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Todd Howard says expectations for Starfield changed because everything is an RPG now

Hes right, everything is an RPG light and RPGs are hardly RPGs...Cyberpunk is as much of an RPG ass Assassins creed. Starfield is an RPG but even it is lighter on the lighter end of what an RPG is. BG3 is as much of an rpg as you can get.
 

Fredrik

Member
Why can't people be like how Todd and Ted Price are in this video? Both genuine gamers without the bullshitery and stupidity of calling peoples names or insulting others because they play on a different plastic box or something like that? I am starting to think most people join the forums to cause drama and hate because they have nothing else better to offer themselves and their lives are miserable. Some of the people on here sound like they just hate gaming, and makes me wonder why they are even here in the first place. Great interview.
Yeah I think it’s great to see game creators talk about playing and enjoying competitor’s games. In the end they’re just gamers who know how to make their own games. And this was a cool interview for people who has outgrown the wars and just enjoy games and it’s focused on the development side of things too which is interesting. You can really sense the respect these veterans of the industry have for each other.

Regarding the forum talk, people are free to use their time however they want. I played 10 hours of Starfield yesterday when I bet some here did nothing but argueing over their plastic.

I’m on my second run, still only 1 main quest cleared, playing it differently now, cleared out a bunch of random bases, did some mission board stuff, took a tourist tour, pretended to be an alien to scare away tourists, did my first red mile run and built two new spaceships and built on my base. There is an insane amount of content. I really can’t relate to the negativity seen here, but I’m used to it by now, been here for 18 years. I love the game.
 
todd to neogaf..............

better-call-saul-todd-howard.gif
Kinda feels like the opposite tbh.
 
I mean it‘s not like I wasn‘t expecting a great game, but I was still quite surprised that it‘s basically Oblivion in another setting/with different skyboxes. Played it for about 10hrs, then I lost interest. Nah Todd, next time please make a game with mechanics not stuck sonewhere pre 2010 era.
 

havoc00

Member
That "leading expert" is trying very clearly to sell you his new product, he is far from being objective. You can also look at his past comments - he is a businessman, promoting his game. Nothing wrong with that, but keep it in mind. Critical thinking, and all that.

he’s a leading expert in the industry you are trying to undermine me and the rest of the fans , tell you what this is my last Sunday dinner here
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
Everybody be whining about Starfield because it's not the "EVERYTHING GAME" that it was expected to be, even though it's an idiotic and unrealistic expectation to have because if one would actually attempt to make something like this, we'd end up with unfinished turkeys like Star Citizen left and right.

Starfield has its problems, and to me it's mostly about poorly thought out and executed quests and writing, but it's still a phenomenal game. This sudden paradigm shift towards shit talking and hate bandwagon is just stupid.
 

Thyuda

Member
I wonder what the heck it would take for him to finally admit they've just been doing the same game for 20 years now, even utilizing the same engine.

Because that's the problem Todd, not that everybody else got better at making RPGs.
 

supernova8

Banned
The fact that Todd Howard is even saying all of this demonstrates that he, Bethesda, and Xbox are well aware that a lot of people did expect more from Starfield versus what was delivered.

Besides, it seems disingenuous to hype the shit out of your game and then, when it doesn't deliver on a lot of what you said it would be, complain that people expected too much. Pretty much everything that people complained about is stuff that Bethesda either directly said or loosely implied would be in the game.

Also we should stop with the whole "Bethesda jank" thing. It's just a way to give them a pass for not fixing bugs in their games. Nobody said "oh yeah that's just Pokemon jank" when we all saw those 1 frame per second building animations in Scarlet and Violet.
 
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GymWolf

Member
What he is saying is people's standards for Action-RPGS have raised. This was impressive in 2008:

Fallout_3_cover_art.PNG


The competition is much steeper in 2023. We are in the post Witcher 3 era.
Impressive for bethesda standards.

Plot, tech and combat were dogshit even back in the days, especially with mass effect coming out 1 year before it.
 

Thaedolus

Gold Member
Everybody be whining about Starfield because it's not the "EVERYTHING GAME" that it was expected to be, even though it's an idiotic and unrealistic expectation to have because if one would actually attempt to make something like this, we'd end up with unfinished turkeys like Star Citizen left and right.

Starfield has its problems, and to me it's mostly about poorly thought out and executed quests and writing, but it's still a phenomenal game. This sudden paradigm shift towards shit talking and hate bandwagon is just stupid.
They absolutely brought it on themselves though. The sales pitch was this game was the hottest shit to ever be made and it’s just very mid across the board. After playing several hours I have pretty much zero desire to pick it up again because it’s so boring.
 
Progression systems don't equal an RPG. Having skill trees and perk unlocks in your game doesn’t make it an RPG.

Weird post.

To unlock skills, you have to complete challenges. To become a thief, you have to act like a thief. To become an expert at rifles, you need to actually use rifles.

Their progression system itself makes it more RPG than other RPGs out there.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
Weird post.

To unlock skills, you have to complete challenges. To become a thief, you have to act like a thief. To become an expert at rifles, you need to actually use rifles.

Their progression system itself makes it more RPG than other RPGs out there.
This is what Todd was arguing though - that every game has RPG lite systems like XP these days (most have a mixture of builds too). I think Bethesda's learn-by-doing approach to experience and leveling is great, but as RPG-lite becomes the standard, studios like Bethesda have a responsibility to more clearly define the genre. Larian has shown this can still be done done, by focusing less on numbers, action and grinding and more on adventure, decision-making, and character interaction.
 
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Drizzlehell

Banned
They absolutely brought it on themselves though. The sales pitch was this game was the hottest shit to ever be made and it’s just very mid across the board. After playing several hours I have pretty much zero desire to pick it up again because it’s so boring.
Welcome to the real world if you just realised that marketing for a game is meant to hype you up for it and talk about the things the developers were excited to create. At no point, however, were they being misleading and everything that was presented in pre-release materials is in the game. If you imagined it to be more than what was shown then it's your fault for having unrealistic expectations.
 
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Thaedolus

Gold Member
Welcome to the real world if you just realised that marketing for a game is meant to hype you up for it and talk about the things the developers were excited to create. At no point, however, were they being misleading and everything that was presented in pre-release materials is in the game. If you imagined it to be more than what was shown then it's your fault for having unrealistic expectations.
Games have lived up to and even surpassed the hype before. This one absolutely did not, and that’s a damn shame for what’s supposed to be a flagship title. Bethesda needs to ditch their old ass engine. I agree that there’s nothing missing in the game that was in the marketing, except for having much fun
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
Games have lived up to and even surpassed the hype before. This one absolutely did not, and that’s a damn shame for what’s supposed to be a flagship title. Bethesda needs to ditch their old ass engine. I agree that there’s nothing missing in the game that was in the marketing, except for having much fun
Unfortunately, as it's with most games in general, they won't click with everyone no matter how great the idea sounded on paper. But I don't think that this disappointment is universal. There are just as many if not more folks around who are having a great time with this game. All of my friends on discord, for instance, have had nothing but positive things to say about it and we've been chatting about various details of what we've done and encountered in the game for weeks now.

It's exactly what I wanted it to be, which is a game that strikes the balance between hardcore space sims like Elite and more action-adventure'y game like Mass Effect. At least as far as finding the middle ground between those two types of games, I don't think there's anything else on the market right now that could provide that kind of experience.
 
I think Bethesda's learn-by-doing approach to experience and leveling is great, but as RPG-lite becomes the standard, studios like Bethesda have a responsibility to more clearly define the genre. Larian has shown this can still be done done, by focusing less on numbers, action and grinding and more on adventure, decision-making, and character interaction.

That stuff is there is Starfield in good quantity.

I have played 70 hrs and there are many ways to role play.

You can choose to be a farmer, a pirate, a thief, a technical person... options are aplenty.

Sense of adventure and discovery is strong once you start playing it like a galaxy exploration game instead of a planet exploration one.
 
This guy is so full of shit 😂

I love Skyrim and the reason for that is its groundbreaking game design for its time. Also, as far exploration went it was far superior to Starfield. Feels like they took a step back with Starfield in that regard and kept all the things I dislike about Skyrim like the ridiculous load screens and usual Bethesda jank.

The problem for Todd is that we aren’t in 2011 anymore. Standards have greatly increased since then because games have evolved a lot. Unfortunately, Todd hasn’t evolved much if at all when it comes to his game design philosophy and Bethesda is still using the painfully antiquated Creation Engine. The engine is their greatest strength (mods) but also their greatest weakness (bugs, technical limitations, etc.)
 
I agree, the Horizon series has one of the worst implementations of RPG systems for a linear single-player game in recent times. Too many redundant weapon archetypes that all do the same thing and elemental damages with meaningless effects. Skill trees that don't really bring anything new but improve the clunky core gameplay mechanics (melee combat is still ass in the second even after all the upgrades). Meaningless dialogue wheel that amounts to nothing.

It's a bore of an RPG. Enemy variety is great though.
 
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BbMajor7th

Member
That stuff is there is Starfield in good quantity.

I have played 70 hrs and there are many ways to role play.

You can choose to be a farmer, a pirate, a thief, a technical person... options are aplenty.

Sense of adventure and discovery is strong once you start playing it like a galaxy exploration game instead of a planet exploration one.
You can also do all of these things in No Man's Sky (arguably to an even greater extent) and I don't think anyone considers NMS to be an RPG. While it's true that action games have borrowed from RPGs, Bethesda has done the same, in making their games more and more action-oriented for a mainstream audience. The push towards a homogenized middle ground has come from both directions.
 
What he is saying is people's standards for Action-RPGS have raised. This was impressive in 2008:

Fallout_3_cover_art.PNG


The competition is much steeper in 2023. We are in the post Witcher 3 era.
I don't know, I replayed Fallout3 on the steam deck recently. It's still impressive. More impressive than starfield, frankly. Gets you hooked right away and the rpg elements are all there.
 
Not just PRGs but open world game design. Bethesda stodd still and have been surpassed.
Bethesda decided to sit their asses in early-2000s game design and is getting a rude wake-up call. If not for mods Bethesda games' wouldn't survive much longer in the current gaming landscape. I bet not even 20% of Starfield players will be playing vanilla Starfield a year from now. This is the truth about Bethesda games. They lack too many QoL features, and there are things you can't simply change like all the loading screens for every little thing.
 

DragonNCM

Member
Dear Tod.....you are making same RPG game 20 years now....with different setup. If I was living under the rock & some one told me that Starfield launched 2011 I would believe him. It is same Morrowind/Fallout/Skyrim game with slightly better graphic. You need to do things differently & you need to evolve. All things you told us about Starfield is a damn lies. Don't get me wrong, I love playing Starfield, perfectly suit's my gaming habits but game isn't revolutionary in anything. It is just another Bethesda RPG & only that.
 
You can also do all of these things in No Man's Sky (arguably to an even greater extent) and I don't think anyone considers NMS to be an RPG. While it's true that action games have borrowed from RPGs, Bethesda has done the same, in making their games more and more action-oriented for a mainstream audience. The push towards a homogenized middle ground has come from both directions.
Yeah this is the problem and it has happened little by little each game. Oblivion got rid of certain spells and weapon types that were in the past elder scrolls games. It took modders to add those things back in. Having only 4 weapons was just dumb (swords, axes ,daggers and hammers). Skyrim took out choosing a class, took out earning skills by doing them, took out custom spells, some say for the better, but it made it so it felt more generic. And again, they had limited number of weapons and just did effects on each.

All 3 es games had no spears, pole arms, flails, sickles, rat catchers, mauls, or other unique weapons, it was all just the axe, sword, hammer , dagger and add fire or other element to it. Modders fixed that.
Starfield has the same problem apparently, there is only a small selection of some guns, like laser weapons only have 3 total different lasers.

That's just one minor example there are tons more. They really have homogenized everything to make it appeal to mass audiences instead of fine tune it as a good rpg. Its been happening throughout all their games. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, if that is their intent, but it can leave a lot to be desired for rpg fans.
 

Schmendrick

Member
"We sold a game with an engine that`s mostly 2012 tech and ducttape and quest and world design from 2005, and somehow people are not fully satisfied"
- The Todd
 
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