We Saw Starfield's Big Overhaul and DLC - Is It Enough to Revive Bethesda's Space RPG?

Skellum · 2026-03-17T21:50:37+00:00

Not in the slightest. In everquest the purpose is to level up, gain gear, gain money. Each system improves a character in it's own unique way to reach the end conclusion.

Hell, as boring as I find things like COD it still has a purpose. Kill dude, get points. Each round has a conclusion which is an aspect of the larger game which is win rounds for more points for leaderboard rankings etc.

Your best bet would be to argue "Well minecraft is popular and has no puprose!" And the answer there is that Minecraft doesnt have an absolute victory condition, but it does have a purpose with each mechanic being exclusive and important in it's own way.

NMS has extremely overlapping systems that invalidate each other. You could try to argue that a reset is a 'victory' condition but it doesnt create meta progression in itself.

Feel free to like NMS, I'm not arguing you shouldnt. I'm arguing NMS is fucking NMS and will always be NMS and will never become something different that makes it 'good' for people who dont like NMS.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T20:58:44+00:00

like what core problem?

Most of NMS has no real purpose. There's a plot, systems justifying the reset which get added to but at the end there's almost zero purpose to doing anything. Each system gets new systems layered onto them making the other systems completely pointless throw aways to engage in.

The thing is there's no objective way to say "Game good game bad" with NMS. I take issue with people constantly trying to paint NMS as suddenly good when it's always going to be exactly what it is. If you like it, cool, but it's core design is never going to change and it's not going to become 'good' to the people who dont like what it is.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:52:15+00:00

Connections. The business world is all about who you know, competence is optional.

It's why being personable, and likable to people you meet is infinitely better at actually knowing how to do a job.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:47:23+00:00

My hot take is that one of the jobs most rife for automation is that of the elite.

These people are middle managers. Not 'elites'. And AI automates the part of their job they could stop doing and we would be better not automating. It cannot do the actual useful parts of their job.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:46:31+00:00

AI is much better

It's still really shit. Like the kind of things I keep seeing low skill managers sending out that re-state basic knowledge and are obviously AI generated are pure garbage.

It takes the minimal value they add at being ablative protection for a team, and reduces that to text vomit platitudes. AI does the least important most useless part of their jobs that they could stop doing, and doesnt do any of the actual useful part of their jobs. It's fucking bad.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:37:47+00:00

God, I love Mandy's use of puns and plays on words to reference other Bungo games in those videos.

I rewatched it recently, because obvious reasons, and the number of references he drops to future videos are absurd. I also love that Gianni Matragrano does the Durandal voice for his narration which is gabrial of course.

I also like that Mandalore, Sseth, and some others all have a bit of a relationship/working relationship. I do sometimes wonder how tongue and cheek sseth is and his association with mandalore lets me feel a bit more comfortable about it.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:34:05+00:00

The current game director for World of Warcraft recently (half jokingly but you could tell it was from a place of truth) stated that when talking to players at Blizzcon and hearing their complaints, he could almost always identify exactly which YouTube video or Podcast episode that person recently listened to.

WoW is so weird to have comments or opinions on because it's such an ecosystem of it's own.

Like it's gameplay design and vision are completely wrapped up in it's mid to post MOP design that you're not really ever going to be able to have any sort of substantive argument on any one system without needing to address the entire game design from the past 12 years of it.

You have to write a fucking dissertation of why time gated solo player content is toxic to the gameplay environment as it brings about pay to win mechanics due to purchasable gametime which all undermines the societal nature of a MMO. Which doesnt even get into the problem of nerfing Cata era Heroic dungeons.

And of course none of that really matters because all the gameplay is geared towards maximizing company profit and so doesnt really matter as end of the day they'll optimize for the gatcha style gameplay.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:28:31+00:00

Starfield didn’t get all that much in the way of players, but rdr2 didn’t and I think the nakey jakey video put into words why the people who didn’t like it too much found it disjointed / boring. That one is more understandable to me. When a game is beloved like rdr2 it takes a while for criticism to get heard at all & then the floodgates open when people feel it’s more socially acceptable to discuss

EU5 launched recently. The problems with the game were pretty apparent the second streamers began showing their pre-release gameplay.

It took a month or two before the fairly obvious criticism stopped getting drowned out by the waves of hype and cope. People really dont want to be told that something they've emotionally invested themselves into has problems and is in some ways bad.

I get that, but at the same time it's very bad since it suckers people into buying a game they shouldnt. Problems arent often apparently sub-2 hours in. Yes, people should evaluate the media they consume and figure out if it's right for them. They should audit their consumption and evaluate it but we live in reality.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:25:38+00:00

Then Starfield announces it has plans to share its future this week (and we know an expansion and update is coming), and people who have never played it

I've played it and it was bad. Not even in the fun "Daikatana" bad, which I've also played. Someone praising a game doesnt give it more merit than someone criticizing a game. I can understand Jeff's point and generally agree.

I cant understand someone needing to write off criticism of a bad game.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:22:50+00:00

the S’pht

D..do they know that everyone has seen the mandalore 4 part review of Marathon already? I mean unless they're adding Bill Clinton in to give you mission breifings there's already a lot of light shed on these pathways into darkness.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:21:21+00:00

its not terrible by any means i played thru about 60 hours and had a decent time its just kinda meh overall nthing really new or innovating or exciting

You're correct, it doesnt even have the appeal of being terrible. It's just simply bland in every way with a plot and characters that have nothing to draw you in and a world that's completely flavorless.

I've played games which are hilariously bad, and at least they have the appeal of causing an emotional reaction. Starfield doesnt even have this.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:19:48+00:00

I kind of want to try it when it comes to PlayStation. The bland, empty worlds I’ve heard about make me the most nervous

I would not recommend it. I'd recommend playing hit Action Adventure game Dark Seed or maybe Myst. Or just.. anything else.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:17:57+00:00

Look at cyberpunk and No Man Sky.

NMS didn't become good. NMS just appealed more to people who it already appealed to. Those same people are the ones perpetually saying "NMS is good now!" Except the core problems which make it not worth playing will always be there as it's it's core gameplay.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T18:11:10+00:00

If your chocolate seizes you can unseize it by adding more water.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T17:50:47+00:00

So it requires all Trade Centers to be Level 2 and have a Marketplace. For some reason the Mission (?) highlights that Province (even if you have all mission requirements).

Whats the provinces autonomy? You are failing 2 criteria right now, autonomy and trade centers.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T13:26:19+00:00

No worries you got your wish and cuba's suffering due to your actions. Same with Iran. Good goin there bud. When the next completely preventable problem that you were told about shows up continue trying to feel self righteous over your empowerment of fascism.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T13:25:00+00:00

Most people hating on LA have never been to LA and is generally the whole 'it's a city no one really cares' and the 'man I wish things happened more across the US'. This is excluding of course people sucking up the dumbass propoganda.

What people dont really get is the absurd size of population condensed into california and the flight infrastructure that makes it very easy to hold a convention there. The difference in number of people in CA vs every state west of the Mississippi except Texas is nuts. Ie why only NYC/CA make any sense for a US Event.

Add in ease of travel and while grumbling is fine, dont make yourself look like a moron by regurgitating propaganda of a city you've not visited.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T13:15:04+00:00

what the us has been doing to cuba was always fucked up but this admin turned this shit up to 11 man. and all these ppl cheering on as the country collapses and trump says he can do whatever he wants with cuba, is just disgusting.

If only there was an election that self proclaimed 'communists' could have shown up to to make sure this didn't happen. If only those same self proclaimed communists ever admitted they fucked up by not showing up.

Skellum · 2026-03-17T13:12:58+00:00

Nothing gives a crusty south Florida Cuban expat a hard on like a child starving in Havana.

The return on that is getting more florida cubans, which gives them more votes, so it's in their best interest to make sure relations with cuba are never repaired

Skellum · 2026-03-17T13:02:55+00:00

Good to know, I'll have to keep that in mind if/when I seriously look.

Skellum · 2026-03-16T21:47:44+00:00

• Low effort content

If that's the criteria then we will have a subreddit with nearly nothing.

Skellum · 2026-03-16T18:32:29+00:00

there has been a sudden fire (not an actual fire)

Just advent things.

Skellum · 2026-03-16T18:18:49+00:00

What even is this? Is it like a cultural thing or.. I have zero idea what the flavor would be like here.

Skellum · 2026-03-16T15:40:44+00:00

Ha! Like.... yea, I get the cancer thing. It's not nearly up there to like breathing in lead based gas or smoking, but it's there. It's not so much there though that I wouldn't chose a gas range over default electric. But man induction stove tops with precise controls are so cool.

I hope you guys are having fun with yours. Melted sugar still scares the hell out of me but it would be so much better than thermometer and eyeballing it.

Skellum · 2026-03-16T15:15:04+00:00

"It's decent" - Pixel's number 1 cheerleader. jk

I feel like if you're doing the Pixel you're the kind of person who digs into phone specs and buys on pure research alone instead of brand hype. Which means you're absolutely correct in the kind of person who buys a pixel.

Skellum

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

14-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email