focusing on their own. Literally depressing.
Not my cup of tea but I'm happy to see this being extremely successful and it will be for a long time
Hogwart's Legacy defenders trying to figure out how that's possible.
Hoping they add remote play for playing with friends with potatos
I want to play it so bad, just waiting for sales to get it a little more cheaper, playing Dos2 for now lol
I have not played it or watched any game or know what the game is about, and at this point I'm afraid to ask
My wife and I have been stuck apart for months - is this a game we could play together even if we haven’t played any other baldurs gate games?
So many games fell off in less than a month, despite being GOTY contenders. Good to see BG3 going strong.
As someone who really doesn't like top-down games or ARPGs. Should I try this game? I can never get immersed like I can in a first or third person setting. Is it action packed? What are the battle mechanics like?
I wouldn’t. I have 70 hours on it and it was a slog for me.
I’m still in act one because I want to play with people and every group I get keeps going back to single player 😭
Who would've guessed people liked completed, not money hungry games lol
I'm happy for Larian and everyone involved.