Would Todd Howard still care about RPGs?

[Sigourn]

If Bethesda was absolutely free from money, from the need to make money, if someone gave Todd millions of dollars and said "I don't care about this game making a profit, I care only about a proper RPG", do you think Todd would say "Alright, I'm going to make a good RPG for a change"?

Does Todd miss the days of Morrowind? Or is he perfectly happy making popamole garbage? I find it hard to believe that someone whose favorite RPG is an Ultima title would be okay with games like Skyrim and Fallout 4.

Discuss.

 

[Walden]

Does Todd have ever known how to to make them? I love Morrowind, but I still have some doubts about his role being something more than him saying "ohh cool, let's do this, but bigger!" "What about fast travel? No?" and watching wrestling with Pete during work.

 

[Fowyr]

You forgot about his role as coffee-boy in Daggerfall.

The only passable, but even more buggy than original, game that he made was addon Terminator: Skynet.

 

[Sigourn]

Does Todd have ever known how to to make them? I love Morrowind, but I still have some doubts about his role being something more than him saying "ohh cool, let's do this, but bigger!" "What about fast travel? No?" and watching wrestling with Pete during work.

I mean, I'm not a game developer myself and I'll probably never be one or work on a videogame in any way or form. But even I know how easy it would be to improve on Skyrim and many other videogames. I think Todd has to know something if his favorite title is Ultima VII, at the very least, say "these games are shit" followed by "and I don't want to make these games any more", negation is the first step to become something else.

 

[Infinitron]

The truth is that because of how stingy their PR practices are (they do incredibly few interviews, even close to a game's release) we know very little about what motivates Todd and the other developers at Bethesda.

If I had to guess, I would say Todd has embraced his role as a "pure project manager", with strict rules and practices for doing things, and everything the content people at Bethesda do has to slot into that. That kind of assembly line development philosophy would explain their astounding lack of creativity.

I will say that from what little I have seen of him in interviews, he seems like a nice person who understands there are other ways of making games.

 

[Lacrymas]

It sounds like a nightmare to work at Bethesda, who would subject themselves to such a soul-crushing environment?

 

[Walden]

Does Todd have ever known how to to make them? I love Morrowind, but I still have some doubts about his role being something more than him saying "ohh cool, let's do this, but bigger!" "What about fast travel? No?" and watching wrestling with Pete during work.

I mean, I'm not a game developer myself and I'll probably never be one or work on a videogame in any way or form. But even I know how easy it would be to improve on Skyrim and many other videogames. I think Todd has to know something if his favorite title is Ultima VII, at the very least, say "these games are shit" followed by "and I don't want to make these games any more", negation is the first step to become something else.

One could say "look, they sold milions copies anyway, with a shitty engine and terrible ideas", but it's wrong comparing those numbers with Oblivion and F3 ones, because the vg market has grown a lot since 2006. 2016 has been declared the most important year in games industry in terms of earnings, so the ratio is not so positive as in the past.
Imo they are at a point of crisis, in the ancient greek meaning of the term: they have to judge carefully their next moves, because of competitors and market audience.
I'm not a big fan of CDPR, but at least The Witcher 3 is a coherent AAA arpg, despite mmo itemization, scaling and other aspects the 90% of gamers who consider Life is Strange being the game of the galaxy wouldn't consider being negative even if explained to them with some illustrations. Ps4/One is a more profitable market though, and relevant pc one isn't far selective in terms of tastes.
They have some new projects they said, which is good, but I hope they don't rest on their laurels at least with TES. Their late games feel like unpolished modules of some editor in which these amateurs put a lot of effort and time, but then you discover they are a milionaire studio.

 

[Roguey]

Pretty sure Todd legitimately enjoys the games they make as determined by http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...ay-a-rogueys-friendly-e-stalking-post.100518/

 

[undecaf]

If Bethesda was absolutely free from money, from the need to make money, if someone gave Todd millions of dollars and said "I don't care about this game making a profit, I care only about a proper RPG", do you think Todd would say "Alright, I'm going to make a good RPG for a change"?

He'd keep making games he's been making for the past decade. And he'd keep the direction they have going on. Nobody needs to care what Todd cares about before he makes something worth more than a few what-the-fuck's.

 

[Barnabas]

Todds next elder scrolls will blow us out of the water, just watch it's going to be amazing

 

[catfood]

He never did.

 

[Barnabas]

Yeah because he's a fatty

 

[Lacrymas]

It doesn't matter how their offices LOOK, it's about being forced into a creative abyss where you slave over a predetermined max-revenue-generating matrix. I can't imagine a worse place for someone who wants to be "creative", while creating a game is inherently creative.

 

[Roguey]

It doesn't matter how their offices LOOK, it's about being forced into a creative abyss where you slave over a predetermined max-revenue-generating matrix. I can't imagine a worse place for someone who wants to be "creative", while creating a game is inherently creative.

No one who works for a large company cares too much about creativity.

 

[Lacrymas]

If you rationalize it as nothing else than a money-generator, then I suppose they don't, but then you shouldn't be surprised at the awfulness of Oblivion/Skyrim/FO3 and 4 and people shouldn't ask similar questions to the OP. They don't make any sense in that context. Rich people don't care about having money, they care about making them and there is no force in the universe that is going to stop them, giving Todd unlimited amounts of money would do nothing, he would just use them to make the most money anyone has ever made ever. He won't use them to make a good RPG lololol, that's naive to an extreme.

 

[Walden]

Shut down the volume on this video:

and start watching it while listening to this:


Maybe the most controversial figure of the century.

 

[Hobo Elf]

It sounds like a nightmare to work at Bethesda, who would subject themselves to such a soul-crushing environment?

Yeah, man. Making all those games that people love and praise; making shitload of money doing so. Soul crushing, utterly.

 

[Sigourn]

If you rationalize it as nothing else than a money-generator, then I suppose they don't, but then you shouldn't be surprised at the awfulness of Oblivion/Skyrim/FO3 and 4 and people shouldn't ask similar questions to the OP. They don't make any sense in that context. Rich people don't care about having money, they care about making them and there is no force in the universe that is going to stop them, giving Todd unlimited amounts of money would do nothing, he would just use them to make the most money anyone has ever made ever. He won't use them to make a good RPG lololol, that's naive to an extreme.

I'm afraid I have worded the question badly.

When I say money is not a problem, I meant in also in a "making a profit doesn't matter". But since people have issues distancing themselves from that idea, I'll rephrase it: "What kind of RPG would Todd Howard make for himself?"

 

[Hobo Elf]

We don't know enough about him to answer that question.

 

[Sigourn]

We don't know enough about him to answer that question.

We do know that his favorite game is Ultima VII (according to him). So it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that, if he could make any game he wanted without profit being a priority, he would make a more classic RPG as opposed to "Triple A RPG: The Game".

That's basically why I started this thread. I think there's goodness inside Todd.

 

[Infinitron]

Somebody wanted a citation, so here's a Todd interview from 2014 that I thought demonstrated his temperament well:

 

[Lacrymas]

"What kind of RPG would Todd Howard make for himself?"

One that will make him a lot of money. You say that people have trouble distancing themselves from the money issue, I say that you are the one having trouble with that, because you think there is some other motivation behind that, while there isn't. If the ever-charming Todd was interested in making good RPGs he would've poured some of his own resources into a private project, he doesn't need to use the ultra graphics that console peasants demand, so the costs won't be terribly high (people make great games in their basements!), Tyranny is an example of that. I can't find a specific figure, but I don't think Morrowind had the excessive budget of today's AAA titles, so he could make another one today, I don't think people who want a repeat of MW would care too much about the graphics, not to mention mods existing. So, yeah, the answer to your question is: "One that will make him a lot of money".

 

[Sigourn]

One that will make him a lot of money. You say that people have trouble distancing themselves from the money issue, I say that you are the one having trouble with that, because you think there is some other motivation behind that, while there isn't.

It's funny how you contradict yourself in the following statement:

he doesn't need to use the ultra graphics that console peasants demand, so the costs won't be terribly high (people make great games in their basements!), Tyranny is an example of that.

Clearly money isn't everything in the gaming business. Some people want to make videogames they would love to play (Obsidian), others make videogames that will make lots of money, but not ones that they would necessarily hold in high regard (in my opinion, this is Todd's case).

I can't find a specific figure, but I don't think Morrowind had the excessive budget of today's AAA titles, so he could make another one today, I don't think people who want a repeat of MW would care too much about the graphics, not to mention mods existing.

Except he would be clearly losing money here. I doubt many developers out there are into the whole "let's lose money when making a game" (I don't even know of a person who has done this in the past either). Hence why I say "money is not a problem" when I ask the questionc. I'm talking about a game that magically funds itself and profit then doesn't become an issue, because there isn't any budget to begin with. In that scenario: what would be the perfect game for Todd?

 

[Mexi]

Too bad his name isn't Brian Fargo or else the Cuckdex would be all over him.

 

[Infinitron]

Too bad his name isn't Brian Fargo or else the Cuckdex would be all over him.