I often think about going back toBaldur’s Gate 3. It took me a year to wade throughLarian Studios' massive RPG the first time I played it, so it’s always surprised me how many of my fellow fans have logged thousands of hours over their dozens of playthroughs. This isn’t aResident Evil game that’s designed for speedruns; it’s the most expansive RPG I’ve ever played.
When I hear about players beating the game on Tactician or Honour Mode, I’m impressed, but in the same way I’m impressed when I hear about something like the Greenland shark, which can live upwards of 500 years. Like, yes, that’simpressive, but you’re also an entirely different species than I am.
Two Games Are Better Than One
I’ve never been the type of person who returns to games. Even as a kid, with a limited collection and even more limited spending money, I would often split my time between several games at once. My happiest gaming moments were the Christmas mornings when I was gifted a few different games I could split time between.The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princessis great, but you know what’s better? Being able to put it down for a while to playWii SportsandRayman: Raving Rabbids.
As an adult, the rise of subscription services likeXbox Game Pass,PlayStation Plusgiveaways, andEpic Games Storefreebies has made it easier than ever to indulge my polygamous playstyle. Having several hobbies that I’m invested in makes it even more difficult.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33isn’t just competing withDoom: The Dark Agesfor my time this week, it’s competing withTom Cruise.
Attempting to work on creative stuff outside of work makes it even harder. I go to bed early so I can get up early, which means that most nights are frantic attempts to do anything fun before I need to start winding down.
Committing To The Baldur
I’m not under the impression that I’m uniquely busy, though. I have a friend who has played through Baldur’s Gate 3 several times and, once she got tired of it, she went back to replaying theMass Effecttrilogy for the dozenth time. This just isn’t how I’m built. Probably never will be.
Hitman 3is the only game that has ever ensnared me like this, but I attribute that to the fact that it launched during the first year of the pandemic when I didn’t have much else to do.
But, in an era of content designed to target shorter and shorter attention spans, I admire anyone who can lock in that hard. When you could be watching short-form content on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube — videos designed to gratify your brain in a matter of seconds — or scrolling through endless posts on Twitter and Reddit, the capacity to completely give your focus to one thing at a time is a skill. That’s especially true when it’s a game like Baldur’s Gate 3, which can take multiple real-world days to finish. I don’t know if it’s as good for your brain as, say, reading and working to understand a long, difficult book like Finnegans Wake or teaching yourself a second language. But as far as entertainment goes, it’s miles better than spending all your off hours on your phone.
I’ve become increasingly worried about the ways that our tech seems designed to reduce our attention spans and literacy. Sticking with something as long and challenging and narratively dense as Baldur’s Gate 3 until you develop a mastery of its systems, combat, and lore seems like a good way to push back against that mental entropy. It may just be a game, but games like this can be good for you.
