Bethesda: Fan Criticisms Won’t Define What We Do

Megalith

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Bethesda will not let fan complaints and criticisms define what games it works on or releases: that’s according to PR and marketing dude Pete Hines, who said he’s well aware of a critical fanbase, but won’t let the dissenting voices influence the publisher’s plans with the likes of Skyrim, Fallout and Doom. “We’re aware of it, but we’re not going to let it define what we do,” Hines said in an interview with GamesRadar.

Fans may cry for The Elder Scrolls 6 when Bethesda announces Skyrim for Switch, or Fallout 4 VR when it announces Doom VFR, but Hines made it clear that his development teams “aren’t just a vending machine where you press for the soda and they just go back and forth – they want to be able to stretch their legs creatively, or try a new idea, or do something different and not just fall into the same pattern.”
 
I read the article, their developers want to be able to "stretch their legs creatively"........by selling us the same games using a 14 year old engine and charging to put foliage back on tree limbs or changing some lines in an .ini file to manage a health-bar..... Aim High, Fellas, aim high!
 
Of course people are going to ask about tes 6. Skyrim has been played to death enough times already. A re-release won't change the game, it's still skyrim. They say they want to break a mould, all they are doing now is getting the rep of the house that rests on its laurels and has nothing new coming, and at best re-uses old assets and charges you for it while sucking ps4 cock. Bethesda=STALE.
 
There does seem to be a threshold where a company gets too big and can do whatever they want (EA, Activision, or even Rockstar). "Roll over, who cares what you want, we'll still roll in cash". Ok, valve is in that category too. Anyways, it seems Beth has reached that state of realization.
 
Been too busy setting up my world for a play though to care about creation club... I keep it at 1.9.4 right before cc hit.

CXFRgd0.jpg
 
TES VI will become the new HL3...

once a company can find a way to make cash doing LITERALLY ANYTHING OTHER THAN MAKING GAMES it will; artistic endeavours are not highly profitable compared to other methods.
 
"... and not just fall into the same pattern.”
But that's what Bethesda has been doing for years. Fallout 3 was generic action-adventure paste, then Skyrim was even more so, and then Fallout 4 was even more so.

And Bethesda has just re-released Skyrim, and is now making money by selling other people's mods, and ripping off other people's mods.

Since when is Bethesda in the business of doing something new or being creative? They're one of the poster childs for lowest-common-denominator AAA churnware.


Sounds like a game company just said "We don't give a Fk what our customers think, we're going to make a game how we think it should be made and customers can sod off."

A problem here is that gamers have been unwarrantedly sucking Bethesda's d--- for a long time, despite Bethesda typically doing well below-average jobs on their games. And Bethesda have let it go to their heads, and have been consumed by their egos and think that they have a free pass to do anything - and that whatever they do is great, even when it's actually total crap.
 
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lol pretty much the last 3 games Bethesda has come out with can be summed up in this screenshot.


Meh, depends what mood you're in.

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Or like certain movie a little too much...

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they want to be able to stretch their legs creatively, or try a new idea, or do something different and not just fall into the same pattern.”
I foresee the creation club coming to Doom :)
 
You have to ignore the Internet at this point. It's all people do anymore, is bitch and complain.

Besides, it's worked for Blizzard. Blizzard has been around how long and how many distinct IP's do they have?
Warcraft
Starcraft
OverWatch
Diablo

20 years and that's what have to show.....and $$$$$$$

Sidenote, looking at their list of games, I didn't realize they made Battle Chess. I fucking loved that game growing up.
 
Bethesda are mostly a 'meh' experience for me. I like the touch ups for Fallout 4. Looks pretty good at 1440p/4k but not necessarily great. I was pretty shocked with Doom. Elder Scrolls, well, I've been trying to get into that series since III. I actually spent some time the last couple of weeks trying to do a play through in Skyrim SE. I almost would've stayed committed if it wasn't still a crash happy POS. Seriously, it didn't matter what rig I tried it on. Not to mention it just didn't look that good. I know all about ENB and the thousands of mods to tweak it but really expected more. Guess I need to lower my expectations for Bethesda. For me they're middle of the road at best.
 
For me, Rockstar, Bethesda and Paradox have proven steam user reviews are for the most part to be totally disregarded. It's like that asshole on Amazon giving the product a bad review because the shipping was a day late, except on a mass scale.
 
Bethesda - they want to be able to stretch their legs creatively, or try a new idea, or do something different and not just fall into the same pattern.”

HAHAHAHAHA

skyrim re-re-re-re-re-remake on the 1000th platform. and nintendo and VR and special eidition, and and. now same for fallout 4.

K. Yeah, maybe DO DO something different. maybe FIX your shit before releasing fallout 5/skyrimV2, as in, the bugs that were there from fallout 3, 4, skyrim, oblivion, and never ever fixed yet, carrying over to the new games. "creation engine" my butthole.
 
I thought Skyrim was one of the best games ever made but they are really milking it. I'd like to see a squeal.
 
We’re aware of it, but we’re not going to let it define what we do

Nothing truly wrong with committing to a goal or vision but a greater acknowledgement of what works and what doesn't should be made. They've got an immense fan base at this point and word of mouth alone will sell any re-issues regardless of how little is done with them.

Lets look at some other dev's for instance. Rockstar got their butts handed back to them when Driver came out and then GTA got a make over. Pretty sure that worked out well for them. Witcher started with a bang but then exploded into another level with the 2nd game. Pretty sure that worked out well too. Dragon's Age and BIO ware, when it started it was well received but also seemed a little bland for my taste. I just started playing Inquisition yesterday and wow!. They too moved forward with evolving the engine, it looks amazing in 4k. Really having a hard time accepting its the same company that made Andromeda. Tomb raider and Square Enix. Obviously always had a fan base but with 2012 the new games can still kick butt on even the most hardcore rigs. Even when shoe horned in, they will try just about every trick in the book for new tech. Again, pretty sure that worked out well for them.

A dev that didn't listen or pay attention: Visceral. Dead space was incredible for most of us. DS2 still pretty good but more of the same. By the time the 3rd came out it was pretty obvious we all wanted newer tech(DX11 was in full flow at that point and using DX9 was kind of lazy) and an open world approach might've saved them vs. the go back to each level for that room you weren't allowed in before they stuck too. Another was Activision and the Spider-Man games. PS1 and PS2 era was magical for them but after that no so much. They always had potential but eventually were so lazy they were tanking even before the movies. Again these companies failed to listen to their fans.

I honestly have a hard time even considering Doom a Bethesda game since its so not like FO4 or Skyrim in terms of its engine or performance. It really feels like a totally different company on that one. I know its a different branch, and there you go. I love Doom, its just awesome. FO4 SE is pretty cool, but I'm just bored with the bland look of it-I've probably played the Metro's too much to do another post-apoc game.

I loved Skyrim when it came out and spent around 100+ hours with it. It was a fun winter/spring game for me. At the time I was able to enjoy the graphics but now it really seems dated if not using mods. 60fps caps still there, come on guys. Check the threads and there's plenty of bugs still crawling around too. I was pretty shocked when I looked up best of SE mods yesterday and saw how many were just about reinstating things that Bethesda cut in SE but left in the install files. Not only did they not really add many new things but actually took things out! Assbackwards at its best!

I too wish they'd just commit to making a new one, make a new engine utilizing current tech along with some room to grow and stop rehashing things. Its common knowledge that SE was more about console porting than anything to do with PC's. They pitched 64bit but quietly dodged how 10 was already starting to block a number of 32 bit games, same thing happened with Ultimate Alliance(not Bethesda I know).
 
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"We don't give a fuck what you have to say, public."

Prediction, within the next few years we'll see "Skyrim: Champions", a multiplayer pvp version of Skyrim arena which will follow methods similar to what Quake Champions is doing, because fuck creativity, fuck the public, you'll buy our shit anyways.

Oh, and fuck Linux, even though we have one of the most experienced dev teams on the planet for releasing games on it (id).
 
Sounds like a game company just said "We don't give a Fk what our customers think, we're going to make a game how we think it should be made and customers can sod off."

And, in general, they are correct to think this. Most fan complaints do not make sense and can be safely disregarded.

In Bethesda's case, however, there's a distinct danger in watering down and simplifying series for greater mass consumption. I don't think anyone believes Fallout 4 was better than FO3 or FONV, for instance.
 
Elder Scrolls, well, I've been trying to get into that series since III.
Morrowind with the graphics overhauls is by far the best I've got as many hours into it as a bunch of people have into Civ 5... Oblivion had some good moments too, but they really choked by cutting so many features down with Skyrim.
 
They will do what they will do. Easy for me to say I guess, since I don't play any of the Bethesda games ...
 
At this point, fuck Bethesda. They are a shadow of their former selves, and jumped the shark with the endless Skyrim releases and Creator's Club bullshit.
 
This is a great strategy!

They should definitely not:

1. hire better writers for actual interesting storylines and characters/dialogue.
2. hire better animators (seriously, they are the ONLY AAA studio that legit feels like an amateur team did their animating on the side)
3. update their old as hell gamebyro engine to something actually new/current gen.

Juts keep making open world games that are "fun" to explore but lacking in about every way that makes an rpg actually enjoyable.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 on the other hand shows what good writing and rpg mechanics could do for a game.
 
Sounds like a game company just said "We don't give a Fk what our customers think, we're going to make a game how we think it should be made and customers can sod off."

You mean "we like easy money so fuck our customers" >churn out re-release of Skyrim for TI-84 plus
 
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