Bethesda General Discussion Thread

[LESS T_T]

Well, let's start with Glixel's Todd Howard interview: http://www.glixel.com/interviews/sk...alks-switch-vr-and-elder-scrolls-wait-w451761

What would you fix in Skyrim?:

Is there any part of Skyrim that you would fix?

I think if you look at our worlds and our environments, they're really rewarding. I think on the character side, how the NPCs react to you is still not quite where we want it to be.

There really isn't a part of the game where we can't say, "That could be better."

But you decided not to change it. You didn't want to make the George Lucas special edition version of Skyrim?

That's well said. Very well said.

On punishing players:

Your games really flatter the player. Characters talk about how amazing and special the player is. What do you think of games like Dark Souls that punish the player? Or even The Witcher, where Geralt can get abused and insulted by the world?

I think both of those are good. When they're commenting on you, we try to reflect back on the player as much as you can. Because it always feels good. But the opposite is really good. I remember playing the original Deus Ex. I was in a level, and I get into this fight. These two guards kill me. And then one guard says to the other – I don't remember it exactly, but it was basically, "Let's go have some lunch."

I was so pissed that this combat was so meaningless to them. I've rarely been angrier. I still remember it. It had to be 10 or 12 years ago. I reloaded. "I'm going to kill these fuckers."

His inspiration for RPG system:

You've talked about learning from the role-playing aspects of sports games, with their multi-character rosters and statistical character attributes, or from the progression structure of the multiplayer in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Is there a surprising game that you're borrowing from, or stealing from, right now?

I'm playing a lot of Forza Horizon 3 right now. I don't want to say what I want to borrow yet. It does a lot of great things.

He starts working on games with...:

I heard you say once that you start with the interface. Is that right?

I'll start with, "Where is the game set? How does it begin? What's the tone of the world?" And then what's the interface feel like? I think, visually, "What's the image?" If I showed you a screenshot of the game, how does it feel? Interface is a part of that.

It's probably just an idiosyncrasy of mine. I wouldn't suggest that to people, you know what I mean?

Yeah...with that console interface...

On dying in RPGs:

When I first started playing your games, it took me a while to figure out how to approach them. If I'm in a dungeon and I'm dying a lot, it probably means I should go do something else. That's different from a Call of Duty game, where dying means I'm doing something wrong and I just need to put my head down and succeed through trial and error.

Honestly, we've struggled with that one. We debate it. We've still never quite solved it. It actually is rare that a gamer will go into a situation and say, "Nope, I'm going to turn around. I don't want to keep going at this." You can change the difficulty whenever you want. But most people don't want to do that, because they don't want to feel like they wussed out.

And we make sure we give them some powerful potions or whatever. But they end up hoarding them. It's kind of a joke in role-playing games. Everyone finishes the game with like, "The Potion of Ultimate Might" that they never drank, because they're always waiting for something worse to turn around the corner.

Fake urgency in main quest:

Do you care if players follow the main quest?

Only if they didn't like it. If they're having fun and doing what they want, great. But if they put it down because they were bored or, worse, confused, then we did something wrong.

Fallout 4 has a much more urgent main quest – you're a parent searching for a missing child – than Skyrim's civil war amid the mysterious return of dragons.

We've tried it both ways. Fallout 4 was obviously intentional. We wanted to put pressure on you to do this and make it really engaging. But if you don't, it ends up falling flat. Because the time pressure is kind of fake. In Skyrim, it is intentionally, "Well, this is important, but when you want to look into it." It's not personal in that way.

I can't say which way is better yet.

But you do think there is a conflict between openness and narrative. It's a problem that you're trying to solve.

Yes. We haven't quite cracked it yet.

They're trying to put all of Fallout 4 in VR:

We definitely are. That's the promise of VR, being in a big virtual world. The core experience, meaning you put on the headset and you're standing in the world of Fallout and can go where you want, just that little bit is every bit as cool as you hope it would be. Once we did that, we were like, "OK, we gotta see where this goes."

We're not so worried about how many we're going to sell or what the market is. That will all sort itself out. We have an opportunity to make something really unique. We'd rather do that than make some other tiny experience. I don't think that's what people want from us.

Elder Scrolls VI is far away:

You're making a new Elder Scrolls game, but you're not going to tell us when. We'll probably see other games first?

It's not what you would call a big, active project right now. There are some other ones that we have going. We know it's important to our fans, and we need to be careful about setting expectations.

It's certainly a game that we'll be making one day. I could sit here and explain to you exactly what we want it to be.

 

[Excidium II]

Why is it so hard to have good and working 3D pubic hair meshes?

 

[Filthy Sauce]

Why is it so hard to have good and working 3D pubic hair meshes?

This is Bethesda we are talking about. The appropriate question is 'Why is it so hard to have good and working 3d?'

 

[Glaucon]

Why is it so hard to have good and working 3D pubic hair meshes?

Bad for performance.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Who even want to see dirty bushes.

Bushes ruin gurls

 

[Sigourn]

Bethesda General Discussion Thread

 

[HoboForEternity]

So we can laugh at their incompetence

 

[Fairfax]

Obligatory:

 

[pippin]

Why is it so hard to have good and working 3D pubic hair meshes?

The guys who did Deadly Premonition and later CDPR have worked on facial hair. It's time to go beyond.

Who even want to see dirty bushes.

Bushes ruin gurls

t. pedo

 

[typical user]

Well, let's start with Glixel's Todd Howard interview: http://www.glixel.com/interviews/sk...alks-switch-vr-and-elder-scrolls-wait-w451761

But you do think there is a conflict between openness and narrative. It's a problem that you're trying to solve.

Yes. We haven't quite cracked it yet.

Well I guess they could just tell you, there is a draugr tomb with a secret of dragon's return or that your stupid kid has been kidnapped by someone who is probably affiliated with Institute and the only way to find those places is to explore the world, ask people around and eventually discover it on your own? You know, like you search for water chip or GECK in first Fallout's the franchise that you fake neckbeards bought and didn't invest your time to look at what made those installments in the series great?

This is some collateral damage PR bullcrap, why can't this fool admit they just want money and don't care about their products quality?

 

[Executr]

TODD HOWARD TO BE INDUCTED INTO THE AIAS HALL OF FAME AT THE 20TH D.I.C.E. AWARDS CEREMONY
Award For Legendary Creator of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout Series

LOS ANGELES – December 14, 2016 – The 2017 Hall of Fame Award will be presented to Howard during the 20th D.I.C.E. Awards ceremony on Thursday, February 23, 2017, at the Mandalay Convention Center in Las Vegas by his long-time colleague, Pete Hines, Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing, Bethesda Softworks.
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences is pleased to announce its 22nd Hall of Fame recipient, Todd Howard, Executive Producer and Game Director at Bethesda Game Studios, who has created some of the industry’s most successful games by pioneering open-world gameplay. Howard has been integral in the creative direction and growth of such well-loved franchises as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, which have been recipients of numerous D.I.C.E. Awards throughout the years. Both The Elder Scrolls and Fallout are known for their experiential approach to world-building and storytelling. The scale of their open worlds, variety of questlines, and near-endless cast of characters has ensured no two players have the same experience.

“The Academy is thrilled to be honoring Todd Howard as our next Hall of Fame recipient during our 20th D.I.C.E. Awards celebration,” said Mike Fischer, President, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. “I know that many of us in the industry have spent countless hours enthralled in the vast, open worlds that Todd has created. He’s made us all reconsider the player-game relationship and extended the storytelling possibilities of our medium. We look forward to honoring Todd and celebrating his achievements and contributions to the video games industry.”

Source: https://www.interactive.org/press/index.asp


So, he is now considered the creator of Fallout...

 

[HoboForEternity]

fuck this shit

fuck fuck fuck fuck everything

this world is unredeemably stupid

fuck FUCK

 

[pippin]

Todd Howard made Fallout great again.

"Creative director" is his official title? I thought after Morrowind he had just established himself above everyone else, to the point that he and Pete were practically the two driving forces behind Bethesda.

 

[Zerginfestor]

Todd Howard made Fallout great again.

"Creative director" is his official title? I thought after Morrowind he had just established himself above everyone else, to the point that he and Pete were practically the two driving forces behind Bethesda.

How much you wanna bet working in Bethesda is either like Bioware, a lynch-mobbing fest of circle-jerking and bobbing your head up and down for Toddy and Pete's idiotic ideas, turning into a Yes Man while internally screaming OR a boring fuckfest in an office where everyone works on separate projects of the whole game before everything is smashed together into a fucking mess and just given the "All clear" stamp before it's shoved out onto the shelves without proper bug testing? I think it might be a little of both.

 

[Urthor]

There's a lot of other people behind the scenes than Todd and Pete, they're just front facing. There's a clique at the top but the Zenimax board+Todd+others is really the driving force. Bethesda's story is that Zenimax bought them after Daggerfall and backed them to make Morrowind, the rest is history.

Zenimax board is heavily involved however, they're the ones who push out ESO, Doom, bought Arkane, and have generally invested Bethesda profits in other games.

 

[pippin]

Todd Howard made Fallout great again.

"Creative director" is his official title? I thought after Morrowind he had just established himself above everyone else, to the point that he and Pete were practically the two driving forces behind Bethesda.

How much you wanna bet working in Bethesda is either like Bioware, a lynch-mobbing fest of circle-jerking and bobbing your head up and down for Toddy and Pete's idiotic ideas, turning into a Yes Man while internally screaming OR a boring fuckfest in an office where everyone works on separate projects of the whole game before everything is smashed together into a fucking mess and just given the "All clear" stamp before it's shoved out onto the shelves without proper bug testing? I think it might be a little of both.

Bioware seems to be both of the things you mention
Bethesda is just lazy, though.

 

[anvi]

I don't think Bethesda are incompetent. I think they deliberately make weak, shallow, dumb action games that pose as RPG's, because it sells well and is cheaper to make than a fully blown RPG. They are just the RPG equivalent of Call of Duty or Crysis. They are mass producing games with swanky graphics because that is what sells, and it gives mainstream gamers something different to the usual sci fi shooters or military shooters. People like the fantasy setting, game of thrones feel, dragons, spells, pretty landscapes etc. Elder Scrolls just gives people that without requiring them to think or have any skill or put in any effort. They want easy disposable games that 20 million people buy for their Dudebox and Playstations that let you explore and look at the pretty graphics while eating pizza and occasionally pressing X or circle to blow stuff up.

If complex RPG's made good money, Bethesda would be making them instead.

 

[HoboForEternity]

So, he is now considered the creator of Fallout...

- Todd Howard after Bethesda bought the rights

 

[abnaxus]

Zionmax asking for 4 billion dorrah in damages in Oculus case.

http://www.polygon.com/2017/1/26/14403302/oculus-vr-case-jury

Oculus attorney Beth Wilkinson argued to the same jury that the multibillion-dollar lawsuit was driven by ZeniMax’s embarrassment, jealousy and anger, not facts.

Robert Trump will forward the cash to pay for the Great Wall

 

[Urthor]

Every dollar Bethesda drains only increases the lead for the glorious HTC Vive in the headset race. They're doing good work.

 

[Mastermind]

Elder Scrolls VI is far away:

You're dead to me Todd.

 

[Iznaliu]

You're dead to me Todd.

Wouldn't be surprised if Todd Howard was dead, since he (gasp!) actually somewhat cared about the games he was making, and was replaced with a body double/robot that Beth broings out of the metaphorical shed for industry events/press/awards. All his comments seem to be vapid, generic and uninspired even by Beth standards.

 

[mindx2]

Bethesda's parent just got awarded a big chuck of change:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/01/facebook-loses-vr-case.html

Facebook's Oculus lost a case against game maker ZeniMax, leaving the tech company on the hook for $500 million.

A jury ordered Facebook to pay $500 million in damages to ZeniMax due to theft of intellectual property on Wednesday.

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg told CNBC's Julia Boorstin that she was "disappointed in certain elements of the decision." Sandberg added she was "considering our options to appeal," and the verdict was "not material to our financials."

ZeniMax sued Oculus for allegedly stealing its intellectual property. The company claimed Oculus founder Palmer Luckey "commercially exploited" Zenimax computer code and trade secrets in order to develop its products. It also said Oculus' VR device Oculus Rift was "primitive" until John Carmack, Oculus chief technology officer and founder of a company owned by ZeniMax, improved on the device using his knowledge from his previous work as a ZeniMax employee.

The jury found Oculus guilty of copyright infringement, failure to comply with a non-disclosure agreement, and misuse of Oculus trademarks ("false designation.") However, it found Oculus innocent of other charges, including theft of trade secrets.

Oculus said it would appeal the ruling."The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax's trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor. We're obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today's verdict, but we are undeterred," the company told CNBC. "We look forward to filing our appeal and eventually putting this litigation behind us."

Facebook purchased Oculus in 2014. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in court he was not aware of the intellectual property claims between Oculus and ZeniMax.

 

[anvi]

Yessss, greedy thieving Fuckerberg.. People should buy the Vive anyway.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I'm curious what Bethesda is worth. To a lesser extent what Todd is raking in. Bethesda would have to be at least a billion dollar company. Double-digit billions, even?