[Danny Blight]

As the title says this is the "We want Ken back! " thread: Please leave a vote for Ken if u agree that he need to comeback to save what is left from the best rpg series ever created.

[Damien Mulvenna]

+1 Vote, but not for Ken. I want Julian LeFay back at Bethesda and in charge of TES.

[Jessica White]

+1 for Julian LeFay. Ken doesn't have a place anymore for rpg's.

[SexyPimpAss]

Ted Peterson vote, here.

[Heather Kush]

Ted and Julian both, tbh. Would be amazing to see how they would bring back their original ideas for the series with the team they would have available today. They were very understaffed for Arena and Daggerfall and still pushed out two amazing games.

[Nick Swan]

Ken doesn't have a place anymore for rpg's.

"Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning" looks like an RPG to me.

[kat no x]

Not really bothered either way. Bethesda just needs to hire some more writers who can actually craft a compelling story to go along with their beautiful worlds. I want to have my cake and eat it, damn it!

[Jennifer Munroe]

from what i heard the cake is a lie !! thx 4 voting ^^

[Lalla Vu]

Not really bothered either way. Bethesda just needs to hire some more writers who can actually craft a compelling story to go along with their beautiful worlds. I want to have my cake and eat it, damn it!

Agreed x 1000

[Life long Observer]

Ted and Julian both, tbh. Would be amazing to see how they would bring back their original ideas for the series with the team they would have available today. They were very understaffed for Arena and Daggerfall and still pushed out two amazing games.

To be honest, I think having to work around limitations was a big part of why those games were great. Just as with film, you get lazy and uncreative when you can just buy your solution to a limitation.

[amhain]

To be honest, I think having to work around limitations was a big part of why those games were great. Just as with film, you get lazy and uncreative when you can just buy your solution to a limitation.

This is also true. However, I have a feeling that if the current studio was forced to make a TES title with the same resources it wouldn't turn out as great. Granted, more is expected of today's game when it comes to graphics and physics etc, but the end product would probably be a pretty shell with no soul.

[Eilidh Brian]

A discussion on bringing back past developers is fine, but a list of "you have my vote!" type posts will just get this thread locked.

[Red Sauce]

I vote against Ken Rolston.

Most of the problems of Morrowind's storytelling and Oblivion's pacing issues can be traced back to him.

[Killer McCracken]

And Oblivion's blandness.

[JLG]

Julian LeFay, Michael Kirkbride (MK), Ted Peterson, Ken Rolston... get them all back (as a full-time, hired employee in MK's case).

[Keeley Stevens]

I'm not sure if the Ken Rolston of today is on a par of the Ken Rolston of the 1990s... But Julian LeFay probably is. Also, I kinda wish that Jeremy Soule wasn't responsible for all the music in TES now; he does nice ambient stuff, but for non-ambient thematic stuff he's actually pretty terrible. I really wish Eric Heberling was still making video game music; it boggles me that all he does now is music for casino video machines.

However, I would also be satisfied if I saw Todd Howard removed from the original development of flagship TES games; to me, at least, his presence has been a major cause of the "dumbing-down" trend. He's definitely a highly talented producer, but I feel that it's not a perfect fit for that role. That, and I REALLY want to see another TES Adventures game (or even a TES Legends) game, and he's shown that chances are there's no one else that could be entrusted with such a thing... Or even that genre, barring, say, Shigeru Miyamoto... There really needs to be something out there to give CREDIBLE competition to Zelda, and Todd Howard's probably the only man who could lead the charge successfully. Hence, I propose drafting him to take a dev team within gamesas to make another TESA.

[Eve(G)]

However, I would also be satisfied if I saw Todd Howard removed from the original development of flagship TES games; to me, at least, his presence has been a major cause of the "dumbing-down" trend. He's definitely a highly talented producer, but I feel that it's not a perfect fit for that role. That, and I REALLY want to see another TES Adventures game (or even a TES Legends) game, and he's shown that chances are there's no one else that could be entrusted with such a thing... Or even that genre, barring, say, Shigeru Miyamoto... There really needs to be something out there to give CREDIBLE competition to Zelda, and Todd Howard's probably the only man who could lead the charge successfully. Hence, I propose drafting him to take a dev team within gamesas to make another TESA.

This is an excellent suggestion. Howard for a new TESA (and Julian for TES, yay!)

Also saddened over Heberlings "fate". His work was amazing.

[Lily Something]

Wait, no... You can't say someone other than Jeremy Soule would be better at his job. Just... no. Soule defined video game music as a genre. He's the best in his field.

[Chloé]

However, I would also be satisfied if I saw Todd Howard removed from the original development of flagship TES games; to me, at least, his presence has been a major cause of the "dumbing-down" trend. He's definitely a highly talented producer, but I feel that it's not a perfect fit for that role. That, and I REALLY want to see another TES Adventures game (or even a TES Legends) game, and he's shown that chances are there's no one else that could be entrusted with such a thing... Or even that genre, barring, say, Shigeru Miyamoto... There really needs to be something out there to give CREDIBLE competition to Zelda, and Todd Howard's probably the only man who could lead the charge successfully. Hence, I propose drafting him to take a dev team within gamesas to make another TESA.

Hey! Todd Howard's the only guy on the team who was around during the development of Arena and Daggerfall.

Most of the "Dumbing Down" was caused by Ken Rolston's decisions.

[Alberto Aguilera]

Wait, no... You can't say someone other than Jeremy Soule would be better at his job. Just... no. Soule defined video game music as a genre. He's the best in his field.

Erm, no. He's a late-comer who's over-rated. To be quite honest, your comment simply speaks of a complete and utter lack of knowledge of video game music. I request that you perhaps try playing a good variety of acclaimed games that didn't just come out recently; for instance, I get the impression that, at most, your TES experience consists of Skyrim and Oblivion.

If anyone "defined video game music as a genre," it'd be Nintnedo's Koji Kondo, who was in the business before Soule was 10 years old. Or for RPGs, it'd like be Nobeu Uematsu from Square, who similarly was doing his business and famous long before Soule even started. (Interestingly, it was basically in Uematsu's shadow where Soule started: his first project was Square Soft's Secret of Evermore, as it was a USA-made game)

I could literally name a TON of major composers for video games that "defined the genre" before anyone really knew who Soule was, which didn't happen until the 21st century with the release of more prominent, global titles like Harry Potter and Morrowind. George Sanger, Kevin Schilder, Kirk Winterrowd, David Wise... Oh, and let's not forget Eric Heberling, the original composer for The Elder Scrolls. The music for Arena and Daggerfall was VASTLY better. (especially, note the games' two "snowfall" themes; they're masterpieces that Soule will never be able to match up to)

Hey! Todd Howard's the only guy on the team who was around during the development of Arena and Daggerfall.

...In a rather limited capacity. He wasn't a part of the actual core development of either game, but rather, IIRC, was head of QA (testing) for them. Hence why I qualified my statement to say "original development." Morrowind marked the first flagship TES game where Todd Howard came to the helm, co-heading with Rolston; with Oblivion and Skyrim seeing Todd Howard not sharing the top with ANYONE. Plus, Rolston wasn't even around for the last two games, and they saw the most dumbing-down. How does your assertion even hold any logic when you think about that?

[james tait]

I vote against Ken Rolston.

Most of the problems of Morrowind's storytelling and Oblivion's pacing issues can be traced back to him.

in my opinion most of the dumbing down probs came along with the decission to make consoles the leading dev platform. the true reason for this is the cooperation with M$ which early understood how much money they could make if they buy thereselves into bethesda.

[Lizbeth Ruiz]

Erm, no. He's a late-comer who's over-rated. To be quite honest, your comment simply speaks of a complete and utter lack of knowledge of video game music. I request that you perhaps try playing a good variety of acclaimed games that didn't just come out recently; for instance, I get the impression that, at most, your TES experience consists of Skyrim and Oblivion.

If anyone "defined video game music as a genre," it'd be Nintnedo's Koji Kondo, who was in the business before Soule was 10 years old. Or for RPGs, it'd like be Nobeu Uematsu from Square, who similarly was doing his business and famous long before Soule even started. (Interestingly, it was basically in Uematsu's shadow where Soule started: his first project was Square Soft's Secret of Evermore, as it was a USA-made game)

I could literally name a TON of major composers for video games that "defined the genre" before anyone really knew who Soule was, which didn't happen until the 21st century with the release of more prominent, global titles like Harry Potter and Morrowind. George Sanger, Kevin Schilder, Kirk Winterrowd, David Wise... Oh, and let's not forget Eric Heberling, the original composer for The Elder Scrolls. The music for Arena and Daggerfall was VASTLY better. (especially, note the games' two "snowfall" themes; they're masterpieces that Soule will never be able to match up to)


...In a rather limited capacity. He wasn't a part of the actual core development of either game, but rather, IIRC, was head of QA (testing) for them. Hence why I qualified my statement to say "original development." Morrowind marked the first flagship TES game where Todd Howard came to the helm, co-heading with Rolston; with Oblivion and Skyrim seeing Todd Howard not sharing the top with ANYONE. Plus, Rolston wasn't even around for the last two games, and they saw the most dumbing-down. How does your assertion even hold any logic when you think about that?

So, Todd Howard has the most experience on the team about how the game should actually play, then - the most important part of a video game.

Oblivion and Skyrim's changes to the series are nothing compared to the bastardization that Morrowind brought about. Ken Rolston dumbed-down the lore and verisimilitude of the game world.

The past two games have been returning to the "series roots" (Be anyone, do anything) following Morrowind's Black Sheep hit.

[Zoe Ratcliffe]

Wait, no... You can't say someone other than Jeremy Soule would be better at his job. Just... no. Soule defined video game music as a genre. He's the best in his field.

There is no doubt that Soule is a skilled composer, but he is by no means the one who "defined video game music as a genre".

I don't want to be the one to draw conclusions about other people, but am I right in guessing that you have not played Arena or Daggerfall? (No shame in that, an overwhelming majority of the playerbase discovered the franchise @ Morrowind or later). Since Bethesda has decided to keep the (modified) score from Morrowind as the series' main theme so far, I guess it is easy to think that he "defined" the music of the series.

His work with Morrowind and Oblivion is not bad, although apart from the theme song and a few ambient tracks (as nottheking already pointed out) there is nothing really spectacular about it. Very personal opinion: Soule's music for Guild Wars: Eye of the North is way better than what he did for TES.

Heberling on the other hand... If you never played Daggerfall you can find the complete MIDI library for download at UESP, and if you can't stand MIDI, there have been several projects to remake the tracks with VST plugins. Those tracks blow Soule's compositions out of the water, IMHO.

[kristy dunn]

Oblivion and Skyrim's changes to the series are nothing compared to the bastardization that Morrowind brought about. Ken Rolston dumbed-down the lore and verisimilitude of the game world.

I was going to stay out of this thread, but holy hell what the ef? Morrowind (or rather the Pocket Guide that shipped with Redguard) expanded the lore exponentially, both in scope and in depth. Morrowind and Redguard definitely changed the direction TES lore took, but you can't say that the lore became shallower in any way.

As for bringing back Ken, Julian, or anyone else - it would change nothing, or very little. Video game development is not about the genius vision of a single individual; games don't suddenly start svcking because a single employee decided to leave. Times change, and in order to keep making videogames both companies and individuals have to change as well. Unless you're COD, then you just slap some shiny graphics on that and call it done. Bethesda would have long died and been forgotten by all but a select few if they hadn't "dumbed-down" the series with Morrowind.

[DAVId Bryant]

What I want most that Bethesda hires some concept artists,that do not draw what they take as reference but interpret and draw what they take as reference.