Emils best work is in the games loading screens. That sweet silence. No monotonous dialogue boring you senseless. That magical silence is where Emil truly shines as a talented engrossing writer.
Emil: "Players don't care about the story." Fallout New Vegas: *sighs and rolls its eyes* Witcher 3: *pounds head on desk* Cyberpunk 2077: "The hell, choom?" Inside: *gurgling noises of disapproval* Danganronpa: "No, that's wrong!" Ace Attorney: "OBJECTION!" Baldur's Gate III: *Astarion disappoves*
@@Ashbrash1998then logically doesn't work though because Skyrim and fallout 4 are two of bethesda's most successful games and the stories in those games are vastly ignored by most people. Naming a bunch of other games not made by them that hadn't good stories doesn't mean anything because they're responsible for their franchise. And if people have shown that they are not invested in the stories of their franchises then they're going to have that belief for their future games.
@D4C_LoveTrain1 I can get frekin Cyberpunk 2077 working amazing on the Steam Deck, yet Starfield still struggled and is still not verified yet. I am even using the GOG version on my Steam Deck and it is running shockingly well...
I've worked in software as a UX designer for decades. Emil's comments reveal a contempt for players that's difficult to fathom. It's sad that someone with attitudes like this has so much influence on their games.
Their implementation for Ultra-wide monitor support was so bad that I had to edit the .ini file myself to center the HUD elements to a 16:9 aspect ratio. Also in general, moving around the inventory and other elements is so slow and dragged out. Hell, even when buying ammo or anything from shops they don't show you how much of that item you currently have...it is like they are trying to waste our time.
I've noticed that in these and past comments from Emil. Considering his general attitude towards paying customers and poor writing skills, it say a lot about Bethesda that he's been employed by them for so long.
Should look into the Parker Quinn character from Fo4- it's written and voiced by Emil, really shows his true colors and that absolute contempt for his customers
It seems like these game developers are so pretentious now that they do.t listen to what us gamers want any.ore because they apparently know what is fun better then the masses
Great novels are read, not written. Great movies are watched, not made. Great murals are seen, not painted. Transmute it to express the equivalent idea about any other form of art, and it quickly becomes apparent just how asinine the statement truly is.
@@johansvensson833 Yeah because that "UA-cam bubble" is responsible for poor content at premium prices and studios going bankrupt because their sales are trash. Sure pal, ONLY UA-cam lmao
That is the result of having creatives living in safespaces devoid of any criticism, no growth, no strife to perfect ones craft....it's a perpetual self imposed arrested development...
Not happening, he is essentially Todd Howard`s buddy bud, unless BGS goes under, or Xbox demands it, he won`t leave the company. They could make him less influential with an Xbox executive taking place, but Phil Spencer is a tool that doesn`t do anything, he is just there... 343 has been ruining Halo for ages and still in charge.
i would fire him for the simple reason that he suck at the job. wrongthink should not be a fireable offense. i also think todd should step down. his vision is dated as hell. i dont think he can make good games anymore. neither of these people can listen to and and absorb critism. and unless they change that no game they will make in the future will be better than mid at best.
Comparing players ripping pages out of your "well-written" novel to make paper airplanes is such a gross misunderstanding of why people don't engage with the story of modern Bethesda titles. People are still discussing the story of New Vegas to this day 14 years later because it's that good and well-developed. Even if people barely spent any time playing the story compared to building bases or what-have-you, that doesn't mean you should put your hands up and say "well, why bother?"
This doesn't make sense. New Vegas wasn't the last or first game in the franchise. It was somewhere in the middle. This means that you can't think of an example that is before New Vegas and you can't think of an example after New Vegas. Which means to me all of bethesda's writing has always been the same. They just got lucky on New Vegas and and honestly that sucks for them because getting lucky is not a sign of consistency, which means New Vegas is probably not going to be repeated when it comes to quality of story.
Emil is the same guy who said that because their GDD kept becoming outdated, they don't use it anymore, when it's actually part of his job to keep it up to date.
Getting star born powers is straight up the most stupid way of obtaining them. Not to mention star born powers in themself are just copies of skyrims Dragonborn powers. Because fuck originally.
@@chilbiyito I think it is a bit of cart before the horse situation, though. That part of why their GDD keeps becoming so outdated is because the core design doesn't work in the first place. So yeah, the more non-functional your starting point is, the more you have to change.
@@Axterix13that’s a pretty interesting point. Starfield doesn’t have a particularly good gameplay loop. I can find games that do space, shooting, ship building, or roll playing better than Starfield. And Starfield doesn’t marry these concepts together in a way that’s fun.
@@Someguy6571 all of the legendary weapon effects from Fo4 are copy pasted from Skyrim, it's especially egregious considering Obsidian solved that problem before it existed with expanded ammunition from GRA
Ah (gas, gas, gas) Ah Do you like my car? verse Guess you're ready 'cause I'm waiting for you It's gonna be so exciting Got this feeling really deep in my soul Let's get out, I wanna go, come along, get it on. This reminded me of this song from Initial D. Very funnily you can replace the "my car" with "my game", and it'll basically describe emil's whole process after starfield was released.
Emil got fully exposed with Starfield. In the past, he could hide behind already established lore like Elder Scrolls from 30 years ago or Fallout from 27 years ago but when it was time to make a new IP that mostly relied on him establishing the lore and writing the story, he got exposed as a very dull boring writer with tons of dialogue but with nothing to actually say. A I. would do a better job at making something more compelling than Emil and that's why these people are so afraid for their job security right now. They're replaceable.
Well, he was also able to hide behind talented and compentent people that either got pushed out or left because they couldn't put up with Emil anymore besides other drama at BGS.
I agree; the lore for those two franchises add a layer of insulation because they're interesting. Here they've somehow created incredibly bland lore with an incredibly bland plot.
This is pretty much it. His first game where he was the writer was FO3, and this one basically "doesn't count" because they copypasted existing storylines. Even then, some cracks were clear. Skyrim, I feel like the writing just....didn't exist? It's hard to describe Skyrim. The underlying lore already existed, the game's main storylines were incredibly barebones. FO4 is where the cracks became very apparent. We seemed to have a game that copied some elements of New Vegas, such as the four factions, but they legitimately forgot to give the villain faction a motivation. Caesar's out there citing Hegel at you, the Institute responds to "why the hell do you have synth gorillas" with "you wouldn't understand." It was made worse by Far Harbor - which had a different lead entirely - felt leagues above the base game in terms of writing and actually felt worthy of the Fallout franchise. And here we are at Starfield. Pre-release, Emil even did an interview where he effectively took the bulk of the credit for the writing, implying much of the core elements were all done between him and Todd. Aaaaaaand it's crap. Total and utter crap. Not only that, but Kurt Kuhlmann - the guy they previously described as "the brains of Elder Scrolls lore" - was "encouraged" to leave the studio. If it were just Kurt that left the studio, hey, maybe he's a bit of a diva. But it wasn't just Kurt. Multiple talents left the studio, and for Kurt to be "encouraged" to leave, this implies some sort of quarrel and drama within the studio. Emil is legit the "last writer standing" at Bethesda in terms of recognizable names, and he's also the ONLY ONE that's fought tooth and nail to insist Starfield is actually great. I get some people want to cling to the fact that we don't 100% fully know what's going on at Bethesda, but Emil is constantly SCREAMING dots at us, and no it's not a crime to connect them and see what we get. It is incredibly difficult to imagine a world where Emil was actually really competent at his job all along and everyone else was wrong. The guy can't write, and you can see this in any public speech he's ever done. His speeches are just as chaotic and unorganized as the writing within Bethesda titles.
@@Ample17 I think you miss the comment entirely. Of course open world doesn't mean a bad game look at BG3, the problem is the so called BGS mainline RPG have little RPG elements to begin with. It's more action adventure game
@@Ample17 Nah. They're RPG-lite. They're action adventure games with the most basic and bone dry RPG systems you could have. If you directly compare Morrowind to Skyrim you'll see what I mean. Morrowind had a huge amount of build variety and customization as well as a much better leveling system.
Don't worry, BGS fans will still buy them. Starfield says a lot already after F76 failed before and they bought this BS. Their faith is stronger than most religions, I'd say.
Emil Pagliarulo is the king of shortcomings. You can look at his work from Skyrim through Starfield and the one concurrent theme is one of “Oh, that’s it?” It’s a pattern of players seeing the potential of a faction or quest line or the main story, but never seeing said potential really lived up to. Emil is basically a perpetually novice writer, but a master at delivering underwhelming results for overwhelming hype.
Another particularly blatant example of a pattern: In Skyrim, they "forgot" to give any sort of lore or flavor dialog to the famous figures you meet in Sovngarde. In FO4, they "forgot" to give the Insitute a motivation. Any attempt to understand them is hand-waived with "you wouldn't understand" or "there will be time for this talk later." In Starfield, they "forgot" to make an ending. The moment I saw clips of that ending where you meet "yourself," I KNEW this was going to be empty of any substance, like they just thought it would be SOOOO cool to "meet God" or whatever, but didn't actually put any thought and planning into HOW they were going to do that and HOW they were going to depict it, let alone what answer they leave the player with in regards to "what was the purpose of all this?" This was an overly-ambitious reach that they wanted first, but never sat down to ask themselves if they could do it justice, or to PLAN how to approach it. They even try some stupid 2deep4u "you have answered your own question" that DOESN'T EVEN WORK because their follow-up response is a non-answer, like some toddler that heard Ulysses in Lonesome Road use the line correctly and thought simply parroting the line would magically 2deep4u the game into being a masterpiece. Ulysses uses it to in response to "I don't understand! Why are you doing this?", implying he's doing it all BECAUSE of your failure to understand the consequences of your actions, which works. Starfield drops it in response to "who created these artifacts," drops the "you answered your question" line on you, and then expands to say CREATORS created these artifacts as justification for that line....like holy crap, some idiot read that response and actually thought it was good! If I go up to the Tower of Pisa and asked who built this, the only universe where I can hear the response "BUILDERS built it, bro" and actually think that was a sufficient answer is if I'm absolutely high off my gourd to the point my effective IQ at the time is 50.
If we learn that Emil is in any way related to ES6 or Fallout 5, just know they are precooked. Someone told me something that totally resonated. We point to Dark Brotherhood as good Emil, but does anyone remember or care about the Dark Brotherhood story in Oblivion so much as the gameplay the quests it had? Thats a important distinction that made me realize I didnt much care for the story of the dark brotherhood(it was still way better anything he's done since) but really it was the unique quests in it that carried that faction.
It makes me wonder just how much came from him or did other people give inspiration he took and worked in? Not saying he didn't write it, just wondering if there was another ingredient.
Emil has been lead writer for every BGS game since Fallout 3 and was involved in a less senior position on many of the games before that. Odds of him having nothing to do with ES6 or Fallout 5 are basically zero. We already know they're cooked unless there's some kind of serious shakeup, but even the odds of that happening are very low, based on Todd's total lack of regard for all the criticism Shattered Space got.
Exactly. The Dark Brotherhood quests are remembered fondly cause the first half of the chain is a couple of assassination quests where you have agency over how you complete them. Once the actual story of the guild kicks in, it all falls apart. The more question you ask, the closer you look, the less sense it makes how the Brotherhood behaves.
SquareEnix shows the dangers of a business with expectations being too high, Bethesda is the example of operating with keeping expectations far too low. Each video game corporation is becoming a unique caricature, and an example for the rest. Avoid these pitfalls, kids.
A guy on the steam forums told me that I should try to to enjoy the game and play it slowly instead of rushing through it before judging. I had played the game for 80hrs
He is neither. Being in a circus is actually hard and requires incredible amounts of training or you fall off a high rope and shatter every bone in your body. Tell it like it is: The man is a talentless, incurious, ignorant hack.
is him being in the position he is in a microcosm of the problems western game developers have. The guy has no business being in the position he's in, the writing and storytelling is absolutely unacceptable in today's day doubly so for rpg's
@@pko1683honestly not even just video games, i feel like hollywood has a similar issue with people failing upwards like this. half the blockbusters that come out now feel like they were made in a boardroom
Snake Oil Salesman implies charisma and being good at tricking people. People have known he's a hack for as long as his name was public. If anyone's the snake oil salesman, it's Todd. It always feels like a portion of the community understands that Todd indeed lies to consumers all the time, and SOMEHOW, another portion has meme'd this so hard that they just think "haha funi meme" and don't understand no no, Todd *really does lie* all the friggin' time about what his games can do, and he SHOULD be held accountable for it. Instead, the "funi meme" has become sinister in that it seems to give Todd license to make stuff up and the internet will just respond with "hahaha classic Todd! Here's $60!"
They would have actually restored some grace from fans doing this...plus it would not have been shit all over like it has been. Then again...this is the company that started it all with ya know....horse armour.
Is it actual delusion or are they really trying to speak it into existence? Starfield was a weak swing and it missed. This is a game that it is ok to let die.
I enjoyed the game very much, expansion was okay. I mean for all the hate it get's , it does still have multiple millions of players each month and has the entire time since launch, over a year ago. That is impressive, despite the chronic hate everywhere.
Its a self fulfilling prophecy. If you make games with crappy stories, everyone will start ignoring the stories. But look at BG3, Witcher3 and Kingdom Come Deliverance. These games had great stories and were great at telling those stories, not just some text in a terminal.
Great story isn't a hard requirement for a great game but if you don't have it you need to have something else to build around. Starfield is just bland all around. Dark Souls doesn't have much of a story but it drips atmosphere and engaging gameplay. Bethesda's successes have never had particularly compelling main stories but the exploration, the side quests and, again, atmosphere have mostly made up for it. Everybody overlooked that _someone_ needed to be more than just 'ok' for the game to hold people's interest.
@@DamnedSilly Dark souls doesnt have much of a story? Is this a troll comment or are u really that thick u didnt get story in ds? Theres like 2hrs videos on yt about the stories of each of the dark souls games. The style of storytelling is different as in theres not many cutscenes and all but saying that "there isnt much of a story" just tells that u didnt pay attention
@@kidnamedfinger2840 Sure, list all the names talk about the lore and the setting stretch all the little tidbits out and make a YT video. Or you can sum the story up in one paragraph. You totally missed the point. The actual story is very simple. All the rest is color, atmosphere and world building. That's not story. The story is 'Undead guy fights a bunch of ugly things to either reboot the current world or let it change into something else.' Layering on existentialism and themes lifted from various mythologies doesn't change that, it just makes it sound cooler. Dark Souls fanboys are just the worst. You can't even say something nice about the game without them getting riled up and flinging insults. It's a simple story but it's how they tell it that makes it work.
@@DamnedSilly every single story ever created can be told in one paragraph. Red dead redemption is just "dying criminals fight the law for survival" . Shawshank redemption is "inmate makes friends and escapes jail to live a life of freedom". Breaking bad is just "man diaagnosed with cancer becomes drug lord to make money to secure a proper life for his family". If u oversimplify enough, every story can be made to seem juvenile and well, simple. The story is not just from point A to point B, it's everything that happens in between as well.
@@kidnamedfinger2840 Indeed, and by story it doesn't even have to be the main plotline. It can be just really good characters, or memorable side arcs. It's important that it has at least something, it isn't a rule for all games, but in case of RPGs you can't just wave those off with 'player is the most important character'.
Might not be the best game but calling it terrible is just fucking weird! Obviously he never played a terrible game! Lol At this point shitting on StarField is becoming a grift!
@@DoctorDeathFPS This take is always very revealing, and actually reflects yourself more than others. Folks who don't leave their comfort zone and play a wide variety of games over the long history of the medium say this about people whose literal job it is to play games for a living. Why would you think that just because you own an Xbox and buy a few games a year, you'd know better than someone who most likely owns every console and a PC with which they've likely played literally thousands of games? I doubt you've even played a third as many games as they own just in their Steam Library.
So wait, Emil has a contempt for storytelling AND filled the DLC with 75% laborious, painful-to-sit-through dialogue juxtaposed with with maybe a few hours of actual gameplay? Sounds like a cop-out to me. Bad writer making excuses.
It's still funny to me how there's only one ending to an RPG. Even funnier when they try to compare Shitten Space to Far Harbor, which has at least five endings to the mainline story in the DLC.
I think calling Skyrim accidentally critically acclaimed is a bit unfair, the open world and exploration for the time was pretty much unmatched (can’t think of any better open world game that came out before 2011) and partially helped inspire the open world phase in the 2010s where it felt like everyone was trying to make their games open world. The problem is I feel like they have released reskinned versions of that game for the last 10 years and haven’t really done much to push the boundaries of gaming like they used to
And yet, many many people, just like me, never finished the main story line. I played 300+ h of Skyrim and I never got even remotely far into it, because it just was so boring and dumb that I rather install a few weather and survival mods and role play freely in the open world sandbox, slaying bandits and shit. Parts of Skyrim were phenomenal for its time. Other parts, like the story, writing, voice acting, optimization, were really subpar even back then, and they just got worse and worse over time.
@@KnuspabrotI just steal mead from the greybeards and sit by one of the open fires in High Hrothgarr....and listen to the wind whistling through the ancient building in VR
I didn't expect there to be any significant additions in shattered space, because I always felt like it was cut content from the base game, sold to you for an extra 40$. Now the thing is... Bethesda isn't competent enough to afford being this greedy and I can't stop compering whatever they make to Fallout: London which is free.
Bethesda chiefs don’t respect Fallout London because it has a handful of amateurish voice lines and periodic CTD. As if that doesn’t describe all of Bethesdas best work.
7:52 I don't agree with that argument of "Just because some people won't give a shit about the story and will just run around aimlessly collecting shit" It's just not a good mindset to have while making these games. More people than that actually like a good story, characters, writing, good gameplay, good rpg mechanics, etc. Collecting shit for hours is boring, achievement hunting was 2 or 3 console gens ago, ready to move on to better games with amazing writing, stories, and character deisgn. I don't buy rpgs to sit through a 50 hour collectathon....
I agree with you there. I haven't cared about achievements since the PS3. You can't just disregard story, characters, and world building just because you, as an top guy in the studio, think that no one will care that much. I don't mind collecting stuff in games when it's meaningful but when 80% of the game is a collect-a-thon is when I lose interest. I don't play video games just to pass the time so collect-a-thons do nothing for me. You can have a good mixture of both story and collection. But it's painfully clear that Bethesda just won't even try anymore. And to reiterate, I agree with everything you've said
The thing however is that the reason that players spend time building shacks for hours is because it goes along with the story and the player actually makes a difference in the fallout world by doing it. Its like does he not even understand his own story that he wrote for fallout? No one would care for the settlements unless they served a purpose or were as well integrated into the story 😂
that mindset is barely acceptable for a shooter, it's absolutely insane to say this about an RPG, cd project red has multiple professional writers on staff fromsoft got George RR Martin and bethesda has a guy who is writing there stories despite absolutely being not interested in it. Bethesda is dead
Compare Emilio's attitude with Larian studios in regards to BG3. There's a lot of content in that game that will only be seen by a small number of players based on their choices, but they still put effort into it. For an RPG, writing is probably the most important aspect of it. If people just want mindless action, they'll go play a dedicated action game. Bethesda is determined to be mediocre.
There's probably something to be said for a game's reputation too, those people who might not engage with it are still drawn by good word-of-mouth because of the game's other qualities. I'd even say those people who do just collect shit, they might not be overly concerned with the particulars of the story, sure, but they're still motivated to do it in THAT world instead of another game, sensing a general vibe of high-quality and attention to detail paid to the world and everything in it, including characters and story. To paraphrase RLM: They didn't notice it but their brain did.
It's called pattern recognition, I had hope that Bethesda would maybe improve after Fallout 4 and 76. But it seems they are locked in going down the path of destruction. Which sucks, it's really sad that so many studios are going down that path.
@@Ollidor Yes, insanity is defined as "Being angered by a company that is dismissive and actively hostile to their consumers and hoping that they fail as a business enterprise opening up the IP to other companies who potentially care more, thus allowing us to get an experience we deserve." I completely forgot. I thought we just deserved to lick boots and shovel flavorless gel into our mouths while thanking them profusely for the privilege.
The irony being I hate settlement/outpost building and don't use that function so I'm getting screwed out of a good story and writing because apparently players like me no longer matter.
It's fine, Bethesda was lazy with that in Starfield too. They somehow made that less interesting than it was in Fallout 4, and largely pointless unless you want to grind XP through crafting meaningless items.
yep, i touched that mode for *mayyybee* 20 minutes tops and then never used it again after that first time. and tbh, if theyre gonna make something like that a *feature* they should have made it 10 times less janky its honestly annoying as hell to use
That's one of the many reasons I hated F4. We lost a load of fleshed out areas with their own unique stories and characters, and "gained" a bunch of areas to build bases with their really bad building system in place of them.
Well you’re not allowed to criticize unless the subject in question is too bad to defend. You wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or be label toxic. Nothing is objective anymore, all subjective, objectivity is just hateful.
7:11 brother I spent 23 hours looking for the story. I gave up, made paper planes for 3 hours in the shipbuilder, realized it was boring, haven't touched it since.
I am sooooo fcking glad I shelled out for a gaming rig, and ditched the console era for good especially xbox... As when Starfield came out. I did same as you. Bought it. Janky mess....played for 100 hours total and felt empty. I have no desire to go back at all.
Emil P, based on this speech, knows very little about the consumer. There are people above him that know far more about what the consumer wants, yet this guy is still able to have a job at BGS of all places. It's an enigma. Even though Emil mentions that players toss writing in the trash for Bethesda games specifically, even if that is true that the majority of people buying their games and playing them are doing so, it isn't an excuse to do a half-assed job, nor to take pride in the alternative which is the boss forcing you to take less time on it. Non-sensical garble.
I haven’t felt the need to comment in some time - BUT I have to for this one. Emil needs to understand that when BGS games are released, yes we love the world, we love the “Simulation”, but those are all accents to why we truly play Bethesda games. We’re here for the lore that make the worlds come to life, we are here for the STORIES, the ROLEPLAYING DECISIONS, the BRANCHING QUESTLINES. The list goes on & on. If this goes to show anything, it’s that we can expect Elder Scrolls 6 to be the entirety of Tamriel, but mediocre quests & writing, which wouldn’t interest any of us. Lord have mercy on the fanbase going forward.
...and there it is. When the hardcore fans keep saying, it's a Bethesda game. Welp now you will always get it and they will never ever improve nor evolve. 👏
@@ginyoo9118 I really cannot understand why they keep getting away with this. Oblivion and Skyrim is buggy as hell but somehow it's endearing?. Somehow people are very lenient and say "of course it's bugthesda whaddya expect?", I expect less bugs in my game please.
... Larian Studios hired writers to fill that weakness in Divinity. I'm now figuring out how Chris Avellone and the people of Obsidian did better with New Vegas over anything like Fallout e or 4...
I'm one of the people that enjoyed starfield for the most part, but I definitely agree with you on the flaws of the game. They forgot what made their previous games good, and it wasn't infinite radiant quest, bland story telling with no stakes, and it wasn't procedural generation of the same assets on repeat, or stretching the play time forever by making you do chores that require you travel in nothingness for hours. I really gave the game a chance but they missed out on a lot of opportunities for the story line. They should have made the game take place during a time of war with the factions. They could have explored more into whoever made the temples. Make a space exploration game without aliens? WTF were they thinking.
I won't blame them for not putting aliens in Starfield. That was a legitimate creative decision, since their goal was to make a hard sci-fi story. Hard science fiction tries to be more grounded in reality and is based on what could theoretically be possible in the future. The problem is that Emil thinks he's like Isaac Asimov, when really he's closer to L. Ron Hubbard.
@@samvimes9510 I think even L. Ron Hubbard was a more creative writer than Emil, lol. He did inspire enough people with his sci-fi writing to create a “religion” after all. 😅
It seems like Emil is preemptively trying to cope with failure instead of trying harder to be successful. Like "I'll always be a C student so I'll learn to be okay with it instead of trying to get an A."
Many people tie their self-worth/self-identity so strongly into some aspect of who they are - whether it be their work, their love for a piece of media, their supposed skill at a particular activity - that any sort of criticism will be perceived as an attack, a moment of doubt that makes them question. And questioning can hurt. Emil judging from that interview won't change, anymore than hardcore BGS fans won't change. For Emil to acknowledge his writing sucks, or for BGS fans to acknowledge that Bethesda aren't the titans they present themselves as, would be too much of an existential shock to the system for them.
I don't comment on the way people present themselves often but this dude pretty much exudes "I could write nobel tier literature tomorrow if I felt like it, but I don't".
@@bobmcbobbington9220 I think at least originally for competent developers, the idea of the phrase is that a developer finds out the right and best game design through actually playing and testing the game and its ideas, rather than just sitting back and theorizing on its game design forever. However the way Emil is using it, it seems it's supposed to communicate a Bethesda game design philosophy of providing a sandbox and letting players find their own emergent fun in it, rather than firmly directing the player's experience through a premade linear journey. Or maybe it's something else idk. Either way, I don't think Emil and Bethesda have too much of a right (anymore) to talk about how great games are made when their games aren't great lol.
Emil: [writes a boring story with no stakes and zero reason for player engagement] Players: [ignore the story because it's boring] Emil: See, I told you they'd just ignore it!! Talk about self-fulfilling prophecies.
Emil’s approach: 1. Wait for the game to release 2. Read all the reviews 3. Ignore the reviews 4. Tell everyone who doesn’t like your game that they are stupid and do t know what they are talking about.
I got an Asus Rog Ally extreme on sale recently and I was going to buy starfield as my first game for it. Instead I opted to buy kingdoms of amalur on sale for about $12. I am so happy that I did I am about 50 hours into the game and don't get me wrong it has its problems but it's also an incredible game. And I'm fascinated by the lore in world building it's got going on. The story is fine but what's keeping me engaged is the mystery in Wonder in the world in the whimsical graphics in the fun gameplay. I feel like I dodged a bullet here and I'm thoroughly enjoying sitting back in my bed every night after a long grueling day at work and playing some kingdoms of ambler on my rog ally. I also saved a bunch of money
Pretty much every character has unique dialogue, it's actually blowing me away. Amalur is as old as it is and it has so much unique dialogue and so many actually interesting quests and most importantly I feel like I'm playing an RPG. So I would like to thank Todd Howard and starfield for introducing me to kingdoms of amalur which is now one of my favorite RPGs of all time. My phone will be on silent as I lay in bed leveling up
Which is funny because it's so simple. It's like the pre-Bethesda Fallouts and many other time sink games, it's a set of tools for you to make your own story. Starfield thinks that's what it is but instead it distracts you and fights you every step of the way. At no point playing Starfield could I forget I was playing a game, and a Bethesda game at that.
This! They don't even know why Skyrim was so popular themselves...this is the core problem with moderb BGS games. Stripped to bare bones, and now no endeering qualities whatsoever. BGS ball lickers still out in full force.
I feel like people keep forgetting that Fallout and The Elder Scrolls were based on pre-established franchises and different teams. Todd took over after after Daggerfall and pretty much every Elder Scroll game released under his direction was considered a commercial failure by the company itself, until Morrowind. Morrowind was just a revision of the classical pillars of Julian LeFay's Elder Scroll design. Sure they brought the game into a fully polygonal, visual aesthetic but it was a return to the original design. Oblivion and Skyrim were just revisions of their predecessors. Starfield attempted to used pillars of a design that didn't fit the games direction and was a testament to how much those early developers and their designs contributed to Elder Scrolls games and their success. I feel too many people discount that a "team" contributes to the overall experience of a game, and many members of teams that worked on those earlier titles are no longer there. No one person is ever responsible for the entirety of a game, and every design that was successfully can't just be applied to another game.
Yeah, I was really reminded of that when going back to the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion. There you had an entire collection of unique characters to interact with. Now they're just facelss nobodies offering nothing but varying shades of weakly flavored vanilla.
@@yonghominale8884 I like Vasco, but Barrett doesn't work. "Oh look at me, giving away my organisations only ship because I'm so quirky" reads like a story written by a child. I don't think Barretts quirkyness is enough for it to be immersive. Because even if characters are whacky, I still want the illusion it could be real when I play it.
Even after I finished and stopped playing BG3 months ago, I still get the occasional itch to replay the game, especially when I see they drop a major update/patch. In contrast, I booted up Starfield after they added the Rover, just to see if the experience would have been better after almost a year of fixes and updates. Played a few hours and when work got in the way for a few days after, I never got back the motivation to pick up where I left off. It's really telling of the game's foundations when I compare the experience I've had with both.
I remember a speech by some small video game writer. She talked that writing a story for a video game is different than books, movies etc. and the most important thing is that "the story can never get in the way of the gameplay... but it doesn't mean that the story can't be good".
Hi Luke! It's the George Lucas effect. Back when the original Star Wars were being made Lucas was surrounded by wild-eyed whip-smart creatives who actually knew what it was they were trying to make (a campy sci fi adventure with just enough serious bits to make it fun). Then when Lucas got full control over it, and was high on his own supply thinking he was the genius behind it all, what did we get? 9 hours of people walking through CGI hotel lobbies talking about taxes (with action mixed in). The camp was gone. Instead, we got Jar Jar, which is a perfect analog to George's unsophisticated/immature understanding of what "camp" is. He built those movies wearing cinder block gloves. There is zero subtly or coolness to any of them. Bethesda is much the same. All the people who made the older games cool and campy (and understood what it is they were making) have either left the company or are dead (you should look up Adam Adamowicz (RIP), who basically did all of the concept art for Fallout 3 and most of it for Skyrim, he REALLY got it). So over time, as all the creatives went away, the guys who were left at the top - who were also high on their own supply - get a shot at brand new AAA IP. And what did we get? A loading screen simulator where the plot of the game takes place AFTER ALL THE COOL STUFF HAPPENED. They literally could have placed the game IN THE COLONY WARS and had some meaty subject matter to work with. Instead, they made a game that feels like I'm having an HR zoom call in space about half-baked multiverse concepts and vaguely disgruntled factions.
Emil is an easy target cause he actually is in a decision making position. He constantly gloats about his work and Bethesda being the best. And he genuinely doesn't see the issues. He is very high off his own fumes. A lot of people basically overcompensate defending him as well due to how much hate he has gotten just for his writing. Which it should be hard to defend the writer who just flat out admitted he dumbs down all the stories on purpose. He has gotten so good at the PR speak that this is just the way he talks now. To the point he has fooled himself it's all true.
Well, Emil's speech explains why I haven't enjoyed a Bethesda Softworks game since Skyrim. I actually care about the story and the context behind my actions. I enjoy a well-crafted narrative with some actual structure and cleverness. It's one of the main reasons why I just replayed Arkham Asylum for the 6th time. I replayed Mass Effect 7 times because the story was that good. Good gameplay is important, but a gripping campaign keeps you coming back for more. Fallout 4 felt vapid and pointless. I spent 8 hours with that game and was bored to tears. It seemed to expect me to devote dozens of hours to building towns that it couldn't be bothered to craft itself, so that I could get crafting materials to grind up gear for more procedurally generated garbage. The factions I ran across all seemed horribly written, the dialogue was atrocious, and I found it flabbergasting that in 14 years Bethesda went from the apex of TES: Morrowind to such a nadir. Then I saw Starfield. Fallout 4 is Shakespeare compared to Starfield. Doesn't help that in lieu of decent writing and stories, players get... the same jank, bugs, and lack of polish. Bethesda Softwork games are the only videogames I have to FIX MYSELF before playing. "Well, gotta get some mods going to fix the terrible level scaling, and improve the amount of gold merchants carry, and fix the awful carrying capacity limits, and bypass the terrible attribute system, and fix the scaling loot so I don't get cheated out of a great weapon because I did the quest too soon, and make a bunch of NPCs invulnerable because good guys don't respawn but bad guys do infinitely... so eventually the world winds up empty. OR, I could play a well-crafted game that doesn't need to do all of the above just to have a good time. Is The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion worth this kind of hassle?" Edit addition: I have very little hope for The Elder Scrolls VI at this point. I expect a terrible story, a broken janky experience, awful cliches, an obsession with the mythical modern audience, incessant loading screens, and excessive numbers of poorly conceived time-wasting systems like the outpost building mechanic that has been crammed into every game since the Hearthfire Skyrim DLC.
The amount of players still saying its amazing because they’re too absolutely mortified to admit it’s way below power is staggering. If they carry on saying it’s amazing then that’s the benchmark of what they’ll get in the future and they’re welcome to it.
It pisses me off how the fan favorite Bethesda style game, Fallout New Vegas, will never be in the discussion of Bethesda because they didn't develop that game. It matches both quality and camp in just about every aspect of it better than Bethesda has done in the last 15 years.
6:40 theyre calling bethesda gamers stupid hoarders and its honestly not that far off from the truth considering they keep buying slop after slop to fill inventories
@@MadKurupt I've never heard another dev team insult their customers this way. Bethesda games have been mediocre for a long time and modders constantly do their work for them. Imagine Bethesda without mods lol
I find it wild that, using the same toolbox as BGS, Obsidian managed to craft new Vegas in less than 2 years and it ended up becoming a cult classic...
The bar for RPGs has been raised. -The Witcher 3 -Cyberpunk 2077 -BG3 -The Last of Us -God of War -Read Dead Redemption 1 and 2 -Ghost of Tsushima -Elden Ring You can`t be re-releasing Skyrim-light with Guns and Space Shouts, Sprinckled with Loading Screen Simulator, A.k.a.: Starfield, and expect people to praise your minimal effort. There are some fundamentals in Starfield that is amazing, and most people won`t know: -Photo Mode creates new loading Screens with the photos you took! -You can build Ships, that is an awesome mechanic, you can walk inside your own built ship! Why haven`t they focus on this? it would`ve been its own thing, and it would`ve been amazing for this mechanic alone. Missed opportunities: -You can build settlements and your own base to farm resources, this is a fun mechanic, but why Fallout 4 had it even better than Starfield? and why your base gets deleted every new "Unit"? Why can`t you build a Space Station that goes into the unit with the player so he saves his base and progress for new subsequent playthroughs? -If writing is not their focus because players won`t engage with it, why didn`t they put more effort into gameplay? (No Mans Sky didn`t had a good narrative or story, actually zero at the start and still very successful), like Melee weapons all have the same movement and attack speed... like what? you have skyrim and fallout 4 melee animations, just import those into Starfield, why so lazy? -Why vehicle was added 1 year later instead of on-release? Zero gameplay dynamic effort, why these people make videogames? -They could just have transformed this game into a sandbox with no narrative, like, okay here are some factions, go play in this sandbox space game, build your own space empire using skyrim-space magic, build bigger ships and have fun boarding enemy vessels, stealing ships and making them your own, fight huge waves and hordes of enemies, defeat and destroy factions, and get bigger and bigger, and you can reset for NG+ where you are slightly stronger for the new playthrough. It would`ve been more akin to a AA game VS AAA, but I can guarantee you we would see more than 30K concurrent players on Steam, by simply making a fun, addicting, engaging gameplay. Now they added all this BS narrative that is both boring, uninspiring and sometimes an insult to actual writers, which serves zero purpose to zero people, the gamers that love gameplay will not play Starfield, the people who loves narrative driven RPGs won`t play Starfield, and only people with no self awareness and no sense of respect for themselves are the ones that will stick to this game on the long run, and those numbers are fairly small, so by putting effort into the wrong place, Starfield actually got worse.
There's an interview with Miyazaki where he says Armored Core 'isn't quite perfect' and 'still has room for improvement' and that's the difference between Fromsoft and BGS
I think this explains why I was never into Skyrim when everyone else was. I just found it ugly and looked incomplete in every way. I still feel this way about bethesda games. The only one that I actually played and liked was New Vegas.
I find this topic super interesting. In 10 years time this will be a case study on how rigid company structures and key personnel that overstayed their time can ruin company culture and therefore output. Just like Nokia is now a case study for failed innovation management. Somewhere Economics students will learn about this if they have a cool professor.
@@gnucompiler You really don't need to try this. I'm perfectly capable of forming my own Opinions and more so after playing Starfield extensively and having an incredibly mediocre experience. I will agree with Luke on some things and I will disagree on others. Having an economics background I can definitely tell you that there are severe problems in the management structure at BGS. A failure to properly implement agile processes beyond it being just a buzzword and a incapability to reflect on the own relative position in the industry are absolutely apparent. You are attaching yourself way to much to a brand and a product, so you feel the need to attack others to validate yourself. You can like Starfield all you want. I don't care! But don't attack the majority that clearly sees all of it's shortcomings.
@@Ample17 Sorry but what the fuck does your background in economics have to do with how Bethesda is ran? You have no clue mate, because you aren't there, and you aren't involved. Fuck me you sound delusional.
@@Ample17 As I said in another comment, one thing that astounds me about Lukeypoo and his horde of minions (I don't even understand how he has them). You're all smug, smarmy and you seem to think you're a lot more intelligent than you actually are. "Ooo look at me, I have a background in economics, because of this I know exactly how BGS operate, it's almost as if my background in economics is as good as working there" is what you should've said. Man, stfu.
Look at the steam charts more people are playing fallout 4 or skyrim despite starfield being their new game and on top of it they just released an expansion the game is an abject failure and they're lucky it was on gamepass or it would have been a more obvious commercial failure
es6 will be on gamepass so the xbox crowd will play it regardless. but as a playstation/nintendo console player I'm not sad Bethesda is Xbox & PC only now. I don't feel like i'm missing out on anything by them being exclusive 😂
Elder Scrolls 6 will probably be much better purely by accident alone. Returning to something like Skyrim style play will go a long way towards hiding all the flaws in the game engine rather than slapping you in the face with them. It'll have their most detailed map ever but you'll only be able to play as an Argonian skooma addict searching for your kidnapped cousin who you'll find on his deathbed after a four hour story arc and he'll leave you his struggling fruit stand in his will. After that it'll all be about using construction tools to build the grandest fruit stand in the Empire.
I think the problem I had with starfield and even a bit with fallout 4 is there isn't as much grounding in lore and worldbuilding to offset the campy feel. Like in Skyrim, if the writing was not great, it could at least use the lore and immersive worldbuilding as a crutch to fill in any blanks. Without that basis to prop up the worse elements of the game, starfield just collapses for me.
That clip is exactly what ive always kind of felt about Bethesda games i just couldnt put my finger on it; i was always frustrated because i end up coming away from their games sort of unimpressed and sort of bored.
Art is supposed to be criticized. If you don't want your art to be criticized, then keep it to yourself. The idea that a business believes that it can ignore the feedback and criticism from the consumer base is completely asinine.
Thinking of BGS as an overgrown double-A studio seems really fitting in my mind. And yeah, I don't think they have any clue why Skyrim was so popular, and in fairness I also don't know, but it's not my job to know. I remember chatting with my partner about Starfield a few weeks after it's launch, trying to figure out how it could have been successful while largely being the same product. What we came up with was a $40 price tag, and a simultaneous launch with some rigorous modding tools, and a Minecraft-style mod storefront (with verified creators, unverified mods). Now all those empty planets aren't boring, they're a canvas for the community to build cool stuff. The lack of randomly generated points of interest just lets you add your own. Invite popular mod authors (HothTrooper44, Elianora, EnaiSaion, etc) to make some cool content ahead of the launch to help add value right away. Highlight their work in marketing materials. idk I hope someone reads this and share their thoughts lol I'd love to hear what people think about this idea
Starfield does not offers bandidolatry in main game, this is the reason for so much criticism and demand for perfection. Soon the new GTA will come out and they will call it perfection or praise it.
It's definitely not a short DLC if you do all side content and explore all the locations. If you enjoy it, that's another matter. I didn't think it was too bad but definitely could have been better.
Starfield exists in its own unique space. Its the space between loading screens.
Emils best work is in the games loading screens. That sweet silence. No monotonous dialogue boring you senseless. That magical silence is where Emil truly shines as a talented engrossing writer.
is this a console thing? loading screens are not an issue on pc
sounds like a cosmic horror story 🤔
@@tinostarksthe hell u talking about I put 50hrs in on pc
@@IamSilent121 Probably would have been 'slightly' better had it been. And by slightly, I mean by a micro-meter. Abysmal.
It is funny how Baldur's Gate 3 did everything opposite to what Emil said and ended up a generation defining masterpiece.
Also, winning most awards too. You would not see Bethesda games winning best voice acting anytime soon.
@@JWalters388 The rich part was Todd attending some award ceremony but realizing Starfield won nothing at the event.
they make paper airplanes out of Emils novels specifically because they're not good for anything else. and as substitute for toilet paper too, I guess
@@salazar591 it's okay to be objectively wrong lol
@@salazar591 git gud
Emil: "Players don't care about the story."
Fallout New Vegas: *sighs and rolls its eyes*
Witcher 3: *pounds head on desk*
Cyberpunk 2077: "The hell, choom?"
Inside: *gurgling noises of disapproval*
Danganronpa: "No, that's wrong!"
Ace Attorney: "OBJECTION!"
Baldur's Gate III: *Astarion disappoves*
Dude underrated comment lol
It's so sad because looking around should obviously make it clear you are falling behind.
Skyrim: "No Lolygaggin"
@@Ashbrash1998then logically doesn't work though because Skyrim and fallout 4 are two of bethesda's most successful games and the stories in those games are vastly ignored by most people. Naming a bunch of other games not made by them that hadn't good stories doesn't mean anything because they're responsible for their franchise. And if people have shown that they are not invested in the stories of their franchises then they're going to have that belief for their future games.
Enderal: EMIL HAS THE RED MADNESS
I feel like Emil is just fundamentally non-critical. Basically the equivalent of being tone deaf, but for creativity.
"You might need to upgrade your PC for this game." Todd fockin Howard
@D4C_LoveTrain1 I can get frekin Cyberpunk 2077 working amazing on the Steam Deck, yet Starfield still struggled and is still not verified yet. I am even using the GOG version on my Steam Deck and it is running shockingly well...
They're completely out of touch and they dont do it for the love of the hobby anymore - theyre corporate drones, their soul is dead.
He is though. he doesn't want design documents, it would hold him accountable to a set of standards.
Narcissist?
I've worked in software as a UX designer for decades. Emil's comments reveal a contempt for players that's difficult to fathom. It's sad that someone with attitudes like this has so much influence on their games.
Their implementation for Ultra-wide monitor support was so bad that I had to edit the .ini file myself to center the HUD elements to a 16:9 aspect ratio. Also in general, moving around the inventory and other elements is so slow and dragged out.
Hell, even when buying ammo or anything from shops they don't show you how much of that item you currently have...it is like they are trying to waste our time.
These are the kind of people who think that playing more than 3 hours of video games in a day is a crippling personality failure.
I've noticed that in these and past comments from Emil. Considering his general attitude towards paying customers and poor writing skills, it say a lot about Bethesda that he's been employed by them for so long.
Should look into the Parker Quinn character from Fo4- it's written and voiced by Emil, really shows his true colors and that absolute contempt for his customers
It seems like these game developers are so pretentious now that they do.t listen to what us gamers want any.ore because they apparently know what is fun better then the masses
The starfield story was like listening to a politician speak. So many words spoken without saying anything at all.
starfield be like wanne explore a alian planet ? wel to bad it has already been explored and here is a qeust deliver my mail i am to lazy to call him
I was watching MATN play it and checked out after a couple episodes. It was so damn boring.
"Great games are played, not made". Uh, no, theyre both. You cant play a great game if you dont make a great game.
If the studio does not produce a great game, I will simply play a better game from another studio.
Lol. That’s what happened to people’s minds when they watched too much Tik Tok. Just spew out nonsense as long as it sound deep 😂
It doesn’t even make sense 😂.
Novel ways of copium
Great novels are read, not written.
Great movies are watched, not made.
Great murals are seen, not painted.
Transmute it to express the equivalent idea about any other form of art, and it quickly becomes apparent just how asinine the statement truly is.
Gaming studios living in a toxic positivity bubble. Of course
@@JefeSymone He wasn't complimenting them my guy
no youtube is a toxic bubble they should ignore
@@johansvensson833 ok buddy
@@johansvensson833 Yeah because that "UA-cam bubble" is responsible for poor content at premium prices and studios going bankrupt because their sales are trash. Sure pal, ONLY UA-cam lmao
That is the result of having creatives living in safespaces devoid of any criticism, no growth, no strife to perfect ones craft....it's a perpetual self imposed arrested development...
They need to fire/replace Emil. His line of thinking is idiotic.
Unfortunately Bethesda can't, they need AI to do that for them.
He's genuinely terrible at his job. I've only ever like Bethesda games DESPITE his involvement, never because of it.
Not happening, he is essentially Todd Howard`s buddy bud, unless BGS goes under, or Xbox demands it, he won`t leave the company. They could make him less influential with an Xbox executive taking place, but Phil Spencer is a tool that doesn`t do anything, he is just there... 343 has been ruining Halo for ages and still in charge.
He’s also one of the worst writers in the entire video game industry. Look at the romances in fallout 4 and starfield 😂
i would fire him for the simple reason that he suck at the job. wrongthink should not be a fireable offense. i also think todd should step down. his vision is dated as hell. i dont think he can make good games anymore. neither of these people can listen to and and absorb critism. and unless they change that no game they will make in the future will be better than mid at best.
Comparing players ripping pages out of your "well-written" novel to make paper airplanes is such a gross misunderstanding of why people don't engage with the story of modern Bethesda titles. People are still discussing the story of New Vegas to this day 14 years later because it's that good and well-developed.
Even if people barely spent any time playing the story compared to building bases or what-have-you, that doesn't mean you should put your hands up and say "well, why bother?"
It’s crazy that the head writer can basically come out and say “the story doesn’t matter”. Why does he have a job then??
That and in new vegas you can immediately go do whatever you want unlike Bethesda and their unnecessary long introdutions
This doesn't make sense. New Vegas wasn't the last or first game in the franchise. It was somewhere in the middle. This means that you can't think of an example that is before New Vegas and you can't think of an example after New Vegas. Which means to me all of bethesda's writing has always been the same. They just got lucky on New Vegas and and honestly that sucks for them because getting lucky is not a sign of consistency, which means New Vegas is probably not going to be repeated when it comes to quality of story.
@@Grimjr7 They didn't get lucky with New Vegas. They didn't make New Vegas. That was Obsidian. Hence it being the outlier.
@@changer_of_ways_999 Bethesda did make Morrowind though. A game that is still being talked about, played, and modded, to this day.
Emil is the same guy who said that because their GDD kept becoming outdated, they don't use it anymore, when it's actually part of his job to keep it up to date.
And i believe him since how many mechanics in Starfield are disjointed from others or just make no sense how they're built like the perks
Getting star born powers is straight up the most stupid way of obtaining them. Not to mention star born powers in themself are just copies of skyrims Dragonborn powers. Because fuck originally.
@@chilbiyito I think it is a bit of cart before the horse situation, though. That part of why their GDD keeps becoming so outdated is because the core design doesn't work in the first place. So yeah, the more non-functional your starting point is, the more you have to change.
@@Axterix13that’s a pretty interesting point. Starfield doesn’t have a particularly good gameplay loop. I can find games that do space, shooting, ship building, or roll playing better than Starfield. And Starfield doesn’t marry these concepts together in a way that’s fun.
@@Someguy6571 all of the legendary weapon effects from Fo4 are copy pasted from Skyrim, it's especially egregious considering Obsidian solved that problem before it existed with expanded ammunition from GRA
Corporate 101: Never admit wrong doing. It's not you, it's the customers. Feign success. Gaslight, gaslight, gaslight.
I am sure there's a rule of acquisition for that.
@@planescaped ferengi are more honest than game devs, tbh
Ah yes, the ubisoft special.
Ah (gas, gas, gas)
Ah
Do you like my car?
verse
Guess you're ready 'cause I'm waiting for you
It's gonna be so exciting
Got this feeling really deep in my soul
Let's get out, I wanna go, come along, get it on.
This reminded me of this song from Initial D. Very funnily you can replace the "my car" with "my game", and it'll basically describe emil's whole process after starfield was released.
Emil got fully exposed with Starfield. In the past, he could hide behind already established lore like Elder Scrolls from 30 years ago or Fallout from 27 years ago but when it was time to make a new IP that mostly relied on him establishing the lore and writing the story, he got exposed as a very dull boring writer with tons of dialogue but with nothing to actually say. A I. would do a better job at making something more compelling than Emil and that's why these people are so afraid for their job security right now. They're replaceable.
Well, he was also able to hide behind talented and compentent people that either got pushed out or left because they couldn't put up with Emil anymore besides other drama at BGS.
I agree; the lore for those two franchises add a layer of insulation because they're interesting. Here they've somehow created incredibly bland lore with an incredibly bland plot.
His writing is reddit tier, almost cringed at all the dialog choices.
The game was really fun with multiple endings 😂 I can never understand the hate.
This is pretty much it.
His first game where he was the writer was FO3, and this one basically "doesn't count" because they copypasted existing storylines. Even then, some cracks were clear.
Skyrim, I feel like the writing just....didn't exist? It's hard to describe Skyrim. The underlying lore already existed, the game's main storylines were incredibly barebones.
FO4 is where the cracks became very apparent. We seemed to have a game that copied some elements of New Vegas, such as the four factions, but they legitimately forgot to give the villain faction a motivation. Caesar's out there citing Hegel at you, the Institute responds to "why the hell do you have synth gorillas" with "you wouldn't understand." It was made worse by Far Harbor - which had a different lead entirely - felt leagues above the base game in terms of writing and actually felt worthy of the Fallout franchise.
And here we are at Starfield. Pre-release, Emil even did an interview where he effectively took the bulk of the credit for the writing, implying much of the core elements were all done between him and Todd.
Aaaaaaand it's crap. Total and utter crap. Not only that, but Kurt Kuhlmann - the guy they previously described as "the brains of Elder Scrolls lore" - was "encouraged" to leave the studio. If it were just Kurt that left the studio, hey, maybe he's a bit of a diva. But it wasn't just Kurt. Multiple talents left the studio, and for Kurt to be "encouraged" to leave, this implies some sort of quarrel and drama within the studio. Emil is legit the "last writer standing" at Bethesda in terms of recognizable names, and he's also the ONLY ONE that's fought tooth and nail to insist Starfield is actually great.
I get some people want to cling to the fact that we don't 100% fully know what's going on at Bethesda, but Emil is constantly SCREAMING dots at us, and no it's not a crime to connect them and see what we get. It is incredibly difficult to imagine a world where Emil was actually really competent at his job all along and everyone else was wrong.
The guy can't write, and you can see this in any public speech he's ever done. His speeches are just as chaotic and unorganized as the writing within Bethesda titles.
I think the gaming industry needs to be reminds that rpg stands for role playing game not, open world adventure game
BGS Mainline RPGs always were open world though. And they should be! Open world doesn't mean bad game.
@@Ample17and they haven’t been rpg’s for awhile. More adventure games than anything
@@issahumps I disagree. Starfield is an RPG, so is Skyrim, so was Fallout 4. What do they lack in mechanics for you to qualify as an RPG?
@@Ample17 I think you miss the comment entirely. Of course open world doesn't mean a bad game look at BG3, the problem is the so called BGS mainline RPG have little RPG elements to begin with. It's more action adventure game
@@Ample17 Nah. They're RPG-lite. They're action adventure games with the most basic and bone dry RPG systems you could have. If you directly compare Morrowind to Skyrim you'll see what I mean. Morrowind had a huge amount of build variety and customization as well as a much better leveling system.
Just another nail in my “ I’m not buying the next elder scrolls” coffin
don't preorder, watch a few reviews and then open your wallet or not
it will sell dude move on
A coffin made entirely of nails
why is it still above ground bro
Don't worry, BGS fans will still buy them. Starfield says a lot already after F76 failed before and they bought this BS. Their faith is stronger than most religions, I'd say.
Emil Pagliarulo is the king of shortcomings. You can look at his work from Skyrim through Starfield and the one concurrent theme is one of “Oh, that’s it?” It’s a pattern of players seeing the potential of a faction or quest line or the main story, but never seeing said potential really lived up to.
Emil is basically a perpetually novice writer, but a master at delivering underwhelming results for overwhelming hype.
He's like the Alex Kurtzman and Bad Robot of video games!
Another particularly blatant example of a pattern:
In Skyrim, they "forgot" to give any sort of lore or flavor dialog to the famous figures you meet in Sovngarde.
In FO4, they "forgot" to give the Insitute a motivation. Any attempt to understand them is hand-waived with "you wouldn't understand" or "there will be time for this talk later."
In Starfield, they "forgot" to make an ending. The moment I saw clips of that ending where you meet "yourself," I KNEW this was going to be empty of any substance, like they just thought it would be SOOOO cool to "meet God" or whatever, but didn't actually put any thought and planning into HOW they were going to do that and HOW they were going to depict it, let alone what answer they leave the player with in regards to "what was the purpose of all this?" This was an overly-ambitious reach that they wanted first, but never sat down to ask themselves if they could do it justice, or to PLAN how to approach it.
They even try some stupid 2deep4u "you have answered your own question" that DOESN'T EVEN WORK because their follow-up response is a non-answer, like some toddler that heard Ulysses in Lonesome Road use the line correctly and thought simply parroting the line would magically 2deep4u the game into being a masterpiece. Ulysses uses it to in response to "I don't understand! Why are you doing this?", implying he's doing it all BECAUSE of your failure to understand the consequences of your actions, which works. Starfield drops it in response to "who created these artifacts," drops the "you answered your question" line on you, and then expands to say CREATORS created these artifacts as justification for that line....like holy crap, some idiot read that response and actually thought it was good! If I go up to the Tower of Pisa and asked who built this, the only universe where I can hear the response "BUILDERS built it, bro" and actually think that was a sufficient answer is if I'm absolutely high off my gourd to the point my effective IQ at the time is 50.
@@Longknife Lmao. Love the charged response. Thanks for sharing it.
If we learn that Emil is in any way related to ES6 or Fallout 5, just know they are precooked.
Someone told me something that totally resonated. We point to Dark Brotherhood as good Emil, but does anyone remember or care about the Dark Brotherhood story in Oblivion so much as the gameplay the quests it had? Thats a important distinction that made me realize I didnt much care for the story of the dark brotherhood(it was still way better anything he's done since) but really it was the unique quests in it that carried that faction.
It makes me wonder just how much came from him or did other people give inspiration he took and worked in? Not saying he didn't write it, just wondering if there was another ingredient.
I just replayed that not too long ago and it was actually pretty boring.
@@Heyithinkhejust The big reveal at the end about Lucious and the dead drops was good but I dont remember much else.
Emil has been lead writer for every BGS game since Fallout 3 and was involved in a less senior position on many of the games before that. Odds of him having nothing to do with ES6 or Fallout 5 are basically zero. We already know they're cooked unless there's some kind of serious shakeup, but even the odds of that happening are very low, based on Todd's total lack of regard for all the criticism Shattered Space got.
Exactly. The Dark Brotherhood quests are remembered fondly cause the first half of the chain is a couple of assassination quests where you have agency over how you complete them. Once the actual story of the guild kicks in, it all falls apart. The more question you ask, the closer you look, the less sense it makes how the Brotherhood behaves.
SquareEnix shows the dangers of a business with expectations being too high, Bethesda is the example of operating with keeping expectations far too low.
Each video game corporation is becoming a unique caricature, and an example for the rest. Avoid these pitfalls, kids.
this is such a great point lol. With Square Enix the literal sky is the floor, but with Bethesda the bar is clipping through the floor
FF7 remake is that only crazy crazy game they’ve released recently. You left out the semi-regular mid anime rpgs they release.
A guy on the steam forums told me that I should try to to enjoy the game and play it slowly instead of rushing through it before judging.
I had played the game for 80hrs
He is right tho. At 320 hours sunk cost falacy kicks in and you then get to enjoy the game!
@@Milosz0plyes, because you had got lobotomized by it 😂
@@Milosz0pl I checked his steam profile and the guy had 6000 hours in fallout 4 as well 😆
This man is not a clown. He is the entire circus.
He is neither. Being in a circus is actually hard and requires incredible amounts of training or you fall off a high rope and shatter every bone in your body. Tell it like it is: The man is a talentless, incurious, ignorant hack.
Emil is a snake oil salesman
Yep
is him being in the position he is in a microcosm of the problems western game developers have. The guy has no business being in the position he's in, the writing and storytelling is absolutely unacceptable in today's day doubly so for rpg's
And so is Uncle Todd
@@pko1683honestly not even just video games, i feel like hollywood has a similar issue with people failing upwards like this. half the blockbusters that come out now feel like they were made in a boardroom
Snake Oil Salesman implies charisma and being good at tricking people. People have known he's a hack for as long as his name was public.
If anyone's the snake oil salesman, it's Todd. It always feels like a portion of the community understands that Todd indeed lies to consumers all the time, and SOMEHOW, another portion has meme'd this so hard that they just think "haha funi meme" and don't understand no no, Todd *really does lie* all the friggin' time about what his games can do, and he SHOULD be held accountable for it. Instead, the "funi meme" has become sinister in that it seems to give Todd license to make stuff up and the internet will just respond with "hahaha classic Todd! Here's $60!"
Shatter Space should have been a free update, charging 30 bucks for it is criminal
They would have actually restored some grace from fans doing this...plus it would not have been shit all over like it has been.
Then again...this is the company that started it all with ya know....horse armour.
Ignoring criticism is the first sign of downfall.
Pride comes before the fall
no catering to youtube bubble is your downfall
More specifically groupthink leads to downfalls.
@@johansvensson833 Found the Bethesda apologist.
If they ignore our criticism, we will ignore their games
I won’t! I love this game 😊
@@xbotLife "Xbotlife". Charming.
so they should lisen to the toxic racist and ah on youtube ?
@@todaysdesperadohatesavocad7109 I am actually 😊
@@johansvensson833 what?
Is it actual delusion or are they really trying to speak it into existence? Starfield was a weak swing and it missed. This is a game that it is ok to let die.
@@TravisWilliams-1 They know it’s bad and they’re just gaslighting us into thinking it’s a good game
The game was a fetch quest where women order you around. No thanks ma'am I have women ordering me at 🏡.
@@MelbourneArchvizMarried man identified😂
Xboxera 9/10 what a joke this people are delusional
I enjoyed the game very much, expansion was okay. I mean for all the hate it get's , it does still have multiple millions of players each month and has the entire time since launch, over a year ago. That is impressive, despite the chronic hate everywhere.
Its a self fulfilling prophecy. If you make games with crappy stories, everyone will start ignoring the stories. But look at BG3, Witcher3 and Kingdom Come Deliverance. These games had great stories and were great at telling those stories, not just some text in a terminal.
Great story isn't a hard requirement for a great game but if you don't have it you need to have something else to build around. Starfield is just bland all around. Dark Souls doesn't have much of a story but it drips atmosphere and engaging gameplay. Bethesda's successes have never had particularly compelling main stories but the exploration, the side quests and, again, atmosphere have mostly made up for it. Everybody overlooked that _someone_ needed to be more than just 'ok' for the game to hold people's interest.
@@DamnedSilly Dark souls doesnt have much of a story? Is this a troll comment or are u really that thick u didnt get story in ds? Theres like 2hrs videos on yt about the stories of each of the dark souls games. The style of storytelling is different as in theres not many cutscenes and all but saying that "there isnt much of a story" just tells that u didnt pay attention
@@kidnamedfinger2840 Sure, list all the names talk about the lore and the setting stretch all the little tidbits out and make a YT video. Or you can sum the story up in one paragraph. You totally missed the point. The actual story is very simple. All the rest is color, atmosphere and world building. That's not story. The story is 'Undead guy fights a bunch of ugly things to either reboot the current world or let it change into something else.' Layering on existentialism and themes lifted from various mythologies doesn't change that, it just makes it sound cooler. Dark Souls fanboys are just the worst. You can't even say something nice about the game without them getting riled up and flinging insults. It's a simple story but it's how they tell it that makes it work.
@@DamnedSilly every single story ever created can be told in one paragraph. Red dead redemption is just "dying criminals fight the law for survival" . Shawshank redemption is "inmate makes friends and escapes jail to live a life of freedom". Breaking bad is just "man diaagnosed with cancer becomes drug lord to make money to secure a proper life for his family". If u oversimplify enough, every story can be made to seem juvenile and well, simple. The story is not just from point A to point B, it's everything that happens in between as well.
@@kidnamedfinger2840 Indeed, and by story it doesn't even have to be the main plotline. It can be just really good characters, or memorable side arcs. It's important that it has at least something, it isn't a rule for all games, but in case of RPGs you can't just wave those off with 'player is the most important character'.
Fans: Starfield wasn’t that good or fun
Bethesda: Starfield is the best game we’ve ever created !
Might not be the best game but calling it terrible is just fucking weird! Obviously he never played a terrible game! Lol At this point shitting on StarField is becoming a grift!
@@DoctorDeathFPS It is utterly mediocre, and Bethesda acting like it is a masterpiece while people tell them it is mediocre is nothing but weird.
@@planescaped "mid" and "terrible" are 2 different things kid.
terrible in comparison to the high standard of old bgs. Does that sound better?
@@DoctorDeathFPS This take is always very revealing, and actually reflects yourself more than others. Folks who don't leave their comfort zone and play a wide variety of games over the long history of the medium say this about people whose literal job it is to play games for a living. Why would you think that just because you own an Xbox and buy a few games a year, you'd know better than someone who most likely owns every console and a PC with which they've likely played literally thousands of games? I doubt you've even played a third as many games as they own just in their Steam Library.
So wait, Emil has a contempt for storytelling AND filled the DLC with 75% laborious, painful-to-sit-through dialogue juxtaposed with with maybe a few hours of actual gameplay?
Sounds like a cop-out to me. Bad writer making excuses.
Bethesda today : Bethesda 3D.
Delusions, Denial, Disrespect.
It's still funny to me how there's only one ending to an RPG. Even funnier when they try to compare Shitten Space to Far Harbor, which has at least five endings to the mainline story in the DLC.
I think calling Skyrim accidentally critically acclaimed is a bit unfair, the open world and exploration for the time was pretty much unmatched (can’t think of any better open world game that came out before 2011) and partially helped inspire the open world phase in the 2010s where it felt like everyone was trying to make their games open world. The problem is I feel like they have released reskinned versions of that game for the last 10 years and haven’t really done much to push the boundaries of gaming like they used to
And yet, many many people, just like me, never finished the main story line. I played 300+ h of Skyrim and I never got even remotely far into it, because it just was so boring and dumb that I rather install a few weather and survival mods and role play freely in the open world sandbox, slaying bandits and shit. Parts of Skyrim were phenomenal for its time. Other parts, like the story, writing, voice acting, optimization, were really subpar even back then, and they just got worse and worse over time.
@@KnuspabrotI just steal mead from the greybeards and sit by one of the open fires in High Hrothgarr....and listen to the wind whistling through the ancient building in VR
@@Knuspabrot Yeah I only really played through the story to be done with it.
I didn't expect there to be any significant additions in shattered space, because I always felt like it was cut content from the base game, sold to you for an extra 40$. Now the thing is... Bethesda isn't competent enough to afford being this greedy and I can't stop compering whatever they make to Fallout: London which is free.
Bethesda chiefs don’t respect Fallout London because it has a handful of amateurish voice lines and periodic CTD. As if that doesn’t describe all of Bethesdas best work.
shattered space was basically a side quest that they cut and wanted to add to creation club
Said this other day on another thread.
All the usual BGS ball lickers come out defending this trash?
7:52 I don't agree with that argument of "Just because some people won't give a shit about the story and will just run around aimlessly collecting shit" It's just not a good mindset to have while making these games. More people than that actually like a good story, characters, writing, good gameplay, good rpg mechanics, etc. Collecting shit for hours is boring, achievement hunting was 2 or 3 console gens ago, ready to move on to better games with amazing writing, stories, and character deisgn. I don't buy rpgs to sit through a 50 hour collectathon....
I agree with you there. I haven't cared about achievements since the PS3. You can't just disregard story, characters, and world building just because you, as an top guy in the studio, think that no one will care that much. I don't mind collecting stuff in games when it's meaningful but when 80% of the game is a collect-a-thon is when I lose interest. I don't play video games just to pass the time so collect-a-thons do nothing for me. You can have a good mixture of both story and collection. But it's painfully clear that Bethesda just won't even try anymore. And to reiterate, I agree with everything you've said
The thing however is that the reason that players spend time building shacks for hours is because it goes along with the story and the player actually makes a difference in the fallout world by doing it. Its like does he not even understand his own story that he wrote for fallout? No one would care for the settlements unless they served a purpose or were as well integrated into the story 😂
that mindset is barely acceptable for a shooter, it's absolutely insane to say this about an RPG, cd project red has multiple professional writers on staff fromsoft got George RR Martin and bethesda has a guy who is writing there stories despite absolutely being not interested in it. Bethesda is dead
Compare Emilio's attitude with Larian studios in regards to BG3. There's a lot of content in that game that will only be seen by a small number of players based on their choices, but they still put effort into it.
For an RPG, writing is probably the most important aspect of it. If people just want mindless action, they'll go play a dedicated action game. Bethesda is determined to be mediocre.
There's probably something to be said for a game's reputation too, those people who might not engage with it are still drawn by good word-of-mouth because of the game's other qualities. I'd even say those people who do just collect shit, they might not be overly concerned with the particulars of the story, sure, but they're still motivated to do it in THAT world instead of another game, sensing a general vibe of high-quality and attention to detail paid to the world and everything in it, including characters and story. To paraphrase RLM: They didn't notice it but their brain did.
His description of his writing philosophy is so insulting. Beyond bizarre. Starfield is Bethesda’s opus. The game they deserved.
what's even crazier is he's telling everyone he doesn't care about story, even if you thought that wouldn't that be something you kept to yourself
I hope Emil continues to ignore criticism to ruin bethesda and make them bankrupt.
The way things are going, they're headed down the same shameful path that Bioware and Ubisoft already succumbed to.
People like you are crazy
It's called pattern recognition, I had hope that Bethesda would maybe improve after Fallout 4 and 76. But it seems they are locked in going down the path of destruction. Which sucks, it's really sad that so many studios are going down that path.
@@Ollidor why?
@@Ollidor Yes, insanity is defined as "Being angered by a company that is dismissive and actively hostile to their consumers and hoping that they fail as a business enterprise opening up the IP to other companies who potentially care more, thus allowing us to get an experience we deserve." I completely forgot. I thought we just deserved to lick boots and shovel flavorless gel into our mouths while thanking them profusely for the privilege.
The irony being I hate settlement/outpost building and don't use that function so I'm getting screwed out of a good story and writing because apparently players like me no longer matter.
Additionally, it is not like they had to had in the shack building at all in the first place.
It's fine, Bethesda was lazy with that in Starfield too. They somehow made that less interesting than it was in Fallout 4, and largely pointless unless you want to grind XP through crafting meaningless items.
Never played with it until sim settlement came out.
yep, i touched that mode for *mayyybee* 20 minutes tops and then never used it again after that first time.
and tbh, if theyre gonna make something like that a *feature* they should have made it 10 times less janky its honestly annoying as hell to use
That's one of the many reasons I hated F4. We lost a load of fleshed out areas with their own unique stories and characters, and "gained" a bunch of areas to build bases with their really bad building system in place of them.
I grew up playing Morrowind and honestly new Bethesda makes me sad. Feels like the death of a childhood pet.
Well you’re not allowed to criticize unless the subject in question is too bad to defend. You wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or be label toxic. Nothing is objective anymore, all subjective, objectivity is just hateful.
I get a bad vibe from this
"Starfield is like a frozen TV dinner that thinks it's a filet mignon steak." Nailed it, in the best campy way possible. Kudos.
7:11 brother I spent 23 hours looking for the story. I gave up, made paper planes for 3 hours in the shipbuilder, realized it was boring, haven't touched it since.
I am sooooo fcking glad I shelled out for a gaming rig, and ditched the console era for good especially xbox...
As when Starfield came out. I did same as you. Bought it. Janky mess....played for 100 hours total and felt empty.
I have no desire to go back at all.
Emil P, based on this speech, knows very little about the consumer. There are people above him that know far more about what the consumer wants, yet this guy is still able to have a job at BGS of all places. It's an enigma. Even though Emil mentions that players toss writing in the trash for Bethesda games specifically, even if that is true that the majority of people buying their games and playing them are doing so, it isn't an excuse to do a half-assed job, nor to take pride in the alternative which is the boss forcing you to take less time on it. Non-sensical garble.
I haven’t felt the need to comment in some time - BUT I have to for this one.
Emil needs to understand that when BGS games are released, yes we love the world, we love the “Simulation”, but those are all accents to why we truly play Bethesda games. We’re here for the lore that make the worlds come to life, we are here for the STORIES, the ROLEPLAYING DECISIONS, the BRANCHING QUESTLINES. The list goes on & on.
If this goes to show anything, it’s that we can expect Elder Scrolls 6 to be the entirety of Tamriel, but mediocre quests & writing, which wouldn’t interest any of us.
Lord have mercy on the fanbase going forward.
...and there it is. When the hardcore fans keep saying, it's a Bethesda game. Welp now you will always get it and they will never ever improve nor evolve. 👏
Exact same response scarlet and violet fans had "it's a Pokemon game".
@@ginyoo9118 I really cannot understand why they keep getting away with this. Oblivion and Skyrim is buggy as hell but somehow it's endearing?. Somehow people are very lenient and say "of course it's bugthesda whaddya expect?", I expect less bugs in my game please.
When I make a paper airplane out of New Vegas’ script it turns out to be an a10 Warthog. I can’t say the same with any of Bethesda’s games.
I've just been binging Luke content for the past few days and I have "he took my thing" in place of tinnitus
... Larian Studios hired writers to fill that weakness in Divinity.
I'm now figuring out how Chris Avellone and the people of Obsidian did better with New Vegas over anything like Fallout e or 4...
I'm one of the people that enjoyed starfield for the most part, but I definitely agree with you on the flaws of the game. They forgot what made their previous games good, and it wasn't infinite radiant quest, bland story telling with no stakes, and it wasn't procedural generation of the same assets on repeat, or stretching the play time forever by making you do chores that require you travel in nothingness for hours. I really gave the game a chance but they missed out on a lot of opportunities for the story line. They should have made the game take place during a time of war with the factions. They could have explored more into whoever made the temples. Make a space exploration game without aliens? WTF were they thinking.
I won't blame them for not putting aliens in Starfield. That was a legitimate creative decision, since their goal was to make a hard sci-fi story. Hard science fiction tries to be more grounded in reality and is based on what could theoretically be possible in the future. The problem is that Emil thinks he's like Isaac Asimov, when really he's closer to L. Ron Hubbard.
@@samvimes9510 I think even L. Ron Hubbard was a more creative writer than Emil, lol. He did inspire enough people with his sci-fi writing to create a “religion” after all. 😅
It seems like Emil is preemptively trying to cope with failure instead of trying harder to be successful. Like "I'll always be a C student so I'll learn to be okay with it instead of trying to get an A."
Many people tie their self-worth/self-identity so strongly into some aspect of who they are - whether it be their work, their love for a piece of media, their supposed skill at a particular activity - that any sort of criticism will be perceived as an attack, a moment of doubt that makes them question. And questioning can hurt.
Emil judging from that interview won't change, anymore than hardcore BGS fans won't change. For Emil to acknowledge his writing sucks, or for BGS fans to acknowledge that Bethesda aren't the titans they present themselves as, would be too much of an existential shock to the system for them.
I don't comment on the way people present themselves often but this dude pretty much exudes "I could write nobel tier literature tomorrow if I felt like it, but I don't".
"Great games are played not made" never made any sense to me, especially a term spoken from someone whose job is to make the game.
@@bobmcbobbington9220 I think at least originally for competent developers, the idea of the phrase is that a developer finds out the right and best game design through actually playing and testing the game and its ideas, rather than just sitting back and theorizing on its game design forever.
However the way Emil is using it, it seems it's supposed to communicate a Bethesda game design philosophy of providing a sandbox and letting players find their own emergent fun in it, rather than firmly directing the player's experience through a premade linear journey.
Or maybe it's something else idk. Either way, I don't think Emil and Bethesda have too much of a right (anymore) to talk about how great games are made when their games aren't great lol.
Emil implying he's capable of writing something good enough that people would actually want to read through it. Pure comedy.
BGS doesn't need to accept criticism. They're perfect amazing game developers, what could _anyone_ possibly criticize them for?
the failure of ES6 that will come after a few years😭😭
Ok emil
only the best game studios to ever exist can reskin the same game for over 10 years instead of creating new ones
Emil: [writes a boring story with no stakes and zero reason for player engagement]
Players: [ignore the story because it's boring]
Emil: See, I told you they'd just ignore it!!
Talk about self-fulfilling prophecies.
Emil’s approach:
1. Wait for the game to release
2. Read all the reviews
3. Ignore the reviews
4. Tell everyone who doesn’t like your game that they are stupid and do t know what they are talking about.
This refusal to accept criticism in the entertainment industry is just baffling at this point.
the toxic positivity everywhere is just sad.
I got an Asus Rog Ally extreme on sale recently and I was going to buy starfield as my first game for it. Instead I opted to buy kingdoms of amalur on sale for about $12. I am so happy that I did I am about 50 hours into the game and don't get me wrong it has its problems but it's also an incredible game. And I'm fascinated by the lore in world building it's got going on. The story is fine but what's keeping me engaged is the mystery in Wonder in the world in the whimsical graphics in the fun gameplay. I feel like I dodged a bullet here and I'm thoroughly enjoying sitting back in my bed every night after a long grueling day at work and playing some kingdoms of ambler on my rog ally. I also saved a bunch of money
Pretty much every character has unique dialogue, it's actually blowing me away. Amalur is as old as it is and it has so much unique dialogue and so many actually interesting quests and most importantly I feel like I'm playing an RPG. So I would like to thank Todd Howard and starfield for introducing me to kingdoms of amalur which is now one of my favorite RPGs of all time. My phone will be on silent as I lay in bed leveling up
no amount of Bethesda's upper management could explain what made people like skyrim, no matter how much time they got. they have never known.
this 100%
Which is funny because it's so simple. It's like the pre-Bethesda Fallouts and many other time sink games, it's a set of tools for you to make your own story. Starfield thinks that's what it is but instead it distracts you and fights you every step of the way. At no point playing Starfield could I forget I was playing a game, and a Bethesda game at that.
This!
They don't even know why Skyrim was so popular themselves...this is the core problem with moderb BGS games.
Stripped to bare bones, and now no endeering qualities whatsoever.
BGS ball lickers still out in full force.
I feel like people keep forgetting that Fallout and The Elder Scrolls were based on pre-established franchises and different teams. Todd took over after after Daggerfall and pretty much every Elder Scroll game released under his direction was considered a commercial failure by the company itself, until Morrowind. Morrowind was just a revision of the classical pillars of Julian LeFay's Elder Scroll design. Sure they brought the game into a fully polygonal, visual aesthetic but it was a return to the original design. Oblivion and Skyrim were just revisions of their predecessors. Starfield attempted to used pillars of a design that didn't fit the games direction and was a testament to how much those early developers and their designs contributed to Elder Scrolls games and their success. I feel too many people discount that a "team" contributes to the overall experience of a game, and many members of teams that worked on those earlier titles are no longer there.
No one person is ever responsible for the entirety of a game, and every design that was successfully can't just be applied to another game.
Bethesda used to make weird, wacky, and odd NPCs doing weird, wacky, and odd things. Then they decided to become serious and boring.
for 'wider audiences'
Yeah, I was really reminded of that when going back to the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion. There you had an entire collection of unique characters to interact with. Now they're just facelss nobodies offering nothing but varying shades of weakly flavored vanilla.
The Hunter, Barett and Vasco are weird wacky and odd. The problem is they don't do much with these characters.
@@yonghominale8884 I like Vasco, but Barrett doesn't work. "Oh look at me, giving away my organisations only ship because I'm so quirky" reads like a story written by a child. I don't think Barretts quirkyness is enough for it to be immersive. Because even if characters are whacky, I still want the illusion it could be real when I play it.
Even after I finished and stopped playing BG3 months ago, I still get the occasional itch to replay the game, especially when I see they drop a major update/patch. In contrast, I booted up Starfield after they added the Rover, just to see if the experience would have been better after almost a year of fixes and updates. Played a few hours and when work got in the way for a few days after, I never got back the motivation to pick up where I left off. It's really telling of the game's foundations when I compare the experience I've had with both.
16 times the boredom.
08:16 he was expecting applauses and got confused when there were none :D
They let ChatGPT handle the criticism.
I remember a speech by some small video game writer. She talked that writing a story for a video game is different than books, movies etc. and the most important thing is that "the story can never get in the way of the gameplay... but it doesn't mean that the story can't be good".
I have zero confidence and excitement for Elder Scrolls 6.
Hi Luke! It's the George Lucas effect. Back when the original Star Wars were being made Lucas was surrounded by wild-eyed whip-smart creatives who actually knew what it was they were trying to make (a campy sci fi adventure with just enough serious bits to make it fun). Then when Lucas got full control over it, and was high on his own supply thinking he was the genius behind it all, what did we get? 9 hours of people walking through CGI hotel lobbies talking about taxes (with action mixed in). The camp was gone. Instead, we got Jar Jar, which is a perfect analog to George's unsophisticated/immature understanding of what "camp" is. He built those movies wearing cinder block gloves. There is zero subtly or coolness to any of them.
Bethesda is much the same. All the people who made the older games cool and campy (and understood what it is they were making) have either left the company or are dead (you should look up Adam Adamowicz (RIP), who basically did all of the concept art for Fallout 3 and most of it for Skyrim, he REALLY got it). So over time, as all the creatives went away, the guys who were left at the top - who were also high on their own supply - get a shot at brand new AAA IP. And what did we get? A loading screen simulator where the plot of the game takes place AFTER ALL THE COOL STUFF HAPPENED. They literally could have placed the game IN THE COLONY WARS and had some meaty subject matter to work with. Instead, they made a game that feels like I'm having an HR zoom call in space about half-baked multiverse concepts and vaguely disgruntled factions.
BGS is the idiot who won the lottery and now thinks they're a self made billionaire entrepreneur.
Oliver Swanick from New Vegas vibes
"YeAaAaHhhhh WhO oNe ThE LOtTeRy, I dID!?!?!"
Emil is an easy target cause he actually is in a decision making position. He constantly gloats about his work and Bethesda being the best. And he genuinely doesn't see the issues. He is very high off his own fumes. A lot of people basically overcompensate defending him as well due to how much hate he has gotten just for his writing. Which it should be hard to defend the writer who just flat out admitted he dumbs down all the stories on purpose.
He has gotten so good at the PR speak that this is just the way he talks now. To the point he has fooled himself it's all true.
Well, Emil's speech explains why I haven't enjoyed a Bethesda Softworks game since Skyrim.
I actually care about the story and the context behind my actions. I enjoy a well-crafted narrative with some actual structure and cleverness. It's one of the main reasons why I just replayed Arkham Asylum for the 6th time. I replayed Mass Effect 7 times because the story was that good. Good gameplay is important, but a gripping campaign keeps you coming back for more.
Fallout 4 felt vapid and pointless. I spent 8 hours with that game and was bored to tears. It seemed to expect me to devote dozens of hours to building towns that it couldn't be bothered to craft itself, so that I could get crafting materials to grind up gear for more procedurally generated garbage. The factions I ran across all seemed horribly written, the dialogue was atrocious, and I found it flabbergasting that in 14 years Bethesda went from the apex of TES: Morrowind to such a nadir.
Then I saw Starfield. Fallout 4 is Shakespeare compared to Starfield.
Doesn't help that in lieu of decent writing and stories, players get... the same jank, bugs, and lack of polish. Bethesda Softwork games are the only videogames I have to FIX MYSELF before playing. "Well, gotta get some mods going to fix the terrible level scaling, and improve the amount of gold merchants carry, and fix the awful carrying capacity limits, and bypass the terrible attribute system, and fix the scaling loot so I don't get cheated out of a great weapon because I did the quest too soon, and make a bunch of NPCs invulnerable because good guys don't respawn but bad guys do infinitely... so eventually the world winds up empty. OR, I could play a well-crafted game that doesn't need to do all of the above just to have a good time. Is The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion worth this kind of hassle?"
Edit addition: I have very little hope for The Elder Scrolls VI at this point. I expect a terrible story, a broken janky experience, awful cliches, an obsession with the mythical modern audience, incessant loading screens, and excessive numbers of poorly conceived time-wasting systems like the outpost building mechanic that has been crammed into every game since the Hearthfire Skyrim DLC.
The amount of players still saying its amazing because they’re too absolutely mortified to admit it’s way below power is staggering. If they carry on saying it’s amazing then that’s the benchmark of what they’ll get in the future and they’re welcome to it.
1:59 that's is definitely what she said 😂😂
It pisses me off how the fan favorite Bethesda style game, Fallout New Vegas, will never be in the discussion of Bethesda because they didn't develop that game. It matches both quality and camp in just about every aspect of it better than Bethesda has done in the last 15 years.
6:40 theyre calling bethesda gamers stupid hoarders and its honestly not that far off from the truth considering they keep buying slop after slop to fill inventories
That's everybody man. Everyone has something. You too. Some ppl buy bad games and some vote for the wrong ppl. Were all in that club.
@@MadKurupt I've never heard another dev team insult their customers this way.
Bethesda games have been mediocre for a long time and modders constantly do their work for them. Imagine Bethesda without mods lol
I find it wild that, using the same toolbox as BGS, Obsidian managed to craft new Vegas in less than 2 years and it ended up becoming a cult classic...
The bar for RPGs has been raised.
-The Witcher 3
-Cyberpunk 2077
-BG3
-The Last of Us
-God of War
-Read Dead Redemption 1 and 2
-Ghost of Tsushima
-Elden Ring
You can`t be re-releasing Skyrim-light with Guns and Space Shouts, Sprinckled with Loading Screen Simulator, A.k.a.: Starfield, and expect people to praise your minimal effort.
There are some fundamentals in Starfield that is amazing, and most people won`t know:
-Photo Mode creates new loading Screens with the photos you took!
-You can build Ships, that is an awesome mechanic, you can walk inside your own built ship! Why haven`t they focus on this? it would`ve been its own thing, and it would`ve been amazing for this mechanic alone.
Missed opportunities:
-You can build settlements and your own base to farm resources, this is a fun mechanic, but why Fallout 4 had it even better than Starfield? and why your base gets deleted every new "Unit"? Why can`t you build a Space Station that goes into the unit with the player so he saves his base and progress for new subsequent playthroughs?
-If writing is not their focus because players won`t engage with it, why didn`t they put more effort into gameplay? (No Mans Sky didn`t had a good narrative or story, actually zero at the start and still very successful), like Melee weapons all have the same movement and attack speed... like what? you have skyrim and fallout 4 melee animations, just import those into Starfield, why so lazy?
-Why vehicle was added 1 year later instead of on-release? Zero gameplay dynamic effort, why these people make videogames?
-They could just have transformed this game into a sandbox with no narrative, like, okay here are some factions, go play in this sandbox space game, build your own space empire using skyrim-space magic, build bigger ships and have fun boarding enemy vessels, stealing ships and making them your own, fight huge waves and hordes of enemies, defeat and destroy factions, and get bigger and bigger, and you can reset for NG+ where you are slightly stronger for the new playthrough. It would`ve been more akin to a AA game VS AAA, but I can guarantee you we would see more than 30K concurrent players on Steam, by simply making a fun, addicting, engaging gameplay.
Now they added all this BS narrative that is both boring, uninspiring and sometimes an insult to actual writers, which serves zero purpose to zero people, the gamers that love gameplay will not play Starfield, the people who loves narrative driven RPGs won`t play Starfield, and only people with no self awareness and no sense of respect for themselves are the ones that will stick to this game on the long run, and those numbers are fairly small, so by putting effort into the wrong place, Starfield actually got worse.
Emil isn't joking. He has even tweeted that he doesn't check reviews.
This is not just a Bethesda problem apparently lol 🙈
There's an interview with Miyazaki where he says Armored Core 'isn't quite perfect' and 'still has room for improvement' and that's the difference between Fromsoft and BGS
The Emperor ordered me to confiscate your Titus Statue
The codex astartes does not condone this action
“Great games are played not made” is one of the stupidest quotes that gets worse the more you actually try to dissect it.
Todd Howard is egoistic
I think this explains why I was never into Skyrim when everyone else was. I just found it ugly and looked incomplete in every way.
I still feel this way about bethesda games. The only one that I actually played and liked was New Vegas.
I find this topic super interesting. In 10 years time this will be a case study on how rigid company structures and key personnel that overstayed their time can ruin company culture and therefore output. Just like Nokia is now a case study for failed innovation management. Somewhere Economics students will learn about this if they have a cool professor.
@@gnucompiler You really don't need to try this. I'm perfectly capable of forming my own Opinions and more so after playing Starfield extensively and having an incredibly mediocre experience. I will agree with Luke on some things and I will disagree on others. Having an economics background I can definitely tell you that there are severe problems in the management structure at BGS. A failure to properly implement agile processes beyond it being just a buzzword and a incapability to reflect on the own relative position in the industry are absolutely apparent.
You are attaching yourself way to much to a brand and a product, so you feel the need to attack others to validate yourself. You can like Starfield all you want. I don't care! But don't attack the majority that clearly sees all of it's shortcomings.
@@Ample17 Sorry but what the fuck does your background in economics have to do with how Bethesda is ran? You have no clue mate, because you aren't there, and you aren't involved. Fuck me you sound delusional.
@@Ample17 As I said in another comment, one thing that astounds me about Lukeypoo and his horde of minions (I don't even understand how he has them). You're all smug, smarmy and you seem to think you're a lot more intelligent than you actually are.
"Ooo look at me, I have a background in economics, because of this I know exactly how BGS operate, it's almost as if my background in economics is as good as working there" is what you should've said. Man, stfu.
gonna get a coffee for this one, looks like going to be a fun watch
The only way they will learn, is if no one plays or buys ES6. Vote with your wallets.
Look at the steam charts more people are playing fallout 4 or skyrim despite starfield being their new game and on top of it they just released an expansion the game is an abject failure and they're lucky it was on gamepass or it would have been a more obvious commercial failure
es6 will be on gamepass so the xbox crowd will play it regardless. but as a playstation/nintendo console player I'm not sad Bethesda is Xbox & PC only now. I don't feel like i'm missing out on anything by them being exclusive 😂
Elder Scrolls 6 will probably be much better purely by accident alone. Returning to something like Skyrim style play will go a long way towards hiding all the flaws in the game engine rather than slapping you in the face with them. It'll have their most detailed map ever but you'll only be able to play as an Argonian skooma addict searching for your kidnapped cousin who you'll find on his deathbed after a four hour story arc and he'll leave you his struggling fruit stand in his will. After that it'll all be about using construction tools to build the grandest fruit stand in the Empire.
Comparing Starfield to Fallout and Elder Scrolls is next level delusional 🤣
UUUH another Starfield video. Cant wait for mad Starfield fanboys getting mad over it on X
the game isn't perfect but i do not think that its that bad cause there are far worse games out there this year alone
@@forhyrule8428 it's twitter
@@christonchev9762 "not that bad" =/= good
A mediocre game. @@christonchev9762
no mans sky still exists
I think the problem I had with starfield and even a bit with fallout 4 is there isn't as much grounding in lore and worldbuilding to offset the campy feel. Like in Skyrim, if the writing was not great, it could at least use the lore and immersive worldbuilding as a crutch to fill in any blanks. Without that basis to prop up the worse elements of the game, starfield just collapses for me.
That clip is exactly what ive always kind of felt about Bethesda games i just couldnt put my finger on it; i was always frustrated because i end up coming away from their games sort of unimpressed and sort of bored.
He really thinks Starfield is in the same league as the Fallout and TES series. He is truly delusional.
Art is supposed to be criticized. If you don't want your art to be criticized, then keep it to yourself. The idea that a business believes that it can ignore the feedback and criticism from the consumer base is completely asinine.
Thinking of BGS as an overgrown double-A studio seems really fitting in my mind. And yeah, I don't think they have any clue why Skyrim was so popular, and in fairness I also don't know, but it's not my job to know.
I remember chatting with my partner about Starfield a few weeks after it's launch, trying to figure out how it could have been successful while largely being the same product. What we came up with was a $40 price tag, and a simultaneous launch with some rigorous modding tools, and a Minecraft-style mod storefront (with verified creators, unverified mods). Now all those empty planets aren't boring, they're a canvas for the community to build cool stuff. The lack of randomly generated points of interest just lets you add your own. Invite popular mod authors (HothTrooper44, Elianora, EnaiSaion, etc) to make some cool content ahead of the launch to help add value right away. Highlight their work in marketing materials. idk I hope someone reads this and share their thoughts lol I'd love to hear what people think about this idea
"We can do no wrong, it's you that's the problem." - Famous Last Words
Starfield does not offers bandidolatry in main game, this is the reason for so much criticism and demand for perfection. Soon the new GTA will come out and they will call it perfection or praise it.
There is a difference between a self-aware, campy project and a project that just turns out to be campy because it is bad
Toxic positivity is one hell of a drug
It's definitely not a short DLC if you do all side content and explore all the locations. If you enjoy it, that's another matter. I didn't think it was too bad but definitely could have been better.
Todd Howard here
New vegas 2 is in development
This time the entire western america will be explorable
You're welcome
Can you really argue it's different when people were calling this Skyrim Space edition before and long after launch
I think it's time for some house cleaning at Bethesda.