[alt text: a semi-surreal meme image on a plain white background. Two characters from Dark Souls are saying, “My lord, we have absolutely ESSENTIAL lore information for the player. Should we make a cutscrene for it?”. They are looking at Hidetaka Miyazaki, who has the From Software logo emblazoned over him, and he is replying, “NO…Put it in the description of a COOKBOOK”. There are several cookbook item icons floating between the characters.]
I’m usually that person as well. BG3 was the first game in probably 8 years that hooked me on the story. If I sprinted through it, I would have probably saved like 80% of the time I spent playing it, but I enjoyed it. Maybe I’m simple, but to me it felt like the decisions mattered.
The way I see it, if it’s a rule of film to “show, don’t tell”, then it should be a rule of games to “engage, don’t show and tell”.