Not exactly sure why, as I'm apparently the exact demographic for this type of game, being a CRPG grognard myself. But it just feels painfully boring, it took me ages to reach Baldur's Gate and I'm still not having fun. Not sure if it's my autism where I have to explore every square inch of the maps and loot every knife, fork, plate and cup from every table in every house, or if my attention span has regressed. There's just not enough actual battles and stuff happening to keep me entertained. I just want to go play a dungeon crawler where I'm regularly killing stuff, looting and leveling up. The whole game feels like a romance/social/conversation simulator and less like an RPG. This is less like swords & sorcery action-packed fun and more like Days Of Our Lives Fantasy Edition.

OK. I'd stop playing it then. Apparently it's not your type of game.

I mean it's not really a dungeon crawler but it's definitely an RPG.

If you want a deeper focus on combat I'd recommend Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (if you like D&D style battles) and Grim Dawn (if you like action RPGs with lots of loot).

Lately, I've just been playing WoW Classic and Diablo 2: Resurrected, have I become the casual gamer I always hated?

BG1 was pretty boring, too. So I wouldn't worry about it.

Baldur's Gate 3 is very character- and story-driven, and if that's not what you're looking for primarily in a cRPG - well, plenty others with a bigger focus on just dungeon-crawling and fighting out there.

If you haven't yet, give Bard's Tale IV a shot. It's pretty much just that - a dungeon crawler with nothing but battles and puzzles. Even when you're not in a dungeon, it plays like a dungeon crawl.

But of course the funny thing is, someone could easily argue that the big problem with that game is that it doesn't really provide any opportunities to role play. No choices to make, super-limited non-combat skills. Even though I'm enjoying the hell out of it, I'd like it even more if there was a bit more to the dialogues and my interactions with the NPCs. And funny enough, for me it would be "normally I like RPGs, but I could never get into any of the original Baldur's Gate/Icewind/Torment games", even though they are supposed to be the pinnacle of the genre.

Anyway, I don't so what's so hateful about "casual" gamers. It's entertainment, it's a hobby, everyone should engage with it the way that's most fun for them. I don't even know if I'm a casual gamer, or a hardcore gamer, or a whatever. I play old classics that modern "casual gamers" would probably never touch, but I also play new stuff, AAA and small casual indie titles, and I usually stick to "normal" difficulty settings and don't "master any games, just have fun with them... what am I? When I lose my last life, will I go to hardcore heaven or casual hell?!

Not every game is for everyone. Personally, I find the whole of basing games on a busted system like D&D a bit on the whole silly; but to any matter, you can always try other games in the genre, such as Ultima IV or all the Avernum games (which have nice big demos to sink your teeth into.)

I have never played BG3, but I did play D:OS 1 & 2 from the same devs, and from the reviews I've seen of BG3, BG3 seems to be following the same basic templates as those games do.

And if that is so, then I don't think the argument being made in the original post is a sound one, insomuch as games that don't have good stories, or even any stories, are not good RPGs. Likewise for games that have little to no characterization.

When OP is talking about what he actually wants, he seems to be describing action games akin to Diablo, but those are actions games, not RPG games.

Having said that, I don't think D:OS 1 or D:OS 2 have good stories or good characterization either (albeit they are a lot better than in the typical Diablo-type game), yet D:OS 2 was often vastly overly-hyped as being one of the best games ever, even though it's not that great, and even though it's story is terrible and its characterization is extremely shallow.

So I assume that BG3 is also being over-hyped, and probably shares a lot of the same shortcomings as the D:OS games do, and probably BG3 isn't anywhere nearly so great as the critics and most gamers make it sound like it is.

In regards the point that BG3 has way too much inventory management busywork: that being true wouldn't surprise me at all, because that's also another major flaw in both of the D:OS games.

Exactly, nothing weird about disliking a story/character-driven RPG when you prefer the more mechanical aspects of the genre, we're talking about one of the most diverse genres out there, even for pure dungeon crawling some people hate blobbers with passion but can enjoy everthing else
And it positively doesn't mean you're a casual lol

Sometimes we grow tired of certain styles of gameplay. I used to play games solely for the story, but after Dragon's Dogma hooked me by the gameplay, I tend to look to gameplay first, story second. And in fact, I hate wading through long "story drops." But even this can change from time-to-time (and does). So...

... I'd say just put BG3 away for awhile and I'm sure you'll return one day when you get the notion to complete the story experience.

PS -- I felt exactly like you when I purchased Red Dead Redemption 2. Amazing reviews. RDR1 is one of my favorite games of all time. Bought RDR2 day one. Played it for a few sessions... and... just stopped. Everyone was praising it, but I couldn't seem to enjoy it... no matter how hard I tried. One day I'll finish it, but until then... I have plenty of other diversions. ;)

I always preferred Icewind Dale for that reason. BG1 quickly became a slog. You hit the extremely low level cap very quickly and then not much interesting happens anymore. Just kill the 763rd group of Gnolls again for no benefit because random encounter.... Ironically, I quit BG1 the moment I reached Baldur's Gate. Right before the entrance.

ID is much more structured. You're always pushing forward and it just flows better. Not to mention it's much more action packed. 2 games that play basically the same, yet I liked one and disliked the other.

you played too many kagura games

Yeah, the level 12 cap really hurts the game. Doing the side content doesn't really matter because you'll only be 1 lvl ahead of the content which isn't a huge difference. Though all D&D games have this issue.

Well for me Act 1 was fantastic and Act 2 became boring after a while and I don't know why. Partly because I took everything to sell for scraps (this was a mistake, and inventory nuisance is the worst), but why I lost the interest in game itself is beyond me. Also, the battles, even with the main boss, are super easy now, I rarely use anything other than simple attack - maybe it's another reason. I do hope the game will shine again in Act 3.