The Next Level Interviews Bethesdas Emil Pagliarulo

I have to agree with archnot here. Beth's philosophy is simple:

copies sold = quality

Nothing more, nothing less. Sell as much as you can, and as long as your coffers are full, you're making "quality product."
 
zag said:
I've got an idea.
Bubble Bobble is a damn good game. Millions of people think so.
So why don't you make Fallout Bobble.
It will be like Bubble Bobble except you get to kill your enemies with mini nukes instead of bubbles. How cool is that?
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That would be actually infinitely more awesome than Fallout-Oblivion. Next up: Fallout-Mario (somewhat like that ambitious fan-project I forget the name of?), and Fallout-Tetris (the game starts a chain reaction and explodes if you lose).
 
Well, Fallout 3 is Oblivion with Guns in all the bad ways too...

Also : where the interesting characters at ?

And yeah, the quote about the gun shooting teddy bears instead of the sword pretty much sums up the philosophy beyond that game.
 
In a lot of ways, Bethesda’s games are "massively single-player" – I think the appeal is very similar.
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In other words, a metric shitload of nothing and characters that are about as fun to interact with as the typical 13 year old MMO demographic.

k.
 
terebikun said:
COD4 has a pretty fucking great narrative. Finish playing through it.
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WTH!? The mechanics employed are banal, and they're not that good, and storyline is just blatantly moronic and fake... WTF!?
 
Well… we think Oblivion is a damn good game.
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Because you played a part in its development. Its only natural to think your creation has merit, even if others think it's crap.

To be fair, the dark brotherhood questline is a single breath mint in a pile of garbage, but the game as a whole is still garbage.

And so did millions of people who bought it.
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Really? So the moment someone hands their money to the clerk and completes the transaction, they're automatically satisfied with their purchase? Very shortsighted of you Emil.

And scores of reviewers.
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:whatever: I'd like to see what scores Oblivion would get if not for all the press junkets.

and talk to lots of interesting characters
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It's an improvement over Oblivion, while Oblivion's characters were cardboard cutouts, Fallout 3's characters were like talking mannequins. It's an improvement no doubt, but still a long ways to go.
 
Emil, if you ever care about anything I have to say ever, I hope it is this:

Oblivion /= Fallout
 
eternaut said:
Well, in my country we have a saying: "Eat shit. Billions of flies cannot be wrong".
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WOW!!!! :shock: Absolutely spot on! I'm gonna use it right away to create a rant topic somewhere else! Thanks a lot eternaut!
 
Emil: Yeah, the whole “Oblivion with Guns” criticism was hurled our way so long ago. But it’s funny, because in order for that to resonate with you, you have to sort of feel that Oblivion isn’t a good game, and “Oblivion with Guns” would be a bad thing. Well… we think Oblivion is a damn good game. And so did millions of people who bought it. And scores of reviewers. So, you know, we started to realize, “Hey, that’s more a compliment than an insult, isn’t it?” So for us, Fallout 3 is “Oblivion with guns” in all the right ways. Meaning, you wander around a huge world, and talk to lots of interesting characters, and get lots of quests. But instead of killing them with a magic sword, you kill them with a gun that shoots teddy bears.
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Yeah, Oblivion is a good game. But Fallout 3 should be based on Fallout 1 and Fallout 2, but NOT on Oblivion. Super Mario is a popular game, and a lot of people will love Fallout in Super Mario style. But how many people will like Fallout 3, based on Super Mario?
 
Blackened said:
Yeah, Oblivion is a good game.
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For a hiking simulator. As a fan of Daggerfall and Morrowind I was royally disappointed with the blandness, horrible mechanics and overall idiocy of it.
 
Blackened said:
Emil: Yeah, the whole “Oblivion with Guns” criticism was hurled our way so long ago. But it’s funny, because in order for that to resonate with you, you have to sort of feel that Oblivion isn’t a good game, and “Oblivion with Guns” would be a bad thing. Well… we think Oblivion is a damn good game. And so did millions of people who bought it. And scores of reviewers. So, you know, we started to realize, “Hey, that’s more a compliment than an insult, isn’t it?” So for us, Fallout 3 is “Oblivion with guns” in all the right ways. Meaning, you wander around a huge world, and talk to lots of interesting characters, and get lots of quests. But instead of killing them with a magic sword, you kill them with a gun that shoots teddy bears.
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Yeah, Oblivion is a good game. But Fallout 3 should be based on Fallout 1 and Fallout 2, but NOT on Oblivion. Super Mario is a popular game, and a lot of people will love Fallout in Super Mario style. But how many people will like Fallout 3, based on Super Mario?
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DONT GIVE THEM F**** IDEAS !!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p0Yap5iG6o[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMReykKJO2U[/youtube]
 
This reminds me of an argument I got into on Wikipedia where someone kept trying to compare two stories, saying they were really similar (good game) and kept citing sources (game reviews) of peoples saying they were similar when damn, they couldn't be more different. If enough people tell you the sky is green, they'll beleive it. WHEN ITS BLUE.
 
rcorporon said:
Sell as much as you can, and as long as your coffers are full, you're making "quality product."
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Is that a bad thing? I mean come on, bussiness-wise there couldn't be anything better than keeping their coffers full. Quality product? Arguable. But a success? It certainly is one. Therefore they have all the rights to call it a quality product. Because in their case, yes, millions of copies sold can't state otherwise. For even though it might seem a flawed logic quantities sold = people believe it's a quality product = money = WIN!!. From their standpoint all that matters is whether people believe it to be a quality product.

eternaut said:
Well, in my country we have a saying: "Eat shit. Billions of flies cannot be wrong".
Seems that Emil took this as his motto.
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While billions of flies eating shit doesn't mean it's a good or tasty (or whatever) thing to eat, it certainly means that shit has a profitable market considering the demand.
 
Endless Void said:
rcorporon said:
Sell as much as you can, and as long as your coffers are full, you're making "quality product."
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Is that a bad thing? I mean come on, bussiness-wise there couldn't be anything better than keeping their coffers full. Quality product? Arguable. But a success? It certainly is one. Therefore they have all the rights to call it a quality product. Because in their case, yes, millions of copies sold can't state otherwise. For even though it might seem a flawed logic quantities sold = people believe it's a quality product = money = WIN!!. From their standpoint all that matters is whether people believe it to be a quality product.
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The business-wise is definitely good, but not great. The point of the business is to earn money FROM the quality product. When a company thinks only about selling anything, not worrying about its quality (quantity first, quality last), then this company is just average.
It's just like selling used cars. Yeah, they might have cleaned and polished them, but they're still used cars. Sooner or later, they'll break down.

If all companies would be like Bethesda (it actually starts to happening), then how would you imagine this world to look?

Go watch the movie "Idiocracy".

While billions of flies eating shit doesn't mean it's a good or tasty (or whatever) thing to eat, it certainly means that shit has a profitable market considering the demand.
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Yes, that's how people call it. But what that quote meant is, Emil thinks when lots of people bought it (lots of flies eat shit), it means it's a good quality product (shit is good).
It's a metaphor if you know what a "metaphore" means. If not, then check it out on wekepedia ;)
 
I see this "Lots of people bought it, so it MUST BE GOOD!!1" excuse way to often.

I always have to think of, I think in english it's called peer pressure. Just like when we were young, and some idiots thought that smoking was cool.
I guess they we're right and I was wrong then?
(Please note, I have nothing against smokers).

Dunno where this quote's from but I always liked it: "A man may be smart, but people are dumb".

As for the interview: This has stopped being funny a long time ago.
It's like they (Beth) are just deliberately provoking anything with a brain. With those 180° in PR, how could any sane person trust in anything they say?
 
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