Support NeoGAF

[Starfield]

First of all, no this is not a thread to downplay what they have done but rather a short write-up of a very concerned fan who loves their games and just can't believe that they fucked up so badly in the span of a few days/weeks.



It all started at E3 with the announcement of Fallout 76 where news came out that this is going to be an online-only Fallout game. The fanbase got pretty much divided from that point on, many people wanted a multiplayer Fallout but many people also didn't. What comes after will surely only be remembered as the Ballad of Fallout 76...

Shortly after Fallout 76 got announced they stated that it's not going to come for Steam and instead will use Bethesda's own launcher...what later turned out to be a HUGE disaster.
You could say that the downfall of Bethesda (as a dev and publisher) already started a year before by announcing Fallout 4's in-game store AKA "paid mods", but no...this was only the Vanguard of their own demise (destruction?). Instead it would only get worse from 2018 on...

The next thing that happens is EXCLUSIVE B.E.T.A. start times..
I know I know you have marketing deals going on and it is important to value your partners who are providing you alot of free marketing BUT......customers should come ALWAYS first. Your consumers need to be valued above marketing deals, we get that you want to make profit and money with your products (every company in the world does that) but as a customer we want to feel valued by the people who make these products/games for us, we want to feel loved. In the past this was merely a problem with Bethesda, they used to be a company loved/praised by their fans/customers (well, outside of gaf/resetera I guess).

But here is where you failed: You failed to stay true to your fans and now you are paying the receipts, but let's continue on this ride cuz ohh boy, it's gonna get darker...alot.

It wouldn't haven been such a big deal to wait one more week in order to try out the game in BETA since Xbox folks got to play a week earlier, BUT....and this is a big but - what happened on Oct. 30 was a huge fuckup and made me as a fan really damn angry because I got affected by their "launcher bug" and therefor was unable to play the beta on its first beta day.

So I downloaded the game for like 6hrs straight, not bad I know...but some people can download 47gb of data in like half an hour but still, once the beta goes life you expect to just click on "Play" and start...now here is what happened; instead of a "Play" button it said "DOWNLOAD"........wtf? SOMEHOW the game/launcher just deleted itself from my PC and I had to download the whole 47gb AGAIN, knowing that I wouldn't be able to play this game on this day anymore I was really really damn angry...but I was able to forgive Bethesda for it, they later stated that hte next Beta day would be extended, fine I guess.

From this point on the next things that happened didn't directly impact me anymore but more so the community itself and certain people who purchased the 200$ "Power Armour" Collector's Edition.


Launch day happens and people begin to realize that this game is very buggy, some people like me included were able to live with it and accept it as a "usual buggy bethesda launch" even tho it was more than just a usual buggy launch, there were/are some real nasty bugs in this game I tell you - buuut others were not so forgiving and accepting like some of us where. The game got literally de_stroyed on reviews only scoring a flopping 53% on metacritic. Maybe the score got that low because gamers and fans were REALLY angry why this game flopped so hard. I think people didn't want this game to fail...atleast in the beginning, they had high hopes and once their hopes got crushed everyone decided to take this game down.

No it isn't an unplayable mess that is never fun and impossible to play, not it is not the next No Mans Sky or Alien: Colonial Marines like people make it out to be...but the gaming world IS angry and they're letting it all out on Fallout 76/Bethesda.

But from here on now, it only gets worse...for us and for them. A few weeks later the famous #CanvasGate arrises.

By now almost everyone who plays videogames or knows about Fallout 76 knows what you mean when you say CANVAS.
It pretty much became a meme right now.
People reported that their Power Armour editions of the game came with a Nylon Bag instead of the promoted canvas bag. You have to know that nylon is of much lesser value than canvas since one is just cheap plastic and the other one is made out of cloth. Who knows what and how it went wrong there but this was just the icing on the who Fallout 76 debacle...but as we soon would find out, not the cherry on top.

How does it continue you might ask? Did they appologize and offered compensation? Well, let me tell you....

The first response to fans and you have to say fans because I doubt noone else would buy a 200$ limited edition from a game, that Bethesda gave to them was "Sorry, we can't do anything about that°. After news got viral they responded shortly after with "We will provide 500 Atoms (which is the ingame currency of Fallout 76 that you can spend on their store to buy skins or new stuff to build for your camp, which is about 5$) for those who are affected". This was merely an appology but more like an insult to their loyal fans who spent almost 4 times the money for this game, of course people were enraged by that response and therefor this disaster only got more viral.
As someone who followed Betehsda and BGS by a long time already you really begin to question if they are still the same company they used to be back in the Morrowind - Skyrim days...it really hurts to see them become just another shit gaming company.

But back to the story.

You might think that this is it, this cannot be topped anymore, but I'm sorry to tell you but this roller coaster ride is not even close to finish.

December 4th arrives, and with that the first patch with promises of fixing bugs and adding stuff that the community was concerned about....instead the game only got worse.
I did not continue to play this game and taking a break from im after I heard that things only got worse with this patch like bugged carry weight, frequently crashes to desktop, enemy AI still having the unlimited health bug and so on...
I swear to god if next week's patch doesn't even fix half of these things...

Anyways, let's carry on.

Shorty after Bethesda appologizes yet again and announces they will provide a canvas bag for all the people who were affected. However you have to send in a ticket to customer support with your details like personal adress, email adress mbe credit card info and so on. THIS is where it gets unbelievable, the already mentioned "cherry on top".
What happens after is just a disaster on its own. As people filed in their tickets a few of them found out they were suddenly able to access other people's tickets, view them, edit them, lock or delete them. They could even see all their personal information, like the one's adressed above.
Like, how does this shit even happen? How can you let stuff like this happen after all the shit that has happened already? I know it but be TRULY bad luck but this is really really really more than just having bad luck at this point, this CANNOT happen. It literally can't, but you decided to let it happen anyways...

Now they are in the position to be sued by customers and rightfully so. With that fuckup they are in real. legal. trouble and I'm really fearing for my favourite game developer to start fading away...

I want Starfield, I want TES Vl damnit....and yes I want it made by Bethesda and not by anyone else but it might be too late already, I don't know. I feel like this was a HUGE blow to them, one from they might not be able to stand up anymore, but maybe they can...maybe.


In 2019 they have to make up for what they did this year, ´they HAVE TO. There is no other way. For whatever happened, they cannot let Fallout 76 die, they need to fix their shit, support the game and let their customers know that they still value them. That they still love them even after all the rightful hate they got. They need to take the L and show us next year that this is not going to be a continued trend by them.
I don't want them to become just another EA/Ubisoft.

Right now things look grim for Bethesda, and even more for Bethesda Game Studios.
I want them to still make games in the future but in order to have this future YOU. NEED. TO. LISTEN. TO. US.

-A fan

Edit: I'm sorry if I left out any crucial details. I know there is more to the whole story.

 

[LukeSkywater]

ESO is pretty great right now

 

[Starfield]

ESO is pretty great right now

Yes it is and hopefully it stays like that. I've invested over 200hrs in it ^^

 

[Fuz]

I haven't really liked what they did to Elder Scrolls after Daggerfall and to Fallout IP, so... fuck them, nothing of value was lost.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

What is there to fear? I think they are getting their just desserts after more than a decade of neglecting their internal tools/engine and milking whatever they can. Bethesda The Publisher will continue doing just fine since they've published a lot of excellent games this gen. Bethesda The Developer needs to renovate if they want me to buy their games, though.

 

[Fuz]

Yes it is and hopefully it stays like that. I've invested over 200hrs in it ^^

Yeah ESO wasn't too bad.
Stopped months ago because when I stopped paying (I wasn't playing much anymore therefore was no point to have a sub) the lack of the ingredients bag was too much to bear, but mostly there was too much grinding and not enough tools for it... does it still miss a dungeon finder for the raid? Because I'm not fucking sitting in Craglorn doing nothing while spamming the LFG chat anymore, it's not the the early 2000s.

Edit: Just found my "game over" post.

Spoiler

- No LFG tool for trials, skyreach dungeons and DSA - I spent weeks trying to make a group for vDSA without any luck. Every group activity should be on the LFG tool.
- Horrible RNG for everything. RNG for loot, RNG for traits, RNG for quests (Dark Brotherhood targets...), RNG RNG RNG. Took me two months of daily farming to get the monster helm I wanted in the right trait. And let's not talk about the trials armors and weapons.
- difficulty spikes vs reward: vMA is annoyingly hard. Way past beyond the point of being "challenging" and WAY past beyond the point of being fun. That, coupled with the HORRIBLE RNG on loot makes it an absolutely atrocious and frustrating experience.
- Similarly, dungeon availability on random LFG needs to be toned in a way that you won't end up with, for example, a CP 10 in vICP, causing the run to fail and the cooldown on the LFG to force you out of the activity you wanted to do.
- Marginally, I stopped my sub when they released Morrowind as a full price expansion instead as a DLC (which it actually is in all but name) just to *** up subscribers. Bummed me out and was the final straw on my dwindling will to play. Also, inventory management without the craft bag is a nightmare, I can't play without it anymore but sure as hell I'm not gonna sub anymore after Morro. /quote]

Did any of it improve?

 

[chilleverest]

If anything, their recent shenanigans should encourage them to get off their horse and start working hard if they are to retain their fans. Nothing to be scared about.

 

[Plague Doctor]

Modders are the only hope this game has. Any official "updates" and "support" they could do will be shit compared to the magic of the fan mod community. That's the reality of previous games.

I am currently in the "hell no" camp but if modders come in... I become convinceable again at a below $20 price point.

Moving on... they need to fix their shit with the legacy coding asap. Also, Starfield better come as close to a smooth launch as BGS can do. Keep it in the oven to bake 6 months or a year longer if need be from the original projected date.

 

[CaptainSmirnov]

Much like you I love the elder scrolls games and Starfield and ES6 May be my most anticipated games. They did fuck up though and even though I’m not worried about the company itself (I’m sure they will be fine with all that Skyrim money) I’m worried whether those games will even be what we expect them to be

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

I think they will be fine in the long run, especially if Fallout takes a rather long break to sort out the issues and hopefully they will finally upgrade the engine.

 

[SirKicksalot]

How much of 76 is made by Maryland?

 

[Helios]

I feel like they need to go on a Rockstar-type silence for two-three years and just devote all their efforts towards making ES6 good. The bad part is that you'd have to persuade Zenimax into going with it, which I doubt they'll be willing to do.

 

[Ladioss]

A reality check was long overdue (and needed) in Bethesda's case.

 

[manfestival]

Why fear for them? Let them reap what they sow. There probably would've been little complaint had they released a competent and complete online gaming experience. There really is nothing like releasing a game that changes the formula up by being so darn good. Look at god of war. Not a fan of the changes but the game is amazing and I love it still.

 

[Elios83]

OP I think the situation doesn't even deserve so many words.
They fucked up everything around Fallout 76.
The implications are that FINALLY they won't be able to afford to make same mistakes in their next games.
And that is a good thing,

 

[Green Wiggly]

Feels like they've been slipping for a while, but too busy porting Skyrim to everything to care.

 

[FutureMD]

Good, without setbacks and motivation to improve, you usually end up with mediocrity. Their buggy engines and subpar graphics have always been looked over, plus they're using the ancient engine for TES 6, maybe this will force them to put in good effort and create a masterpiece.

 

[Andodalf]

I doubt any of this will effect the main thing at all

 

[flashfire926]

Honestly a huge bomb like this makes it more likely their get off their asses and actually put a valiant effort for next game. So if anything, I'm more confident now than before.

And I say this even as someone that really liked Fallout 4.

 

[VertigoOA]

I’d consider all of this pretty in-line with their reputation honestly.

 

[johntown]

Eh the MMO failure doesn't bother me. I enjoy the single player games and until they start really messing those up I have no concerns.

 

[GamesAreFun]

Most people who buy games don't pay attention to such news, and probably don't even know Fallout and Skyrim are made by the same people. I think they'll be fine, they still have a positive reputation from Skyrim.

 

[Haeleos]

Just wanted to echo that this reality check is long overdue, and I'm hopeful it results in a huge mix-up in the team leads at the studio. I feel like it would be a huge mistake to continue to have Todd Howard and Pete Hines as the face of Bethesda going forward. It would be akin to allowing Peter Molyneux to represent your brand (this isn't their first major fuck up, and their names have become synonymous with the unstable launches surrounding their games...).

 

[Fbh]

Nah I'm glad this happened. Hopefully it served them as a wake up call and the need to regain the lost reputation and trust has a positive effect on their future projects.

Now they can't be sure that people will continue to turn a blind eye to their games being extremely buggy, graphically dated and performing like crap on consoles

 

[Zog]

You fear for those you love, you don't fear for corporations. I was listening to one YouTuber (I don't remember who) and he said that the canvas bag thing isn't anything new for Bethesda. He said that Bethesda promised Burlap maps for those who pre-ordered Oblivion and Skyrim and they didn't honor it. That is the only time I have heard that so it may be completely false but there it is...


If anything, calling out Bethesda on their bullshit is good for them, not bad.

 

[Bryank75]

Skyrim was good, haven't enjoyed any of their other games and never understood the hype around them...

 

[120v]

i think they were just out of their league in the online loot shooter racket, gave it a try and bombed. probably doesn't have any implications on their future games. supposedly it could but starfield and ES6 are years away and not for this gen so i don't think anybody can start reading tea leaves just yet

 

[Vawn]

Is be more worried about future Bethesda games if they kept getting away with releasing broken, janky, messes of games.

Hopefully, they'll improve their engine and become a leader of open-world design in an industry where they have long been passed up (and by huge margin).