No Mutants Allowed

So, you have to go way back with BGS games where they generated a cult following during a rather arduous era of really bad multiplayer modes being tacked on to otherwise great franchises (see Dead Space). Couple that with years of microtransactions (which BGS ironically started - lots of people forget this) and you have a community with lots of good will towards Bethesda.

I mean, I have been watching videos of games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Spiderman, and Fallout 4 and 76 look so fucking disgusting in comparisson. I mostly stick to stylized games so I chalked ir up to aesthetics but no, their games truly look like ass.

Because Bethesda games fulfill the "need" for players to be super powerful beings that everyone worship. They are easy to get into, they are full of eye candy, they have action, they have ambience, they have simple writing easy to follow for people who don't like to read.

They are good at making fast food AAA games. Where people play once and get full. But the games can also last for 100's of hours in the same playthrough, because it is so full of distractions.

In sum, they are aimed at the masses, and the masses love it.

Then we have mods. Mods really change the game, and can make it fit the taste of a vast and varied audience.

"easy to understand writing" nah even ignoring stuff like lore fallout 3&4 are some of most complexly bad stories since the star wars prequels. and im not exaggerating.