Interview Who you should blame for poor elements of Oblivion

[Justin Cray]

Well, you are right, I should have made some statistics up to bolster my statement. Maybe about how those imaginary 34 million bucks are spent or something. I really look stupid now.

Let's put it this way. Oblivion is, without question, a successful title. In fact, it's a very successful title from a sales point of view. Especially when compared to the few hundred thousand copies that most games sell (of the somewhat a bit more than that which would've been shipped to distributors). Right now, if Bethesda aren't rolling in cash, then something, somewhere is seriously fucked up. So yes, they can afford to spend about $10,000 USD for the salaries of 4 guys for a month to make a bit more content. Hell, Blizzard seemed quite capable of running the battle.net servers and continuously patching their game purely from the sales of their products without having to charge any extra. Why can't Bethesda?

I agree Oblivion is a successful title, I also agree they could use the profits to make more content. I just pointed out what Bethesda themselves said here (check ashileedo's posts).

I know nobody personally who would be so stupid to buy those mods, but I don't agree that there is some entitlement to free Bethesda mods.

 

[Doppelganger]

Orin Tresnjak
Programmer
I joined the company very late in the development of Oblivion, just after E3; I did odd jobs at first, and soon ended up taking over the distant level of detail system

So that's why the LOD is crap, they got the intern to do it. Sounds like most of those guys with big fuck-up responsibilities were new to the company. Judging from the film they made, their QA team consisted mainly of a fat guy sitting on a couch at the back of the office mousing on a book. No mention of gameplay bugs, I notice, only technical ones, and nobody admits to being proud of story, lore, skills system, etc.

It's terrible to see a company reach this point of almost total blindness to its own faults and errors of judgement. It's like watching a favourite uncle succumb to Alzheimer's.

 

[Data4]

Based on the comment by the guy responsible for the levelling atrocity, I'll bet my left nut he's not allowed on the ESF, plus they're telling him "Oh ya, people love it. Great job, man. Great job. Resounding success..." *thumbs up and a toothy grin, complete with sparkle*

-Jon

 

[dongle]

I agree Oblivion is a successful title, I also agree they could use the profits to make more content. I just pointed out what Bethesda themselves said here (check ashileedo's posts).

Heh. I like how he says Bethesda is exploring new ground here with the mods, and doing something no other game has ever done in the history of gaming. Then, in the very next paragraph, is taken aback by the negative reaction because lots of games do this. So, which is it? Lots, or none at all? :D

 

[Section8]

I know nobody personally who would be so stupid to buy those mods, but I don't agree that there is some entitlement to free Bethesda mods.

I don't think anyone is arguing that. I think that the general consensus is that Bethesda aren't doing their corporate image any favours by charging for the trivial add-ons they've released so far, but if they released the same content without charge, the opposite would be true. I remember the idea of downloading an extra unit per week for Total Annihilation struck a fairly positive chord with me. But of course, Bethesda don't owe anyone anything, and vice versa. It's just a nice thing to do; giving someone something for nothing.

And as I've seen suggested plenty of times, the idea of free content for registered users is great incentive for people to register, which is a double edged sword encouraging people to buy legit copies, and registration info can be collated for marketing purposes.