Pagliarulo describes game dev as “a series of concessions and tough decisions,” framing a gradient between “that perfect game you want to make” and “the game you can make.” Closing that gap is hard in the best conditions, he says, and is made harder by “devs being shuffled around (or leaving), looming deadlines, and creative decisions you wish you didn’t have to make.”
“So sure, you can dislike parts of a game,” he concludes. “You can hate on a game entirely. But don’t fool yourself into thinking you know why it is the way it is (unless it’s somehow documented and verified), or how it got to be that way (good or bad).
“Chances are, unless you’ve made a game yourself, you don’t know who made certain decisions; who did specific work; how many people were actually available to do that work; any time challenges faced; or how often you had to overcome technology itself (this one is HUGE).”
Pagliarulo notably doesn’t specify Starfield here or directly point to any specific pain points from its long development cycle, but it’s not hard to read between the lines. The mixed response to Starfield has sparked discussions about Bethesda’s design philosophy, the game engine it uses, Starfield’s weak links and bugs, and much more.
Such discussions recently reintensified following a viral video from YouTuber NakeyJakey, which calls Bethesda’s approach “outdated,” that has spread around the Starfield community and racked up over 3.3 million views in four days. Around the same time, the well-known creator of a popular Skyrim multiplayer mod, who’d initially planned to bring their modding talents to Starfield, threw up their hands and said “this game is f***ing trash.” There was also quite some discussion about Bethesda customer support responding to individual negative user reviews on Steam.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has shared ambitions for Starfield to become a 12-year hit just like Skyrim. Just yesterday, Bethesda committed to regular Starfield updates which will address some of the RPG’s biggest bugbears, “from city maps, to mod support, to all-new ways of traveling.” These and other changes will arrive starting in early 2024, with patches coming “roughly” every six weeks.
The Starfield community patch mod is out and already has dozens of player-made fixes.
Source: gamesradar.com
