I loved Baldur's Gate I and II to death, but that was twenty years ago now. I don't think I know anyone else personally who played through BGI/II and Dragon Age/Mass Effect, so I'm not sure if it's just me or if there is a difference in style that leads a number of people to like one but not the others.
usually girls, come to think of it, though I don't know if it would be a gendered divide
I've seen people try to draw a distinction between men, who memorize information about a setting and seek to achieve master of existing knowledge, and women, who invent new works based on that setting and seem to explore what-ifs. But even with all the other problems with that simplistic a divide, as a TTRPGer that breaks down instantly. The majority of GMs in TTRPGs are inventing tons of things out of whole-cloth or making sweeping changes to existing settings, in a way that would be called fanfic if it were in any other medium, like my (female) Dragon Age GM friend.
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usually girls, come to think of it, though I don't know if it would be a gendered divide
I've seen people try to draw a distinction between men, who memorize information about a setting and seek to achieve master of existing knowledge, and women, who invent new works based on that setting and seem to explore what-ifs. But even with all the other problems with that simplistic a divide, as a TTRPGer that breaks down instantly. The majority of GMs in TTRPGs are inventing tons of things out of whole-cloth or making sweeping changes to existing settings, in a way that would be called fanfic if it were in any other medium, like my (female) Dragon Age GM friend.