TikTok isn’t a fan of Baldur’s Gate 3's infamous bear scene
It's fair to say that Baldur's Gate 3 isn't exactly your bog-standard RPG affair. In fact, it seems to relish in the very fact that it isn't. The 2023 title is awash with bizarre moments, with one in particular shocking players everywhere, giving them the chance to sleep with a character committed to the Wild Shape of a bear.
Baldur's Gate 3 raised many ethical questions (and also many logistics questions that we'll save for the Reddit threads), and yet, it seems that most players who are given the opportunity are going for it. Fans might love the off-the-wall moment, but it seems that the wider internet probably has some catching up to do.
TikTok isn't a fan of Baldur's Gate 3's bear sex scene
Click to enlargeTaking to the stage at this year's GDC (via The Gamer), Larian Studios has revealed how it reached its online success, as after all, without the company's online presence, the game wouldn't be nearly as successful as it is now.
Larian Studios' creative content director Ben Maltz-Jones has spoken on how the wins for Baldur's Gate 3 manifested on the company's social media channels, and has revealed that one moment that rocked the wider internet didn’t quite translate on TikTok.
"What works on TikTok? Not bear sex," Maltz-Jones says. "They hate it." It's a surprising turn, but then again, with TikTok's community guidelines for sexual content being cranked to 11, it's hard to imagine that players would be able to get away with sharing the NSFW escapades they'd had with a bear on the platform.
This isn't the first we've seen this censoring, as TikTok pulled BG3's Panel from Hell stream in 2023. Afterwards, Larian's Director of Publishing, Michael Douse, said TikTok had pulled the stream because "it was too artistic and they don't understand." Studio boss added that "every single person who's seen it is like, 'oh my god.' But it’s funny."
Larian runs its own stan account
Larian is doing well by pushing its strangest elements onto fans via TikTok, and to be fair to the company, its approach embraces its greatest qualities in a way that few game companies will - by practically managing its own stan account.
Maltz-Jones claims that Larian's success on the app is thanks to "running the Larian account as if it were a fan account," and the statement tracks - after all, many companies probably wouldn't think to obsess over one particular romance.
Even at GDC itself, there was a video of Maltz-Jones "accidentally" flipping through a slideshow of sexy fan art as the crowd before him boos his lack of professionalism. It's all a bit of fun, and isn't that part of what keeps us entertained in gaming? Don't worry, Ben, we liked your slideshow.
