How did Fallout become what it is today?

[Nirv]

I can't 100% prove this, but I find that Todd Howard gets way more of the blame for the current state of Fallout than he deserves.

My friend found this old interview with Todd Howard recently:

Redguard came out on October 31st, 1998. Fallout was acquired by Bethesda in 2004. This show that Todd Howard has been a fan of the original Fallout titles since long before Bethesda's acquisition. Perhaps his own love of the franchise contributed to their decision to acquire it.

Judging by how he spoke about how he'd always think about Ultima VII, it isn't a stretch to belief that Howard could have been envisioning his own idea for Fallout 3 before the acquisition too. Maybe he even used to browse No Mutants Allowed.

Howard was the lead designer and project director of Morrowind, a game that is widely viewed as being a fairly well-done and competent RPG. It's proof that he is definitely capable of creating a good RPG.

So what caused Fallout to become what it is today? Did Howard stop caring about Fallout? Is it the fault of the higher-ups in Zenimax? The fault of other high-raking Bethesda developers such as Emil? A combination of multiple of these?

Personally, I get the impression that Todd Howard probably does care quite a bit about his games and would probably love to continue to make games like Morrowind. I pin most of the blame on the current state of Fallout and Bethesda in general on Zenimax and Emil's poor writing. But I could be projecting. Maybe Howard is just in it for the money.

Here's an interesting thread from a supposed Bethesda leaker. If true, it does support most of the ideas I proposed.

Any thoughts?

 

[Hassknecht]

Yeah, the 4chan thread makes Todd sound quite nice, and puts the blame for the downfall squarely on the management and fucktards like Pete and Emil.
Todd's probably a good guy, but the alleged leaker makes it sound like he lets everyone walk over him, so maybe there is some fault on his side, too.

 

[Risewild]

I always thought Todd seems like a nice person, but that he doesn't really play the games he is in charge of. I think he just approves stuff and make sure the people are working on the games and keep on schedule.

Now about Todd vision's for Fallout.
I am of the opinion that Todd was always gonna try and make it more like an action game than RPG. Because his pet project was TESA: Redguard (which is an action game). He was also in charge and designed the Terminator games released by Bethesda (which are both First Person shooters).

All the RPG games he has been in charge have been losing more RPG mechanics and making them more like action/FPS games since Morrowind (which already removed a lot of RPG mechanics compared to Daggerfall).

It is obvious from the point of view of someone that has been following Bethesda games since Daggerfall, that Todd is an action/shooter fan and that pure RPGs are not his thing. He say he loves Ultima and classic Fallout, but then he only designs action/shooters or turns RPGs into action/shooters. The track record doesn't lie and that is what he has been doing since the 90's.

 

[Millim]

Todd seems like a decent guy who is jaded by his job. Look at him in interviews and on stage, it's like he is making games he doesn't want to.

I put it down to Zenimax not understanding the product and just wanting to get as much money as possible.
I can't say I'm too surprised given that there is a Trump on the board. But Zenimax are good money makers, they want to sell to the widest crowd possible.

Honestly, even Emil seems like a decent guy, he is just either A. A really bad writer or B. Needs someone else to add to his work.

Fallout 4 could have been interesting, but sadly lacks any depth to make it interesting.

Pete Hines seems to have more say than anything, and he is a tool.
I'd say he has done more damage to Fallout than Todd or Emil.

On a side note, Todd is defo a twink.

 

[naossano]

Nah, the manchild already ssaid too much craps on a microphone to pass up as someone who care.

For the initial question, The two major events are the following :
- T-Cain not owning the IP in the first place.
-Beth outbidding troika

 

[NMLevesque]

How does cancelling Van Buren fit into this? That was unnecessary unless they were just afraid of being overshadowed. Which is probably why they distanced themselves from...basically every design direction and priority that NV took on.