You know I came to this forum because I hate Fallout 4. I've never liked Bethesda games, and I want to show you a video that finally showed me why I don't like Bethesda games.
And here you have it. Bethesda isn't artistically bankrupt and doesn't know what to do with Fallout, they know EXACTLY what they want to do with it. It also explains why Fallout 4 was so lazily designed: they're not incompetent, they don't care. And I don't like Bethesda games because I'm immune or highly resistant to operative conditioning; at least insofar that that no shiny reward is going to make me not loathe dungeon crawling. We want me to be happy, reward me on schedule and never have it be anything but predictable. It's why I build my own guns in Borderlands 2.
When Todd Howard said "If Fallout 4 sucks, blame our ambition," he wasn't talking about the quality of the story or any sort of meaningful choice, he was talking about the scale and perfection of the reward schedule. That's why the locations of the bobbleheads and magazines aren't marked: they are a jackpot in the reward schedule. The fact that pipe pistols are in pre-war safes isn't an oversight: it's not important that lore remains consistent, only the tier of reward schedule.
I think it behooves all of us to never buy another Bethesda product. It's not their artistic bankruptcy making them cynical, it's their cynicism that makes them artistically bankrupt. And I'm all for cynicism until it breeds apathy, but once it does, that cynicism becomes less than useless.
And here you have it. Bethesda isn't artistically bankrupt and doesn't know what to do with Fallout, they know EXACTLY what they want to do with it. It also explains why Fallout 4 was so lazily designed: they're not incompetent, they don't care. And I don't like Bethesda games because I'm immune or highly resistant to operative conditioning; at least insofar that that no shiny reward is going to make me not loathe dungeon crawling. We want me to be happy, reward me on schedule and never have it be anything but predictable. It's why I build my own guns in Borderlands 2.
When Todd Howard said "If Fallout 4 sucks, blame our ambition," he wasn't talking about the quality of the story or any sort of meaningful choice, he was talking about the scale and perfection of the reward schedule. That's why the locations of the bobbleheads and magazines aren't marked: they are a jackpot in the reward schedule. The fact that pipe pistols are in pre-war safes isn't an oversight: it's not important that lore remains consistent, only the tier of reward schedule.
I think it behooves all of us to never buy another Bethesda product. It's not their artistic bankruptcy making them cynical, it's their cynicism that makes them artistically bankrupt. And I'm all for cynicism until it breeds apathy, but once it does, that cynicism becomes less than useless.