Bethesda General Discussion Thread

[OSK]

Based Biden.

 

[Drakortha]

Stop spreading this meme shit around and go back to Reddit.

 

[Konjad]

Despite being only 12% of the population, Bretons are responsible for 52% of crimes in skyrim

 

[Late Bloomer]

Despite being only 12% of the population, Redguards are responsible for 52% of crimes in skyrim

Fixed.

 

[Stella Brando]

Who would vote for Daggerfall? Clinton? Nixon?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Ha! You don't like pixelated pussy & tits?

 

[AW8]

Skyrim had the good fortune to come out just months after Game of Thrones, and then had the Game of Thrones DLC when that show was at the height of its popularity.

I'd say that's a stretch - Game of Thrones had nothing to do with Skyrim's success. They share nothing beyond a medieval fantasy setting, of which GoT is low fantasy, vastly different from Skyrim's high fantasy filled with orcs and elves.
Aesthetically, Todd mentioned Conan the Barbarian (1982) as an inspiration. Whiterun and its surroundings are shamelessly copied from Rohan/Edoras in Lord of the Rings. No one thinks of GoT when playing Skyrim.

People played Skyrim because of dragons, after seeing the player go FUS RO DAH!!! on them in the trailers (that were released before GoT started airing).
People did not watch GoT because of dragons, since they weren't a big thing until several seasons in. The supernatural stuff largely took a backseat in favor of conspiring nobles, an element that is pretty much non-existent in Skyrim.

Compare to Oblivion which definitely rode on the success of Peter Jackson's LotR trilogy, with its not-Minas Tirith being invaded by not-Mordor and even bringing in Sean Bean as Isildur's Tiber's heir who can turn the tide using the One Ring Amulet.

I don't remember any of the Skyrim DLC resembling GoT either. The first was about vampires, the second about building a house and the last was just Morrowind nostalgia wank.

(And to be semantic, all were released in 2012. GoT's first two seasons were successful, but it wasn't until the Red Wedding in 2013 that it became a true cultural phenomenon that was talked about by everyone, a status it enjoyed all the way to its ending in 2019.)

 

[KateMicucci]

Skyrim had the good fortune to come out just months after Game of Thrones, and then had the Game of Thrones DLC when that show was at the height of its popularity.

I'd say that's a stretch - Game of Thrones had nothing to do with Skyrim's success. They share nothing beyond a medieval fantasy setting, of which GoT is low fantasy, vastly different from Skyrim's high fantasy filled with orcs and elves.
Aesthetically, Todd mentioned Conan the Barbarian (1982) as an inspiration. Whiterun and its surroundings are shamelessly copied from Rohan/Edoras in Lord of the Rings. No one thinks of GoT when playing Skyrim.

People played Skyrim because of dragons, after seeing the player go FUS RO DAH!!! on them in the trailers (that were released before GoT started airing).
People did not watch GoT because of dragons, since they weren't a big thing until several seasons in. The supernatural stuff largely took a backseat in favor of conspiring nobles, an element that is pretty much non-existent in Skyrim.

Compare to Oblivion which definitely rode on the success of Peter Jackson's LotR trilogy, with its not-Minas Tirith being invaded by not-Mordor and even bringing in Sean Bean as Isildur's Tiber's heir who can turn the tide using the One Ring Amulet.

I don't remember any of the Skyrim DLC resembling GoT either. The first was about vampires, the second about building a house and the last was just Morrowind nostalgia wank.

(And to be semantic, all were released in 2012. GoT's first two seasons were successful, but it wasn't until the Red Wedding in 2013 that it became a true cultural phenomenon that was talked about by everyone, a status it enjoyed all the way to its ending in 2019.)

I find it hard to believe that anybody cares about this nebulous "high/low fantasy" fantasy distinction except for a very few nerds on /tg/ and reddit whose main interaction with fantasy is through pink slime roleplaying games. It is not clear to me, as a normal person, how ice zombies, sorcereresses, shapeshifters and dragons are low fantasy but orcs and elfs are high fantasy.

The lord of Windhelm, Ulfric Stormcloak, has a face and clothing very similar to the lord of Winterfell, Ned Stark. Dawnguard has a wolf-dog companion named Bran wearing Stark armor. The dragon eggs appear in the very first episode of the show, and even if A Dance with Dragons wasn't already out, it would have been very obvious that dragons were going to be a major part of the show.

Indeed, Skyrim was also visually inspired by Jackson's LOTR, but that's still my point. Skyrim was aesthetically aping, or coincidently closely resembled, properties that had huge cultural impacts, and Starfield is not.

 

[Late Bloomer]

I find it hard to believe that anybody cares about this nebulous "high/low fantasy" fantasy distinction except for a very few nerds on /tg/ and reddit whose main interaction with fantasy is through pink slime roleplaying games. It is not clear to me, as a normal person, how ice zombies, sorcereresses, shapeshifters and dragons are low fantasy but orcs and elfs are high fantasy.

The lord of Windhelm, Ulfric Stormcloak, has a face and clothing very similar to the lord of Winterfell, Ned Stark. Dawnguard has a wolf-dog companion named Bran wearing Stark armor. The dragon eggs appear in the very first episode of the show, and even if A Dance with Dragons wasn't already out, it would have been very obvious that dragons were going to be a major part of the show.

Indeed, Skyrim was also visually inspired by Jackson's LOTR, but that's still my point. Skyrim was aesthetically aping, or coincidently closely resembled, properties that had huge cultural impacts, and Starfield is not.

I try not to throw insults around. You are a fucking idiot.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Skyrim was aesthetically aping Todd's anus. One of the ugliest games I've ever seen. Aside from aging technology, the art direction was so bad... I don't recall a single armor or sword design that didn't make me want to puke. Though that's pretty common for all Elder Scrolls games.

 

[Stella Brando]

 

[Stella Brando]

 

[Infinitron]

Ben Hanson interviews Bruce Nesmith about his long career at Bethesda Softworks, where he was the lead designer on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, senior systems designer for Starfied, and overall design director for the studio. He started at the legendary RPG studio in 1995, so we have a lot of ground to cover. He talks about the growth of Bethesda and some of the natural pitfalls they've fallen into recently with Fallout 76 and Starfield's development. Bruce started his career in 1981 working at TSR (the company that invented Dungeons & Dragons) so we also talk about his thoughts on Baldur's Gate 3. We also cover Bethesda's first space game that never released called The 10th Planet and how The Elder Scrolls II almost destroyed the studio. There's a lot in this interview, so we hope you all enjoy it and help share it online. Directly support independent games media and unlock the podcast version of MinnMax's interviews by supporting us on Patreon!

/ minnmax

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below...

00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:21 - The stability of Bethesda Softworks
00:06:38 - Bethesda's recent growth and changes
00:09:33 - Fallout 76 and Todd Howard
00:19:38 - Why developers lose focus on what gamers want
00:23:03 - Thoughts on Baldur's Gate 3
00:27:50 - Why Bruce left Bethesda
00:32:23 - The reaction to Starfield's release
00:35:24 - Designing Starfield's limited exploration
00:39:16 - The origins of Starfield
00:44:25 - Choosing to retire after Microsoft's acquisition
00:45:58 - Writing his Loki Redeemed novel trilogy
00:51:39 - Thoughts on tabletop design
00:52:40 - Making D&D games for TSR in the 1980s
01:01:49 - Hired at Bethesda
01:06:54 - Working with Todd Howard in 1995
01:08:55 - Returning to Bethesda for Oblivion
01:10:17 - Choosing the next region for The Elder Scrolls series
01:13:05 - Bruce's impact on The Elder Scrolls VI
01:15:26 - The downsides of long game development
01:19:53 - Can you pivot in development after a game like Cyberpunk releases?
01:22:38 - The most influential RPGs in Bruce's life
01:23:57 - The impact of Skyrim
01:25:13 - How The Elder Scrolls II almost destroyed Bethesda
01:29:29 - The downfall of 10th Planet, Bethesda's first space game
01:38:19 - Conclusions from Bruce

 

[Swen]

Bugthesda giving credit to Larian as they should now that I am the new official king of rpg's.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Noclip talks to Nate Purkeypile, longtime Bethesda employee who left back in 2021 to work on a solo indie heavy metal horror game.

We talk to Nate Purkeypile about the reception to Fallout 76, why he left Bethesda after 14 years of crafting worlds there, and what it's like making a solo open world game "The Axis Unseen" using Unreal.

 

[ds]

 

[NecroLord]

Despite being only 12% of the population, Bretons are responsible for 52% of crimes in skyrim

Redguards.

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[NecroLord]

Castles in Skyrim?