this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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I mean part of that is people just finishing the game. That's fine.
But also the consensus seems to be the game is at best "okay", and people won't be going back to it like they do with Skyrim.
I'm not sure if anyone at Bethesda honestly expected it to be better.
I can see that side of things, but people often re-play games that they love.
Looking at Bethesda's games being played right now, Starfield is 4th place, but the newest by far.
Skyrim (special Edition) https://steamdb.info/app/489830/charts/
26,600 players online when I made this comment.
Fallout 4 https://steamdb.info/app/377160/
19,650 players online when I made this comment.
The Eldar Scrolls online https://steamdb.info/app/306130/charts/
16.304 players online when I made this comment.
Starfield https://steamdb.info/app/1716740/charts/
9,086 players online when I made this comment.
Fallout76 https://steamdb.info/app/1151340/charts/
7,596 players online when I made this comment.
ESO is live service and an MMO, it doesn’t really belong in this list, but otherwise yeah basically everything you said.
I mean that's what the other commenter said, it was okay, they played it but it's not good enough to play again.
Your point stands but The Elder Scrolls Online doesn't count. The game studio is completely different and its akin to comparing an id game.
People are still playing skyrim
Not every game can be Skyrim and setting the bar that high is ridiculous
Bethesda set the bar. It’s their job to raise it with future releases.
^if the power-creep problem were a person
Skyrim was pretty bad. I'd say it's a pretty low bar. They did get the overall atmosphere right though.
I feel like the "there are dozens of us! Dozens!" meme when I'm like I didn't think Skyrim was very good. The story was mostly thin, the combat wasn't great, the systems were shallower than the previous games, the leveling wasn't great (the scaling was better than oblivion but that's a lot bar).
I played it a lot but a lot of that was trying to get it into something I liked via mods.
Edit: I think Skyrim also has a certain meme status, where people who don't play a lot of games play it. That's a very loose measurement of quality.
The whole point of Skyrim is modding the shit out of it. Not actually playing it.
Regardless of your personal preferences, I don't think it's reasonable to call Skyrim's longevity and continued active user base a low bar
I think it's reasonable. Skyrim is boring as hell Vanilla, but mods make it great. The devs shouldn't get credit for modders.
There are Bethesda games as in made by the studio and Bethesda games as in the game genre that only Bethesda (And Oblivion once) produces with their proprietary game engine. A major aspect of the game genre version of Bethesda game is that the "main" story is neither necessary or important for the player's enjoyment. The main story is typically one of many things the player can do and is not usually what fans of the genre are most interested in. Finishing a Bethesda game means doing everything that's in it or getting bored at some point before that.
There are still tons of people playing all Bethesda games from Morrowind to Fallout 4 to this day with active mod scenes and setting discussion communities keeping the playerbases of those games alive. People having a nice enough time after the story and quitting since there's nothing else interesting to do is not what fans of Bethesda games want from a game like this. Compared to other linear shooters I'm sure it's fine enough, but I don't think this is what anyone wanted for Starfield.
Lets see how well this age. People said the same about 76 and Bethesda didn't give up on it.
I played fo76 when it had a free weekend and I really didn't like it at all. I guess it's good that people enjoy it, but I thought it kind of stunk.
It takes a bit to get going, but we've put a lot of hours into it. But for online game, it's achieved what it set out to do. The story can be hit or miss but it has a boat load of it so overall it's super enjoyable due to the usual fallout world building.
Damn. I know you meant well, but you sound like a project manager of a feature on an insurance website and the minimum viable product was kinda janky and you are trying to soften the blow to the team during the lessons learned meeting.
But this is a video game. For relaxation and recreation. With lots of competition in the market. What you wrote is more of a condemnation than any hyperbolic gamer nerd rant.
Early on I had an experience where a pack of dogs came at me while I was fumbling around in my menus. I was like fresh out of the vault in a jumpsuit. They bit me so many times, and I didn't die. Or suffer any consequences.
Feeling like it was all paper tigers really soured me on the experience. Some people probably like that and don't want a game where you can be defeated. That's not usually my jam though.