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Starfield is one of the worst written RPGs of all time

Fake

Member
Demanding? It's one question in a character creator, aren't choices and options necessary for role playing?

Necessary? Are you for real?

As necessary as asking for sexual orientation. Ask for those who love and demand pronoums into games if they are OK with 'male' and 'female' as the only option for character creator.

Is so fascinating the world we live where people ask for options, but don't like the other side to have options either.
Options for thy, not for me.
 
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IceSage91

Banned
Necessary? Are you for real?

As necessary as asking for sexual orientation. Ask for those who love and demand pronoums into games if they are OK with 'male' and 'female' as the only option for character creator.

Options for thy, not for me.
And for anyone who doesn't have a preference it's the same, if you're dood be a dood, but I'll never understand the anger or resistance towards something as minor as an option
 
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There are also story beats with bizarre turns. During one of the main faction quests, you are given one of your few pseudo-consequential player choices. Basically, you can choose a risky scientific option that unleashes genetically engineered microbes onto humanity to solve the problem, or a less risky naturalistic option where you breed an animal that will take care of the problem. If you choose the sensible naturalistic option with what is essentially a guaranteed good outcome based on the evidence presented to you, your companions will condemn you as a mouth-breathing moron. If you choose the risky scientific option that explicitly has a chance of wiping out humanity by mutating in unknown ways, your companions will laud you for “Trusting the Science" (actual quote), in what is a bizarre, warped take on recent events political messaging, considering how risky the in-game choice is.


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Gojiira

Member
Was there ever any doubt OP? Bethesda writing and ‘choices’ have been garbage for over 20 years now.
No better example exists than Fallout 3 to New Vegas. In 8 months a team a fraction of the size of Bethesdas managed to make one of the best RPGs of all time.
They skate by with size and perceived depth.
 

Saber

Gold Member
And for anyone who doesn't have a preference it's the same, if you're dood be a dood, but I'll never understand the anger or resistance towards something as minor as an option

Pronoums is a retarded trend that came right up from your social media and bears no weight in the real world. It was a move to appease mentally ill people from Twitter and win social points, nothing to do with actual rpg.
 
But is this Bethesda or just the current Western game development environment? Because CP2077 was also bland as hell on that front. It’s inconceivable that it was made by the se company that made the Witcher. So I assume it’s not because they are a company of asexual employees.
Lol cp2077 has some straight fucking, in the main questline no less. How is that devoid of sexuality.
 

AGRacing

Member
There are also story beats with bizarre turns. During one of the main faction quests, you are given one of your few pseudo-consequential player choices. Basically, you can choose a risky scientific option that unleashes genetically engineered microbes onto humanity to solve the problem, or a less risky naturalistic option where you breed an animal that will take care of the problem. If you choose the sensible naturalistic option with what is essentially a guaranteed good outcome based on the evidence presented to you, your companions will condemn you as a mouth-breathing moron. If you choose the risky scientific option that explicitly has a chance of wiping out humanity by mutating in unknown ways, your companions will laud you for “Trusting the Science" (actual quote), in what is a bizarre, warped take on recent events political messaging, considering how risky the in-game choice is.

I had the same thought on this when it happened. Felt ridiculous.

Also the story being integrated into the new game + mechanic seemed forced. It's not really explained what the benefit really is... why you'd do it 1000 times or why you start back in time every time you walk into the Unity. Feels like story in service of a mechanic when it could have been more with effort.
 

Spyxos

Member
I had fun with Starfield at first, but I also played Bg3 at the same time and there is a world of difference between the dialogue and the interesting characters. Starfield fails there very much. I still want to play through it at some point, but I find myself playing bg3 more and more often and leaving Starfield behind.

And in a few days there is Cyberpunk, which is also much better written.
 

IceSage91

Banned
Try to read what you wrote again and ask yourself why the mod that remove the pronouns was banned.

'Options are good, but not always'.
Because it’s demanding that we play along with an untruth.
Pronoums is a retarded trend that came right up from your social media and bears no weight in the real world. It was a move to appease mentally ill people from Twitter and win social points, nothing to do with actual rpg.
All of this is especially reductive, if you do not wish to engage with it nothing changes for your experience and nothing is forced upon you, have you ever applied for a job and gotten to the the "title" line and been as this offended lol
 

avin

Member
Let’s start with the companions.

Nearly all of the post addresses only the companions, and for those I agree it's accurate. But is it broadly true, for all of the characters in the game? I don't have enough time in to know myself.

avin
 

Guilty_AI

Member
All of this is especially reductive, if you do not wish to engage with it nothing changes for your experience and nothing is forced upon you, have you ever applied for a job and gotten to the the "title" line and been as this offended lol
Problem is you're ignoring context. Imagine you're in China and every game is forced to put the phrase "praise Mao" in the menu screen.

"Its just a small phrase! It doesn't change anything!". Yeah, by itself is an innocuous thing, but put into the context its nefarious.
 

IceSage91

Banned
Problem is you're ignoring context. Imagine you're in China and every game is forced to put the phrase "praise Mao" in the menu screen.

"Its just a small phrase! It doesn't change anything!". Yeah, by itself is an innocuous thing, but put into the context its nefarious.
This isnt China and no higher authority is forcing any game to include a pronoun option into their video game, you can try to make the argument that it's only in there to appeal to some kind of social obligation but its more likely that one minor option for the game to call you something other than it would by default appeals to certain people and that anyone upset by that is reaching for straws to be mad about on the internet. Truth is people only care about pronouns being in Starfield because it's just not that great of a game, BG3 has the exact same option and you dont hear a word about it
 

Guilty_AI

Member
This isnt China and no higher authority is forcing any game to include a pronoun option into their video game, you can try to make the argument that it's only in there to appeal to some kind of social obligation but its more likely that one minor option for the game to call you something other than it would by default appeals to certain people and that anyone upset by that is reaching for straws to be mad about on the internet. Truth is people only care about pronouns being in Starfield because it's just not that great of a game, BG3 has the exact same option and you dont hear a word about it
Yes, you're very much forced to. Otherwise risk facing severe backlash from certain loud employees, collegues, employers, being called names and losing your job. There are no higher authorities imposing this (yet, we're already headed that way) but there might as well be.

As other people mentioned, if it wasn't a big deal, why are there efforts to erase the mod that removes these pronoums?
 

LRKD

Member
Some of the other player choice dialogue felt like retard zoomer's wrote it, like the option to say you have social anxiety, or the spiderman reference, and there was another one that really stuck out to me but I can't remember it. And yeah, the game really tries to railroad you into being a nasa boyscout. But honestly I could get past all of those issues, they sucked, but the game was still playable and fun.

The worst part, absolute worst part, is the mission "Unity" It makes no sense it's the most contrived bullshit. How the fuck are you going to tell me the answer was seriously combining 'Infinitum Addendum" to make indum??? And then take some random numbers from another story to get the precise coordinates??? REallly? Honestly whoever wrote for that one mission should be fired, and shot from a cannon into the sun. Everyone at Bethesda should be ashamed of themselves for aproving that missions story. The rest of the games story isn't that bad really, but that one part is just so bad it left me with autism.
 

IceSage91

Banned
Yes, you're very much forced to. Otherwise risk facing severe backlash from certain loud employees, collegues, employers, being called names and losing your job. There are no higher authorities imposing this (yet, we're already headed that way) but there might as well be.

As other people mentioned, if it wasn't a big deal, why are there efforts to erase the mod that removes these pronoums?
You're just going in circles, are you forced to or not? As far as that dumb mod goes it was pretty obviously made with negative intentions by people trying to troll
 

Guilty_AI

Member
You're just going in circles, are you forced to or not? As far as that dumb mod goes it was pretty obviously made with negative intentions by people trying to troll
Yes, you are forced, if a single person suggests something like that in a game like this, you cannot turn it down without risking to end up in a HR department. Thats how it works today.

And so what if the mod was made to troll? Its such a "small thing" right?
 
I had the same thought on this when it happened. Felt ridiculous.

Also the story being integrated into the new game + mechanic seemed forced. It's not really explained what the benefit really is... why you'd do it 1000 times or why you start back in time every time you walk into the Unity. Feels like story in service of a mechanic when it could have been more with effort.
On this beat, the decision to choose the natural option actually results in great things in the section right before the credits, so you essentially prove that trusting the science wasn't right. I did have the same initial reaction, though.
 

IceSage91

Banned
Yes, you are forced, if a single person suggests something like that in a game like this, you cannot turn it down without risking to end up in a HR department. Thats how it works today.

And so what if the mod was made to troll? Its such a "small thing" right?
You keep saying that but i'm sure you could quickly find a recent game that doesn't ask your pronouns that no one has made a fuss about and you're right the mod is a small thing, almost as if it being removed is even smaller of an issue
 

SRTtoZ

Member
Losing brain cells by the second listening to this talk. Christ, the absolute worst mindset to have for someone in charge of writing in an RPG project.
I've never seen that video before and skipping through it quickly made me so angry especially the part about ripping pages out and 'good games aren't written, they're played'. Guy's a doofus.
 
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ZoukGalaxy

Member
That's what happens when you want to please everyone*

*the vocal minority snowflakes on social medias
Showoff See GIF by HULU
Snowflake GIF
 
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Varteras

Gold Member
I've never seen that video before and skipping through it quickly made me so angry especially the part about ripping pages out and 'good games aren't written, they're played'. Guy's a doofus.

Basically, the writer more or less said, "This is how I justify getting paid to do jack shit".
 
The writing sucks, but for me that's on the lower end of the game's problems.

Exploration and gameplay systems are at the top.
I actually just went back to skyrim to see if I was crazy or as this board is so fond of saying when anything over 5 years old is venerated, “”wearing rose tinted glasses””

Aaaaaand nope. They fucked up. Their successful elder scrolls/fallout formula. They fucked it all up. Skyrim is an Xbox 360 game and is leaps and bounds more exciting, compelling, inviting to explore. The world design is god tier. Starfield is such a misstep I actually can’t believe it.

There’s maybe like what 7-9 handcrafted events/locations in the galaxy? Maybe 10? Stuff like vultures roost or the crucible or the colander ship? Skyrim and fallout that was basically every single location. We’re talking like double digits flirting with 100 maybe.
 
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I don't agree that it's weak on all levels. The world building is fantastic, actually. You learn a lot about places and characters you may have already met or visited just by questing on a random planet far away. The way it's all connected is actually pretty brilliant at times, especially with Beyu's constant appearances throughout the questing (just one example).

That said, the continuity can be a bit strange if you do things a bit out of order.

Companions? Yeah, the Lawful Good thing is annoying, and some of the backstories are weak. Still, I did find the Karen nature of Sarah to be pretty funny at times.

The woke stuff is also a bit annoying. Every military leader seems to be a woman, and every doctor seems to be a person of color. Also, you can tell they went with random character generation with every single hair cut and shade of skin color being equal. It provides for some truly horrific NPCs.

All that said, I still think the game had a solid main quest story and good faction stories. Some wild quests too.
 

Roufianos

Member
Just finished the story, which I largely focused on after hearing all the praise, and it was really just piss poor. Honestly, something a 12 year-old could have written.

Mass Effect is leaps and bounds ahead of this. Having dialogue options is no excuse for telling a shell of a story.

Not that I remember much of the stories in Fallout 3, Oblivion or Skyrim but I can't believe people were actually hyping the main quest here.
 
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Sgt.Asher

Member
It's weird that essential NPC's are a thing in this. The story can easily allow for killing the constellation twats. The hunter even alludes to that.
Just allow me to go full Frieza.
 

Warablo

Member
While I am enjoying my time with Starfield, it still makes me wish I could somehow combine Cyberpunk/Deus Ex and Starfield together.

The best missions so far have been the faction missions. I totally agree that like most of the characters are women and our companions are some of the worst ones ever created from Bethesda.
 
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AGRacing

Member
On this beat, the decision to choose the natural option actually results in great things in the section right before the credits, so you essentially prove that trusting the science wasn't right. I did have the same initial reaction, though.
Well yes they do give you a good evaluation... or at least one free of criticism. But I wonder what it says about going the other way on it. I should look that up.

But the initial point about your companions shitting on you for taking that route is more important. The "trust the science" line (I believe Sarah delivers that line. was a bad moment.
 

MarkMe2525

Member
They didn't want titties in their game... big deal. They didn't want your companions to cheer their captain being a dick... big deal. They didn't capture the essence of humanity... hahaha is this even real?

I can sympathize with someone who is let down due to the game not being the game they wanted. I can't sympathize with this. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but OP, you seem really upset about this. Man, just move on. You don't like the game and that is ok.
 
It's an entire galaxy and no one has bigger boobs than a B cup. All of these writing and character issues are rooted in political correctness and current day political bullshit.
I’d go as far to say there’s almost no sexuality present in the game whatsoever. As rare as it is I did manage to find some in Neon, inside the Astral Lounge, but it wasn’t what I expected. When I arrived, all I could see were some dildo looking guys in women’s clothes dancing on an elevated platform. I simply turned around and left.

Honestly, what is the deal? Murder is fine, theft is fine, fraud is fine, selling drugs is fine… all these things are totally ok but when it comes to female sexuality… that’s where the line is drawn?

I mean… wtf is this supposed to be?

Starfield-Screenshot-016.webp
 
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You seem confused. I don’t think any single person is saying the game has GOOD writing, so who exactly needs to be giving coherent reasons?

And people can and are having fun despite this, and have given good reasons why.
Well the person I quoted said the op was wrong and the opposite of what people are saying in the starfield thread and since we are talking about writing..
 
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