Does anyone think this will affect the game at all? Do you think it is a good thing or do you really wish he was helping develop this one?

Who?

Oh wait, that old dude with white beard? He is out?! Aaah, damn, he seemed like a nice fellow. Okay, I am actually worried now, but hopefully there won't be any effect.

I don't think it will have a major effect (I have faith in the Almighty Todd Howard).

That said, I am interested in seeing what Ken & Co. are able to do with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Rolston

There was an inside joke about him being http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Socucius_Ergalla..

Its important to note that he was not the lead designer on Fallout 3 and it received massive praise.

I know I've heard that name somewhere before. I think Todd's going to be fine without him. We'll find out in the next 7 days the 1st main parts of info on Skyrim with the GI Mag Article.

While I'm sure Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will benefit from his experience, I do not foresee any major impact upon Skyrim.

Other.

I'm not sure. He was lead designer for Morrowind, which I thought had an awesome design. But, he had the same position in TESIV, which I, personally, was disappointed with. I'm not exactly sure what a lead designer does, and how much (and what type of) influence he had over each game.

So, I dunno. He's making Kingdoms of Alamur: Reckoning, which should be out this year, if I recall correctly. I look forward to seeing what that game is like.

I can't even imagine how it can make a game 'better'.

I liked the games before he joined the company. Not that I didn't like the ones after he joined, but I don't see him as a necessary collaborator for the Elder Scrolls series. Is Julian LeFay around somewhere?

I am not sure though. If he had major influences on the previous titles then maybe since he is gone they will be able to do new things that maybe he did not want to do in other games. Like others have said I am sure Todd will not have any issues without him but it could possibly be better for the series..........now they may be able to do things that they previously didn't because of disagreements.

No idea.

If Skyrim turns out to be a lemon, and his current work is kicking some butt, then I'll come back and vote.

He had a much reduced role in the making of Oblivion, so I don't think it will make much difference

There was a good interview with him just after he left he came across a little disillusioned, but its in 404 heaven now

Arena and Daggerfall where old Beth Todd tested the cd rom version of arena, and did some additional design for Daggerfall (which was Ted Peterson's baby if you like the skill system in TES he is the man to thank)

Morrowind was heavily influence by Ken, Todd was very much behind Ken's vision for Morrowind so to a big extent Morrowind is Ken's game

Oblivion is the first main TES game that is totally Todd and Pete going it alone as it where, Fallout 3 refined a lot of their ideas, there have been various interviews and quotes that Todd likes the action parts of RPGs more than intrigue and they took new players criticism of Morrowind very much to hart and went a bit OTT in that direction for Oblivion. But as it was the going it alone game for Todd and Pete it is understandable. Fallout 3 shows them tweaking the ideas (different character systems aside) so Skyrim will follow this trend, I will be interested to see how far along Todd and Pete have come in terms of game and system design as Oblivion without a doubt brought much new blood into the genre.

In short no Ken makes no difference, Todd and Pete went their own path with Oblivion and that is what they will base the development of the next game on

Edit: A lead design brings all the work of the rest of the team together as a lead design Ken only had as much room to maneuver as the executive producer (Todd) would allow him, this was more in Morrowind and in Oblivion he was just more realizing Todd's vision (in the above interview he comments his influence in Morrowind was much greater than in Oblivion so as Morrowind was more his game he preferred it), As a side note Ken was a pretty big name in Table top RPGS he wrote for Paranoia and did a module for the enemy within campaign for Warhammer fantasy role play first edition

There are a few Bethesda devs that now work at BHG (and some BHG devs that now work at Bethesda, I believe they're the only large game developers in the DC area). I'll certainly miss Ken, Mark Nelson, and Fred Zeleny but I think Bethesda is capable of making an excellent game with out them. Ken and Mark weren't involved with with Fallout 3 at all and it's the best RPG I've played since Morrowind.

There plenty of talent at BGS: Emil Pagliarulo and Brian Chapin (Hayt) are great designers, Christiane Meister (Maverique) and Istvan Pely are great artists, and Steve Meister (formerly MisterSmilieFaceDude) and Ricky Gonzalez (socrates200X) are great programmers. It also possible that Ted Peterson (Tedders) will be contracted to do more writing.


I heard a while back that he's no longer in the game industry.

So basically we're screwed.



How do you know all this?

Its important to also note that Bethesda has lost more than Rolston over these past few years.

http://bethblog.com/index.php/2007/12/19/inside-the-vault-gavin-carter/ has left and is now producer at 343 industries.

Also Mark Nelson, who was a talented designer. I'm sure there have been others too.

EDIT: ninja-mod. :toughninja:

I hope not although i know that with Ken gone the creativity and overall uniqueness of the game will be drasticly diminished.

No because Todd liked some of the ideas about Morrowind. We'll see in the upcoming weeks as to what BGS is going to do with Skyrim.

Then where did they all go for TES IV?

It always bothered me that Morrowind was a one off. I hope I'm wrong.

VERY wrong.

Far too many to count other notables include the 3 fathers of TES

Ted Peterson, Vijay Lakshman and Julian LeFay

the absolute Creator of TES Chris Weaver who really spearheaded the first games and who we can all thank for what came after

And many more beside Lore writers and so on, some left because the didn't agree with the new direction some left for greener pasture some left but come back and do bits and bobs for newer gamers (and have hissy fits at fan sites when they interview the first group even if the interview was informative and vitriol free long time fans know what this refers too)

You know thats something that I've been wondering about too as I've heard about both games and how alien they are from each other. Its weird if you would have told me that Morrowind was Oblivions predeccessor and the stuff in the game of Morrowind thats different from Oblivion I would've been like now wait a minute they did what and they didn't transfer said feature over. I think they did it to mainstream and make things easier but who knows we'll find out in the coming weeks if Skyrim can live up to Morrowind and Oblivions potential which as of right now I will say Yes until I hear otherwise.

Isn't it possible new and just as great minds have joined as some of the older guys have left?

As Todd Howard has said numerous times, "It's the game everybody on the team wants to play."
A few people are gone, but it's not likely going to affect much at all.

The biggest influence could be that they have a much larger team with a lot of talented people with their own different opinions.
Nobody really knows what could happen!

Whatever happens, I hope it goes in a different direction than Oblivion. Don't get me wrong, Oblivion was a great game in it's own right, but, the whole generic fantasy theme was a bit tiring.

Ken was the life and soul of Morrowind, he had small participation with Oblivion and to be honest we've missed him on that front, but I believe things go forward and with the mainstreaming of Oblivion and therefore the series Ken's role was probably not so important, he will be missed surely.
But in other hand there's fantastic talent at Bethie, and if that's true that Ted Peterson is back then we have the loremaster participation.
As long as we get away from the "Lord of the Rings" theme and bring the series back to its true self I'm sure Todd and Co can do it again.

Basically This.