I think the truth is that Fallout 4, Fallout 3, Oblivion and Skryim came exactly out as how Todd and his closest co-workers envisioned it. I am pretty sure that in such a big team, they also talked about their design decisions. Now, I have no clue how they work in their little teams and company. But when I thinking about the normal guy sitting on his desk doing the menial work, I am sure there are enough that think, what the fuck have I just read/seen? No one who understands even the basics of design, would for example be confident and happy with the menue as we have seen it in Skyrim. From the inventory, to the skill system and pretty much anything else. Form follows function. This is the MOST FUNDAMENTAL princple of any design, unless you're making art. But they completely ignore it. Or so it seems. I ask my self, how comes they make mistakes that not even first grade design students would make? Because they are told to do it like that. The guy who's responsible for the UI is getting told by someone who has no fucking clue in design, to make it shitty. Maybe by someone like Emil or Pete? Or even Todd? Who knows. I know I had such situations when I worked on a website. When ever I came up with, we should do it like this, or it would be easier to navigate, or it's more comfortable for the user if we do it like that, I was meet with, the client wants it that way. Awesome. Todd is I think, not a designer, he is a sales man. And his job most probably, is to make sure that what they make sales. A lot. And he made it a couple of times very clear trough interviews that he wants to make games the same way Michael Bay makes movies.
But what you get when you ignore ALL the designer voices in your team and those that actually know something about their job, can be seen with Fallout 4.
