is bethesda catering the wrong fans

[justice1000]

why is bethesda catering to the mainstream audience over the fans who were there since morrowind? skyrim is a good game, but it not that great. the game lack good character's development, weak dragons, auto health regen, and etc. please, tell me what bethesda did wrong about skyrim.

[PharmakosChroster]

Bethesda has made the mistake of going for the low-hanging fruit. PC gamers account for only 15% of Bethesda's sales right now. From the perspective of the beancounters and corporate drones, it's a simple decision: catering to mouth-breathing, slope-headed console neanderthals brings them six times the cash of catering to the people who supported them when they were small and struggling. This decision, however, will yet come back to bite them in their collective arses. The tastes of the console cretins are fickle, and their loyalties nonexistent. The first time Bethesda releases a Daikatana -- and they will -- they will suffer the same fate as Ion Storm, and for the same reason: greed and arrogance. They have forgotten one of the darker truisms of corporate life, that one should be kind to those one passes on the way up, because one will pass them again on the way down.

[Rabbit1251]

Bethesda has made the mistake of going for the low-hanging fruit. PC gamers account for only 15% of Bethesda's sales right now. From the perspective of the beancounters and corporate drones, it's a simple decision: catering to mouth-breathing, slope-headed console neanderthals brings them six times the cash of catering to the people who supported them when they were small and struggling. This decision, however, will yet come back to bite them in their collective arses. The tastes of the console cretins are fickle, and their loyalties nonexistent. The first time Bethesda releases a Daikatana -- and they will -- they will suffer the same fate as Ion Storm, and for the same reason: greed and arrogance. They have forgotten one of the darker truisms of corporate life, that one should be kind to those one passes on the way up, because one will pass them again on the way down.

 

That's so profound. I wholeheartedly agree with that.

 

 

Rabbit

[Enatiomorph]

Definitely. And they aren't even fans. They are newbs that dont care what is cut or dumbed down. They are newbs that bought Skyrim because they thought it was a game where vikings get to headshotz dragonz. Beth is a sellout joke. Edited August 1, 2012 by Enatiomorph

[StayFrosty05]

@PharmakosChroster....What a load of arrogant and self important rot....get off your throne of self endorsed specialness...The lack of graphics quality is certainly due to the consoles inability to process higher graphics, as for your attitude there is no difference between a PC Gamer and a Console Gamer, how in the hell do you suppose that someone's choice of gaming machine make them lesser? (I play on both by the way).....You are right in one thing, Bethesda is catering to the 'low hanging fruit'...Bioware has made the same mistake....Bethesda is aiming at the child gamers...aka. the for 12 year old's level of dialog, choices and character development, the 'I win' buttons, etc...Bethesda is making the fatal mistake of assuming most gamers (and thus greater spenders) are the children nagging their parents into getting them all the latest games on the shelf and forgetting the ones with the real spending power and actually make up the larger proportion of Gamers are the crowd that grew up with it since the 80's and 90's.

[Lutine]

@PharmakosChroster....What a load of arrogant and self important rot....get off your throne of self endorsed specialness...The lack of graphics quality is certainly due to the consoles inability to process higher graphics, as for your attitude there is no difference between a PC Gamer and a Console Gamer, how in the hell do you suppose that someone's choice of gaming machine make them lesser? (I play on both by the way).....You are right in one thing, Bethesda is catering to the 'low hanging fruit'...Bioware has made the same mistake....Bethesda is aiming at the child gamers...aka. the for 12 year old's level of dialog, choices and character development, the 'I win' buttons, etc...Bethesda is making the fatal mistake of assuming most gamers (and thus greater spenders) are the children nagging their parents into getting them all the latest games on the shelf and forgetting the ones with the real spending power and actually make up the larger proportion of Gamers are the crowd that grew up with it since the 80's and 90's.

 

Bethesda won't be targeting that age group if their games are rated M. Why target an illegal age group?

[Bhanqwa]

When Morrowind came out, I was a ~12 year old who got it on X-box and liked everything about it that pc-gamers seem to miss in Skyrim "because if was dumbed down for console".

Are you saying I'm somehow an exception? I unique special snowflake? Ooh thanks you guys :wub: !

[HoodedStalker]

@PharmakosChroster....What a load of arrogant and self important rot....get off your throne of self endorsed specialness...The lack of graphics quality is certainly due to the consoles inability to process higher graphics, as for your attitude there is no difference between a PC Gamer and a Console Gamer, how in the hell do you suppose that someone's choice of gaming machine make them lesser? (I play on both by the way).....You are right in one thing, Bethesda is catering to the 'low hanging fruit'...Bioware has made the same mistake....Bethesda is aiming at the child gamers...aka. the for 12 year old's level of dialog, choices and character development, the 'I win' buttons, etc...Bethesda is making the fatal mistake of assuming most gamers (and thus greater spenders) are the children nagging their parents into getting them all the latest games on the shelf and forgetting the ones with the real spending power and actually make up the larger proportion of Gamers are the crowd that grew up with it since the 80's and 90's.

 

Bethesda won't be targeting that age group if their games are rated M. Why target an illegal age group?

 

The same reason tobacco companies target the youth, it is where a good bit of money and future customers are at.

[StayFrosty05]

@PharmakosChroster....What a load of arrogant and self important rot....get off your throne of self endorsed specialness...The lack of graphics quality is certainly due to the consoles inability to process higher graphics, as for your attitude there is no difference between a PC Gamer and a Console Gamer, how in the hell do you suppose that someone's choice of gaming machine make them lesser? (I play on both by the way).....You are right in one thing, Bethesda is catering to the 'low hanging fruit'...Bioware has made the same mistake....Bethesda is aiming at the child gamers...aka. the for 12 year old's level of dialog, choices and character development, the 'I win' buttons, etc...Bethesda is making the fatal mistake of assuming most gamers (and thus greater spenders) are the children nagging their parents into getting them all the latest games on the shelf and forgetting the ones with the real spending power and actually make up the larger proportion of Gamers are the crowd that grew up with it since the 80's and 90's.

 

Bethesda won't be targeting that age group if their games are rated M. Why target an illegal age group?

 

Because the truth is their parents buy it for them anyway and the gaming companies are well aware of this....they have fulfilled their legal obligations by marking the game as 'M', but they know the parents are buying it.....That aside though, the writing of the game is of a very immature quality, as I mentioned... Dialog, Choices, Character Development...these were written in an obvious catering to a much younger audience.

[sukeban]

why is bethesda catering to the mainstream audience over the fans who were there since morrowind? skyrim is a good game, but it not that great. the game lack good character's development, weak dragons, auto health regen, and etc. please, tell me what bethesda did wrong about skyrim.

 

I was rather surprised when I came across this:

 

Which Game Franchises Getting Better/Worse?

 

TES is the number one franchise flagged for "improving" (Fallout is second), contrasted with a bunch of Blizzard, Bioware, and FPS games flagged as backsliding.

 

Pretty sure one can draw a rather straight line between said FPS games and the other studios, a line which encompasses the lack of innovation in their titles and their reliance on the "cash grab" of expected franchise sales. AKA resting on their laurels versus attempting to continually improve their products.

 

Certainly Beth is guilty of this to a certain extent, but, IMO, far less so than studios like Bioware or Blizzard. It's true that many of the authentically "RPG" elements of the TES series has been dumbed-down or outright eliminated in Skyrim, but Skyrim has also vastly improved in other areas (again IMO), namely graphical capability and combat. It's also certainly true that these are the elements favored by casual fans, so your critique certainly holds water.

 

So I don't really know what to tell you. Beth seems to have successfully walked the fine line between obviously selling out (Blizz, Bio) and appealing to casual gamers. Their sales have never been higher and their fanbase seems to be rather enthusiastic about the direction of the company/series (to the extent that one can generalize from one survey mwaha).

 

Truth be told, I felt the same thing with the Civilization series, another franchise that I adore. Civ 4 is one of my favorite games ever, but so is Civ 5, for almost entirely different reasons. Many elements were lost and/or dumbed down from 4 to 5 but the spirit of the franchise remained, at least for me. After having played Diablo 3 for more than a handful of hours recently, I can emphatically state that Blizz has not been nearly as successful in emulating this (i.e. the game is okay but feels like a rushed cash grab).

 

So we can hope that Beth sees what is happening to their peers. Yes, sales now might be high, but the trajectory of many of these franchises HAS lead to a profound cynicism amongst many of their previous supporters. Beth can learn from their mistakes and continue making quality games that people enjoy rather than succumbing to the siren song of the cash grab.