Reading through Emil's words and his talk, I actually agree with 2 things, though maybe he didn't quite say this specifically, it's my takeaway:
Industry devs are more qualified to critique a game.
This is true. Under the old '
Taxonomy of Thought,' Evaluation was above Creation, because you had to make something to truly critique it. This is why I find industry-based critics have more valuable opinions; e.g. Yahtzee has made indie games, and Red Letter Media made films. (Recently they've bumped Evaluation down a notch, presumably due to butthurt critics complaining.)
However, there's an unwritten rule in the industry not to shit on other working dev's games. It makes sense; you can't do this without sounding petty or jealous, and any project can be cancelled. You don't want to have an 8 hour video complaining about Bethesda games on your account when you go there for a job interview. So they only tell the truth if they like a game; silence from pros is the best indicator of a game being shitty.
So too bad Emil, all we have are crappy gaming website and youtube whores, and I think those guys are way cheaper to buy nowadays anyway. Gmanlives probably got a nice new laptop out of the deal, what is he going to do, go to Youtuber Ethics Jail? Also, this disqualifies all of Emil's defenders too. Lol.
RPG stories are not that important.
Completely agree. Understanding how stories in games are used, how players consume them, and what their purpose is, really comes down to less is more. RPGs are not novels and writing them that way is a recipe for disaster.
However, Emil either didn't follow his own advice with Starfield or was ignored, because this game has a massively overwritten script. Every NPC barfs a never ending wall of text. It's all the same bland dialogue, passive, soft voice, same opinions about everything, everyone is friends, no one judges each other, everyone is self-centered and emotional, redundant low-information text, and no one really disagrees in a serious way. It's all the hallmarks of bad amateur female writers with no commercial credits.
Bizzarely, Emil's defenders are the ones mad about this, because they insist they play games for the story. I don't believe them; I don't think storyfags really exist. I think there are RPG players who are in denial about their entertainment products. Saying you enjoy murder sounds bad, but saying you enjoy mature, sophisticated, philosophical texts about the nature of reality and free will sounds better. It makes no sense because there are plenty of non-violent story games out there you could play, but you mysteriously chose to play the one with mass murder. "I only read Playboy for the articles," says the Storyfag.
Starfield fans are mad at Emil for saying this because
it shatters their delusion. Hard to say you play games for the story when the developer himself says it doesn't matter. Must rebuild the ant-mound no matter how badly it gets kicked over.