• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Todd Howard says expectations for Starfield changed because everything is an RPG now

havoc00

Member

Todd Howard says expectations for Starfield changed because everything is an RPG now: "I can't look at a game that doesn't have XP and leveling"​



"We try to stay true to who we are in terms of what we want to see in a game," Howard says of Bethesda RPGs
Todd Howard Starfield reveal

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Bethesda boss Todd Howard reckons many games are some sort of RPG nowadays, which is partly why Starfield doubles down on the studio's classical role-playing style to stand out in the crowd.
In an interesting interview with Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price on the Game Maker's Notebook podcast, Howard was asked about audience expectations. Price wonders if expectations for RPGs have changed, and if "what matters" to the genre has been changing.

"Yeah, I think dramatically," Howard answers. "I think the genre itself has blended into everything. I can't look at a game that doesn't have XP and leveling up. Pick any game you want. That's sort of bled in."
The easiest example to point to for the the RPG-ification of games is probably Assassin's Creed, which has long since transitioned from focused stealth-action adventures to sprawling, open-world, numbers-filled sandboxes like Assassin's Creed Valhalla – and is now coming full circle, returning to its more action-led roots with the promising Assassin's Creed Mirage. And Ubisoft's behemoth is in good company. Outside quintessential monoliths like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, countless modern games regularly incorporate features and systems once associated with purebred RPGs, with role-playing conventions often boiled down to character progression.

Howard reckons anything can be an RPG, but in the face of shifting player expectations, he maintains that Bethesda's underlying approach to the genre, which has gone largely unchanged in 'Skyrim in space' Starfield, still zeroes in on defining and owning a literal role within a world.
"What makes an official RPG?" he asks. "I think if you're an old-school RPG fan you'll have your own list of rules for that. I love the genre because it can be anything. It can have action in it, it can have this, you can have other game types break out. You can have a racing game break out into an RPG, I don't know. It depends what pockets you're looking at.

"We try to stay true to who we are in terms of what we want to see in a game. We'll mash things up in the genre. We built a space shooter as well. Is that an RPG? Yes and no. How do we bring those elements that we think are important to an RPG, a role-playing game? How does this thing fill a role? How can I make it my own? How can I develop it over time and improve it to make it even more of my own? That's where our thought is on those things, and [we] stay away from 'RPG means this type of interaction.'"

 

RIPN2022

Member
So we are in the denial phase, next is anger I believe.


A bit too true for my tastes, you could have evolved your formula a tad. At least remove a few loading screens?
We've had going from open world to missions towards the end of the PS3 era with GTA V. Starfield having loading screens for everything feels soooo outdated.
 

bender

What time is it?
Unfortunately for Bethesda, the industry have advanced in comparison with them, who still produce games with better graphics but 15 year old logic and gameplay.

To be fair to Todd and team, that has been true of every wildly successful game they've ever made.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
Another one for the pile of nonsense bullshit excuses this guy has been saying lately.

pile GIF
We had to use the old shitty systems in this game and we had to make them worse because that's what everyone is doing.

What the fuck is doubling down, making the leveling so sparse that you have to play new game + a few times to even be able to try skills? Or is it making everyone know everything you did except for the pirates who you are going undercover on because that makes so much sense. Instead of AI this game has ASS, Artificial Stupidity Suckiness.
 

Fess

Member
This interview was fantastic, Ted is awesome for doing these talks. And people clearly need watch it, no hot takes needed here, it’s a wholesome talk, just two studio heads/developers/gamers/friends who genuinely appreciate each others work talking about games and game development.

 

bender

What time is it?
I don’t have a problem with their wild success, the problem is their whining, I mean Todd whining. His game is not successful enough because the industry has advanced and he doesn’t like that. Stop complaining and make a better game.

I guess I was saying, "if it is broke but sells well, why fix it?". I think if you play Bethesda games long enough, there comes a breaking point where you are no longer able to overlook the shortcomings. Oblivion was that game for me. It's pretty fascinating to see a lot of the complaints I had about that game and the games that followed becoming a more popular sentiment.
 
"We try to stay true to who we are in terms of what we want to see in a game," Howard says of Bethesda RPGs

well, this's true enough. the problem is (& this true for any developer) when what you want to see in a game begins to diverge from what your audience wants to see in a game. i'm still not so sure that there's anything inherently wrong with starfield. i think it's much more likely that my personal tolerance for such content has simply diminished. it happens, &, again, i'm don't really think its anyone 'fault'. it's just something that happens. people tire of things...
 
Last edited:
This interview was fantastic, Ted is awesome for doing these talks. And people clearly need watch it, no hot takes needed here, it’s a wholesome talk, just two studio heads/developers/gamers/friends who genuinely appreciate each others work talking about games and game development.


Why can't people be like how Todd and Ted Price are in this video? Both genuine gamers without the bullshitery and stupidity of calling peoples names or insulting others because they play on a different plastic box or something like that? I am starting to think most people join the forums to cause drama and hate because they have nothing else better to offer themselves and their lives are miserable. Some of the people on here sound like they just hate gaming, and makes me wonder why they are even here in the first place. Great interview.
 
Why can't people be like how Todd and Ted Price are in this video? Both genuine gamers without the bullshitery and stupidity of calling peoples names or insulting others because they play on a different plastic box or something like that? I am starting to think most people join the forums to cause drama and hate because they have nothing else better to offer themselves and their lives are miserable. Some of the people on here sound like they just hate gaming, and makes me wonder why they are even here in the first place. Great interview.
Todd Howard is ultra friendly and agreeable in every interview he does. It's probably why Starfield is so design-by-committee. There is no edge to him.
 
Creamy horseshit!

The fact a studio head doesn't own his studio's failing and acknowledge what is actually wrong with the game is a very bad sign for the future of Bethesda games.

Volition did this exact same thing when they announced the latest SR to the sound of a wet fart and instead of recognizing what they made is shit, they doubled down, blamed gamers and no they're no more.
 
Last edited:

Rheon

Member
Playing Phantom Liberty after playing Starfield and it's crazy how dated the latter feels in comparison.

Creation Engine really needs to be nuked.
 

Atrus

Gold Member
I wonder if Todd has any passion left when it comes to developing and designing games or if it’s all about the financial statement now.

He’s probably thinking about how he could squeeze out even more money from addicts with low expectations if they were to slap another coat of paint on the engine. An open world zombie-survival game perhaps? Yeah, very Fallout adjacent so they can put in even less effort than Starfield.
 

Freeman76

Member
His answer:

Add a new game plus cycle that negates the very things that make Bethesda games so great, and makes all the long term cycles like bases, decorating apartments with shit you hoarded, building ships, completely pointless. The game is awesome and I enjoyed it immensely, but after 100 hours I was done due to their shit idea of how to keep us playing. My least played Bethesda game of them all, way to keep it real Todd 😬
 
Their market of making quasi rpgs that slowly remove rpg layers is being out competed by other games adding rpg elements to keep players playing longer.

Rather than going ball deeps in rpg elements like several successful games did since Skyrim, they decided to stay the course and now they need to hope modders will make their game interesting (again).
 
They can still redeem themselves with a GOOD, event filled, quest filled DLC/Expansions. It's by far, not the worst game or even bad. It's just not for everyone and with CP2077:pL out, that's just how it goes. In the end, I know I want to continue and finish Starfield, but rn, CP is getting played through. :messenger_sunglasses:
 
Top Bottom