Is Larian Studios an indie dev?

[Nessa]

Pretty sure two rat fink cowards flipped after Rusty's impotent threat. STOP THE STEAL

This has been a free and fair election. Any suggestion to the contrary means arrest and detention without trial.

[maidenhaver]

A dev needs independance from the **** to be indie.

[Orvas Dren]

When you only own 40% of your company its hard to say its independent

[Acrux]

I hate the term "indie" for two reasons:

1) It just sounds gross. Like veggie. Use complete words.
2) Indie devs can mean anything from the solo developer who creates a game in his free time while working a normal job and raising a family to useless over hired zoomer-run companies that take government bucks to **** out whatever mindless garbage they can send a "message" with.

[orinEsque]

I feel like the original question is not what this poll is about...

[Oyster Sauce]

Larian now has studios in 5 other countries around the world: Quebec City - Canada, Barcelona - Spain, Dublin - Ireland, Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia, and Guildford - United Kingdom.

Dont eat at a fast food chain, come on down to Rusty's Old Fashioned Hot Dog Stand and support an independent business!*

*Rusty's Old Fashioned Hot Dog Stand now available at multiple locations within Canada, Spain, Ireland, China, and the UK

[WhiteShark]

I hate the term "indie" for two reasons:

1) It just sounds gross. Like veggie. Use complete words.
2) Indie devs can mean anything from the solo developer who creates a game in his free time while working a normal job and raising a family to useless over hired zoomer-run companies that take government bucks to **** out whatever mindless garbage they can send a "message" with.

I totally agree. That means you'll be voting 'No', right? Thanks.

[rusty_shackleford]

[ArcaneLurker]

I was waiting for this.

[Anon]

STOP THE COUNT!

[krokodil]

Larian Studios apparently has enough money to pay actual SHILLS on a third-rate RPG forum, but they're not indie....

[Oyster Sauce]

Crazy how all the Yeses start converting to Nos when confronted with facts and logic

[ArcaneLurker]

Larian Studios apparently has enough money to pay actual SHILLS on a third-rate RPG forum, but they're not indie....

[krokodil]

just a smol indepedent games company being given five-page spreads in EDGE magazine, featured in EUROGAMER, PC GAMER and appearing in industry-leading events like THE GAME AWARDS and SUMMER GAMES' FEST

[rusty_shackleford]

voting yes means you think words should mean things rather than just deal in feelies where words mean different things depending on who or whom

[The_Mask]

We're only on page 2, and the temperature is near boiling point.

*The Mask puts shades on to shield himself from the glow*

[Nessa]

Larian Studios apparently has enough money to pay actual SHILLS on a third-rate RPG forum, but they're not indie....

Who says they have to be paid shills? It could be Swen Vincke himself!

[WhiteShark]

voting yes means you think words should mean things rather than just deal in feelies where words mean different things depending on who or whom

Yes, indie means independent, like being independent from Chinese investors and ESG.

[The_Mask]

@orinEsque - make up your mind, woman!

ROFL

[Vergil]

@orinEsque - make up your mind

woman

Pick one.

[Oyster Sauce]

I'll give you a special tag in the HQ Discord if you vote No

[ArcaneLurker]

I'll give you a special tag in the HQ Discord if you vote No

Oh yeah?
I'm listening...

[herkzter]

no, larian stopped being a garage/small/indie dev years ago

[Vergil]

I'll give you a special tag in the HQ Discord if you vote No

As long as it doesn't conflict with my special username color for nitro boosting the server!

[Roguey]

Not all independent developers are garage devs. Not all garage devs are indies.

Nintendo is a large games publisher, that is they publish games by devs they do not own, so they are not an indie dev. Black Isle was Interplay's RPG division so they were not indie devs. The only games Larian publishes are their own and they are self-funded.

Trickier question: Is Valve an indie dev? Private company, self-funded. They don't publish other peoples' games, but their virtual game store business is what gives them their freedom.

[Vergil]

Trickier question: Is Valve an indie dev?

No because they don't make video game anymore.

[rusty_shackleford]

Not all independent developers are garage devs. Not all garage devs are indies.

Nintendo is a large games publisher, that is they publish games by devs they do not own, so they are not an indie dev. Black Isle was Interplay's RPG division so they were not indie devs. The only games Larian publishes are their own and they are self-funded.

Trickier question: Is Valve an indie dev? Private company, self-funded. They don't publish other peoples' games, but their virtual game store business is what gives them their freedom.

See, Roguey gets it. It's about whether you think words should mean things rather than be determined by feelings towards the subject.

[Tweed]

You lost.

[Mortmal]

Hard to say, really. They were indie for sure, but now it's AAA production value, and Tencent has a stake with no voting rights, however.

[Xenich]

In the technical term, yes.. but they act more like a AAA studio that is driven heavily by its masters. Larian used to pride itself as not being beholden to big studio direction, but BG3 seems like they were pushed past what they would normally do as an independent studio making all its own decisions. I can't seem to reason that they are fully responsible for all that exists in the game, and because of that I think they at least in this recent case have shown they aren't as "independent" as they used to be.

I base this assumption by the mention that a lot of the now women models were originally men and were later changed (making the interaction with them now make sense as its all over the place and seems more appropriate if they were male characters).

Larian has always been a bit woke that I noticed, but this work seems... forced, beyond what they would "choose" if they were reasonably in control. I would suspect WoTC leaned heavily into them on some things in order to push the narrative as much as they have.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe Larian were always just waiting for the right time to "come out", but something tells me Sven isn't that stupid and with all the rocky crap that was going on, I want to think that this wasn't what he was completely after.

Based on that, I say... if you don't control your studio fully, you aren't really independent.

Maybe I am completely off, it just appeared that way to me, though admittedly I am not as up to date on all the goings on of what happened with BG3.