ShoddyCast offer six suggestions on how Bethesda can make their next open-world game a mediocre RPG.
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Bethesda Softworks - 6 Suggestions for a Mediocre RPG
- Thread starter Silver
- Start date
Video got me intrigued. Usually i dont watch videos since there not interactive.
SonOfCapiz
Sentinel
- Joined
- February 3, 2011
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- 586
What genius thinks he can teach Bethesda anything when it comes to mediocrity?!
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2011
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- 586
TheSnarkyShaman
Watchdog
- Joined
- April 14, 2017
- Messages
- 87
I'm going to allow myself to be excited for the next Bethesda game for this simple reason; they already have a post-apocalyptic franchise and a fantasy franchise, so their next RPG is likely to be SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Invest in some dedicated, talented writers and drop the 'radiant quest' nonsense and I'll just be happy to be exploring something that doesn't involve elves or guns made out of soup cans.
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2017
- Messages
- 87
I don't know, man... The Bethesda from recent years only plays it safe. We already have a fantasy Skyrim and a post-apoc Skyrim, maybe they're working on a space Skyrim...
Drithius
Magic & Loss
Is this another one of those "what Bethesda should do in their next game" lists?
The type that get buried in the sands of online circle-jerking by the time that next game is launched and disappoints even more than the last one - but always has an army of fanboy apologists quoting sales figures as the true measure of success?
The type that get buried in the sands of online circle-jerking by the time that next game is launched and disappoints even more than the last one - but always has an army of fanboy apologists quoting sales figures as the true measure of success?
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Go tactical and turn based, and make the next genre actually tough. People don't want easy junk that you can mow down without thought or worry, they want difficult and challenging content. Give them their moneys' worth, and you'll hear less complaining.
There's a plus side to having a smaller development team. When its done right, you get more consistency, flexibility, innovation, and improved communication. Just look up the Skunksworks project or Jeff Bezos' Two-Pizza Team approach.
I agree. I've been playing games from "yesteryear" for the better part of the last 12 months. Old wizardry games, old ultima games, gothic 2 and a few others along those lines.
As much as I enjoy modern games like Skyrim, DA:I, Witcher 3 and some other contemporary cRPGs... when compared to the "yesteryear" games, a sense of character progression and situational difficulty is definitely missing (or greatly diminished) in newer titles.
To the credit of contemporary titles, they do have better graphics, physics, and in some games, better story telling. But what keeps drawing me back to "old" games is not just the nostalgia, but the difficulty they present... the need to remember to revisit places that are too hard right now but later when you come back you can dish out a can of woop-ass... and that experience of progression is what I miss these days.
A
Aerth
Guest
The point in Bethesda is than they do not invest in that kind of thing. They ask the intern in charge of the printer toners to do the writing when the Engine developer is tired.
It gave them billions for a minimal investment in the previous titles, so why would they change?
A
Aerth
Guest
Bethesda does AAA games. That means than most of the time consuming work is done in assets (sounds or graphics) and the writing of the World, NPC, quests and so on you need to fill huge worlds.
Smaller teams in the AAA game world means less pretty and cheap.
They do not do innovation they do what works or seems to please people the most at the time the game is designed.
And for them it does work well financially so why change?
BoboTheMighty
SasqWatch
I doubt we need to worry about Bethesda producing mediocrity. 
It's unlikely they will change direction, but they will find themselves in situation of other developers offering something similar, but on far higher level of quality...Witcher, MGSV, Horizon were already a generation ahead of their last game, though nobody still produces single player games as wide.
But it would be like writing a small book in listing all areas in what they could improve...even exploration, main focus of all of their games, is heavily flawed.
It's unlikely they will change direction, but they will find themselves in situation of other developers offering something similar, but on far higher level of quality...Witcher, MGSV, Horizon were already a generation ahead of their last game, though nobody still produces single player games as wide.
But it would be like writing a small book in listing all areas in what they could improve...even exploration, main focus of all of their games, is heavily flawed.
As long as they don't go down a cut-scene/fixed protagonist route I'm interested. Hopefully they'll get rid of the voiced protagonist from Fallout 4 as well. After that, add some intersting landscapes and exploration, some proper character building (preferably with class quests - eg my non-magic barbarian becoming the Archmage of Skyrim without casting a single spell was a bit daft) and I'm sold.
Very well put. This is exactly the reason I loath any kind of scaling. All the AAA RPG's produced the last 10 years have gone the opposite direction trying to perfect the scaling model so the challenge is always "just right". Meaning it never is.
