Bethesda Responds to the Starfield DLC Criticism, talks about moving to Unreal Engine for Future.

[@What_do_I_Think]

Moving to another engine might be good, technically -- but it does not give better writing nor better quests.

[@gameoverinsertcointocontin8102]

Yes, the engine problems are only half of the issues. The problems are in the writing and gameplay design areas. Also switching engines will likely kill or severely limit future mod support.

[@What_do_I_Think]

@@gameoverinsertcointocontin8102 That is correct. Mod support also depends on the engine used. I am no modder myself, but I can imagine, that with Unreal things will go in a completely different ballpark.

[@wolfgang4534]

UE will kill mods, and is by no means a way to make bethesda games better. Also...saying they may switch engine....in 2024...when they announced it in 2018? Yeah we're not going to have it before 2035.

[@Bulsara777]

@@What_do_I_Think UE5 isn't as moddable as Creation Engine, but Bethesda, could (I know they won't) create complete modding tool and api to give official modding support since their games are known for modding, enabling modding on a similar level or even higher than before, like Larian did with Baldur's Gate 3. The difference is Larian did it for free, Bethesda will probably put a price tag on those mods like they tried to do before.

[@lordfizzz]

Yes even if they completely rebuild an engine, that's just one symptom of what plagues Bethesda. Poor leadership, shitty design, and weak weak weak writing

[@foxwithagun2540]

I'm confused to their logic: "let's hype this game to be BIGGER and BETTER than anything we've ever produced", but at the same time say: "players are expecting too much from us."

[@nashooo5903]

Excuse me for having high expectations for a game+dlc priced at 100 fkin dollars lol

[@chawzwan]

and suddenly after bigger and better than anything before.... suddenly new engine xD basically already hyping people for their new shit product they bring out, all that while trying to put the shitstorm they got under the carpet.

[@Nesdude42]

EXACTLY

[@the_real_inquisitor]

Don't think about it. Just consume product. Get excited for next product.

[@BONKSHLOB]

high risk high reward

[@DigitalApex]

"Emil, don't treat us like we're dumb." He has openly stated in a slideshow presentation, in front of an audience of people, that he doesn't put effort into writing anything good because he thinks players will just ignore it anyway. Which is hilarious for two reasons. One; he creates this self-fullfilling prophecy because of his bad writing, players ignore it for being bad. Two; That is some _massive_ cope for being told by a vast majority of players that he can't write anything good. He just goes "Nuh-uh, I'm actually a good writer. I just write garbage on purpose because you wouldn't understand otherwise." This man is singlehandedly dragging Bethesda down.

[@itsmatt517]

He’s right some players will ignore the writing and then there are some players who won’t. Surely they should be making their games for everyone who plays them?

[@RevyaAeinsett]

​@@itsmatt517Yeah, it's such a pathetic and lazy mentality. "Some players won't appreciate my hard work so I'll just make sure there's nothing for the other players to appreciate either." What a child.

[@deanjustdean7818]

@@itsmatt517 The best way to make anything interactive is to assume that all of your players will go over your story with a fine-toothed comb. Because as the real Fallouts have proven, they will.

[@Nickname863]

"Nuh-uh" is truly a great defense spell

[@the_real_inquisitor]

I'm a modder for FO games and I talk to people about level design and storylines of mods. The amount of thought put into it is insane, with hundreds of pages and diagrams. Yes, there is a big chance most people won't think that much about the story. But if just 10% of the players can appreciate the game even more because of the story, than it's a total win. Specially if you actually try to tell a story with deep. Emily can't write for shit, but he's only a part of the reason for the bad quality games Bethesda vomits out.

[@DavidAndrews-eb7gm]

‘Making games is hard’ is a legitimate response to criticism if it’s your first game and you gave it away for free.

[@PHDarren]

Plus, all jobs are hard. If any jobs were easy and well paid we'd all be doing them.

[@AretaicGames]

My standard reply to that kind of nonsense is: "Sure, making games is hard, and it's clear you're not up to the challenge. Perhaps you should try your luck in some other line of work."

[@arostwocents]

When they got rid of all staff and replaced them with human tick boxes, it is their first game on the whole.

[@arostwocents]

​@@AretaicGamesbrilliant

[@BungieStudios]

@@AretaicGamesMore like don't charge me $60+ for a live service game if you cannot support it. Stick with box games and charge me according to your ability.

[@AkaRystik]

His "no ego, no arrogance" line after saying shit like shattered space is the best dlc they've ever made is almost funny.

[@pigpuke]

That guy is made out of pure ego and arrogance topped with hubris.

[@ianweir3608]

Almost

[@Oozaru85]

He said Starfield is "in some ways" the best game they have ever made. Whatever that means.

[@ellyjockey6164]

"No ego, no arrogance" is exactly what someone's hubris would say...

[@pigpuke]

@@Oozaru85 The only way I can think is that Starfield is the only game of theirs you feel better and enjoy yourself more when you stop playing it. ¬¸¬

[@alargefarva4274]

They can cry and stomp all they want, my back log is calling!

[@octavianpopescu4776]

I liked Starfield, but I didn't get the DLC, so speaking of backlog... Fallout New Vegas it is.

[@alargefarva4274]

@@octavianpopescu4776great choice! I just picked up Rimworld on sale.

[@jonathansoko1085]

Instead of buying this DLC I went and bought visions of mana. Usually when I'm 40 or 50 hours into a game I'm kind of tired and I just want to end it. Yet I didn't want the game to end I just wanted the journey to go on. I clearly made a very good purchase decision there

[@TourFaint]

I can stay disinterested longer than they can stay solvent

[@avalonjustin]

@@octavianpopescu4776 I'm still playing NV! Grunt perk for LMG and Marksman Carbine😎

[@Mithrevan]

Why is the industry so full of people who either hates Gamers, or just going through the motions and have no passion for games? This Emil guy is a real hack

[@tylerhill40]

They see the gaming industry as a business opportunity, a platform for politics and social engineering, and a way to springboard their careers.

[@fffrrraannkk]

The industry is full of people who prioritize things other than fun/innovation, and pushed a lot of the people out who do.

[@bdbgh]

Money

[@daveJenkins-q3t]

Because they're in terminally decline, in a rotten dead industry..can't change . , and want to try to ignore problems because that's the only option

[@Neptunes_Bounty]

​@@daveJenkins-q3tPlay indie games bro. Stop being a doomer.

[@PaperFlare]

I agree with a lot of your points, but honestly, I think you're giving Emile too much benefit of doubt. The problem is, for people like me who believe Bethesda has been on a downward trend since FO3 (an unpopular position, I know), we've seen this song and dance from Emile for over 15 years. He's a classic narcissist. He believes himself to be the universe's gift to game design and writing. He's mocked players, critics, and even his fellow devs for even longer than he's been at Bethesda. I see him say "players have too high of expectations about the story," and think to myself that can certainly be true, but then I remember that 10 years ago he said players were gormless morons who can't appreciate stories so they need to be dumbed down. He's not speaking in good faith, and we need to recognize it as such.

[@J.B.1982]

He's the guy that said "people will be spending 30 hours building wooden shacks, anyway (so the story doesn't matter that much)"

[@lucyla9947]

Personally with Emil's stance on storytelling I see a lot of similarities with the "Should've just Written a Book" DM. In TTRPGs the goal is to create a fun story as a group, while the DM controls most of the world, the Players are the main characters and they should be able to make impactful decisions. However some DMs don't give the Players this power, they instead keep it to themselves and railroad the Players down their chosen path regardless of what they actually mean to do. Which at that point, why play a communal storytelling game? Just write a Book. Emil reminds me of that, he has this idea of a brilliant story he wants to tell, but instead of taking into account that he's trying to design an RPG where players typically expect to be able to make choices, he instead views any player who deviates from his chosen path as someone ruining his precious story. So players aren't allowed to make impactful decisions, and railroaded down his preferred path. Which at that point, write a book, or make a linear game.

[@ninjatreefrog9346]

@@lucyla9947there’s really nothing wrong with that though, provided it’s a good story and the reason for the lack of choice makes sense. The problem with Bethesda’s writing is that it isn’t, and doesn’t. But linear games without branching narratives can still be very good. Even if they are essentially just “interactive movies”. Sony is really well known for this. You don’t have any choice in how the story plays out, but you play them anyways. Partially for the gameplay, but also because they are good stories.

[@lucyla9947]

@@ninjatreefrog9346 I never said it couldn't be good. However Starfield and basically all Bethesda games aren't marketed as Linear, when discussing game design people at Bethesda talk about wanting to give players choices, which doesn't work well if your Head Writer is a "Should've just written a book" style of Writer. Linear games can be Great yes, but if Emil wants to do a Linear Story, then he should go work on Linear games, not choice-based RPGs like Bethesda Games are apparently supposed to be.

[@pimpmywiki]

Emil is a hack writer that failed upward. Bring back Michael Kirkbride and give him any salary he asks for, plus copious amounts of whatever illicit substance he was on when he wrote his best Morrowind TES lore!

[@RabbitPrimeGaming]

I think if Shattered Space was $10 everything would be fine. They're just so out of touch and egotistical. Phantom Liberty, Blood and Wine, Hearts of Stone, Broken Steel, Dawnguard, hell even Hearthfire were fucking BANGER DLC's. And the only one that costs $30 is Phantom Liberty.

[@DasFork]

We just gonna ignore horse armour, huh?

[@Varangian_af_Scaniae]

I have bought 3 new games for under €20 the last 2 month. Lots of fun have I had.

[@spawnofapathy]

This is one of those things where I don’t want us to confuse the publishing side of games with the development side. At this point it could be the same people that pick the prices of Office 365 subscriptions also came up with the $30 price for Shattered Space. But that being said I do think BGS is developing games in a bubble and are out of touch. I doubt anyone in charge of creative decisions and direction of game design has played any space game or RPG in the last 10-15 years. Games made in a fraction of the time feel like the worlds have more depth snd scope to them. There are plenty of examples of what players like, want, and expect.

[@kenmck7802]

Emiiill and Bethesda should do what Hello Games did. HEAR the criticism, TAKE the criticism theeennn SHUT the hell UP, put your heads down and GO TO WORK annnddd NEVER stop.

[@Doki_LP]

Wouldn't be profitable for them. Hello games basically made content for free that big companies would've charged 30 dollars each.

[@AretaicGames]

Hello Games was able to redeem No Man's Sky by adding to it, again and again, only occasionally having to step back to rework some basic mechanics of the game. (Disclaimer: I've been along for the ride with NMS since launch.) The problem with Starfield is that, in order to fix it, they would have to *remove* much of the game and rebuild it from scratch, including that dismal, undercooked main "story". You can't fix it by just adding stuff, especially not when that stuff is as lackluster as Shattered Space.

[@ectogamut]

Most likely they'll end up doing what the new Halo Studios did: get reorganized by the higher-ups in Microsoft

[@slckb0y65]

at this point, i genuinely beleive most western game dev couldn't possibly make a good game if they genuinely tried. DEI, metoo and all the rest of the woke crap have already f'ed everything up, people of talent have seen how the game is played nowadays too many times. why bust your rear end when the promotion will go to anyone else but you just because they're POC, LGBT, wahmen, ... and even if you keep a low profile, who's to say you will not get falsely accused anyway just cause one of them want your position ?

[@SchmokinJoe]

Shutting up and getting to work are the key points.

[@gloweye]

My takeaway from this is that TES 6 is so early in development that they can switch engine. As in, they basically haven't started development work on it at all a good decade after the initial "we're working on it" announcement. I honestly didn't think I could be this disappointed. The me of 5 minutes ago is apparently a sweet summer child for thinking my faith in Bugthesda was already rock-bottom.

[@Rietto]

Yeah, if they're thinking of swapping engines at this point this means the game can't be very far along. What a letdown.

[@Largentina.]

Wait. Before this statement were you guys under the impression that they were far into development?

[@KneppaH]

I've got the same feeling with Starfield. The game looks and plays as if it was only in active development for 2 or 3 years. I think they were busy fixing Fallout 76 and only started full development on Starfield in 2020/2021. I don't believe that F76 was made by a different team. They only said that as a scapegoat for negative criticism.

[@thesupreme8062]

The game was teased a long ass time ago, i was under the expectations that we wouldve gottent it by 2026/7​@Largentina.

[@DisDatK9]

@@thesupreme8062That is a totally fair assumption, but remember the context for the “reveal trailer”? It came right smack dab in the middle of all of the Fallout 76 controversies. Todd and Bethesda just revealed it to try to quiet the anger and frustration everyone was pointing at them. I had a strong feeling that was the case from the initial reveal, but after learning of the potential engine switch it confirmed that was the case.

[@QuiteSpiffing]

"Players have too high expectations." Maybe stop overhyping us then, Emil? -And you too, Todd. You are the ones setting the expectations, not us.

[@MerlinCross13]

15x the Detail TODD

[@rickhapstley3866]

Expectations imply standards. Bethesda's standards for the games they have made the last past years are simply not up to par with the industry nor by their own. I Just want them to make an actual RPG again

[@nashooo5903]

Well excuse me for having high expectations for a DLC priced higher than most full games lol

[@Walt_Chocolate]

Apparently, they took the phrase, "A game made for everyone, is a game for no one," a little too close to heart.

[@pigpuke]

"Make a game any idiot can play and only an idiot will play it."

[@jollyredgiant203]

It's supposed to be a warning not a mission statement lol

[@Smittenz1]

I have too many games I either haven't played or finished to waste my time on games that I find subpar.

[@bogdany.4505]

This is the ultimate redpill, not all games deserve to be played

[@Mkrause762]

@@Smittenz1 dark messiah is 100x the game Starfield is

[@NordsternLP]

If an employee screws up regularly, insults customers and simply does not deliver quality work just to ague: "listen, boss, you don't get it. Work is hard and your expectations are unreasonable. So just get over it and keep paying me." Any guess what would happen to that employee?

[@mattymerr701]

They get promoted to lead writer?

[@Varangian_af_Scaniae]

Different world when on top...

[@qwesx]

What do you mean? There's a 0 % chance that PR and management _didn't_ sign off all of that. He keeps being employed because he does what he is supposed to do.

[@rodrigobogado8756]

​@@qwesxhe keeps working there because he is friend with Todd and other executives

[@NordsternLP]

@@qwesx You're most likely right. That was, however, not what I meant. If a company hopes to make money by delivering entertainment, we, the customers pay them if we are entertained. If the company, may it be Bethesda, Ubisoft, Sony or any other, deliveres sloppy work time and time again, why should we keep paying them? If the situation were reversed, with us as their employees, they would not accept this. So, why should we?

[@TheUncutAngel]

Bethesda out here talking like they're indie developers.

[@cjs4247]

They have hundreds of people working on their games and don’t have a design doc.

[@Aleera616]

Everything these people say makes much more sense if we acknowledge that they never talk to their costumers but always to shareholders, investors, managers and other people who don't play games but want to make money off of games. Whenever they address costumers, it is in a way that they think looks good from the outside and never in a way that's actually addressing people who play games. Funnily enough, that's also how Starfield plots and dialogue are written

[@darkshamrock5763]

Emil sounds like someone who’s made his bag ( or made it to the top) and doesn’t care what anyone says about his product.

[@wreagfe]

He feels untouchable, and given all the information that we have, he's not wrong by feeling that.

[@martiananomaly]

While the engine is a problem, its relatively minor compared to bigger problems like bad management, bad writing, toxic positivity, executive delusion, etc.

[@Axterix13]

On the plus side, though, that they are considering swapping engines means the criticism is getting through. And that means less toxic positivity, less executive delusion, and potentially realizing the need to improve in other areas like the writing as well.

[@lordfizzz]

Executive delusion big time

[@Homiloko2]

@@Axterix13 Solving a lesser problem without any signs of solving the main issues is not a good sign. If anything, they're just shifting the blame. For all we know, the end result could be even WORSE than Starfield.

[@Mkrause762]

They’re so disconnected from what the people who play their games actually want it’s so frustrating, imagine if after demon souls From Software released a shitty hack and slash game. They’ve been going in the exact wrong direction for 19+ years

[@RRRRRRRRR33]

@@Homiloko2 Yep, I agree with that sentiment. Bethesda is infested with issues, but the engine is at the core of all these problems, by ignoring the core the rest of the structure will remain flawed. If it reaches a point were modders are giving up left and right, even those people who are blindly following Bethesda around like a bunch of slaves, then really, it's hard to justify the engine any longer

[@josephtucker7181]

Tbh the engine being bad is a cop out a good dev team can make a good enjoyable game within its limitations.

[@J.B.1982]

The modding scene is testament to this.

[@Tuxedo512]

there's people making games in the doom engine from the 90s, there's no excuse

[@ezka3037]

No good devs left there

[@thebreadbringer]

Like New Vegas. They had to make it in 18 months and had so little experience with the engine that they hired an Oblivion modder to help them. And despite its technical flaws, it's leagues ahead of anything Bethesda has made since Morrowind.

[@dasik84]

It's only the haters (especially those who don't even know what an engine actually is and does) who complain about the engine. The studio itself has never - not even once - complained about their engine.

[@jferrin90]

Bethesda: "Your Expectations for ES6 will not be met", meanwhile Larian: "We don't know if we can meet our expectations on our next game, its so abitious."

[@ADreamingTraveler]

Larian and CDPR are so ahead of Bethesda who are stuck in the past now.

[@EddieTheBunny]

A lot of things people don’t seem to realize that Starfield isn’t as deep as Fallout or Elder Scrolls. It was a regression. It isn’t just the fact that the formula is the same. The game mechanics are just more shallow and we’ve been seeing them do this over time with each release. Every game is getting more streamlined and more hollow than the last. It doesn’t just feel outdated, it feels older than their older titles.

[@Edax_Royeaux]

What were they thinking, introducing leveled gear? Best thing about Fallout 4 was that if you had a business build, you could buy some of the best armor at a low level to compensate for your poor combat stats. With leveled gear, you're constantly navigating the awful UI replacing things or comparing stats, legendary abilities, and deal with galactic trade authorities that barely have any money to buy your obsolete junk. You can't just go to Bunker Hill, buy the Black Ops chest piece and not have to worry about chest armor for the next 30 hours of gameplay.

[@samael4550]

Oblivion becoming as popular as it did is what ruined Bethesda. Every game they’ve made since then has been an attempt to dumb down the formula and appeal to more ‘casual’ audiences. Fallout 3, 4, 76, and of course, Skyrim. All but 76 have a lot going for them, but they also have tons of issues which mostly stem from trying to dumb down the mechanics. Oblivion is also the game that gave Emil most of his notoriety and got him promoted to senior writer of multiple games since then (for some reason, his writing in that game is shit too).

[@Ja256]

@@samael4550 Oblivion really was the beginning of the end, just in comparison with vanilla Morrowind so many things were removed or dumbed down, I was disappointed even as a kid.

[@Rob0tacon]

Starting to become concerned over literally every developer moving to Unreal

[@M_CFV]

i love TAA blurry slop and shader pipeline traversal stuttering, dont you?

[@ectogamut]

They could use Microsoft's own ForzaTech engine or idTech engine, but then you run into the same problem: not as many people to recruit who already know those engines.

[@oficado58]

Industry standard can be good in that any dev can come in and automatically know how to use the tools... HOWEVER speaking as an artist -- things like adobe are objectively worse programs now that they have a stranglehold on the entire industry and they know it.

[@andreww4751]

@@oficado58 i'm still using cs3 it covers 99.9% of all my needs and it's faster than all its succesors.

[@1O1O11]

@@oficado58 Hard to find a good balance. I personally use Unreal for all my development and have never had a problem with the company. However, things can change quickly when so much money is on the table, and having concern for the future of Unreal is certainly a logical reaction to the current climate of the game industry.

[@lazurusknight2724]

"Bridge to the devs" but refused to let the game get reviewed before it released. It's all bs, their team hasn't said a single honest thing in years.

[@canaldecasta]

Plagiarulo must get the boot. Happy im not giving him and the likes of him money.

[@TheBHAitken]

When a performer gets booed at a performance, it is NEVER the audience's fault. Please remember that.

[@kireta21]

"our developers worked hard and possionately on this project, and we are not ashamed of the outcome" That's the issue Bethesda, you should be ashamed. "Working hard" means nothing, if you end up doing a bad job. If anything, it suggests serious lack of competence, if "working hard and passionately" only gets you so far.

[@gellister]

On a planet with 7 billion people, there are people who like pretty much anything because that is how large the sample size is. People liking Starfield proves nothing.

[@itsmatt517]

8 billion

[@ADreamingTraveler]

People like bad games and will play slop. Doesn't mean it's good

[@gellister]

@@itsmatt517 I always forget we breached that barrier as a species... Yes... 8 billion for now. Birth rates and all that.

[@TheWarlock97]

Let’s just remember, Bethesda had the cojones to try and tell people on steam “don’t believe your lying eyes” lol

[@jaredrobinson7071]

I don't think the engine is the problem. Modders for years have been able to fix most of the bugs in the creation engine. It's a problem about passion and pride. Bethesda has too much pride to admit when someone does something better than them, so they ignore it instead of trying to implement it. And Bethesda doesn't have the passion to go back into their engine and put in the work required to fix it. If they can't do that they won't have the passion or the humility required to make a good game no matter what engine they are in.

[@KneppaH]

Exactly. A billion dollar game studio should have no problems with fixing and adapting their engine. It should also be no issue to hire competent programmers and coders. It's cheaping out on people for maximum profit. The creation engine should rival UE5 by this time, if they had put the work in it through all of those years.

[@akiranara6404]

Yeah, everyone saying "the engine is the problem" clearly doesn't know much about game engines. There _can_ be engine bugs and the like, but Beth already deals with those, and they've altered the Creation Engine a lot over time to make the sort of games they want to make. (Hell, they rebranded from Gamebryo to Creation because they realized there was so little code from the original Gamebryo engine in their existing codebase that they could just rename it and not pay any licensing fees.) Switching engines means switching tooling, retraining staff, writing new code so you can even make the sort of games you're used to... it's generally not worth doing unless you've got a horrifying level of programming debt and cruft built up, and I don't think Bethesda's at that point yet. (Also everyone's switching to Unreal these days and I think that a monopoly's starting to form, which is really not good.) The real problem is the lack of quality writing and designing, which no amount of engine switching can fix. They should hire Chris Avellone to write more games for them, unless he's been involved in some scandal I'm unaware of. He did some great work on the New Vegas DLCs. Yes those are old examples by now, but... well, there are plenty of good writers and designers in the industry these days.

[@Nando_Prime]

​@@akiranara6404 pretty sure he or Josh sawer had some scandal (not huge compared to nowdays)

[@DakalaShade]

@@akiranara6404 Creation engine's pretty ancient, but yeah, it's _not_ the problem. Sure, it's a renamed Gamebryo engine, which itself stands on the shoulders of NetImmerse (Ever wonder why models for swords, armor, guns, and bodies are .nif files? Now you know - NetImmerse Format), but the engine's solid enough to build a good game on it. The problem, as you said, is that they've quit caring about a good story, about quality writing, about quest design. Let's face it - even the most mundane fetch quest in Oblivion had to be hand-crafted. You had to come up with an item, a reason it went missing, a location it ended up in, and something guarding it. You had to get a character to voice out that they wanted their item back from this location, and if you could possibly teach the dirty thief who stole it a lesson, that'd be appreciated. Skyrim? "Here, I'll mark it for you on your map." Quest Update: Retrieve (Random_Enchanted_Item) from (Random_Leveled_Dungeon) and return it to (Generic_Quest_Giver). They need to shit-can the entirety of their current writing staff and hire people who can actually write, because I'm an amateur writer who won't ever be published, and *I* could do better... That's not ego speaking, either - When you read Skyrim's plot (The _best_ of Emil's "KISS Paper-Planes Theory" work), it's like a children's bedtime story. No complex characters, no real character growth. You're handed an epic god-tier power at the start of the story and you learn to use it to take down the big bad. At no point can you ever possibly fail. There's a reason people love Fallout: New Vegas, and it's not for its stability - It's for the story. There was so much _love_ for the story packed in there, so much care squeezed into 18 months of development. A year-and-a-half to write a story with three-and-a-half endings (Yes Man is the half because he's there to guarantee players can always finish the game even if you've angered everyone else), dozens of side-quests that give you cool things to see, do, or loot, and plenty of memorable characters. They also went out of their way to make unique weapons at least a little _unique_ so that you felt special using them. These days... Bethesda has lost the plot so badly that they're inside Daggerfall's tutorial dungeon... Without a guide-book or the skills to survive it.

[@daveJenkins-q3t]

Gaslighting their only the option , they are broken beyond repair

[@kenmck7802]

They need a new engine? Too bad they didn't know a multi, MULTI TRILLION dollar TECH company that SHOULD be able to build a new engine for them. Too bad.

[@ectogamut]

If Microsoft were thinking long term, they'd be trying to go head-to-head against Epic, developing an engine of their own that they can license out and try getting half the industry to use. They've got all this custom tech from Forza, Flight Sim, id Software, even BGS, but it's not centralized

[@Nando_Prime]

Selling the creation engine would be HUGE for Microsoft imagine what modders could do If they had the Full engine to work with

[@sompret]

As long as Todd and Emil is still in charge, nothing will change for the better. And they won't listen. One of them is even a pathological liar who claimed to be from the chess club, but the truth was that he was a student council or class president.

[@mcbeaty3971]

He was in the chess club buddy

[@hoosierhell7456]

Sure, the change of engine might be good but Emil must go

[@martiananomaly]

13:16 the ground textures make this game look like a game from 2007 lmfao

[@TylerHaley]

Ew! your right! its looks like the game didnt load properly

[@Kaimax61]

Why are they only listening people who loves it. Look at No man's sky, Sean sorted all the comments and criticism about the game that's from people who played it and threw away the others as noise when trying to fix no man's sky.

[@spawnofapathy]

“There are people that do like it” is such a weird response by them. As if those same people would dislike the game if the writing, quest design, level design, and game itself was better. lol

[@TheArtis4n]

"We are proud of our mediocrity, and you should be too. We don't know why they don't like it, I mean... We like it. Right? Right??" -Lead designer.

[@TheSpongyMallard]

The people calling out Skyrim for the lack of RPG aspects were ahead of their time.

[@MatijaDrame95]

Lol no

[@G-Mastah-Fash]

It feels good being recognized for my brilliance.

[@Cramblit]

I was calling it as far back as Oblivion.

[@hafrepo]

I don't really see how there was more or less roleplaying aspects in any of the elder scrolls games. The story only ever goes one way, and you can't really shape your character through the dialogue choices. at best you could call it roleplaying in Morrowind that joining some factions locked you out of others, and that you could break the story.

[@TheSpongyMallard]

@@hafrepo As they went on, Bethesda removed stats and builds/classes. Fallout 3 to Fallout 4 did the same thing. Choosing a race matters less as well. Nighteye and water breathing were actually pretty good in Oblivion, they’re pointless in Skyrim. Having a disease resistant race or potions in Oblivion was also very useful incase you run into vampires. I had a save basically ruined because I got infected at like level 2 and could barely do anything. There are no downsides to being a Vampire in Skyrim after Dawnguard since they made NPCs no longer care if you’re starving. They just kept making each game more and more casual or “made for the masses”. Oblivion locked you out of some things based off of your major and minor skill choices and it made you have a level cap, so they removed that in Skyrim and Fallout 4. There may not have been many story choice changes, but they kept removing your gameplay related choices have an impact. They also made birth signs less interesting in Skyrim, heck, you only get 3 choices at first and they’re the most boring ones.

[@TheRetroPerspective]

My expectations were on the floor and it was still worse than I expected!

[@LoLotov]

It is the most corpo game dev response possible to hear what they're hearing about their product and going "so you're saying we should change the graphics engine"

[@Nando_Prime]

Considering Halo is also going unreal id say Microsoft is trying to make all of their main Studios Bethesda, treyarch and infinity ward, Halo Studios, etc. Run the same game engine, letting the Minor Studios have hopefully more freedom

[@icantthinkofagoodusername4464]

The whole "they should change engine" thing has always annoyed me. You can say that Creation Engine is built on top of old code, but so is everything else. Unreal Engine 5 is the current iteration of something made in 1995. Call of Duty's IW Engine that had a major overhaul for MW2019 is still an evolution of tech that branched off from Id Tech 3. Bethesda's issue with their tech, at least to me, has always been priorities. Instead of investing time in, for example, overhauling NPC systems to allow for more context-dependant behaviours in gameplay or focusing on overhauls to how gameplay mechanics function, they spend time creating a procedural generation system that evidently didn't engage players or spend time ensuring hundreds of items can exist in close proximity with physics despite this never factoring into gameplay without the use of console commands. The content creation tools within their engine are great and it would genuinely be difficult to implement the things Bethesda games do into another more mainstream engine, so they shouldn't abandon the Creation Engine yet but holy shit do they need to take a step back and figure out what they actually need to prioritise. You shouldn't jump head first into making superfluous systems and mechanics that outright ruin the core pillar of your game design just because Todd always had a thing for randomly generated planets.

[@kurtfrederiksen5538]

Imagine with me if Bethesda in the middle of their big releases also released 2-3 smaller proof of concept titles where they ripped out different parts of the engine and re-wrote them, then learned from the experiments and applied what worked to their main line titles. For instance, how hyped would people be if they had a small combat focused game where they completely redid the melee combat system, a small walking simulator game where they focused on the NPC interactions and cinematic, and a then a space sim game where they focused on engine optimizations (things like streaming, multi-processing/threading, etc). If they did all of them at least half way competently the hype would already be huge for their next title, as people would be excited to play with these new systems in the next TES or FO game. But alas Bethesda will be Bethesda, I have so little hope in their next release.

[@archersterling6726]

I don't think a game crash is gonna happen, at least to me, it feels more like a french revolution of gaming

[@erthboy47]

I keep hearing that starfield's gunplay is better than fallout 4 and I've got to disagree completely.

[@Durendail]

It is tho.

[@kyosokutai]

Modders understand Betyesdas ancient engine better than their devs do, switching to unreal would just collapse what little competence is left into a black hole

[@franciscor390]

People need to stop feelings so proud for simply doing their job.

[@RRRRRRRRR33]

Fake wholesomeness. It's amusing how social media only spreads the extremes, either the super toxic fratboys mentality... or toxic wholesomeness who "includes" everything and criticisms are seeing as "personal attacks", etc.. crazy stuff, for these kind of behaviors to spread on a professional environment, its baffling, these are supposed to be professional adults

[@user-yuri665]

That's exactly my point. I've seen a lot of posts from Americans especially, celebrating mediocrity. It needs to change. This is no different from people splashing paint on canvas and calling it art.

[@bugg6597]

People have been saying Bethesda is full of toxic positivity for 13 years. That wasn’t your original idea, I was introduced to Bethesda in like 2010 as a place of toxic positivity that’s been making worse games over time. It’s 2024 now. Time is a flat circle, and we’ve made another revolution around it

[@adamriley9241]

“My idea is to explore more of the world and more of the ethics of a post-nuclear world, not to make a better plasma gun.” - Tim Cain

[@Schumilex5]

Moving to a game engine that actually works would be a crazy decision.

[@fffrrraannkk]

I really don't like how all these studios are moving to the same engine, but with Bethesda I'm willing to make an exception.

[@joelhodoborgas]

To what? unreal engine and make another generic game? nah

[@Yackass]

EVERY studio moving to Unreal is NOT a good thing. This is how vertical monopolies start.

[@control_the_pet_population]

Bethesda jank was charming back in the 360 days.... but it's been 15 years and now Bethesda jank is just embarrassing. The Creation Engine needs to go to a farm where it can run in the fields with your childhood dog...

[@Mithrevan]

It's not an issue with the engine per se, but what they do with that engine and everything else. Remember Obsidian had to make do with the same engine as Fallout 3, but they made New Vegas. Same with the people that made Fallout London. It's Bethesda's fundamental game direction is horrible.

[@AdminAbuse]

as long as Emil is working on the games we will simply not get an even halfway acceptable story

[@Enoonb]

Regarding mods: it is still wild to me that modders know Bethesda's engine better than the people who created it and can put it to much better use than Bethesda ever could.

[@isaacsanchez4769]

It often seems that the mentality of a lot of studios (or maybe just their spokespeople) is that they're gifting something to the wider public and if the gamers don't like it they're just ungrateful. They need to realize that they're making a product and if it doesn't sell or receives harsh criticism, they're the ones at fault not the consumer

[@wdf70]

They've admitted they've made a bad game, cool. Are they going to DO anything in the future to address this? Their writing is consistently bad, they make questionable game design decisions and they ALWAYS take the wrong criticism. People don't want a forever game, they want a game they can get immersed in. Skyrim is so immersive because these madlads created an entire language and made amazing landscapes filled with fantastical yet believable architecture and style. When the ambient tracks kick in while exploring, it creates a smorgasbord for the ears. When you fight a dragon and that title screen chorus starts chanting DOVAHKIIN, it's an amazing feeling. When you walk into a town (NAMED) NPC's are milling about doing their tasks and whatnot. It makes it feel alive even if it's just an illusion. Starfield is the exact opposite. The music is dull and uninspired, the exploration is separated by loading screens, taking you out of the experience, there's nameless NPCs all over the place who just walk in a straight line from 1 destination to another to create the illusion of density. When you get into a fight with the 3000th reskinned bandit there's no bombastic music to make the experience memorable or get the brain thinking. It's just mindless slop after mindless slop. Learn from your mistakes Bethesda, do better and maybe people will consider Elder Scrolls 6 a mid game instead of a trash one.

[@sunburnd]

I just subbed!! Ive seen a few of your vids and i appreciate how well you articulate your point of view. Keep up the good work!

[@Manvsbeargettinfood]

Is anyone else worried that everything is moving to unreal? Like won't this cause all games to have the same like "feeling" gameplay wise? I don't want the creation engine, but it's going to suck if in a couple years all games are made on the same engine.

[@PaperScarecrow]

By moving to another engine they would both kill their modding communities and remove any excuses that boil down to "oh, it's just the antiquated engine"; every single error they make would be front and center, and they are frankly not ready for that level of polish or the reality that they can't make free money forever by selling second party/mod-makers work on a marketplace. Part of me would love to see them move on to something else, since it would force them to adapt. But the other part of me realizes that even with new engines, devs, etc. Nothing would really change if they keep making bank for doing what they're currently shoveling out.

[@mrbl3azy]

As a modder of Bethesda games and others for over a decade, I can say this much: It's not the engine that makes starfield bad. It's the game they've built with it. For example, what's the one other studio that's ever released a game that used bethesdas engine? Obsidian with Fallout New Vegas. Despite the engine, that game is a CLASSIC! Imagine Obsidian with the same team that made Fallout New Vegas could do with Creation Engine 2 and MORE than just 18 months to make it? The engine was never the problem. In terms of moddability of their games with it's engine, it's one of the best in the industry. But I will say this much, from what I understand, There are some engine level stuff that could use reworking because even though moddability is great, starfield creation engine 2 did take some regressions in the engines flexibility to create content like in previous games. For example, the whole way that 3D assets are handled feels like they've added extra steps in order to make that happen (nif/geometry meshs). Custom animations (say like for guns) are currently not possible. Current Creationkit and plugin level bugs are not in a such a great state. And a few other things. But dispite that, switching to another engine like unreal would lose most, if not all moddability in the way modders know bethesda games now. Mods and modding is what gave their games the longevity that they've had. And sure, base content from previous games were much better, to that there is no doubt, but what they would gain in another engine like unreal, they would lose in the moddability potential and thus it's longevity. Just to make things clear, I 100% agree with everything else you've brought up. But as someone familiar with the engine, while it has it's faults, a different engine would not be as beneficial as some would think. If anything Bethesda, give us creation engine 2 with the moddable flexibility that Elder Scrolls Skyrim has. Give us a team capable of making a compelling game. Give modders the brush and canvas we have in previous titles. Give us a reason to give Starfield the same longevity that previous games like the Bethesda Fallouts and Elder Scrolls currently have. I would love them for it.

[@Spacefrisian]

Could ask the modders to make a official DLC for them....but apparantly their arent many modders for Starfield.

[@TRG_TheRantingGerman]

The bad writing can be fixed by putting a producer above Pagliarulo with the order to increase complexity and depth of the background stories of just about everything pertaining to the characters and the enviroment they operate in. A smart producer would ask actual novelists to help with that... a thing Pagliarulo obviously never did. The problem with saying "I-am-perfect" is that you're blind to your own limits - and that's what people just don't like about Bethesda's general, and Pagliarulo's specific resistance to constructive criticism; simply because as long as he isn't listening, and as long as he's at the helm of storywriting, all this will not get better.

[@z0h33y]

Starfield could have the best engine ever and it wouldnt make a difference

[@GenericInternetter]

Remember folks, every statement made by a game industry executive is NOT FOR YOU, it's aimed at you but it's for the SHAREHOLDERS.

[@PHeMoX]

18:00 Actually, _technically_ you can do that no problem. The issue is not that it can't be done. The issue is in how it would take a lot of resources and time which they are not willing to spend. With enough resources put in, they could have a solid Creation Engine 3.0 no problem. They don't need Unreal Engine for the engine's sake. They simply see it as the cheaper option.

[@Seracen]

This is the same sort of nonsense as when people said "BG3 shouldn't not be a measuring stick for other games." That's up to the consumers to decide, and don't be surprised when they want quality products, rather than boring time wasters.

[@jonathansoko1085]

I work for the largest concrete company in the Northeast imagine if customers came to us for their bridge beams or whatever you have you. Imagine if we sold them product that crumbled. That doesn't happen because we cannot do it even one time we can't let up at all so I have no sympathy for people making games because it's difficult

[@Homiloko2]

3:52 You're wrong by assuming they're the same people that made those old games. 99% of the people who worked on those games have probably left ages ago. Only a few like Todd and Emil have stayed for a long time and you can't be sure they're the reason those old games were good. Studios are not monoliths! People come and go.

[@Mugthief]

Na, he says in his tweets that it is the same people.

[@Homiloko2]

@@Mugthief I have the impression that Todd promotes the people who are his friends, like Emil, completely disregarding their skills or lack thereof. It's blatant nepotism. So yeah, in Emil's POV, it might look like it's the same people, because it's still "the boys" sitting at the top, but the actual meat of the team has probably left a long time ago and now it's an empty shell. I'd love if someone did a deeper investigation on this, but idk how much of that info is public.

[@-tera-3345]

@@Homiloko2 I said just the other day that I'd love to see someone dig into various credits and such to see what the truth behind that statement is, but that's also assuming Shattered Space even has its own end credits, which it very likely may not. I don't really know because I can't be bothered to play it myself. When it comes to things like Morrowind and Oblivion, between dev commentaries and various dev talks you can often find out exactly who made pretty much any element of them. The real issue would be finding what names are associated with Shattered Space, and what specifically they worked on.

[@G-Mastah-Fash]

Todd was responsible for the most boring Faction quests in Morrowind (the imperial cult ones) and The Elder Scrolls: Redguard which sucks absolute ass. His record back then wasn't very good either.

[@majorlouis956]

​@@Mugthiefit ain't wiki it

[@alessandricedric1995]

Currently playing Skyrim, and i can confirm old games ARE genuinely better than their modern counterpart slops.

[@Mkrause762]

You played enderal yet? It’s way better than vanilla Skyrim in every way

[@ssebasgoo]

And it's not even the best of the elder scrolls. Oblivion is better and had more features and Morrowind is better than Oblivion in the way Oblivion is better than Skyrim. The quality of their games has been on the decline for a long long time.

[@TheArtis4n]

​Literally almost 20 years of stagnation and complete loss of quality and replayability each time they release a new title. ​@@ssebasgoo (20 or so for Morrowind at this point. Almost 20 years for Oblivion.)

[@clankfish]

skyrim was modern slop

[@autumnsierra2401]

​@@ssebasgooTry daggerfall unity wth a few mods it's a fucking amazing game

[@LordReginaldMeowmont]

"Most people don't like it, but some people do so clearly it's good." That's called cope.

[@Marcusianery]

Found the channel recently! Its great.

[@peckneck2439]

Changing engine would unironically bite them in the ass because the moment they go to UE5 that's when modding their games dies and Bethesda relies HEAVILY on modding to keep their garbage games alive. Also no, they shouldn't use UE if only to delay the monopoly of said engine for as long as possible.

[@ShadowXII]

If I don't know how video games are made and can't criticize them, then by that measure I can't praise them, either. If I can't hate it because people like it, then they can't like it because I hate it.

[@aNOOBis277]

I have been playing BGS games since Morrowind, they had an amazing run with Oblivion and Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Since then they have dumbed down their games way too much to be enjoyable. As for Starfield, I have had reservations since they announced the 1000 planet size. They have absolutely ruined the wonder of discovery in this game that all the previous games had. Even if the mechanics are dumbed down, if they would have had that vault 101 moment, or the oblivion sever moment followed by an interesting planet and galaxy to discover… I swear they should have taken a smaller approach like the outer worlds did, if they would have done 5-8 fully handcrafted planets with that wonder of discovery, I would not care about the bad writing at all. Not that any of their games had good writing since Oblivion mind you. Thankfully I built a pc last year and Starfield was bundled with my CPU, but if it would have not been given for free, this would be the first BGS game that I would have fully passed on. I guess I’ll just keep replaying new Vegas, fallout 3 and oblivion modded.

[@Pickle_Maniac]

Yes, when 1000 planets was mentioned I too went "oh dear, oh no, was that the sales pitch?" Then it was described as Skyrim in space, and I scoffed because there were no other sentient species other than human - Skyrim had 11 species of people 10 playable. As much as I like Skyrim, it's too dumbed down, writing is flat and the RPG elements are very weak.

[@Niyucuatro]

the main issue was that the wanted semirealistic go anywere gameplay. Scale over anything else. And that jsut deosn't translate into good gameplay. Add to that the extremely bland "end of history" setting and every other problem derives from that.

[@TourFaint]

Daggerfall had the same thing with 9999 dungeons, and it was a good game. There is nothing inherently wrong with any part of starfield on paper. They just did everything wrong.

[@aNOOBis277]

I guess their recipe only works in a condensed environment. I had instances where I went to 8 planets and walked into the exact same science lab, I was just shocked that even the layout was the same. And the other thing that really turned me off is the lack of gore/attention. Shoot someone in the face with a high caliber and their visors/helmets don’t crack in an environment where is no oxygen. Like make that a critical hit kill with a unique animation or something. I miss fallout 3’s bloody mess, when you shoot a bullet and go damn that was amazing. Starfield just lacks this altogether apart from the exploration issues.

[@Niyucuatro]

@@aNOOBis277 yes. The game is overly sanitised. No gore, no cruelty anywhere. It's like the HR department wrote it.

[@stormstrider]

nice to have real journalism who doesn't just shill. thank you so much.

[@Mika-Fresh]

2:53 I’m proud of the poo my dog did on our walk this morning. That’s kind of the same thing, right? Both parties put in effort, both produced a similar product.

[@L4Disillusion]

So the game is poo? I mean is it really that bad? I haven't played it. Just wondering. 😂

[@JamesScholes]

The best way to gauge the sentiment for a game is by looking at the Steam overall review score, and Shattered Space has a "mostly negative" score. So yeah, there will be people who like it but they're in a tiny minority of people and that should be extremely concerning for Emil Pagliarulo and Bethesdas in general. Choosing to ignore this will only bite them in the ass in the long run and it'll most likely result in diminishing returns with every game they launch.

[@Nier73h]

Thank you, I am so sick and tired of gaming developers whining about it's difficult to make games. I don't care, you don't go to a restaurant and have pity for the chef if he gives you a garbage dinner. We are the customers we pay for this they are not offering this for free.

[@TheTabascodragon]

Many unpaid ametuer modders create better content than bethesda at this point. Pretty crazy that people getting paid big bucks to make something people will pay money for are getting beaten by people offering a free product because they like people to have fun.

[@frankkent5567]

Emil Pagliarulo can’t even gaslight the fans properly.

[@alwayssecond2]

I was surprised to here you're on the 9-5 grind and still dropping 20+ min videos every few days. Thank you for your efforts, the videos are always interesting and engaging to me. I hope you get some time to relax and game with the rest of us!

[@ickasaurus1195]

Unfortunately, their fanboys have lost the plot and are too far gone. Bethesda will keep making games for those people, cause those people are making their games massive financial success. if you seek out where they like to gather, in their reddits and what not, and observe them in their cultist worship, they praise everything Emil says. they think videos like this are causing a toxic environment. they un-ironically believe Starfield is one of the best RPGs. Bethesda has no reason to change anything, Todd and Emil are gods to these people.

[@tylerhill40]

The talent isn't there anymore. If we could get an inside look. I bet the members who built the older games, aren't even with the company. Its over.

[@Opnn8d1]

The ENGINE is not the problem. ANY engine can be adapted to do whatever is needed to fit the design model. And it is the design model that is the real problem. Bethesda has used that model ever since the first TES game. Though the engine changed twice since then. The reason why Bethesda has stuck with the current engine since Morrowind is because it handles the design model very well, and because the team is intimately familiar with it. Mark my words. If Bethesda does switch to Unreal Engine, unless they also change the design model, we'll still be getting essentially the same experience. Even though UE5 is capable of massive worlds and seamless transitions, they will still employ loading screens, because that's what the design model calls for. An the engine won't improve the writing. To switch over to Unreal Engine without totally reinventing the design model will just require a ton of man-hours dedicated to learning how yo use it, rather than sticking to what they know and still taking forever to deliver a meh-level gaming experience. It would be a big waste of time. At this point, I really don't care what Bethesda does. My sights are set on "The Wayward Realms" which is the spiritual successor of Daggerfall and IS being produced using Unreal Engine by Once Lost Games, headed up by the ORIGINAL creators of The Elder Scrolls. Bethesda refuses to grow beyond the scope of Todd Howard's limited vision. They've become complacent. They need oh so much more than just an engine change to revitalize themselves. And at this stage, I don't think they have the motivation to try. It doesn't matter. Whatever they produce will bring in the profits Micro$soft wants from them. So they won't light a fire under their asses to make any major changes. It's a shame, really. Bethesda seems more and more like a turd, surrendered to the inevitable, as it circles the drain after the flush.

[@1O1O11]

The reasons for changing to a different game engine are... 1. A company is spending way too much time and money maintaining the engine to do what they want, so using an existing engine saves time/money. 2. There are more potential employees who already know the new game engine, so it is quicker to integrate them into the team as opposed to teaching them the ins and outs of your highly niche customized engine. (developers who know Unreal and Unity are the most common in the job market at the moment) So it is more about how many people and how much time you want to throw at a project. But any engine can be beautiful and bug free with the right people working on it. You just have to find the right people, pay them the right price, and give them time. Any game developer who wants a job can be taught a new engine. It is just a matter of time, and time is money to a corporation. So it is more of a decision based on HR and how the suits will make more cash, and isn't nearly as relevant to the end player as a lot of players seem to think. Bethesda has a much bigger cultural problem going on at the company that doesn't have an easy answer. Probably best to start with 'where is the fun' and then work from there.

[@Opnn8d1]

@@1O1O11 That is true. But when you look at the evolution of The Elder Scrolls, completely ignoring Fallout and Starfield, you see that pretty much the way each main sequence game is set up is more or less the same, particularly how you get around the game world and interact. And more importantly, what you do in the game. The only thing that improves is visual quality. In fact each subsequent TES game has REMOVED elements, essentially dumbing down the gameplay experience. One example is the removal of levitation from Oblivion, because if you could levitate, you would see that towns surrounded by walls were incomplete facades with nothing interactable, which is why you still had to load into them via the gate. The spell of Passwall was removed in Daggerfall, because unlike in Arena, where dungeons were just blocks with the outermost edge immutable, the dungeons in Daggerfall were actual 3D map pieces snapped together. Remove a wall segment in Daggerfall and you open a massive gap into the void space. Having to repair gear was removed in Skyrim. We haven't been able to climb since Daggerfall. Also custom spells went away with Skyrim as well... But again... the design model remains the same, but each game gives us fewer options. But it just works...

[@1O1O11]

@@Opnn8d1 I think it is important to always 'find the fun' in game design decisions. No amount of programming magic in the engine is going to help if the core team didn't have a clear vision on 'how is this going to be fun?' I sort of feel like the AAA gaming industry today is full of 'checklists' that are handed down by the suits in 'market research'. That these are the things 'expected' in a game in 2024, and you have to go check those boxes. I think it is this kind of corpo / design by committee approach that kills the 'soul' of these games and they end up feeling lifeless. If a game has that 'soul' or that 'fun factor' to it, people will forgive all sorts of bugs... often times if an indie game has a crazy bug people will end up loving it in a meme sort of way and it gets you attention on social media. Kind of lost my point and started rambling... but anyways, why you say makes sense to me.

[@jeffreydanielmaurer9159]

I still say that the timing of Pete Heinz's retirement was incredibly telling. He knew exactly what was coming with Starfield and bailed.

[@J.B.1982]

Leaving their game engine behind will be a huge loss. The modding scene will become a small fraction of what it is right now. But, I don't see them putting in the work to make it what it needs to be. The company is cooked.

[@Cramblit]

The modding scene will entirely 100% dry up. Unreal Engine games aren't remotely as robust in the modding potential as Creation Engine. You are very severely restricted in what you can get your fingers into as a modder when it comes to Unreal Engine. You also can't unpack the games even if you have Unreal Engine yourself, to make any deep adjustments like you can with Creation Engine. This also means. Bethesda games are going to go from S+ tier games (Due to modding capability) to D tier instantly because it'll be a play and forget game that nobody talks about in a month. They'll be literally relegating their entire future to the same situation as Starfield.

[@J.B.1982]

@@Cramblit Thats right. Especially with the quality games they have right now and the weak amount of post launch support they give.

[@Hanoua2]

All of this feels like Toxic Positivity.

[@DarkBrandon77]

I just don't care about Elder Scrolls no more. The DLC gave me a sour taste I didn't even finished it. Thankfully I have game pass but still I felt like I waste my time.

[@itsmatt517]

Yeah, I did the same. I bought DLC for a game I’m playing off Gamepass. I won’t do that again

[@pedroribeiro4792]

The saddest part is few years back I would disagree with this video 100% but now in the state that Starfield is I pretty much am one of the "minority" that no longer likes where these games are going and I could say I am worried about Elder Scrolls 6 but at this point I feel zero interest on that game most likely it is going to be worst then Starfield. Starting to discard Bethesda games as the source of the next RPG to sink hundreds of hours in it. Feels weird I play all Bethesda games Even Arena and Daggerfall to reach this point that I feel apathy about this game developer.

[@ashroskell]

It’s a bit irrelevant but it was almost poetic hearing you pronounce Emil’s last name so perfectly. Personally, I love your passion for gaming, for the art form and the way customers are currently treated. You are articulate and incisive, but many commentators are. What makes you different is the sense that you, “feel,” this topic in your bones. I wish more commentators were like you.

[@Primsicle]

Honestly my experience with starfield was one that felt hollow for the most part. Quests didn't grab me, the cities felt souless, and I never felt a genuine curiousity to go and explore. Nothin exemplifies that more than the moment in which you visit one of the temples for the first time expecting a proper dungeon, and not simply a shitty minigame. Imagine if the initial dragonwall dungeon in skyrim was a single room with just the dragonwall and some pointless minigame. You'd have been dissapointed.

[@friendlyskiespodcast]

Emil is Bethesda's PR nightmare

[@llamatronian101]

Is it weird to miss Pete Hines? He was better at lying to us.

[@friendlyskiespodcast]

@@llamatronian101 hah well Pete had better quality games to promote back then, he would've definitely done a better job but who could save this ship...I dunno.

[@jasonruth7414]

Hey mug, I just want to voice my appreciation for your dedication to quality in your videos. It shows. I don't always get the visuals, I'm usually farming while watching, but I will say your audio balance is superb, and you're both clear and well spoken with a palatable voice. One thing that draws me to your channel over similar creators is just that, the quality of your voice. I can hear the emotion when you talk, and I love that. Just want to say you're doing a great job!

[@randykoger4646]

The new engine is great idea but bad, soulless, amateurish writing is still bad, soulless amateurish writing.

[@Cramblit]

Anyone who says a new engine is a great idea needs to quickly and seriously shut up.

[@randykoger4646]

@@Cramblit I added a caveat.

[@ColorsFadeGaming]

13:31 You speak for a lot of us. I've spent more cumulative hours in Bethesda's games than the rest of my library combined. But I'm with you - I don't believe they can do it anymore.

[@fffrrraannkk]

Just let Obsidian take control over ES6 and give them as much time as they need.

[@TheSpongyMallard]

It’s not like Outer Worlds was that great either. Maybe their new rpg will be good, hopefully.

[@nicholasseitler4997]

Obsidian isn't what it used to be.

[@mark.082]

Outer worlds wasn't particularly great, just fine. Let Obsidian fix it isn't a valid argument anymore.

[@TheSpongyMallard]

@@mark.082 I'm glad I played it on GamePass. I made basically everyone happy on the first planet and I wasn't ok with using the colonists as "soil". I even had the corpos back down and give better treatment, pay and benefits. Then the game told me that "I said it was good to shut down people and their dreams". RPGs should never just tell you that you were wrong. The bad consequences of your actions should be what makes you feel like you chose the wrong thing, not the writers. It's not my fault they didn't account of everything and only 1 part of the choice.

[@Multifidi20]

Everything you said around about 23:00 is true. They need better in almost every aspect of the their games. It is so dated. If Elder Scrolls 6 is shitty in the melee combat then to me the game is crap.

[@ikelevermann1491]

The "tape" that hold Bethesda games together is the modding community. Without them we have mediocre games from a mediocre company that get run by mediocre game designer. That is a fact.

[@J.B.1982]

A big reason why changing to Unreal will kill their communities. They need to update their Gamebrio engine (or whatever it's called)

[@ludditzthrell]

Okay.. I had to pause a bit around 5 minutes and come down here, I'm going to use the exact same argument I use whenever a friend likes a game or movie or show or something that is agonizingly bad, and uses the same defense of "Well, yeah, but some people liked it so it was good." Yes, the argument I'm about to make is equally as fallacious, but still: "Okay, but some people enjoy eating their own shit, does that make eating shit good?" I hate that response; if you love something, give a REAL defense, not "uh well its popular, so it's good!" Like.. ffs, do people not realize that the Transformers movies have earned an obscene amount of money, despite their quality being all over the place? (Not hating on it if you like them, but you have to admit the quality dips all over the place.) Instead say, "well I liked the action" or "well the story was good" OR SOMETHING! Give me a real defense, not hiding behind the shield of popularity. It's obnoxious to me, man! Anyway, Mug, you're doing great work, and as a guy who used to have long hair when I was younger, I feel for you--mine went down to my shoulders (and it looked bad as I have naturally thin and oily hair) and when I wound up shaving it off, I kept it short. It's just easier, ya know? As for your next milestone.. ooh, letting your community decide is risky, you could wind up getting a tattoo or another ear piercing, ya know? I'll think about it, though. If I'm honest.. I can't think of much; I'm just happy you put out videos fairly regularly. And I'll keep watching when you cut your hair, though it is a shame--you have REALLY nice locks, man, something I envied when I was younger. Anyway, that's all I have for my ramblings for the moment, I wish you all well and a pleasant day! Cheers, I'm going to eat this sandwich now. Beyond that, I'unno.. more yt videos probably.

[@danielleutenegger2801]

It's not a case of Bethesda games getting worse, it's a case of them staying the same and not evolving. Look at the gameplay/mechanics from Skyrim to Starfield and then look at what Rockstar did in less time between GTA 5 and Red Dead 2. (And yes I understand Rockstar has a much larger budget but the gap shouldn't be THAT wide).

[@surnimistwalker8388]

We need to call it like it is an abuser gaslighting us as the abused. I for one am done with AAA abusers/publishers.

[@PootisPenserPow]

Emil is the reason for Bethesda's downfall, but he's friends with Todd so he's not going anywhere

[@Homiloko2]

Todd is the reason for Bethesda's downfall. He lies to customers, ignores criticism, and raises his friends through the ranks with nepotism (aka Emil, but there's probably others like him).

[@NikolaiMihailov1]

Assuming ES6 has been in developement for some time,switching to a new engine this late in the game,is pointless. Console commands from old titles work in Starfield. That's the issue. The engine only looks somewhat better. It's not actually better.