this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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Not sure why you're getting downvoted, I think most people agree. I think even Bethesda's admitted that most people don't even finish their games or even the main quest. "Open World" games with tons of recycled content that are a mile wide and an inch deep aren't great, and are generally mediocre at best. Plus, the Bethesda habit of sticking clutter and containers everywhere that you have to search through and selectively pick loot out of one by one waste a crapton of time and is why carryweight limit 1000 lbs (or using the console to do the same) is so popular.
Quality > Quantity. The best thing that Bethesda does with its games is to make them moddable so their userbase can make their games much better, or make fan content that is as good or better than the base game.
They're downvoting because the guy is missing the point. With mods, the game can be whatever you want it to be. You want a super short main quest? That can be done. You want the slowest game possible without even having a main quest? That can also be done.
Personally I down voted him because even though I also prefer short, tightly focused experiences, there's room in the world for all types of games. Just don't play the ones that don't appeal to you.
So basically these giant open world games get all the funding, coverage, and attention only to have the actual game design aspects of game design left up to the dedication and size of your volunteer mod squad. So really designing the best game means designing the best looking platform for easy game design. Which helps explain Skyrims sucess in contrast to the challenges of later OWRPGs.
My favourite example of Bethesda going quantity over quality is when they looked at New Vegas, saw that every gamer and their (cyber)dog said they loved the dialogue, and Todd's takeaway from that was "Soooo...we should fully voice the player character...twice over?"
Oh, and there's a reason they went to a dialogue wheel...