Odin said:
Actually things aren't as harsh/bad as people think, I've talked to several Bethesda employees yesterday and they don't have a problem with us.
Same here. Whoa, I talk to Bethesda people? Hey, do I KNOW Bethesda people? Funny, I do. I know them in other capacities just as I knew much of BIS in other capacities. The one person I haven't talked to yet that I really want to is the PR guy, though from the other attempts I've heard are either given the usual or nothing.
Seriously, those who want to get into the fray can observe some common sense.
If the hard critics are proven wrong, as I always hope (why
wouldn't I hope I was wrong; it would be rather absurd, right?), then we'll probably give full support and thank them for proving us wrong. After all, what can we say? "Fuck you for making a sequel that feels like a sequel in all regards and has some better uses for skills that were otherwise almost useless! It looks great but keeps the pulpish style, too! FUCK YOU!" Uh...how does THAT line of logic work?
If we are proven right, then what? Blame the fans, as usual? It's funny when before the game is released "you have no control over how the game does" moves to "you killed it with your negativity" or "don't think you had anything to do with it" when the unfavorable word of mouth killed off the sales of previous titles that were highly in question.
The risk Bethesda takes is dependent upon their decisions.
The role we play is also dependent upon their decisions. We could either say it looks good and pass on favorable word of mouth because the game is everything everyone remembers from Fallout, but it looks better, suits the style, and is a decent sequel - or we could point out it isn't resembling parts of the Fallout CRPG presentation and cover the aspects that do not fit, as we have done fairly and factually for each and every Fallout game that has come out. There's flaws in each, some much more than others, one is brilliant, the sequel was a bit chancy but still good.
There's no malice behind our roles, honestly. Maybe a lot of perplexation and curiosity that someone could be both aware of the Fallout franchise and fan presence, yet not expect this to come about unless this is just a PR stunt. It's amusing when people take posts with "violence" in them and try to take them literally. It's quite amusing, indicating either internet newbiedom or attention whoring.
The thing most people need to understand that this is still quite early and that anyone who DOES write this off already hasn't really given this a fair chance. It's one thing to say crap and another to point at something you don't like and say "I don't like that, and since it doesn't seem to have any regards towards the series, I believe that those who are following the series would be having flashbacks from times when the developers would ignore common sense for series design when there's plenty of examples of failure being the result."
Hey, I really don't want Bethesda to be known as the people who killed off Fallout, as they do one series well in their preferred design, even if I have creative differences with the rest of their work outside of that series.
I do hope they realize that a good majority of TES players got used to and loved playing the implementation of afflictions in Daggerfall. That is something most other games haven't really explored in a "could happen at any time given the danger" way, and I wish more had. It was what made the game fairly distinct in those terms, and I would hate for TES to lose what makes up its appeal just as much as it would be a shame for Fallout to lose the same.
I think it would be quite unfair to claim that the developers can't see that a game's following has a life of its own, as they would have undoubtedly have seen for TES; on the same note it would be unfair to keep pushing out press coverage if all they're going to do is send their potential future customers and those who are taking their time to offer what is essentially free press, into a frenzy without really giving those following anything to give them reason to believe Bethesda and in fact Bethesda's done exactly the opposite so far. It does feel patronizing, given what they have said. It's insulting in that it implies that we don't care about the design or why we bought the series, as long as there's a box with "Fallout 3" on it.
I do have to say that the first step to correct this mess is to establish much clearer lines of communication, which many of us are already working on. I ask that people please be patient while this is going on, and be assured that we've heard many reasons for feature X and Y and while they are valid, I don't think that they should be posted again. I'll need some help with this, so in turn I will have to ask that people do try their best to be educated about the situation and the reasons before they decide to drop any flamebait.
One suggestion for Todd: Pete's hands and mouth; fiberglass tape them inoperative.
).
