Meme aside Is he a good developer?

I fart into the face of God

>>389530646
No-one makes a comparison FPS RPG.

Everyone rags on Bethesda and their practices but literally no-one else tackles this problem.

>>389530646
I mean he was game director for one of the best rpgs in the industry, so I guess he's done something right.
He's a better businessman that's for sure though

>>389530936
>literally no-one else tackles this problem

There are plenty of people that have tried to compete with Bethesda. The problem is they all fucking suck far, far more than Bethesda ever has.

On some level he's a totally fine game maker, but his games are almost always buggy pieces of shit to play and run always needing some modder to make a patch that makes the game actually fucking playable.

>>389531083
>The problem is they all fucking suck far, far more than Bethesda ever has.
Who are those people?

Yeah but they don't really suck, it's just the problem is really hard and the solution isn't trivial.

>>389530646
His games are always buggy as fuck but for some reason he gets a pass for it unlike other developers

>>389530646

No. He makes shit games, he's just smart enough to know they're shit and makes it easy for other people to fix his fuck ups. That's the only good thing about Bethesda.

>>389530646
>Is he a good developer?
Only if he's supported by someone competent.

De facto Ken Rolston did most of game design in Morrowind and Oblivion. Without him Bethesda completely left tabletop roots in their games, which led to bastardization of their original design philosophy.

File: TheHowardFamily.png (967KB, 681x1024px) Image search: [Google]

967KB, 681x1024px

>>389530646
He had a beautiful family.

>>389530646
Toddposting keeps me happy.

>>389530646
Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim are three of the greatest rpgs ever despite all of their glaring flaws. That says something about Todd.

Memes aside he's barely a human being.

he did a really good job with Morrowind and especially Skyrim. I wasn't a fan of Fallout 3 or Oblivion though, and never tried Fallout 4

The worlds themselves are amazing in the elder scrolls. The problem has been the shitty writing, lack of player choice and the lackluster combat.

File: pBNPGnF.png (512KB, 477x790px) Image search: [Google]

512KB, 477x790px

>>389536785
Unfortunately, the people who made TES lore memorable are not in Bethesda anymore. Todd is a game director, not a writer or designer. He basically sets a vision of a game and directs its course during development.

The reason Bethesda's Fallout games are bad is because Todd doesn't understand Fallout. One of the reasons behind TES downfall is the fact that Todd doesn't understand or cares about those weird gonzo concepts that made TES memorable.

>>389538148
What are you talking about. Only one worthy of notice who have left Bethesda is MK and he did stuff to ESO so it's all good.

>>389530646
The one thing that made his games really good, mods, is probably going to dissapear in a few games

>>389538148
>TES downfall
the fuck are you talking about
Skyrim made TES bigger than ever

>>389538148
you're a retard, did you know that?

>>389538148
>Todd is a game director, not a writer or designer.
He was writer and designer in Redguard and Morrowind.

>>389538236
As much as I like Kirkbride's input, he was not the only one who was writing for Morrowind. Though he is, undoubtedly, one of the largest contributors.
As for the ESO, the current 'lore-master' views TES lore in a more tabletop OSR way. Which is not exactly the way it was in TES prime.

>>389538382
>Skyrim made TES bigger than ever
In commercial sense it did. But in return it streamlined most of the aspects, including lore.

>>389538415
I love you too, anon.

>>389538528
Todd did some minor writing for Morrowind, but designer for Morrowind and Oblivion was Ken Rolston. Don't know much about Redguard.
My point was that Todd generally is responsible for a very high-level stuff like vision, core concepts, etc.

>>389532469
Ken Rolston is a fucking faggot and a cuck that ruined Oblivion.
Same is true for every developer at Bethesda ever though, they all have major drawbacks and but also large proes, like Rolstons experience and knowledge of tabletop stuff.
Similarily to how Kirkbride is a genius for lore/atmosphere/setting but he is an SJW cuck, a cry baby and a drug addict.
During Morrowind the team was perfectly balanced out, if that team would get good technical team of today it would produce some truly amazing games.

>>389538898
>As much as I like Kirkbride's input, he was not the only one who was writing for Morrowind. Though he is, undoubtedly, one of the largest contributors.
Ted Peterson and Kurt Kuhlmann are the only other writers with influence as great on TES lore and while Tedders had his own style that predated MK, Kuhlmann was and is an MK fanboy and at best he tries to mimic him.

>>389532469
Rolston is a cunt.
He almost killed TES by fighting Todd Howard on every decision.
When Oblivion was released he went to the suits to make sure Todd got the blame for what he was sure to be a disaster.

His gambit failed big time.He then went on to kill 38 studios but that is a story for another day.

Fuck Rolston.

>>389539190
Kuhlman is the only person who can translate MK into something usable.
He is also the only one that cares to.

File: TES_vivec.jpg (9KB, 198x200px) Image search: [Google]

9KB, 198x200px

>>389538898
Thing with Kirkbride was that he was a writer put in charge of both design and concept art. All of this really bled into the kind of game Morrowind ended up being for both good and bad.

His games Oblivion and Skyrim, but mainly Oblivion have brought me more that 500 hours of enjoyment so yeah he's ok in my book.

>>389539589
Thing is, he's not wrong. It just so happened that casuals leapt on Oblivion's brand of open world sandbox and didn't care about what was cut out from Morrowind. Kinda the same thing that happened with Morrowind coming from Dagggerfall.

>>389539952
Kingdoms of Amalur was his baby gameplay wise.
KoA was utter shit gameplay wise.

Rolston losing his fight was the best thing to happen to TES.
He truly believed they would be in danger of going bankrupt if they lost the hardcore fans.

In many ways he is the physical embodiment of /v/.
Abrasive personality who thinks his shitty ideas are pure gold.

>>389540510
Was it? KoA was just bland and too large for its own good, but I didn't really have a problem with gameplay itself.

>>389539103
>>389539589
I perfectly understand why someone would hate him, but I think he overall did more good than bad.

The problem with Oblivion was that important decisions were held almost solely by Todd and Ken, when in case of Morrowind, as it was noted, team input was balanced. I would rather blame it on organizational matter instead of solely blaming Rolston.

>>389540510
>He truly believed they would be in danger of going bankrupt if they lost the hardcore fans.
He still viewed TES as Ultima Underworld successor and didn't really dig all that gonzo stuff. That's understandable when noting his OSR background.

>>389540678
Curt Schilling wanted to gather a team of all stars to have on the side of the box.
He gave Rolston complete control.

Rolston fought to keep the MMO on a subscription model "To insure quality" when everybody knew F2P was the best business model.
He was wrong about so many things but he was the expert and Curt listened to him.

He is just selling the same shit over and over. He is just a lucky dev not a good one.

>>389539853
The bad? Honest question.

>>389541730
The good Vivec as portrayed in Morrownd
The bad Vivec as portrayed after Morrowind
The Ugly C0DA

Being left to his own devices without adult supervision shows why he is no longer with Bethesda.

>>389541878
>The bad Vivec as portrayed after Morrowind
Wasn't that all done in some novel about a floating city?

>>389539853
>>389541730
>>389541878
Imagine an alternative universe.
Guys like Julian Lefay never left and they are the heads.
Todd Howard is the lead game designer with less power he has now, Ken Rolston is an assistant game designer.
Ted Peterson and Michael Kirkbride are creative directors, Kuhlmann and Emil are both on writing teams for both quests and lore. Kirkbride is also fulfills the role of the Art director.
Add someone like Avelone to the writing team for richer characterization of individual characters and situations.
If this team would work together properly TES IV would have been God tier.

>>389542703
Vivec is not touched upon by anyone other than MK besides minor stuff.
All of post Morrowind Vivec stuff is OOG contect written by MK.
For good or bad, witch each new release after Morrowind, be it Oblivion or Skyrim or even fucking ESO developers keep inserting and giving nods to MK's OOG lore and texts, especially guys like Kuhlmann.

>Fallout 3
>There‘s a family of 8. Food is hard to come by and they start eating people. What would you do? Remember we‘re now living in a nuclear apocalypse scenario.
>Fallout 4
>New location > shoot some ghouls/raiders/super mutants > loot > repeat

>>389542937
>TES with Avellone
Now that really activates my almonds.

>>389542937
There was a big dispute about what direction the elder scrolls should go in after daggerfall. Did Julian Lefay departure have anything to do with that?

>>389543176
This is exactly what TES lacked when it was at it's creative peak, it needed a writer that would be good at micro scale stuff and characterization.
Combine that with MK's creative flare and depth of metaphysics, scope and political writings of Tedders balanced out by Kuhlmann making sense of it and it would be perfect.

>>389543231
I can not say for certain, isn't Lefay working at Nasa now or something?

>>389543176
Who is Avellone?

>>389543325
I found this from 2010.
http://www.gamesas.com/julian-lefay-t146198.html

>>389543346
Chris Avellone. The guy who did writing for Fallout 2, New Vegas, Planescape: Torment, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Alpha Protocol and many more.

I recently started playing Skyrim for the first time. I think I've had more fun modding it than playing it.

What would New Vegas have been like if it was developed and written by Bethesda and what would Fallout 4 be like if it was written by Obsidian?

>>389543713
>developed and written by Bethesda
Shit

>written by Obsidian
Shit

>>389543713
Depends on what you mean by Bethesda, because current Bethesda basically changed grand majority of it's developers.

>>389543815
What does Obsidian even do this days?

>>389543929
https://www.obsidian.net/

>>389543929
Tyranny DLC, PoE 2, plus some secret projects including game by Tim Cain and Boyarsky.

>>389530646
He's aight, theres far worse, I'm just hoping a bit of the old school of RPGs lives on in him, because I very much doubt there's many others at Beth that care much about that

>>389538148
MK still works with Bethesda, and MK filtered through Kurt is far better than just MK, guess what, Kurt was around a while too

>>389538898
Skyrim was no worse than Oblivion for lore my man, it actually made an effort with it even with its fuck ups too

>>389530936
Brand recognition.
It's like trying to make your own brand of watches to compete with Rolex ones, no matter how well made or expensive you make yours are everyone will say "Its not as good as Rolex" even if Rolex watches were absolute shit compared to yours because Rolex is more well known.
Bethesda knows this which is why they can continue their shitty practices. They don't need to put in effort because they either can't, or don't have to.
Probably both since people buy their games regardless.

>>389544334
The important points in the setting and lore of Skyrim are all from MK.

>>389542937
Rolston would never accept being under Todd.
Lefay I have no opinion on
Peterson would be good to have back
MK would be ok in a supporting role not in a leadership position.
Kuhlman has lost a few miles off his fastball (Nuka World was his project) but is still valuable and could act as MKs handler.
Emil is better suited for for side /faction questlines than big picture stuff.
Avellone is a human stretch goal at this point and better off hopping from project to project.

As you laid it out /v/ would love it but the series would die.

>>389544515
And?
Wasn't KoTN? What difference does it make to the games quality of lore?

>>389544334
In bigger picture it might be, but I found execution to be pretty underwhelming.

Also, as much as people love to bash Oblivion for being generic, I'm ready to forgive all of that only because of Shivering Isles.

>>389530646
I wonder what Todd is like when he's angry.

>>389544515
MKs contribution was to slap a coat of Hindu Mysticism over existing lore.
He isn't even bothering to change the nomenclature at this point.
Kalpa is a straight rip and he should at least have made an attempt to make it seem his own.

>>389544835
Todd has never gotten angry.
He was mildly aggravated once.

>>389544696
Don't get me wrong I think skyrim is shitty, just that I don't think any TES game hasn't been full of retcons, changes and slip ups, and for the series modern lore that neither Oblivion nor Skyrim are particularly worse than one another

>>389538898
>Including the lore
It's still there, I'd say it's not streamlined so much as it's put even further on the backburner, but nuggets still come though.

Dragonborn specifically has some good shit.

>>389538236
There were others as well, also he did more than just ESO shit, Mankar Cammoran's dialouge and the Commentaries in oblivion were all him, the white gold concordat, and even the AD as well I think were his ideas as well, plus I think he had some shit in Dragonborn surface. He's still a presence in the games just not in the credits and in the background now.

>>389531083
Deus Ex?

>>389544937
Hmmm?

>>389545265
I do this for you my red legions, for I love you

>>389545304
Don't you turn this Scandinavian Lutefisk enthusiasts board into a house of lies anon.
Todd is a gentleman of the highest order.

>>389545574
Humph!

>>389543001
C0DAfags are like the old joke
A man says
"If you don't get your pretty little ass in the kitchen and make me a sandwich I will punch you in the mouth and get a bitch who will"
A woman hears
"He thinks I am pretty"

They do not care about HOW they get validation they care THAT they get validation.

The bouquet of roses are delivered with a right cross more often than not in regards to C0DA.
C0DAfags are ok with this.

>>389538148
How to be wrong: the post

>>389546473
Elaborate.

File: 1475233089208.jpg (879KB, 1068x1422px) Image search: [Google]

879KB, 1068x1422px

>>389530646
Yes

File: fallout timeline.png (39KB, 909x583px) Image search: [Google]

39KB, 909x583px

>>389530646
At first I was like...

File: T-60.png (2MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1920x1080px

>>389530646
...but now I'm like

>>389547314
Why did they even bother adding in the T-60? It just looks like bulkier T-45 to me.

File: Institute_weapons_concept_art.png (3MB, 1536x2044px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1536x2044px

:^)

>>389547428
It would have been better if the T-60 was a post-war armor engineered by the BoS after their war with the Enclave.

File: NUKA COLA.png (1001KB, 940x1070px) Image search: [Google]

1001KB, 940x1070px

>>389530646
He makes it just work

File: Fallout 4 roleplaying.png (19KB, 926x172px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 926x172px

>>389530646
He puts the "play" in "roleplay"

>>389547497
>>389547136
>everything that would have taken a bit more effort gets scrapped

File: Screenshot_20170224-064042.png (1MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1920x1080px

>>389535043
Todd's kids look like the type that would go to minecon

>>389547576
Wasn't that scene during the China war?

File: 5345234.jpg (23KB, 640x416px) Image search: [Google]

23KB, 640x416px

>>389530646
i think he is but hes a massive pushover, during morrowind the focus was more on making an actual good game and a good rpg but then it all became about money and the suits had todd by the balls with casualization

File: pipboy.png (44KB, 900x170px) Image search: [Google]

44KB, 900x170px

>>389530646
IT JUST KEEPS ON WORKING

File: toddroachmods.jpg (96KB, 550x641px) Image search: [Google]

96KB, 550x641px

>>389530646
>Meme aside
no
>Is he a good developer?
no

File: what do ghouls eat.jpg (1MB, 1280x3600px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1280x3600px

>>389530646
TELL ME SWEET LITTLE LIES

>>389547984
>Todd has a near-invisible psychic ghost under his command
Explains a lot, actually.

File: ATOM BOMB BABY.png (254KB, 1038x1325px) Image search: [Google]

254KB, 1038x1325px

>>389530646
Don't get me wrong, he loves his fans

>>389530646
>be me
>have over 1500h registered in games he directed

well, he is at least competent

>>389547136
>>389547497
How does Bethesda get away with being the laziest developers in the industry every time?

>>389535043
ywn buy their game

>>389543713
Bethesda's New Vegas
>Badabing badaboom I got a nuke just for you
>Liberty Prime shows up for some reason

Obsidian's Fallout 4
>actually fucking something

File: 1445768094872.jpg (495KB, 1062x1062px) Image search: [Google]

495KB, 1062x1062px

>>389547984
Anon, stop spreading lies. You don't have to pay for the mods. You obtain them by using the creation tokens, starting at $7.99 for 500 credits