It's a trend with Larian. They used to be completely free of this nonsense. DOS1's genesis was, in Swen's own words, because he wanted to play a game with his girlfriend. Canonically that's what the MC in DOS1 was supposed to be: you and your girlfriend, or vice versa you and your boyfriend. The female character famously had high heels and bikini armor in some outfits, and they got lambasted for that and got rid of it in DOS2, which is also when they were pressured into hiring a lot of writing staff (it used to be just 1 guy), all of whom were either dangerhairs or former gaming journos (no really, look it up).
So yeah, it's a mixed bag. Larian does make pretty cool gameplay; when DOS1 came out being an unapologetic grognard turn-based game like that was still a pretty bold decision. If you like turnbased RPGs, it's hard to beat them in this regard. But... the creative side, the storytelling, is getting so absurdly woke it becomes a question of whether you can stomach it. I know it's at the point now where I am very much on the fence, despite being a fan of them since the early 2000s with the first Divdiv. I expect the writing/creative direction to only get worse in future titles.
I don't think that's possible. The press pressure helps, but the reason companies go this way is they hire people who genuinely ARE activists and think this way. These people push their ideas, and everyone around them doesn't want to be rude to them, so it just escalates from there. The call is always coming from inside the building to some extent. You have to really scourge these people out and make them unfeel unwelcome, or they take over. By the time it reaches the point that it is visible in character creation and "male/female" sliders being unacceptable, the fight is already over.
It's a trend with Larian. They used to be completely free of this nonsense. DOS1's genesis was, in Swen's own words, because he wanted to play a game with his girlfriend. Canonically that's what the MC in DOS1 was supposed to be: you and your girlfriend, or vice versa you and your boyfriend. The female character famously had high heels and bikini armor in some outfits, and they got lambasted for that and got rid of it in DOS2, which is also when they were pressured into hiring a lot of writing staff (it used to be just 1 guy), all of whom were either dangerhairs or former gaming journos (no really, look it up).
So yeah, it's a mixed bag. Larian does make pretty cool gameplay; when DOS1 came out being an unapologetic grognard turn-based game like that was still a pretty bold decision. If you like turnbased RPGs, it's hard to beat them in this regard. But... the creative side, the storytelling, is getting so absurdly woke it becomes a question of whether you can stomach it. I know it's at the point now where I am very much on the fence, despite being a fan of them since the early 2000s with the first Divdiv. I expect the writing/creative direction to only get worse in future titles.
I don't think that's possible. The press pressure helps, but the reason companies go this way is they hire people who genuinely ARE activists and think this way. These people push their ideas, and everyone around them doesn't want to be rude to them, so it just escalates from there. The call is always coming from inside the building to some extent. You have to really scourge these people out and make them unfeel unwelcome, or they take over. By the time it reaches the point that it is visible in character creation and "male/female" sliders being unacceptable, the fight is already over.