Breaking Down Emil Pagliarulo's Writing Speech

[@caffeinefreak2274]

Ever notice how often Emil uses "you killed the leader so you become the leader" as a plot point? Kind of makes me worried for Todd.

[@koolyosystem4659]

on one hand Todd gets it... on the other hand Emil takes over... I'm conflicted🤔

[@fusrosandvich3738]

Maybe they'll both take each other out in one big duel.

[@fallingintime]

Many fall but one remains

[@albertdeluxe8966]

Chess club... He's still laughing now...

[@patrickbrooks2644]

Emil is Todd’s adoring fan

[@unkosherfood]

reminder that when you talk to the main "bad guy" in fallout 4 and ask him why he is doing what he is doing, he literally says "its too complex for you to understand" and refuses to elaborate and there is no further explanation of the plot. this is the writing emil brags about and complains that players dont respect enough.

[@TheBreakingBenny]

Does Shaun say that, or does what he says come off as that? What a moron Emil is.

[@Vandar821]

The "Plot" in the game was always strange for me. What your Son does makes no sense, hell what most of the factions do makes no sense.

[@ZorotheGallade]

In Emil's mind players would stop having questions and just blindly accept that they're doing big sciency stuff for no reason. Pooling their limited funds towards making robot monkeys and creating super mutants only to make them rampage on the surface for completely no reason.

[@LockMatch]

Reminds me of Kavahara's - why did you locked up and killed all those players in your game?! -Dunno, I forgor

[@TheBreakingBenny]

@@LockMatch Fallout 4 in a nutshell would be fun to see, the crudely drawn landscape and characters alongside TTS voices.

[@Warui88]

The fact that Emil went out on Twitter and had a meltdown despite allegedly not listening to criticism in the first place says that somebody hit a nerve of his somewhere along the way.

[@willkillforlunch]

I wonder what specific nerve would that be? Maybe if we hammer it enough he'll stop being in lead development roles.

[@MetalMailman35]

if i had to guess, partricianTV, the only time where he could even possibly see something related to it is in their shill discord server

[@joshuagraham1235]

​@@MetalMailman35why would he be in there?

[@Grobut81]

I'm not sure it's about a specific nerve, more about volume. In the past, small channels like this is the only place i'd see Emil's name even get mentioned, let alone critisism of him as a writer. Everyone knows who Todd is, some knew who Pete Hines was, but you woulden't really see Emil get mentioned in the comments of general gaming channels and such. This has now changed. People have really woken up to the fact that Emil is the guy who writes these godawful questlines, and that he is one of Bethesda's big problems. Go watch some Starfield videos, look at the comments, chances are you'll see him get named, and not in a positive light. Not at all. More like "this dude needs to be fired, or TES6 will also be a disaster". Now Emil is a petty man, so that in and of itself could be what set him off, but i think there's more to this. Todd and Emil are old buddies, so his position at Bethesda has always been very safe. No way Todd would ever fire the guy, they are BFF's. Ah, but what about Microsoft?

[@joshuagraham1235]

@@Grobut81 todd has less power than you think. He couldn't directly fire Emil even if he wanted to. He'd have to appeal to the zenimax tribunal

[@thesorrow7499]

Emil is insufferable. People were predicting that Starfield's plot and writing were going to be MID back in 2016.

[@SaltyChickenDip]

Not hard. Dude has been repeating plots his whole careeer

[@fyrespark2077]

Easy to predict when you see his work in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4

[@MLPDethDealr32]

More reasons to use the following mods to fix that. America Rising, Outcasts and Remnants, Sim Settlements 2, Mods that improve the Gunners. Tales of The Commonwealth as well. @@fyrespark2077

[@nathanlevesque7812]

let me guess, that was the year they announced it?

[@Tattletale-Delta]

@@nathanlevesque7812 Starfield was technically announced right after Morrowind released in 2002. The game was officially announced in 2018. We knew Starfield was going to be mid as soon as Emil's name was attached to it.

[@admiraltonydawning3847]

Emil's right, gamers, in their absolute majority, don't know how exactly games are made. Unfortunately for him, though, gamers also don't care to know and they can see the final result being not great regardless of their knowledge.

[@Vert_GreenHeart]

Exactly, you don't need to be a chef to know you've been served a pile of sh*t of a platter...

[@jamesmeow3039]

You don't need to know how games are made to want Fallout to be more of an RPG and less of a mass content sponge

[@ULTRAOutdoorsman]

Also unfortunately for him, he ALSO doesn't know how exactly games are made.

[@josephhetzenauer1890]

A good question to ask tho is how much of it is the players jadedness and expectations that play on their opinion of a game.

[@averymicrowave1713]

Not only that, it's such an insulting cop out because there are games that are infinitely better that have been made with HEAVY crunch - especially in the 90s and 2000s. But the reason a lot of these games are beloved is because the teams behind them had actual passion for the experiences they wanted to make.

[@backupschmliff1156]

Emil actually proclaims that people know him as "the Fallout guy". I've literally never heard anyone call him that. Tim Cain is "the Fallout guy".

[@dubstepgod123]

Todd and emil try so hard to steal that credit from tim cain. Todd made the team put in the new awful fallout show. "By the creator of fallout, todd Howard" fallout 3 at best is mediocre, everything else is garbage compared to 1 and 2 and new vegas.

[@backupschmliff1156]

@@dubstepgod123 I think Fallout 3 is good. Though, I like it more as Bethesda game than a Fallout game. I liked Fallout 4 at first but the more I played it the less I liked it. Bethesda's presentation is very good so it's very deceiving with its quality. That's so shitty though of the tv show thing. That pisses me off so much because Tim Cain(I know he didn't solely create it but I don't know anyone else) created all of the lore and Bethesda merely changed and added unnecessary additions to it that make it worse. I wish Bethesda was still good. I wish they were still even at Oblivion or even Skyrim quality. Because they do make nice looking worlds with cool atmosphere. It's just the actual meat of the game that feels so cheap. Starfield was genuinely awful. The best decision they've made in years was making Daggerfall free on Steam.

[@absoultethings4213]

@@backupschmliff1156 Fallout 4 gameplay is pretty good. I had a fun time going around, putting bullets in stuff. Sadly, the story is the equivalent of a toast sandwich. Bland, uninspired, and just plain bad.

[@garrick3727]

The fact that New Vegas is the only legitimately good Bethesda published Fallout game must really irk Todd and Emil. And when they try to emulate New Vegas in Fallout 4 the results are widely ridiculed.

[@dubstepgod123]

@@garrick3727 it's good because Tim Cain, and multiple people from fallout 1 and 2 were on team with some really good writers. It's even better because Todd and Emil couldn't put their hands on it. You can tell that it really does get on their nerves, especially in Emil's latest rants. No one really talks about fallout 3 or 4 the way people do about New Vegas. Because new Vegas respects the player, you can play a true RPG with many different styles of gameplay. Bethesda fallout is a 1950s sandbox black and white shooting gallery, now with base building. Nothing that made fallout, Fallout.

[@varvarith3090]

33:35 Guy basicaly saying "Yeah, i can write on par with best writers of the world, you just don't deserve it" It's not being stupid at this point, it's narcissistic disorder.

[@nadrewod999]

I'd argue that it's just the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action, since Emil is too incompetent to ever write "The Great American Novel", but he's also too incompetent to realize the sheer difficulty in writing such a masterpiece.

[@nathanlevesque7812]

The DK effect is widely misrepresented, as something other than a general bias towards the average. Emil is actually an outlier due to being brazenly incompetent yet egotistical, rather than just thinking himself less below avg than he is. @@nadrewod999

[@stevemolenaar294]

Emil would have written a worse Game of Thrones Season 8.

[@themurmeli88]

It also come across like people somehow owe their time to listen to his "magnum opus" of a story, instead of playing the game, before he has even proved that he can write a competent kindergarten play. It's like "I don't need to put in any effort, because you people are stupid and not going to play the OPEN WORLD RPG the way *I* wanted you to. He has the same bitter outlook towards his job as a game story writer, as some kotaku urinalist, who proudly states they can't/don't play games, and all games except candy crush they play on the toilet are crap, just because no one handed them a "proper journalist" Pulitzer price winning job on a silver platter like "they deserve", so they are going to do a shit job on purpose, and it's YOUR fault.

[@yaqubebased1961]

That's just Beth's whole attitude towards their fans. They think of them as little more than children, and the fans gobble it all up. So why wouldn't they?

[@Smile-Room]

Emil refusing to recognise his terrible writing reminds me of this quote: “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

[@CodexisInkwind]

An unfortunate side effect of intelligence coming with more self doubt as you recognize how easy it is for others to view things differently from you. Where as Emil is the type to believe it should be clearly seen just from his perspective

[@JimTerry-rw9pv]

​@CodexisInkwind damn I should've realized other people have different perspective and no I'm not joking thanks for the help.

[@jeremytitus9519]

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with a passionate intensity

[@Nuniixo]

"People ignore the story and build shacks" BECAUSE THE STORY SUCKS. The shack building was so much more fun than the entire story of FALLOUT 4. The settlement system was, in fact, so much fun a bunch of unprofessional writers and modders made an entire 3 chapter grand questline that completely overhauls the entire story and makes it much, much better while FOCUSING ON IT.

[@SinaelDOverom]

What grand questline if you don't mind me asking?

[@Nuniixo]

@@SinaelDOverom Sim Settlements 2.

[@nagger8216]

Yeah, I've been meaning to reinstall Fallout 4 so I can try that out. Glad to hear it's actually good

[@Negniwret]

@@nagger8216 one of the best mods I've ever played. Just mind the script lag if you teleport around too much between busy areas, you might have to stand still for a few minutes for things to sort themselves out. Gels really well with survival for this reason, the slower travel gives the game plenty of time to do things in the background

[@BanditoGames3]

Sim settlements is a joke and kingatth doesn't know how to mod America rising 1&2 are great mods ​@@Nuniixo

[@Tom_The_Cat]

To quote one of my favorite comedians Steve Hofstetter: "I've never flown a helicopter. But if I saw one in a tree, I can still be like... 'Dude fucked up. That's not supposed to be up there. That's pilot error'." Just because you don't know how to do something, it's still possible to tell that something about it is wrong

[@Tr33ba1t]

calling Steve a comedian would be about as accurate as calling him a helicopter pilot

[@Tom_The_Cat]

@@Tr33ba1t I've been to two shows and met him personally. I find him hilarious. To each their own

[@Tr33ba1t]

@@Tom_The_Cat fair enough, I saw the low hanging fruit and went for it

[@judgedrekk2981]

@@Tr33ba1t shoulda went for the twig instead ugh lolz sorry that's fukked up, more low hanging fruit I'd say lol

[@Xeno_Solarus]

I don't like Steve (he's a self-righteous, know-it-all ass and he is woefully ignorant of guns and laws, mention this because he made a whole series "debunking" gun arguments) but that's a decent joke and a good point.

[@fyrespark2077]

Starfield is the first original IP this guy has worked on. Every other game he worked on, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Skyrim, are all sequels to far better games and in pre written universes.

[@JackdotC]

Nah they were basically new IPs, since he threw out so much of the pre established lore to make space for his slop

[@fyrespark2077]

@@JackdotC true.

[@albenoit4378]

And from a writing perspective at least, they are still terrible

[@GastonGenta338]

Fallout 4 world building was also awful. Nothing in the game make it believable that 200 years was passed after the bomb. The "city", factions, main conflict were much worse than New Vegas. And in Starfield they even make it worse. I never feel the humanity as space faring civilization 200 years in the future in the game.

[@EP_mc]

tldr: shit writer

[@masterdyeapp4512]

If Emil Pagliarulo's still on the writing team for Elder scrolls 6, Elder Scroll 6 will going to suck

[@ealtar]

there was never any doubt

[@joshuagraham1235]

ES6 will suck regardless

[@gegbag2666]

Michael Kirkbride is the sole reason elder scrolls games feel the way they do

[@joshuagraham1235]

@@gegbag2666 he's definitely the biggest reason morrowind and debately oblivion were so great.

[@theFORZA66]

There will be no more elder scroll on my shelf.

[@GalahadTheSeeker]

Emil is one of the biggest hacks in the industry and he keeps getting rewarded for it. Shit's wild, man.

[@nathanlevesque7812]

failing upwards is as American as apple pie

[@bandawin18]

​@@nathanlevesque7812seems to have been happening a lot more in the past decade too, a lot of people who are the shittiest at their jobs and yet keep getting new work? Kathleen Kennedy is another example, like who the fuck decided that she should keep handling star wars when every new project sucked more than the last? It's wild how the writers are allowed to be dogshit for these huge projects when the writing is the most important part of production

[@hihihi1q23]

@@bandawin18 Kathleen Kennedy is literally one of the most successful producers in history. The fact that terminally online weirdos on Twitter don't like her doesn't change that lmao. She makes money, that's why she's in the position she's in. And no, writing isn't the most important part of Bethesda games.

[@bandawin18]

@@hihihi1q23 first off, it's hard not to be profitable when you're in charge of one of the biggest franchises in the world. Second, I said writing is the most important part of games in general

[@isaacemanuel152]

@@hihihi1q23Well her IMDB page says she's one of the most successful producers in the industry so it must be true right? In reality Kennedy's career is incredibly complex and while she seemed to produce a lot of quality movies in the 80's and 90's (primarily due to her connection to Spielburg at his height) it's clear to anyone who's taste isn't horribly base that Starwars just hasn't been any good under her leadership. Idk what internet guys have to say about her or her level of actual involvement in the projects but the buck has to stop somewhere and she seems like the person on whom the responsiblity should be placed.

[@SwanCollins]

Emil describes his work ethic as "stream of consciousness" and "to just go". No thought, connection or reflection on his own writing whatsoever - just complete autopilot and ideas in a vaccum. It explains why you're not allowed to stop and ask questions in his games, and why most of his characters are uncanny and shut down when pressured. His approach to his job is whiny and juvenile, as putting in effort is too hard and robbing him free time. He thinks blowing up a town for no reason other than being a psychopath is a thought provoking choice. There's no real conflicts in his stories, just cheap emotional bait and pop culture references. He copies ideas with out understanding them - If they look cool, sound deep and made money they'll make his story like that too. He thinks everyone has the same connections to their family, or wants to be famous, so that will be the player's carrot on the stick. Complete detachment from both the fictional worlds he writes for and reality. Nothing nails your misunderstanding of a post-apocalypse like using H.P. Lovecraft for horror, or letting parents and a mortgage be a concern in dangerous space exploration. RPGs should offer the most freedom in terms of world building and to play as anyone, yet this clown can't resist to tie the player to some forced family drama and drag Blade Runner down with them. No amount of bugs or loading screens will ever be immersion breaking as Emil's writing.

[@fyrespark2077]

He’s a talentless ex games journo. It’s no surprise his approach to writing is just “stream of consciousness”

[@DJWeapon8]

Which is baffling to me because there's already 2 games' worth of ideas to explore. Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. So he really doesn't have an excuse as to why he couldn't expand upon the elements that the 2 previous games introduced. Instead. The lazy and talentless hack haphazardly chopped up and blended the plotlines of those 2 previous games and proceeded to shit it out as the diarrhea that is Fallout 3.

[@TheBreakingBenny]

​@@fyrespark2077 If we got to see what his "Black Space" and "Red Space" are, we'd very easily be frightened.

[@blumoon131]

In a bit of self-defeating prophecy, Emil was completely right about all the shack building in FO4 since that's what I spent all of my time doing. The story just fucking *sucks* and makes me angry everytime I go back and play it, so I'd rather make up my own stories then have to deal with the illogical bullshit of The Institute, Kellogg, etc.

[@dragonhunter4592]

The man was only a quest writer for Oblivion. The only reason he got further than that is daddy Todd and him being friends and the boss basic coddling him like the nepotism baby he is.

[@cheergiver]

“People ignore the story.” Uh some of us who have been around since Morrowind, if not before, spent HOURS upon HOURS outside of the hundreds in game learning lore and theorizing, connecting things. This guy is completely disconnected from the thing he’s attempting to make.

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

Morrowind is a largely unique game due to the story, the setting, the environment and the spectacular writing. A pity its legacy was tarnished with corporate mandates and unengaged writers.

[@Naruku2121]

You know he's not wrong a lot of people tend to ignore the main story in most Bethesda games. Some even said they played hundreds or more hours in a game and never completed the main quest in say Skyrim or FO4. However, it seems as though he's not seeing the fact that he's *responsible* for the main stories that said people are ignoring. Which either means at best he's just a bad writer in a major position, or at worst a cynical writer who knows people skips his main stories so he uses that as an *excuse* to not put any real effort in the subsequent stories he's in charge of thus justifying said players habit of skipping those stories.

[@FantomMisfit]

That's your generation these Zoomers today know nothing of lore 😂

[@ayoutubewatcher2849]

​@@Naruku2121 I feel this misses the point of why people don't care about the main quests. You mention Skyrim and Fallout 4; notoriously the worst stories in each respective series. If the writers don't care about their story, why should I? Modern Bethesda games have been successful despite the low quality of writing, not because of it.

[@Naruku2121]

@@ayoutubewatcher2849 That was my point though. Emil makes the point that people will take a novel rip paper and make air planes about it and go about their day. Though my point is he's the one making these stories in the first place and there for responsible for their quality. Though *because* he knows players do that he's using it as an excuse to not make an overly compelling narrative that could or would be good enough to make people willing to engage with the story. Even if there will still be paper air plane makers regardless, for those that actually *do* want a good narrative experience, will suffer because he himself focusing on those that ignore the story in these games and not the ones who'd *want* to appriecate said story.

[@redmiller3567]

starfield is such a shit game that modders don't even WANT to fix/expand the damned game because "its to boring" I swear man if Bethesda was in any other business they'd be squashed.

[@shorewall]

Yeah, modders don't "fix" bad games, they "expand" good games.

[@dksoulstice6040]

Emil is using a very common non-argument used by unintelligent people on the Internet "Yeah well, let's see you do better." If I watch an NBA game, and a player misses 10 free throws in a row, I do not need to be good at shooting free throws or even be a basketball player to accurately state "This player sucks at free throws". Imagine if a family member got a routine surgery, but ended up dying due to the surgeon's mistake, which you criticize them for. Then they retort "Yeah well let's see you be a surgeon". I'm not the one paid to shoot free throws, be a surgeon, or design games. I don't need to be any of these things to criticize something. By this logic, or lack thereof, most critics shouldn't be critics. Most film critics have never made a movie, food critics can't cook, and game reviewers don't make games. If something is bad, it's bad. You don't need to be a genius to identify a pile of shit.

[@Creetosis]

I'll be covering that in the video discussing his writing style and those particular tweets.

[@themanwithnoname1839]

Exactly, i aint got to be a pilot to know the dude fucked up if his plane in a tree........

[@wishuponamonkeyspaw2458]

Also, just as criticism is its own skillset and doesn't necessarily translate to being good at the thing itself, the inverse can also be true. You can be a savant in your field through sheer intuition, but lack the ability to critique your or anyone else's work if you lack the analytical skills and vocabulary to convey your thoughts.

[@Soapy-chan]

Also this argument is always only made in defense of bad things. No one ever said "Oh, you think this is great even though you don't know how to make it?"

[@arisumego]

@@Creetosisunbelievably fucking excited for that video

[@morgan79737]

Funniest thing about this is Emil reads how much everyone fucking hates him.

[@Brandelwyn]

Good

[@Snauss]

Emil has given me a lot more confidence in my own writing. If this absolute goober can make it that far, who couldn't?

[@Salt-Upon-Woundss]

Pretty sure he only has his position due to being friends with Todd rather than any actual talent

[@Snauss]

@@Salt-Upon-Woundss Nepotism at its finest. If I were to give a lead position to someone based on personal connection, I'd hold that person to a higher standard compared to a perfect stranger. You vouched for them being capable when they got in, time for them to prove that you made the right call. Todd either believes Emil is good or doesn't have it in him to correct him or show him the door.

[@G-Mastah-Fash]

Yeah that's why the world sucks so much. Success isn't about talent or intelligence, it's mostly about being able to present yourself in the correct light and knowing the right people.

[@moonasha]

@@Salt-Upon-Woundss the stupid thing is he could have probably taken some writing classes on the side and bethesda games would be 10x better. Guy has an ego the size of Everest

[@martinszymanski2607]

yeah, that's what i was gonna say. most people (including more competent writers who were let go from bethesda) can't make it that far, unfortunately.@@Salt-Upon-Woundss

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I loved all the themes in this video. You had computer screens, gameplay footage, voiceover. Very powerful themes! But I was particularly confused because KZbin has more than four buttons, and my controller only has four face buttons, so I didn't know which skittle to press...

[@TheGallantDrake]

The themes didn’t have anything to do with writing though, I think this video was very unfocused because it talks about writing but shows a lot of technology stuff. Get your themes straight smh

[@eponymous3784]

In story writing, "keep it simple, stupid" means to me that there is a clear, understandable set of ideas that the story branches out to explore in a complex way.

[@DJWeapon8]

To me when it comes to an expansive and detailed setting like Fallout. "Keep it simple, stupid." would be applied by laying down a solid foundation of the setting first. Its 200+ years after the nuclear apocalypse. With relatively decent access to advanced technology, people have recovered and civilization is slowly but surely retaking the wasteland. From there, you make realistic and logical conclusions as to what would be added. Agriculture and industry would restart. Vast trade networks would be created. Cities and small countries would start forming again. Different ideologies would form and govern these countries. Armies would be built up. Conflicts would arise. And innocents would be caught in the crossfire. The problem is that Bethesda doesn't give a shit about all of these. They only see Fallout as a cash cow whose iconography can be leveraged for profit. They don't care about the worldbuilding, the politics, the factions, the examination and exploration of a post nuclear apocalypse society. All they care about is *vault boy, power armor, brotherhood of steel, feral ghouls, super mutants, and deathclaws.*

[@BlackSpit-b3d]

S T I R N E R

[@TheGallantDrake]

Agreed. I like to use the example of Go, the East Asian board game. It’s got like… 2 rules: take turns putting down one stone at a time, if a stone is surrounded it gets removed. Score is decided by territory covered. The outcomes of those rules, however, are so complex that the game couldn’t be solved the same way that Chess could. You end up with entire books of how to build your “formations” for maximum territory control while keeping them from being destroyed.

[@eponymous3784]

@@DJWeapon8 that's honestly a big pitfall that's easy for sequels to fall into. They have to follow up with the setting, tone, etc, from the first one but find some new thematic core to explore that still works and that's a very difficult thing to do even when you try.

[@loserinasuit7880]

@DJWeapon8 If they made the Institute the secret hand of the Minutemen through a Preston Garvey synth they replaced during that battle Garvey nearly died in. You could have a whole plot line where you talk with your son about ethics in regards to the surface world as it makes sense why the Institute go outside. The Institute is like the last bastion of human knowledge in the region. Making the Minutemen and Institute into a coherent unity with kinks the player has to work out on both sides to repel the BOS would be fascinating. As the Minutmen should be violently xenophobic and the Institute should be trying to preserve order and civilization than undermine it for shits and giggles. And you could either make the Minutemen more cruel and pragmatic in restructuring civilization or you can try to make the Institute become kinder and more ethical in their pursuit of science. The Railroad could even be recontextualized to be Minutemen deserters who realize synths are replacing their ranks and want to help people rather than these stray robots.

[@jamesmeow3039]

If you want Fallout to be an RPG, Emil's response is that you're an idiot for asking.

[@Haggysack2k8]

No wait, you got this wrong. If you want Fallout to be an RPG, Emil's response is that you "do better, duh!" Being the fucking child he seems to be, i think this would be more his response.

[@salt-upon-wounds9909]

@@Haggysack2k8 I'm currently working on my own 2D RPG game, I will unironically be better than him because I'm always willing to change and improve, he's not like that and I don't think that he ever will.

[@synthschematics82]

he has only 4 answers including "Sarcasm" that is actually one answer : The answer is "I dont give a f about script i just go to the office and take my money"

[@BigVorst]

One thing to note about the 'You are a synth' theory is people often say you are one because, there's a terminal that suggests Synths can use something akin to/an equivalent like mental V.A.T.S. As well as actual V.A.T.S being impossible without use of a pipboy. In Vanilla Fo4, you can use V.A.T.S before you have the pipboy, so, you must be a synth, right? ...I think people fail to realise that undersights and/or simply not caring about consistency, are both things that can explain this.

[@BigVorst]

@@AbelMusa I think Synths actually do need to eat, sleep, drink, and can also get sick just like humans- But there's also an institute guy IIRC that contradicts this saying that Synths don't need to worry about stuff like that, despite them apparently being basically the same as humans for the most part. So- I actually can't even play devil's advocate because of that.

[@Ryan.2]

​@@AbelMusa I'm not someone that agrees to the "you're a synth" theory, but I'll play the devils advocate in response to your question about survival mode. I think synths still need to do all the sorts of things humans need to do to still live, like eating drinking and sleeping. Yeah it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I only say it because wouldn't wastlanders notice someone they've known for a long time suddenly stop doing those things? The same can also be said for synths who have had their memories replaced as well, because after a while they should notice that their body is behaving differently compared to others.

[@BigVorst]

@Ryan.2 Thank you for wording what I wanted to say way better than me. Not sure what happened to my original reply to AbelMusa though, I don't see it anymore for some reason o.o

[@themanwithnoname1839]

He also said "no one cares about the story, they will just rip out the page and make paper planes" that part where he said NO ONE cares about the story INCLUDES himself, otherwise he wouldve said MOST instead of NO ONE

[@jamesmeow3039]

It's such a broad useless statement. All video games, even Mario, have stories. And as Fallout New Vegas showed, sometimes letting the players mess around with paper planes IS THE STORY. Player freedom is the game story to be designed around, not a flaw that you complain about.

[@themanwithnoname1839]

​@@jamesmeow3039what you miss is that we asked for a better product and they blamed us, the players for their shit work .... But defend them, they care about you clearly cough fo76, just cuz you like eating sugar coated shit, does not mean it is good.... That is the point.... Its shit, we called them on it, and they blame us..... You missed that bit

[@themanwithnoname1839]

​@@jamesmeow3039you also said SOMETIMES which means your opinion is the minority.... Not the majority....

[@vaengr2695]

@@jamesmeow3039 no, the strength of new vegas came from how the player interacted with the story, and how the story reacts to you. NV prioritized narrative freedom and consequence

[@TheAdarkerglow]

I wonder how Emil would feel when I told him that my first thought when I left the cryopod in Fallout 4 was, "I wonder if the computers can tell me how much time passed between the abduction and my waking up." followed by replying to my character's concerns that they have to find Shaun with, "He's probably an adult, raised by someone else. Far as I'm concerned, I'm single and childless." He'd probably call me a liar, but I'd call him a hack writer if he did.

[@admiralalyssa]

I understood Nora's visceral response to looking for her kid at first but it's blatantly obvious that you're re-frozen. On the first playthrough, I thought it was just an excuse to remove the PC's family and leave you with a blank slate to write your background. Boy was I wrong.

[@Yan-tz9pn]

I didn’t realise it was meant to be a shock twist on my first playthrough. Like, they literally refreeze you.. who tf thought no time had passed? Tbf, I guessed Sean would be 25 and be a companion, but still, nobody thought he’d still be a baby

[@jeremytitus9519]

@@Yan-tz9pnthat could have been interesting.

[@craneteam87]

I love how he claimed writing credit for fallout shelter lol

[@JPerez9011]

Lol. I burst out laughing when that happened.

[@williamrapp6676]

Honestly its his best written game thus far if true 😂

[@somethingbrite8484]

This is the kind of thing school leaders so with their resumes when they don't actually have a great deal of experience. Simply add everything you have ever been part of regardless of how irrelevant. If we cut out such bullshit we end up seeing Emily's resume is actually very, very short.

[@MrSirHenryMF]

I've hated Emil ever since I saw that "Talks from Story" conference where he explains how he ruined Fallout so hard.

[@xSpooKee]

Same man. Absolutely despise him for that. His whole ego and at times dunning Kruger effect when he talks about fallout. He sounds he knows a lot about the franchise but every guy that have read the lore of fallout knows his bullshit, I absolutely hated how they used 50s music as a central theme even its world too. Or Emil says, 50s Americana... When in fallout1 it was only the introduction that had that. I am glad more are waking up to his bullshit writing.. sorry about the rant.

[@nathanlevesque7812]

DK effect is frequently mistated. It's a general bias towards the average. He is literally an outlier because he is flagrantly incompetent but thinks he's great, rather than just less below avg than in actuality.@@xSpooKee

[@simoneidson21]

@@xSpooKeeNot to be that guy, but the 50s aesthetics have always been a part of Fallout. It’s a core part of the lore. We never advanced past the 50s in terms of aesthetics.

[@cage94123567890]

@@simoneidson21 He is right that it doesn't have much place in Fallout 1 when you actually play through it, though. It's a little bit too busy focusing on the post-post apocalyptic world to wank off to the americana

[@xSpooKee]

@@simoneidson21 yeah true. It's just that bethesda really just out did it with the 50s stuff. Like that other guy just said.

[@tentacledood5784]

I find it kinda funny that he can barely describe what the games he worked on are about.

[@j85grim4]

The irony.

[@jashloseher578]

Emil said you cannot criticize a twinkie if you've never worked at the twinkie factory. He is right about one thing: Starfield is the twinkie of video games.

[@numberonedad]

Yeah I also thought that was a funny comparison that I hadn't seen commented on in the coverage. mass-produced junk food

[@SecuR0M]

Twinkies are good, or at least palatable, and you can eat a lot of them. Starfield in terms of mechanics is a saltine cracker. In terms of story, it's a glob of expired mayonnaise.

[@jaek__]

​@@SecuR0Mno sane human can finish more than 2 twinkies at once

[@r3dr4te963]

Now why you have to insult twinkies man?

[@bandawin18]

​@@jaek__ Shit I can hardly handle 1, they're so unhealthy and just being aware of what they're made of is enough to make me feel sick just looking at them Starting to feel the same regarding bethesda games tbh

[@bigblue344]

His "Be nice to us because games are difficult to make" argument could work if it wasn't for the fact that this same studio made Skyrim and Fallout 4 which were probably even more difficult games to make and are at their worst serviceable to play if you turn your brain off.

[@ealtar]

games are dificult to make ..... NO !! (well not to professionals) it's only dificult for Bthesda because they still use an engine and tools made in 1999 if they were using modern tools and a modern engine it wouldn't be dificult ... and it would be of MUCH MUCH higher base quality ...........

[@ClarkKentai]

​@@ealtarClimb down out of your butt, kid. Yes, games are difficult to make, even for professionals. The only person who would say otherwise is someone whose entire knowledge of game dev comes from the movie Grandma's Boy.

[@michaelbuto305]

@@ClarkKentai Nah, its not difficult if you in this AAA Studio like bethesda. Its not. They got the formula, but they dont want to make everything better. They just want to be as simple as Tod said 'It just works'. They also want to cultivate bunch of modders and probably the dev himself want to be a paid modder. This is also happens at Bannerlord Modder Community, which suprisingly even after the game got out from the beta. Somehow the dev always destroy compatibility with mods with just a simple replacing A-B. It just another day of Dev want to make illusion of Checklist for Paycheck. Touch some grass oldman, new generation that born in Internet/Tech industry will always got better start and vision for the current trend market. Than some 40-50 years old veteran that scared of new things because some of them cant adapt with new Engine/got comfortable with their 'It Just Works'. Game is easy to make.

[@ClarkKentai]

​@@michaelbuto305Thank you for confirming my suspicions. You know nothing of game development.

[@Videogamehasanpiker]

Yeah...they're difficult to make if you still use the same game engine from like 2003

[@kroganshepard6594]

Emil couldn't more obviously think lowly of his audience if he tried.

[@Mirthful_Midori]

I think it's funny that Emil implies that he's a hard worker. At least he wasn't so ballsy as to claim he's a competent worker. It's also pathetic how he claims pointing to what he said is "misrepresenting" him. I'm not misrepresenting anything when I tell people that he confessed to not using design documents or allowing anyone in the office make a quest. It's not misrepresenting someone when you quote their own idiotic statements, verbatim. It's also painfully obvious that he doesn't care about the lore. It's painfully obvious that he writes Fallout games with a checklist of recognizable things to include from the first two games and then goes from there. How many refunds did Starfield get on Steam? Must've been a lot, for a billion dollar company like Bethesda to respond the way they have. That Emil is now responding himself, even after he said they ignore criticism, is another sign that Starfield isn't the success they wish it was.

[@numberonedad]

what do you mean he said he's like matt damon in good will hunting also humble

[@satore]

Probably not many refunds for Starfield. The thing railroads you in it's intro so many people played for over 2 hours before realising how shit it was

[@noddy1973]

​@@satorethey really should extend the playtime for refund

[@Mirthful_Midori]

@@satore Apparently there were something like 200,000 refunds the day before Starfield's release. People who pre-ordered were allowed to play early and people could refund before release day, regardless of hours played. I obviously can't prove how many, if any, of those were Starfield. It's just that the timing is a bit hard to ignore. Something has definitely gone wrong with Starfield's sales numbers, regardless of refund numbers specifically. Like I said, it is highly unusual for Bethesda to respond to any criticisms.

[@xXDeiviDXx]

@@Mirthful_Midori They must be counting Game Pass downloads and/or subscriptions for that to count towards high numbers of sales

[@blumoon131]

Emil is a concept guy who, through some fuckery, got a lead writing gig. Talent isn't a requirement for Bethesda, I guess...

[@Cenot4ph]

Now you know how competent Todd is. Incompetency breeds when leadership is also incompetent

[@BSell-b1q]

The thing is, I think he's good at being a concept guy. He just isn't a good writer. He's not organised and regimented enough, and doesn't have the attention to detail. He just doesn't understand writing.

[@ClarkKentai]

People don't make paper airplanes out of stories they actually want to read. I've never heard Amy Hennig, (modern) Warren Spector or Lorne Lanning bemoan player agency. And that "We worked so hard!" argument in the Twitter thread, I always hate that. I can work real hard to break down a brick wall with nothing but my flaccid member, that doesn't mean I get to complain about criticism when it remains standing.

[@jamesmeow3039]

And sometimes "making airplanes" is just the players using the game mechanics in fun ways. Immersive Sims can be defined by this, and it makes them some of the most fun video games

[@vaengr2695]

exept in the case of fallout, or any crpg in general, in which dialouge, storytelling and worldbuilding should take priority. and emil literally defined "making airplanes" as fucking around with shacks. @@jamesmeow3039

[@ClarkKentai]

@@jamesmeow3039 Funny you mention that, Warren Spector discussed that as well. I couldn't tell you which interview it was, but his wording was "Once it's their game, it's THEIR game." In other words, he'd write his story, but also make sure it could be folded into DAMN good paper airplanes.

[@chilbiyito]

​@@ClarkKentaiinterview with ars technica?

[@ClarkKentai]

@@chilbiyito It could have been that, the IGN Unfiltered interview, or that GDC roundtable with a few other imsim devs.

[@TheGallantDrake]

Emil spent so much effort to try and look like a professional writer that he forgot to actually be a professional writer.

[@Farron6]

Not once playing Fallout 4 did the theme of suspicion come across. There was no quest that literally emphasised this. The characters were played straight as an arrow till the relevant "Opps I'm a Synthetic" marker/quest point was activated. Not once were my companions suspicious or doing something weird. The only times I can think where "Suspicion" came into focus was a scripted event where you can randomly bump into a man aiming a gun at his doppelganger and a similar scenario outside the noodle shop in Diamond City. Such a wasted opportunity. Imagine if when you first recruit Preston Garvey as a companion he secretly takes stuff from you and makes notes on your progress to send back to the Institute or when he sends you out to help settlements it's to wipe the area clean of say Brotherhood/Railway operatives undercover where your only clues would be the advanced weapons they carry and a few coded notes. You think you're just doing the Minutemen settlement questline, it's generic, doesn't make you think or question until you come across Garveys hidden stash where you discover his mission "Stay in the Sanctuary Hills area and wait for a Vault Dweller, keep tabs on him and report feedback" You finally discover the correspondence and confront him and Garveys Courser programming activates threatening to kill/capture you.

[@billjacobs521]

Eh, if you side with the Institute, there's the quest with the Warwick farmers. And of course there's Far Harbor's main story. Or the final part of Danse's personal quest. But yeah, it's very minor, and it's never really a mystery, just a story about someone, somewhere, being dodgy.

[@ten-finger]

The thing that irks me about Emils whole "paper airplanes" spiel is that he assumes that all gamers react to all stories the same way. He says that gamers won't care about your story and will just run off and do their own thing, and... He's kinda right, SOME gamers do that, they don't listen to your story no matter how good it is and just piss about instead. But that's just SOME gamers! There's tons of different kinds of gamers out there, some who don't care about story and just run through every game like a theme-park. Some really like story, too much even, to the point that they will read through bad lore and spend time theory crafting about stories that really aren't worth the time. Most gamers i believe fall in the middle, caring about the story of games on a game-by-game basis, based on how well crafted the story is, or how much it personally speaks to them in particular. That's how i am, i'm fine with games that have thin excuse plots that only exist to facilitate great gameplay, but if i see the developers actually spent time trying to say something interesting about the world i'm willing to listen. Hell, i'm even willing to excuse lackluster gameplay if the story is interesting enough! Which is why i'm not particularly thrilled about replaying Fallout 4 (lackluster gameplay AND story leaves no one satisfied, LOL). But Emil just wants us to believe it's inevitable, no matter how hard you try, no one's going to respect your story, so why even try? It's easier than actually trying to improve i suppose...

[@TheBreakingBenny]

One could almost feel sorry for Emil, but he's chosen this path and let his ego destroy him.

[@TheGallantDrake]

Speaking as someone who followed the Emil path for a good few years before getting a rude wake-up call, it makes me sick to my stomach that this guy is out here convincing people that he’s successful due to anything other than blind luck.

[@piegineer9130]

See form how poppular many of the game Lore channel was prove that lot of peoples dose intrest in the game story.

[@tbotalpha8133]

@@TheGallantDrake The thing is, if you're going to operate on the assumption that players don't care about story... then why is the actual *game* so boring? If you've decided that storytelling is a waste of resources, why aren't you plowing all your resources into making the gameplay as amazing as possible? There are tons of great games out there that don't give a rat's ass about telling a compelling story, and yet they WORK. Because they've actually committed to the idea that story doesn't matter, wholly and honestly. They're not using it as an excuse for having shitty storytelling, in a genre built on the strength of authored stories.

[@trickstercj4366]

Reminds me of that terrible pokemon interview where the dev didn't add a staple post game area into a remake because "kids these days are too busy"

[@tarabelle7716]

Emil being pathetic may actually be more interesting than his writing.

[@blacksun54]

"skyrim is biblical!" in no fucking way is skyrim even remotely biblical what the hell are you talking about Emil?!

[@ealtar]

Morrowind you are the reincarnation of a betrayed god who has to stop his best friend from destroying the world in revenge ..... oblivion you aren't the hero, you are just the guy that helped get things into proper place for the hero who becomes the avatar of a god skyrim, there are multiple special people but you are the only one to move your arse and do somthing "biblical" - emil

[@jamesmeow3039]

Bethesda 1:1 In the beginning Todd with the Creation Engine formed the world map and graphics. Now the game was formless and empty, a wide as an ocean and deep as a puddle, and the Spirit of Todd was hovering over the game loop. And Todd said, “Let there be content” and there were radiant quests.

[@dragonhunter4592]

Emil is a devout Christian who eagerly forces his beliefs into what he writes. There is a reason that Fallout 3 and Skyrim is compared to The Bible because he eagerly tries to paint everything with this shade of clean white nothingness.

[@TheGallantDrake]

@@dragonhunter4592the problem here is that his understanding of Christian symbolism and mythology is so poor that it’s kinda difficult to tell most of the time. He’s not even good at it.

[@loserinasuit7880]

"Skyrim is not about dragons" Oh OK so being an avatar of the dragon aedra on a mission to kill a world eating dragon resurrecting dragons across the Nord controlled region steeped in the tradition of being able to use dragon speak and finding numerous ruins with dragon runes etched into the resting place of these long dead Nord peoples is just a prolonged fucking sidequest.

[@Kattbirb]

Thank you for bringing up Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood. As soon as the story is supposed to have a big twist is the very moment it falls apart. I used to joke that that was the point of development where Bethesda stopped paying their writers and an intern had to wrap things up.

[@Creetosis]

Rendering a video right now talking about Emil's writing from Oblivion to Starfield. Yeah, the dark brotherhood is so much worse than I remember

[@Kattbirb]

​@Creetosis I'll be sure to watch it. Ever since Skyrim, I've had a great time watching the deep dives into the ashes of Bethesda's dumpster fires.

[@backupschmliff1156]

It's so funny that Emil mistakes themes with plot devices. Dragon's and Androids are not "themes" but plot devices used by the story.

[@Reaching8]

“Fallout 4 is about 1950s Americana.” How did people not start laughing when he said that? I’m tracking that’s what he wrote the game about, but like, how can a director have his fingers so off the pulse with a franchise?

[@MrViki60]

He's a complete hack.

[@enduser8410]

According to Tim Cain in a recent video of his, Fallout is at its core supposed to be "What people in the 50s imagine the future would be like". That is a direct quote. How Emil could pinhole on the 50s aspect alone is baffling. It's literally two components.

[@Reaching8]

@@enduser8410 Cain never had to explain that, it’s evident in the work. In Fallout, nothing seems like the 50s. It’s what the 50s thought people in 100 years would act like, then nuked, and there’s a generation of people living in the ruins. No one acts like an American from the mid 1900s except for certain phrases they might have inherited generationally. The cars and food items aren’t “Haha how 50s and old timey,” They were real things that people were buying, they were normal. Yeah radiation is treated in a way that’s in line with retro sci fi, and industrial looking tech is common, but it’s all treated as ‘real’ by the world, radioactive monsters are still a real threat even if they’re fictional in our understanding as the player. Fallout 2, 3, and ESPECIALLY 4 really don’t understand the setting, but in 4 it’s not a misinterpretation or something, it’s like they read the back of the Fallout box and went from there, with a few inversionist 180s along the way. If someone told me that Fallout 4 was originally intended as a game about wearing power armour in the 50s before being hastily retextured before launch, I would entirely believe that.

[@Reaching8]

@@MrViki60 Yeah and then some. I knew that the dude was off it since playing Oblivion and Fallout 3 but I had no clue how bad things really were

[@bensmith8682]

That's the other funny part. Fallout isn't -about- americana, it's a motif of the past. Nobody's running around yelling in baseball quips and sinatra references, it's more the aesthetic of the rot. That was the culture of yesteryear, on decaying billboards and dilapidated high-rises, not the current culture of the post-nuke. The fact they can't understand the difference in the two is astounding.

[@ipot399]

Little Lamplight, one of the greatest sins of writing and worldbuilding ever, is all that needs to be said.

[@kotzpenner]

Never forget not being able to send Fawkes into the reactor, while at the same time it being a major point in receiving the GECK in the first place. Drives me up the wall.

[@ExValeFor]

@@kotzpenner it's significantly worse when you consider that fan outcry was bad enough that they patched the ending to allow it. If you do send someone else into the reactor, they will guilt trip and bitch at you for having the audacity to not go and die

[@kotzpenner]

@@ExValeFor Yep exactly, but I think they did this because of the post game DLC? Where you survive? So either you get a lethal dose of radiaition and miraculously survive or the radiation immune companions tell you you're a pussy. It's bs all way down.

[@hartianx1698]

@@ExValeFor I can understand if that person wasn't a ghoul or mutant, because then they'd be going off to die instead.

[@joekaz5198]

They fact that they dont use a design document really sheds light on something that annoyed me in Skyrim. In Skyrim there is an assumedly ancient bard song that refers to "old Rorikstead" then you go to Rorikstead and learn the town is not that old and the founder is a middle-aged man who still alive. There was really no communication between employees at Bethesda. And fans of these games have been coming up with theories to explain what I have always just called bad writing and lore.

[@platypipope328]

>people ignore the story he is aware that people are actively discussing the best ending of fallout new vegas to this day, right?

[@siruristtheturtle1289]

The Yes-Man ending, of course.

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

Skyrim is more biblical than any other Bethesda game? He never played Morrowind? The game with the central religion, the prophesized god-chosen hero to drive out the roman-themed outlanders? The Nerevarine is quite explicitly a messiah.

[@billjacobs521]

Eh, the Last Dragonborn was prophesized to come and stop the literal destruction of the entire world by an angry demi-god, which he does in a heavenly plane. I can agree that is the most biblical, but I don't really see why that is particularly noteworthy; it's a very, very easy story to write.

[@editdotexe]

I was going to comment the same thing. It hit me like a truck a few minutes after he said it. I mean their are literal prophesies you have to fulfill in your journey. (unless you take the backdoor)

[@psychoticbreaks167justletm4]

Skyrim honestly feels more Hindu than anything. I can't even tell ya why. I grew up with the Bible and never saw that connection once. Dragonborn... maybe... still, big picture is that Hindu-esque kalpa cycles define the universe along with Hindu-esque deities having different roles, and thats in the main plot.

[@MesieurOjete]

He just moves his mouth and words come out of it, dont give it much thought, Emil doesn't either.

[@pisscvre69]

the biggest issue i have with that is writers like him who think biblical= good, like no your just a hack ripping off one of the oldest most known stories ever lol

[@sup1602]

Emil sucked all the way back in bloodmoon when he wrote the cocaine santa character and a few other silly ones in the dlc. In a game that it generally took itself seriously though out the game. He comes in and writes such jarring stuff in these games that breaks the two things Bethesda does well, atmosphere and immersion.

[@simoneidson21]

God forbid comic relief. I really don’t wanna defend Emil but there are way bigger things to criticize him for.

[@deepdark4738]

What part of Divayth Fyr, Tarhiel, and Sheogorath is serious? There's way worse things you could criticise this guy for but not this..

[@kielbasamage]

@@simoneidson21 That kind of thinking is gonna give us a Skibidi Toilet reference in Elder Scrolls 6.

[@loserinasuit7880]

​@@kielbasamageWere about to find so many fucking skeleton heads in future fallout games.

[@kielbasamage]

@@loserinasuit7880 don’t you see? There’s a skeleton with an arrow in its knees on a toilet wearing the iron helm from Skyrim! ITS A LE HECKING FUNNERINO REFERENCE GUYS! What do you mean you weren’t expecting that in the main quest line?

[@GroggyGrognard]

Emil's Twitter attitude is kind of like an angry chef bursting out of his kitchen and screaming at a customer "DO YOU NOT LIKE FOOD?!" when a meal is sent back because it was undercooked and tastes weird. As to his speech - I found his speaking style to be a bit awkward due to his frequent use of 'OK?' constantly as he was making every major point about his writing approach. It was as if he needed someone to validate the points coming out because some little part of his brain was screaming foul at the incongruity of what he was saying about his writing versus what was actually being produced.

[@userequaltoNull]

I don't know, maybe it's a regional thing. I'm from Mass, and I often use "alright?" Or "okay?" As sentence fillers. Kinda like just "are you still following what I'm saying? Sometimes it comes out as "ar'rite" or "right" or "kay".

[@TheGallantDrake]

@@userequaltoNullhe’s using an awful lot of filler

[@shorewall]

@@userequaltoNull It's terrible for public speaking. He's not a professional public speaker, but it is still bad public speaking.

[@tyronewilliams2638]

He talks a lot about movies, but is basically saying "it's better to direct a movie without a script" Wtf 😂

[@carolynr570]

Based on how Todd describes starfield, it seems they are trying to go for a feeling of awe or experiencing the sublime, contemplating your place in the universe. But it’s shallow. We’ve been through the moon landing and have watched and read enough sci-fi to not be impressed by Bethesdas continuous empty show of grandiosity. Starfield is well out of time for what Emil thinks he’s trying to achieve with it. Additionally, it’s clear that Emil is in over his head in trying to convey any kind of philosophical idea. I’ve never played fallout 4 but when he described the theme as “androids that look like humans”, I cringed because if he had any understanding or any depth to his ideas, he’d say the themes were “exploring the meaning personhood”. But of course the game isn’t actually about that because then it would’ve been better. His writing can be summed up as the product of a man who’s never been told no, and therefore was never able to grow out of his “I’m 14 and this is deep” style of writing.

[@blumoon131]

Unless you caught yourself up on the story and interactions of FO4, you dodged a frustratingly stupid bullet. The game is nothing but a bunch of _"Oh this looks cool! Put it in the game!"_ ideas that only connect through frayed wires and rusty paper clips.

[@TheGallantDrake]

No Man’s Sky already did the feeling of awe and wonder better imo, and it’s had several years to refine what it’s got.

[@tbotalpha8133]

There is absolutely space for modern sci-fi to provoke feelings of awe and wonder. It's not too late at all. The Outer Wilds manages it with a single solar system, a handful of tiny cartoon planets, and the ability to freeroam around the system in a manually-piloted spaceship. To say more would be horrible spoilers, but the game goes to some *incredible* places. The problem is that Emil is a fucking hack, plain and simple. (go play The Outer Wilds, play it blind, for the love of God you won't regret it)

[@hunterkiller1984]

@@TheGallantDrake Every time I start a new game and repair my ship and when I escape the planet, it continues to blow me away..

[@sev1120]

Starfield's world is an ocean that's an inch deep. It's got a lot of stuff that doesn't matter, because the only thing that matters is the power fantasy of being space jesus

[@sev1120]

The fallout 4 dialogue system isn't 4 options, it's 2 options. You have 3 variations of "yes" and "tell me more". The 3 variants are: "Nice yes" (say something positive in agreement and continue the dialogue) "Mean yes" (berate the other guy but still agree with them and continue the dialogue) "Sarcastic yes" (say something sarcastic but still agreeing with what the other person said and continue the dialogue) And then there's "tell me more", which can sometimes be replaced with "sad yes"

[@noxioushellcatl3082]

Arguably, Skyrim’s intro was effective in setting the tone of the political climate of Skyrim. Just didn’t pass on the follow through due to the lack of representation in the open world. The most you could see is the prisoners of war on a random encounter.

[@kyosokutai]

The longer Emil Pagliarulo remains on Bethesda's payroll, the stronger he becomes.

[@notfreeman1776]

i still have no fucking idea what "great games are played not made" even fucking means

[@shorewall]

Neither does Emil.

[@BrandonDenny-we1rw]

Emil has played great games in the past but he himself did not make them. Depsite being a part of the dev team.

[@georgemackay5735]

I feel really bad for anyone who showed up to this talk looking for insights into writing. There is a better than 50% chance that Emil is the worst writer in the room.

[@chilbiyito]

Who put this dude in such an important position at Bethesda?

[@TheBreakingBenny]

Todd Howard did, because they're friends since way back, and he's too kind towards the guy.

[@dimazfantasy5252]

​@@TheBreakingBennynepotism at its finest

[@TheBreakingBenny]

@@dimazfantasy5252 I guess it's worse than Valve does it, and at least those guys and gals have passion whereas Bethesda's seem quite disorganized... because they don't know how the end product should look.

[@ealtar]

"i've worked on bloodmoon, oblivion and skyrim" .. funny how that coincides with the SHARP decline in quality i'm gald cree you didn't go for the "trump wrong" meme it would have been an overdose with Emil not understanding ANYTHING

[@animelytical8354]

NO WAY THE TWEETING GUY WAS THIS GUY 💀

[@nathanmiller9918]

There's zero need to force yourself to write four options to an inconsequential yes/no question. There should only be four options when there are four legitimate responses. Thats an instance where 'keep it simple, stupid,' should have obviously been applied.

[@orbit1894]

I think his twitter rant proves he wrote all those stupid replies on steam

[@TheBreakingBenny]

We do know there are copypasted paragraphs across review answers from "customer support." They could very well have been written by him, or ChatGPT

[@Uriseph]

Wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

[@CrazyxEnigma]

Idk if that's worse or better than it being Chat GPT.

[@LocalSlasher]

I noticed something about that. There were multiple dev accounts writing those. You think he was pretending to be his coworkers?

[@LocalSlasher]

​​@@CrazyxEnigmaNah. Looked more like they wrote a few lines for each reply, followed by a thick script of sorts.

[@SaltyChickenDip]

He stated that he doesnt use a design document because its hard to keep it up to date. Lile thsts the job of the head designer.

[@jacobyullman5005]

You know what would've actually been a much more interesting quest for the Museum of Witchcraft? One that still involves a deathclaw? What if, the deathclaw turned out to not be just another fight like all the rest? What if, the deathclaw was a survivor of the Vault 13 extermination back in Fallout 2? It could be that a small group of intelligent deathclaws actually managed to escape (maybe they hadn't been present in the vault at the time of the Enclave attack) and had been slowly trekking across the united states in search of a place where they could hide from the Enclave and avoid being persecuted by humans. Maybe one of them got separated from its group when scouting for a safe place to stay, and was attacked and wounded by raiders or something, and hid in the Museum of Witchcraft. I mean, this is just a random idea and not fleshed out, but I think it's infinitely more interesting than what they came up with.

[@kotzpenner]

Then imagine you can reunite her with her pack and have to defend against people wanting them dead. Like that would be fucking interesting. The one big enemy in Fallout needing help against encroaching civilisation and misunderstandings. Would be a cool callback. But no, it’s another lame fight.

[@lobstrosity7163]

You're assuming Emil has played Fallout 2.

[@Lightsign01]

Bethesda's videogames size used to represent the mechanical nuance, now its presentation hides the lack of mechanical nuance. They lack the same focus of games like Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind, they should try a small, 36-47 hour videogame, full of hidden items in every room, or deep dialogue exchanges... they won't, you know why? Because their open-world used to be creative, daring even... now it's the opposite. Oh, sidenote: He used the term "theme" like he is referring to some funfair-ride.

[@TheBreakingBenny]

"Theme-park" 😂

[@welshlout3400]

People at the top of their profession are lifetime learners. It’s how they got as good as they are. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s this guy. Perpetual high school grade writer thought he could just maintain a veneer of being a prestigious lead writer by doubling down on tired axioms like “keep it simple, stupid”. Buddy, you’re not a guru and you know it. If anything there’s likely a few people in the room who more rightfully belong on the conference floor.

[@MmostlyRandom]

if a surgeon cuts off your leg when he was meant to remove your appendix you don't feel for the guy because his job is hard and he's under a lot of stress. you don't have to be a surgeon to know that the dude fucked up big time and the same applies to a billion jobs out there. Emils ramblings are just lame excuses from a talentless hack in a company of talentless hacks. it's basically "let's see if you can do better". I don't have to do better because I'm not the one claiming to be a game dev selling a product to people for $70 if bethesda did their jobs to a high standard we wouldn't be having the discussion. it's a Bethesda problem not a customer problem

[@shorewall]

Thing is, 50% of people on the internet could write better stories than Emil.

[@MmostlyRandom]

​@@shorewall LOL If my dog could type she could come up with a better story than Emil and she's only 4 years old.

[@Brikiboi69]

@@MmostlyRandom My one year old cat could write better than Emil.

[@jonathanproctor715]

Emil was never a great writer, he was serviceable to decent at best with quest design doing heavy carrying on questlines he touched. And ever since he has become lead of the writing department, the writing has taken a nosedive into even worse laziness and shallowness. Learning they abolished the documentation just shows how dysfunctional and disorganized his method is. It's not entirely on him, but he's in the position of responsibility for the state of Bethesda's writing quality. I sincerely hope they allow someone else to step up and take the reigns in the future because he and the current head writers have steered things into the ground and it is frustrating to watch.

[@_MadRat_]

Emil's speech feels like a representation of his design philosophy for games. Give the audience a lot of content, but without coherent structure. Talk about important and grand ideas, but fail at every detail. Ignore the reviews.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Back here after Emil's blunder on Twitter trying to tie the shell-shocked intro of FO4 Nate into the warcrime accessory intro dude from Fallout 1 and then backpedaling worse than General Autumn's plans for the Purifier.

[@AKKK1182]

You can tell a person is unsure of what they're saying if they seek affirmation all the time ("Right? Right?"). Pretty sure Emil has just been coping through the past twenty years, no idea how the fuck he hasn't been sacked yet.

[@Tonicッ]

The biggest issue with Emil's tendency to emulate the mottos of "Keep it simple stupid.", "Write what you know." and "Great games are played, not made" is that it's limiting to the artists to constrain them to a bunch of rigid, short mottos that don't take into account a ton of variables, The biggest thing I can relate this too is the popular term of "Show don't tell." which is widely disliked for being extremely overrepresented and because it's not even accurate half the time, There are absolutely moments where telling is more beneficial than 'showing' and the fact that he proudly admits that he sticks to these phrases also shows how bad his writing is.

[@TheGallantDrake]

Emil never grew past high school

[@posthistoricdino422]

i agree. trapping your art within strict, rigid rules will inevitably tank your creativity, especially when those rules are so half-assedly interpreted that they're barely effective anyway. it IS important to have guidelines and consistency, but knowing when and how to break your own rules is key to making great, unique art. it honestly baffles me how the same guy can work under both the ideas of "i always write with these rules in mind" and "we don't keep design documents". he managed to combine the worst parts of working strictly and loosely.

[@number3766]

Emile is right, we do often rip up the pages of a story to make paper airplanes. Difference is, the book's got a healing factor so everytime we make a paper airplane, we see a little bit more of the story. If we ripped out an interesting page, we just wait a bit to make a paper airplane with the page to read it. It's called multiple playthroughs and an RPG.

[@shorewall]

For real, Starfield even has NG+ with a story aspect to it, but they give you no reason to do that.

[@woodsgump]

Honestly I’m on the same board with Creetosis and that Emil Pagliarulo is the worst video game writer/producer because of Fallout 3 and 4’s stories, his flawed DB work, and other means. Yeah sure he was with LookingGlass Studios during the days of Thief were niche or unbeknownst at the time but that doesn’t give him enough rather credit or legibility. I thank Creetosis for making me see the cracks and flaws of not only Skyrim but Fallout 4 because it shows that as a ‘fan’ of Bethesda Game they fucking suck and their formula is thinning. Starfield was the most boring fest I’ve played a few days after release and the only worth mentions of playing it are the side-factions like Crimson Fleet, UC, and Ryujin Corporation. My god the main story for Starfield is not even worth talking about because it’s just Skyrim in space. I jokingly said this before launch that you’re gonna see floating Khajiits in space and I was partially right. Thank you Creetosis for making this video and how flaw of a man Emil Pagliarulo is in the video game industry.

[@averymicrowave1713]

Was Emil the design lead or in any position of power in Thief's development? Because it's genuinely surprising that he worked on that and DIDN'T manage to take lessons from that game's writing. Especially the dialogue, like the cutscenes with the Trickster, or the guard convos.

[@woodsgump]

@@averymicrowave1713 So his introduction came after he wrote a positive(accurate) review on the first game, then LG picked him up and he did the following levels: - Life of the Party - Precious Cargo Then some levels in Gold: - The Sword - Eavesdropping

[@turboDrowsy]

@@woodsgumpIf anything, I think Life of the Party shows he’s a much better level designer than he is a writer.

[@woodsgump]

@@turboDrowsyRight? Because it goes back to the urban stealth that players from the first game have been asking and there are plenty of funny/memorable moments such as the arrow guards, the notes left by Karras, and the harmless spider. Idk how Emil made it this far in life…

[@numberonedad]

it's amusing that he makes a category error with the "yeah it's on the internet that i'm a bad writer so it must be true" sarcasm that's not a statement of fact emil it's people telling you their opinion

[@MichaelIlos]

I've never looked up names of bethesda's fallout main writers, but hearing that he's been at the helm of writing team for a while now and bethesda hasn't replaced him is mind-boggling. Fallout 3 comes out, some people complain about the writing, okay his first big project, mistakes happen. Then fallout 4 comes out, almost everyone complains about the writing and people that enjoy the game do so despite its horrible writing. Bethesda's response? Let him write starfield, their biggest project to date. Wtf is this.

[@TheBreakingBenny]

Bethesda doesn't care about criticism, and they're willing to go "No U!" with their seemingly ChatGPT-generated "customer support replies" on negative Steam reviews. It's pretty apt when Creetosis points out there seems to be a jab at Fallout 3's critique for having still-edible pre-War food lying around. "Expiration date: never" my ass

[@jromero9795]

It's really a testiment to Emil that this entire thread somehow isn't the worst thing he's ever written

[@christopherschroeder4096]

Go look at the dialogue trees for FO4 and see how many "branching choices" result in literally identical responses from characters like Desdemona or Danse.

[@darthdragonborn1552]

What’s so astonishing about Emil doing these pretentious, arrogant rants is that……this is all after Fallout 76. That’s obviously common knowledge, but the fact after that fucking insane travesty they’re still acting like the “we can do no wrong”, “we can never fail”, “always game of the year” developers is baffling, and this include those steam review responses literally saying the reviews are wrong lol. I don’t think people, especially Bethesda, realize how much of an embarrassing black eye Starfield is gonna be in the coming years, even more so than 76, since this is one of there main single player games, and was touted as their magnum opus decades in the making.

[@tastethecock5203]

its just basic corporate media culture in america. Saving face, being boistoreous, faking confidence, acting and hyping yourself up.

[@smokingbarrels7019]

Fuck him, he's dragging Bethesda into the mud, I wish more fans could see it though, bunch of mindless drones

[@billjacobs521]

@@tastethecock5203 I dunno man, I feel like fake apologies are the way to go of late--yet again, Bethesda's mechanics are outdated.

[@tastethecock5203]

@@billjacobs521 it is companies that apologize, individuals never take any responsibility

[@waidwml2166]

Well Emil didn't write Fallout 76. You can tell because Fallout 76 has a solid theme that somewhat fits the gameplay.

[@AgeofGuns]

All Bethesda needs to do is get kirkbride back, give him all the necessary drugs. The magic will make itself.

[@xXxMrRazorxXx]

Ohhh as he is also a 40k and fantasy fan, as well as someone who has STILL been writing a lot, he definitely would!! 🎉

[@TheGallantDrake]

Kirkbride has enough self respect to avoid being exploited by those leeches.

[@LocalSlasher]

I was looking for a Kirkbride comment! I wonder how he would have handled Fallout...

[@tbotalpha8133]

There's no guarantee that what he writes will be GOOD, but acid-trip madman ramblings would still be more interesting than whatever is going on in Starfield.

[@kylegonewild]

@@tbotalpha8133 Stephen King built a career on cocaine and word count lol.

[@DoDaDaDaDaCaDa]

Emil sounds like he's more comfortable talking about being a writer than actually doing the writing.

[@GoonMcGoonerson]

Hope he retires. Hack.

[@CrankyBonesGaming]

Remember the fallout game where you will leave the vault to find your family member, Take a boat in a dlc to find someomes daughter, at the place you deal with weird locals, a submarine, a cult, and also get an axtion lever rifle. And in another dlc travel to a place by train tracks where you get a choice to join or kill some raiders, a quest to go around to find all of an items and be rewarded with a power armor and the dlc also adds an assault rifle to the game.

[@Ronin11111111]

The 1-2 punch of just how much Emil ruined everything is first learning he's the head writer so it's his fault all the stories are dogshit and then realising that "we don't use design docs because they become outdated too fast" likely means "I don't want to spend time updating a design doc". As a leader it should be part of his job to keep the team organised and efficient, but he's too fucking lazy for that, but he also doesn't seem to put that extra time into bettering his writing so I'm not really sure why he continues to be paid.

[@billjacobs521]

Also, STOP updating the design docs so much; the whole point of them is to keep everyone on the same page, understanding the rules they have to comply with, the boundaries of their work. If you change them every day, you're just not using them properly. Imagine if the legal system was changing every day and so eventually the courts just tossed the laws.

[@salmon4252]

When you only get to publish 2 games a decade, you better write bangers, such a waste, imagine Skyrim or Fallout 4 with writing similar to New Vegas .

[@christopherschroeder4096]

Bethesda can't even be bothered to respect *their own* canon, much less the original stuff. T-60 Power Armor is a newly discovered pre-war variant? Fuck the hundreds of Enclave suits the Brotherhood picked up a decade before FO4, I guess...

[@DJWeapon8]

IIRC Fallout 3 BoS say that they're the first ones to venture out East. But then bethesda shits out Fallout 76 and the BoS are in West Virginia 150 something years before Fallout 3 saying they're the first to venture out East. Then there's the ghouls. Apperently, ghouls don't need to eat or drink to survive in Fallout 4. Yet in the exact same game, there's the settlers mechanic of needing to provide food and water sources to settlers, *_ghouls included_* and several instances of feral ghouls eating either processed food or corpses. This is why I consider bethesda made Fallout games as non canon. Their individual games can't even respect its own lore. And that's not even including the godawful writing, retcons of consistent and well established lore for no reason, the bad gameplay mechanics, the practical removal of RPG elements that made the series so beloved to begin with, and blatant disrespect and juvenile handling of the somber post nuclear apocalyptic setting of the series.

[@christopherschroeder4096]

@@DJWeapon8 I already died a little inside when I saw the Amazon series trailer and read up a little about it. Bethesda's about ready to shit their writing back in OG Fallout territory.

[@DJWeapon8]

@@christopherschroeder4096 wow I completely forgot about the fallout amazon show. *And I watched the entire STAG stream about it.* That's how bad my subconscious wanted to forget that septic tank of a trailer.

[@christopherschroeder4096]

@@DJWeapon8 Which saddens me further, because Walton Goggins definitely deserves better material.

[@kmdgaming6039]

I find it so ironic that Emil listed off themes for various movies somewhat consistently, but the moment that he goes over to try and do the same to ANY of the games he worked on, he suddenly fails to even string together a coherent statement and at times seems like he's as lost as everyone else in the room.

[@Hyperiumon]

Telltale games usually have no choices or paths, 99% of the time its either you die or live and move to the next step with very little branches that like you said are meaningless

[@LickMyMusketBallsYankee]

Still better than Starfield

[@fyrespark2077]

That’s exactly how Fallout 4 was meant to be. And guess what, it was at Telltales peak popularity that Fallout 4’s development cycle would’ve been going on

[@Hyperiumon]

@@fyrespark2077 I mean the best telltale game is tales of borderlands 1 which 2qs actually really good but carried by the story and fun op5ions you can do but still had basically no paths, it does make sense that Bethesda would copy telltale and mass effect around the time cause apparently Bethesda forgot the fallout series thrived on choice and was more complex than the shallow 4 non choice system.

[@billjacobs521]

I don't like Fallout lacking choice, but I would have accepted that more if the linear stories we got weren't also shit. He exchanged something for nothing.

[@Hyperiumon]

@@billjacobs521 similar parallels can be drawn from movie producer who remake classic films for modern audiences and stuff it full of crap hap hazardly

[@garrick3727]

When the space shuttle Challenger exploded on launch in 1986 I distinctly remember thinking that NASA f**ked up. I admit, I know nothing about how to make space shuttles, but that did seem to be the overwhelming opinion of the vast majority of the press and public, who also did not know how to make space shuttles.

[@G-Mastah-Fash]

Not even building shacks is fun to me in Fallout 4 because none of the buildings look like anything a survivor in a hostile wasteland would ever build for himself. All of the shacks you can build are objectively worse than the kind of houses people on the American frontier with less readily available resources and more primitive tools built for themselves.

[@TheGallantDrake]

Lmao right? Post apocalyptic doesn’t mean incompetent.

[@billjacobs521]

True, I never understood why all the "walls" were paper-thin. And why most settlements were in terrible locations; why couldn't I take large, standing buildings and reinforce them into functional, defensible outposts?

[@G-Mastah-Fash]

@@billjacobs521 Or if the building is too damaged you could strip it down and reuse the bricks. A lot of medieval buildings were partially built from roman ruins so it stands to reason that people would reuse parts of old buildings or as you said just straight up renovate and live in them.

[@chumblesthecheese8580]

The main takeaway for me after watching this video is, Emil has a high level of contempt for both his craft and his audience, and it really shows in his final product.

[@supershot9729]

I could explain writing structure and themes more coherently then the head writer of fo4 lmao and I’m an uneducated pothead, no wonder it turned out that bad

[@felitole1332]

I find it very funny how his presentation is basically just still images from cool media he likes, theres like no argument or anything, it's stimulation for him to improvise on.

[@TheBreakingBenny]

I can only wonder what the audience in Denmark thought in the back of their heads after that presentation ended. Had _we_ been there, we'd probably walk away with questions especially if we weren't allowed to ask any.

[@mattwolfe4419]

The paper airplanes thing makes no sense when games like Elden Ring exist which delivers a great story that players actively have to seek out and aren’t just told. Hopefully Microsoft cans Emil which I could see them doing because they definitely need TES 6 to be good in order to justify buying bethesda

[@TheGallantDrake]

Right?!?!?!!? This guy just ignored Fromsoft’s entire output.

[@rewpertcone8243]

Elden ring was not a good example. I love elden ring but like story is not the main focus there. Uncharted 4, GowR, or The Last of Us makes more sense.

[@mattwolfe4419]

@@rewpertcone8243 I meant that players obviously care about the story enough where they will search for it and find the meanings through the limited information given by the game in fromsoft games which shows that Emil’s thinking about what players will do with a story is wrong but your examples are good to

[@kielbasamage]

@@mattwolfe4419 True. It's all too easy to find multiples of several hour long dissections, collections and interpretations of the Elden Ring lore, while as an equivalent for the Elder Scrolls and Fallout it's videos on how you can start turning everyone into either Z cupped furries, dirty malnourished slavs or John Call of Duty with mods.

[@jimmygerano7163]

Interesting psychology trivia, people often use filler words. Asking "right?" can be used for a number of things like softening a declaration but quite often is used by people who are not confident in what they're saying and are seeking validation, or by attempting to get people to agree with a point. Because of that latter point, it is often a marker of when someone is lying. Anyway, let's watch Emil's speech.

[@KR-tk8fe]

Hearing him describe Skyrim was rough. He describes it like someone who just read about it once on a forum. HE WAS THE LEAD WRITER. HE WROTE THE FUCKING GAME.

[@RATZGobbler]

This man convinced himself he’s writing for an audience that doesn’t care about story but still acts like he’s writing something meaningful. Good lord.

[@SalusFuturistics]

The Controller is just the Scapegoat for there being only 4 Options. Many other Games have toggle Buttons to allow for more than 4 Button Assignments on the D-Pad. The actual Issue is them insisting on voicing the Protagonist and having to cut down on available Options for the Budget.

[@cymru_am_byth]

To be clear I don't think people should hound or attempt to bully Emil on X or elsewhere; he's just a bad writer with an ego and it's Bethesda who gave him the role. Who wouldn't jump at the chance to write a fallout game and be paid handsomely... however I thought just about everything you said in this video was spot on. I can't stand Fallout 4 and that was very enlightening how it became such a mess. I've got a bad feeling the new tv show will be based more on Fallout 4 rather than the original Fallout vision and that's a rather depressing thought... "cool stuff" rather than a coherent story. Bethesda's writing has always been noticeably poor the memes didn't come from nowhere. It would be nice to think something might change but since they are defending Starfield with unbelievable responses to steam reviews I don't hold much hope. I would be happy if the Fallout License was given to Obsidian personally. Not bought a Bethesda title since Fallout 4 and don't expect to again currently.

[@billjacobs521]

Alright, but he's a public figure working on products for the public--he should absolutely be called out in public because clearly not enough people are. I don't mean when he's buying groceries or to threaten him or anything, but on Twitter and the like, he should totally be the butt of jokes until he starts doing a good job.

[@cymru_am_byth]

​@@billjacobs521 I probably don't disagree. It's difficult to know where the line is but I know I won't personally be calling him out by messaging him on "X". There are lots of "public figures" who have worked on something I care about that didn't turn out great that I wouldn't dream of messaging. If he responds to Creetosis or anyone else making similar videos then that's a different scenario. For me videos like this and reviews are probably enough when it comes to "calling him out in public".

[@zacfromArkansas]

I just played through New Vegas for the first time recently and now I'm playing the Mass Effect trilogy. The writing is so good in these games I don't even have the slightest curiosity to play Starfield. The creation engine has limitations but I honestly think what holds Bethesda back is lazy, disjointed, immersion-breaking writing. The writing in Morrowind was incredible. This Emil guy has to go.

[@theace8502]

His insecurity is palpable. He doesn’t listen to criticism supposedly, but yet seems to remember everything people have said about him. Embarrassing

[@jopera2087]

"Great games are played not made"..the idiocy if this statement is truly astonishing.

[@billjacobs521]

Calvinball: The Videogame.