Bethesda announced that players could download a new series of missions for a group known as the Track Alliance. The problem is that The Vulture is the second mission in the Tracker Alliance, and it costs $7 to buy. But it’ll actually cost players $10 because they must purchase 1,000 Starfield creation credits to afford it.
So they put the first mission out for free, but it turns out the first mission was a fucking advertisement. I remember being super pissed when Dragon Age pulled this shit.
And of course they pull the classic cost-obfuscation trick because it would just be far too convenient to just be able to buy a DLC for actual money and then download it.
I’m glad I’m not the only one to remember that Dragon Age: Origins quest.
Its the specific and singular reason why I never bought any of the DLC, or any of the sequels.
Has Bethesda actually released a decent game since Daggerfall?
I tried a bunch of Bethesda games in the past and didn’t like any of them. I known I’m in the minority when I say that.
Ok boomer let’s get you to bed
And in my day we couldn’t just send boomers to bed with a hand wave, we had to sit through the Clintons’ saxophone show first and then we…
You mean the game that shipped with a bug breaking the main questline?
Yup, that’s the one.
Terminator: Future Shock was also a janky mess. They’ve always released broken games and have someone survived this long.
TES III - V were all amazing. Can’t wait for TES VI to come out in 2035.
You’re wrong, but I’m glad you have had fun and I hope that TESVI isn’t a micro transaction fuelled pile of tripe.
Their games are certainly getting dumber/simpler, I’ll give you that. Hope one of their future games will eventually live up to your standards again.
It began with horse armour…
Seven dollars to loading screen to your ship, watch an animation of your character sitting down, loading screen to space, loading screen to the system it’s in, Dodge some pirates, loading screen to the surface, hop along the completely barren landscape to go to a copy pasted outpost, loading screen back to your ship?
I feel like you could get all of the value of that dlc by just playing a mission over again.
This…this right here is the reason I quit playing this game, the reason I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was just too fucking disjointed, you are so right.
I didn’t make it very far in to the game, I’d held on to my game pass subscription just waiting for it to come out, and cancelled my game pass after a few hours in Starfield. I made it to like the first big city a few small settlements after that, and everything felt so fucking lifeless. NPCs just didn’t seem to belong in the space they inhabited. Oblivion and Skyrim NPCs really seemed like they owned the space they inhabited. Fallout 4 even once you got your settlements going really felt like they were home. The constant loading screens just made everything feel like it’s own little universe, apart from the rest of the game. I did have fun raiding some base around the moon, one of the few times I had fun exploring. One of the few times I had fun, honestly.
The most fun I had in Starfield was probably a zero-G fight at one point, can’t remember if it was the main storyline or not. But I got as far as the final main quest line fight, after which New Game+ would become available. I realized before going into it that…I just didn’t care. And I am not one to experience the sunken cost fallacy. So I just logged out, canceled Xbox PC Game Pass, and did something else.
The company that introduced horse armor is charging horrendous prices for small DLC?
I mean considering that single skins cost 20 in Overwatch or Dead by Daylight, 7 for an actual mission is almost generous.
Fuck gaming is fucked…
It’s fucked because there are people buying that shit, in numbers that turn a profit over the cost of developing it. And it’s a very low cost because the skin support is something they put in when they make the game, and then get an intern to shit out a gaudy skin.
If you don’t like it you’re obviously not the target demographic anymore. It’s mobile gaming tactics creeping their way on PC.
Eh, skill up had a great take on this. The thing is it’s wayyyyy easier to be a small indie developer than it ever was before. Making a game (or any art) still isn’t easy, it never was and never will be, but it’s viable without a giant publisher in a way it just hasn’t been before.
Its the AA titles that are on the most precarious footing, but I bet even those do ok. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy some AAA stuff time to time, I’ve got a stupid amount of hours in overwatch, but I’ve never once paid for a skin because… why would you?
The thing that’s going to suck is losing the studios like Arkane. Their games weren’t perfect but they were freaking cool, and they basically always got the raw end of the deal. Even Prey(2016), their masterpiece, is the product of corporate bullshitiery they had nothing to do with. So we’re probably going to miss studios like that for a while (as they get re-tasked to fortnite/cod support teams) but “indie” stuff has already been stepping up to fill that void, and is less indie all the time.
Look at Dave the Diver. That’s not exactly an indie studio. They had resources. There’s going to be a gap for a bit, but there’s still a demand for good games and art. Those AA breakthroughs are what people want. Again, I continue to spend dumb amounts of time on overwatch, but it’s not where I spend my money. Microsoft hovelled themselves by buying all these studios and not taking the leap with supporting them. Distribution just doesn’t have the value it once did. So if microsoft wants to become CandyCrush, feeding an addiction loop to grab the whales, sure, whatever, but there’s plenty of bread out there for studios doing other stuff.
The one and only point that I disagree with you on is your take on mtx. They may not affect you, but everything about them is designed to be psychologically exploitative, and the wealthy whale is largely a myth. The vast majority of money from mtx is made from people with addiction issues and other mental health issues or atypical neurology, like people with depression or ADHD.
Microsoft bought up all those studios and didn’t support them, but that’s business as usual for Microsoft, and the money that they’ll make from mtx like this will more than make up for it. I recently watched a former Blizzard dev who was talking about how a single $15 mount for WoW made more money than StarCraft 2 did.
The big issue I see is that most people largely don’t know about anything beyond the big AAA releases, and as we’ve already established, that’s an exploitative wasteland nowadays. There’s plenty of demand for good games and there always will be, but while the indie scene is the best that’s it’s ever been, the majority of indie companies go under after their first game. It’s still hard out there for them, too. There’s just enough of them popping up and putting out truly great games that they can actually compete with the AAA space.
oh yeah, I didn’t want to be dismissive of the mtx stuff. It’s absolutely predatory and awful, but I don’t think it fully stands in the way of developing good games.
Which is related to what you’re saying about indies going under even after success. Game development takes time, and you need money to underwrite that time. I just think there’s going to be a split; right now AAA studios are shitifying their games, turning them more into CandyCrush skinner boxes. But the demand for good games hasn’t gone away, there’s just less financial upside than making CandyCrush. My point is, even though it’s less money, there’s still a good amount of money to be had there. Eventually the gaps going to be filled. Microsoft cant fill it because on the balance sheet, things like COD and anything from King are where they should be focused. And it sucks right now because they sucked up a stupid amount of talent and thanos snapped them, but thats not a sustainable practice.
But yes, it’s going to be painful. It’ll suck seeing really nifty indie stuff have to struggle so hard. Like I said I’m also going to miss the polish that comes with AA stuff. I’m going to miss the hell out of Arkane. Their games weren’t perfect, but they had so much soul. They didn’t deserve to have Redfall be their epitaph.
It was Thor from pirate software on Twitch talking about the mtx beating SC2 for folks who care great guy to watch if you want to chill and hear some good life advise.
I kind of feel like anyone who spends $20 on a video game skin shouldn’t be allowed to make any financial decisions for themselves. Like, it was a test and you failed.
Except that shit is designed by literal psychologists to prey upon people with poor fiscal responsibility, like people with ADHD, depression, addiction issues, and kids.
It’s like blaming people for smoking cigarettes after they got addicted from secondhand smoking.
Also remember they were purchased by Microsoft. Who in turn also just purchased Activision/blizzard
Also remember Horse Armor DLC for Oblivion, released by Bethesda? Considered by many to be the catalyst of this kind of BS.
Horse armor that didnt even give the horses armor. It just gave them a cosmetic appearance change and increased their health by like 3 times.
Company that scammed players scams players, more at 7.
There’s people playing Strarfield to get upset in the first place?
They’re selling a single quest as dlc? I mean if you going to do dlc then at least make a full expansion.
This is not a new thing, even back in 2012 the much-beloved borderlands 2 got five new missions which cost $2 each.
The thing with those is that, while it was a small amount of content, it wasn’t just a mission, each was about an hour of repeatable content that was fairly fun to farm. At $2, they actually still felt worth it with as much fun as B2 was. If they had asked for like $10 each, people would have flipped out.
I’m not a Starfield player, but I would bet this is not even close to as good of a value proposition.
Why waste time with lots of quest when few quest do trick
Right?
Bethesda just released an expansion for fallout 76. It’s a game that I’m fairly fond of, considering the amount of dislike I have for fallout 4, it improved on it in every way from the worldbuilding to building to the story, I could go on, point is, I like it.
The new expansion, the first map expansion and like 20 major updates in.
The new map is quite a large region. You’d expect a few side quests to unlock these other locations. Maybe some hidden gems. Maybe some cool NPCs outside of the main “expansion” right?
Its literally: A main quest that’s short (beat it in like 3 hours on the first day it dropped)
A single side quest that’s more of an optional objective on the main quest
A single new event
A single new boss.
Four things they added. Two of which can only be done once (bad formula for a game designed around repeating similar tasks)
They’ve just straight up gotten bad. There’s no love in their products anymore. It’s all taking the easiest way out, lacking any amount of real creativity.
I just want them to migrate from their shitty proprietary engine, buckle down on a good story and prioritizing fun.
I will always see Chloe Grace Moretz on the cover of Starfield.
Is repetitive buying of Bethesda games a new kind of litmus test for stupidity? I mean they do this shit constantly and people are still surprised when it happens. Did people really forget horse armor they tried to sell? Or forget about items that were free in Fallout 4, but had to be purchased in 76? It’s Bethesda and only one thing Todd dreams about is scamming another dollar from their fans.
I just buy Bethesda games years after release and have a blast playing them.
Used to be that they’d sell you both worthless DLC and actually good DLC.
Knights of the Nine?* Awesome. Horse Armor? Worthless.
Similarly, Skyrim had Dawnguard and Dragonborn which were great. It also had Hearthfire which was kinda meh, but at least it had stuff to do and was cheap, so I’m not too mad about it.
*There was also Shivering Isles, but at the time that was marketed as an expansion pack, not merely a DLC.
Pretty sure shivering isles was Morrowind and horse armor/ nights I’m the nine was oblivion. Those would have come out years apart.
Thats not accurate at all. Shivering isles is oblivion and one of the best parts of the game.
Is it good though
I swear gamers have the memory of a gnat. How many times has Bethesda pulled shit like this and people continue to support them? no one remembers the Horse armor all the way back in Oblivion? no one remembers the Skyrim paid mods in 2015? hell can’t even remember the SKYRIM PAID MODS IN DEC OF 2023!
This isn’t an outrage and no one should be upset AT Bethesda over this, but disappointed and upset with yourselves for yet again falling for their constant desire to nickel and dime their playerbase.
I swear gamers have the memory of a gnat
It’s more a “sucker born every minute” thing.
Well most modern gamers are probably like 14 years old and probably never even played Skyrim. So I’m not surprised young kids are buying this creation kit garbage with Mommy’s credit card.
You have to understand.
The overwhelming bulk of gamers just don’t care
Nothing will stand in the way of getting their current precious. Not even their own complaints and bitching.
They’ll sit there and complain about how a company is evil, its practices exploitative, and how everyone should avoid buying from them so they can die in the fires of Bankruptcy.
Then the second the next game/expansion/DLC/Whatever is announced, they are immediately in line to preorder the ultra deluxe mega fuck you 500 dollar package. because it comes with a unique mount and a special armor skin, and they just cant miss those things! they’re rare! and they’ll never be able to get them otherwise! /s
And then they’ll go into the obfuscated-cash-shop and spend another 700 dollars on digital bullshit.
Then, when they are all done, the overwhelming majority of them will come back to the internet, and cry and whinge and moan about how a company is evil, its practices exploitative, and how everyone should avoid buying from them so they can finally die in the fires of bankruptcy.
Cause the majority of gamers are brain damaged fucktards who, at the end of the day, just love throwing their wallet at things.
I mean this is kind of true of all people everywhere. The marshmallow test has flaws but I think it’s still revealing. A lot of people are really bad at self control and delayed gratification.
This is what happens everywhere: they’ll just keep chancing it until such a time as it’s acceptable.
Don’t know. Don’t play a whole lot of Bethesda games. Didn’t play Oblivion. New gamers join the ranks every day. Not everyone has been gaming since the 80’s.
Bethesda has chosen to make their shit exclusive to a console that is outsold by its completion 2:1.
They’re not exactly the bastions of good ideas.
What do you mean by this? I’ve played starfield on pc, is it exclusive to pc?
Can you play it on a PS5? The console that I mentioned that is outselling the Xbox 2 to 1? And both FO and Elder Scrolls will be exclusive. Again, they’re not making good decisions over there.
I didn’t mention PC. What I’m talking about isn’t about PC. It’s about consoles and their decision to side with Microsoft and lose money.
Well, it’s not siding with Microsoft, it is Microsoft. This is a Microsoft game.
Was it a hostile takeover?
No, Microsoft simply bought them.
So like I said… they knew what was going to happen. And allowed it. So… big brain ideas happening over there.
Microsoft owns Bethesda, so they probably didn’t have a choice
They knew beforehand- and did it anyway:
The article clearly states Microsoft chose to keep it off Playstation, not Bethesda.
And it’s well know that Microsoft knew they were going to do that before Bethesda sold off to Microsoft. So again, they’re not making good decisions.
Starfield could have been a way better game if all they did was fuck it up like 45% less. They could have alternatively just delivered on their promises of making the game easy to mod and let the community handle the rest but they fucked that up too. Only the most dedicated of Starfield fan would have the patience to sit down and do all the shit it takes to add a new quest for example. Iirc even Skyrim came with a mod editor with ui that was easy to understand. Right now all we have is a community xedit project that’s somehow even harder to run on Linux than Starfield is.
Starfield’s big problem is it’s a huge universe built on an engine that really can’t support massive worlds like that. The reason you can’t fly around on the surface of a planet is because their crappy engine can’t cope with that much space existing, and it can’t load more environment when you get to the edges like every other game does because their engine doesn’t support proper level streaming.
If you mod the game to force the issue it gets glitchy very very quickly.
Skyrim came with a built-in mod editor?
Are you perhaps thinking of the manager they added on Xbox?
They always release their “Creation Kit” which is apparently also what the Bethesda employees use to build the quests and NPCs in their games:
- https://store.steampowered.com/app/1946180/Skyrim_Special_Edition_Creation_Kit/
- https://store.steampowered.com/app/1946160/Fallout_4_Creation_Kit/
- https://store.steampowered.com/app/2722710/Starfield_Creation_Kit/
.
The Starfield Creation Kit was only released a week ago (but I think to remember that there was a big delay in its release for Skyrim and Fallout, too - haven’t done any modding since the Skyrim days).
That sounds like a lot of work. And what for? The game sold well, the next one will as well. Why people buy it? I have no idea.
Players could like stop paying for it… such an easy, low cost solution…
You get baited into accepting the quest and playing the first mission. Then you have to pay to continue.
I wouldn’t even play it if they paid me $7,-
WTF! That shit shouldn’t be legal.
or worst case wait for the legendary version in a couple years with bug fixes and all dlc included.
I got starfield for free with my video card, and I still feel ripped off and wish I could refund lol.
But yeah, I’m not dropping a single goddamn penny on Starfield. It feels like a game that was made for the xbox 360 or something, with all the loading screens and shit.
That’s my route. Mods run on pirate skyrim just as well as legal and the best missions in Bethesda games aren’t made by Bethesda.
Yeah a lot of these entertainment companies forget that they need to earn my business with high quality product AND services, otherwise I will take matters into my own hands.
This aint like housing and work, where they can just fuck you as if they are your prison guards. We got options baby!
That is my current solution. Currently enjoying Factorio, which had the perfect monetization scheme: you buy the game and enjoy it.
Not to mention, it is entirely possible to get home from work, play, and then realize you are now late for work.
Its just engaging on a level that most modern game’s can’t hope to achieve.
Hell, I’ve installed a game (old), then installed mods, then resolved all the mod issues, then launch it to realize I don’t actually want to play it.
Factorio? Mods are easy, and vanilla is enough to keep someone occupied and happy if they lack internet or something.
Its light weight too, it costs me virtually nothing to install it on anything that can run it.
Factorio also interestingly, never goes on sale, Wube said that the value of the game is what it is and that’s that.
This only works because it’s like $30. If this was a $60-70 game, I don’t think it goes over well with the public. Nintendo is the only one that seems to get away with that
I think that’s exactly the point though. “We didn’t mark it up to mark it down, the price is just the price”. As a chronic patient gamer part of me hates that (I love finding older classics for like $10) but I don’t mind shelling out for a good game. The biggest expense is my time, and if a bunch of years later the price hasn’t moved it’s probably worth my time.
$35, actually.
