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Why Bethesda's Writing has Declined

AVV Gaming

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For some time Bethesda Game Studios have seen a decline in their writing. From the days or Morrowind right up to Starfield, the writing quality has continued to decline in quality. In this video I will dissect the reasons why and how it has impacted Bethesda's reputation. I will also discuss Emil Pagliarulo (Bethesda's lead director & lead writer) extensively as I explain his role in the decline. I hope you enjoy the video and as always, please leave feedback and thoughts!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Intro
03:33 - Story of Emil Pagliarulo
04:51 - Bethesda's History & Their Writing
07:27 - The Writing Dilemma Begins
09:58 - Stanfield's Major Writing Issues
13:01 - Lore Helped Bethesda's Writers
13:44 - Why Emil is a Problem for Bethesda
18:09 - Shattered Space DLC Problems
20:48 - Fans Expect Too Much!
22:36 - Summary
24:39 - Outro

Youtube Videos mentioned by AVV Gaming:

Bethesda Admits Defeat: Bethesda Admits Defeat!

Fallout 4 Divides the Fans: Fallout 4 - Why it Divides Fans

Bethesda Lost It's Magic: How Bethesda Lost It's Magic - And how to ...

Shattered Space DLC Shows Bethesda's Deeper Problems: Shattered Space Shows Bethesda's Deeper Is...

How Bethesda have Fallen Behind Competitors: Elder Scrolls 6 - Why we need to Wait

References and articles:

Talks Emil Pagliarulo Speech: Talks from STORY: Emil Pagliarulo, writer ...

Todd Says Dialogue System in FO4 Didn't Work: https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-4-lea...

Emil Says Starfield is the best game Bethesda have made: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/bet...

Emil says Bethesda are great at DLC: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/rpg/...

Starfield Director Defends Shattered Space DLC: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2024/10...

Bruce Nesmith on Expectations: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/sky....

This video is dedicated to Thorfinn (SanteLiberatore)

#gaming #gameplay #gamingvideos #gamingcommunity

20 Comments

@AVVGaming1 Creator 1 year ago Pinned

I have just done another video on Emil and a quote he made. It sort of explains why Starfield came out the way it did, and why the open world model has changed at Bethesda. How Fallout 3's Ending led to Starfield: https://youtu.be/03CjhaldYgo

@j.avance9031 1 year ago (edited)

"We noticed that even the devs in the studio would skip dialogue." And that wasn't a collosal sized red flag that something might be wrong with the writing?

@Elohmn 1 year ago

If the writer doesn't care about their writing, why should I care about it

@essential_worker_no 1 year ago

"You're starting to see a massive disconnect from Emil and fans"

No, we're seeing a massive disconnected between Emil and reality.

@tangyferbreze 1 year ago

imagine having one of the coolest jobs that a creator could have, with an excited, engaged, collaborative fanbase, and just resenting every minute of it

@fearlesswee 1 year ago (edited)

I think the funniest "Emil moment" for me was when on twitter he just randomly decided "Oh yeah, that one soldier in the opening cutscene of Fallout 1 was Nate from Fallout 4!"

It's clear he just decided it'd be a "fun cool lore tidbit" and put ZERO thought into it. And twitter users instantly realized... "Wait, Nate was the guy who laughed at a war crime...? So... canonically Nate is a psychopath?"

And Emil almost immediately realized his mistake, but because of his ego he couldn't just say "Oh yeah, I literally didn't think of that... my bad. Not canon anymore. Sorry." He kept trying to weasel around it like "Weeelll it's your head-canon as to how Nate changed since then..." and blah blah blah. No, Emil, what happened is you are a hack who didn't think for like 5 seconds before you just said "This is canon."

@BananaRepublicann 1 year ago

Bro they spent 30 hours building shacks because the gameplay wasn't there 🤣

@hokogan 1 year ago

“Our Starfield fans go to another school guys, you wouldn’t know them.”

@jopera2087 1 year ago (edited)

Classic Emil projecting him self onto players to justify his inane writing.
His writing is exactly like the shacks, full of holes and shit.

@troubleinbound 1 year ago

He's the kind of guy that would overcook a rotten steak, watch you spit it out, and assume that you just don't like steak

@dimanarinull9122 1 year ago

as an engineer and an indie game dev I can say that this is one of the dumbest application of KISS I've ever heard of.
KISS is used for making game mechanics so it's easier to expand on them, you make a simple base mechanic, and than add complexities onto it to make it more fun.
one of the most amazing applications of KISS in game design is "BABA is YOU", the entire game is based on making the "YOU" collide with "WIN" to make a "YOU WIN", the mechanics are literally just "Item is Rule" making a Rule and "Item is Item" transforming all Items to that Item, with rules overriding or blocking other rules by some priority when they are contradictory(mostly old rules beat new rules).
the idea is really simple and is easy enough to understand that anyone can grasp it - a perfect implementation of KISS.
and then you actually play the game, reach some level and you get absolutely annihilated by how complicated a set of simple rules is to untangle.
same goes with playing Piano, making a single sound is easy, playing a simple melody is still easy, playing a few chords and even chord progression with arpeggios and stuff is not really difficult, playing Rachmaninoff's arrangement of pretty much anything is an absolute travesty.
simplicity that allows for greater complexity down the line - that is KISS.

@deviousskylark5767 1 year ago

If I wrote essays the way Emil writes, I would have failed all of University.

@BOG-LURKER 1 year ago

His reasoning behind dumbing down the dialogue is just insane, it basically boils down to: "Some newcomers to the RPG genre skip every dialogue, so now you all have to suffer because of it." Completely ignoring their fanbase who play their games FOR that dialogue. Bethesda are too busy chasing mass appeal and their games are suffering for it.

@phoeni3902 1 year ago

Emil seems to not only have no respect for the fans of these games, but also seems to have no respect for videogames as an entertainment format, its like he thinks things like novels and films are the only formats that deserve good stories, this guys seems to not even like gaming, he just looks down upon it

He genuinely doesn't deserve to have this job. There's thousands of aspiring people who would be eternally grateful to have his role, and yet he treats a privilege like this as if it's beneath him. It really is just despicable how ungrateful this guy is

@Jonayofsweden 1 year ago (edited)

It's not just story that is badly written, its dialogue. The romance dialogue in Starfield for instance. It's like its written by an 11 year old boy from the 17's century. "Thank you my dearest" "You my love are something special" who the fuck talks like that.

@thomassvevo 1 year ago

Players: "The game's story sucks and doesn't compell me to continue it, so I will build shacks as a preferable alternative."
Emil: "See?? They're ignoring my amazing story and building shacks!! Why do I even bother!!"

@kanaria-cu3uv 1 year ago

Yeah, I'm sure Emil can write "a great american novel", he just chooses not to do it.
Sure Emil, suuuuuuuure.

@ririondabeat1 1 year ago

The speech is so cringe, cause SOOOO many games disprove this statement.

The Witcher series, Red Dead, Balders Gate, etc.

They have amazingly written stories and made A LOT of money.

@noneeris 1 year ago

I hate to be rude, but Emil is one of those rare characters who is nice to have as a verbal punching bag, not only because of the damage he's done to franchises like Fallout, but also because he's absolutely delusional and dumb lmao

@Irishcrossing 1 year ago

"Even if you write the greatest story with love and care, the players won't care and just built shacks." Apperently emil has never heard of morrowind, a game that practically saved bethesda on its early decline, and people still talk about the lore TODAY.