Thoughts on a first Bethesda Game Studios developed video game not winning a Game of the Year (GOTY) award?

Think they will step up their writing for quests?

Or do you think they don't care at all they already earned a lot of money from selling Fallout 4? Do you think The Elder Scrolls VI or Fallout 5 will sell just as much copies?

Thoughts on the awards? Nah. The results of award selection across many fields ranging from film, music, Time Magazine's 'Man of the Year' to even the Nobel Peace Prize demonstrate that none of them should be taken seriously.

Should Bethesda step up their writing? Absolutely. Their problem is that they try to build massive games with a small team. A quest can be linear and shallow, or it can be deep with multiple possible outcomes and strategies to overcome it. The latter, however, takes a lot more man hours to create. So the team can either build massive and shallow, or smaller and deep. To build massive and deep, you need more man hours ... in other words, a larger team.

Todd Howard likes to brag that they got a small team that's worked together for ten years or more. That's great, and what they accomplish with that is very impressive. But they don't have enough man power to truly live up to their potential. They need a bigger team.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a massive open world video game and it has deeply written quests. Minus being able to pick up every single item in front of your face or a fully customizable Player Character (PC0.

It absolutely can be done though.

am i enjoying the [censored] out of this game? yes, yes i am

am i finding it shallow and bland? yes i am

very much a matter of perspective opinion, but personally i think the dialogue is very very poor and bland as

but i doubt they care too much as they still will make a fortune, i hate they way theyve taken this as a"fallout" game but i still bought as any fallout is better than no fallout and as the bone is relatively new i didnt have enough other games to wait for the price drop, and despite everything i will prob play it just as much as i did 1/2/3/NV/tactics

im still totally enjoying it as an open world post apocalyptic shooter with rpg elements though, it just doesnt feel like a fallout game to me

dont know if makes sense cant explain it well

There is always room for improvement when it comes to Bethesda's writing. Though I wouldn't say it was the most significant factor as to why it did not win many of these GOTY awards that other games have been getting.

I just want to clarify Ballowers, because the thread title is somewhat misleading


it didn't win 1 very specific GOTY award,

every magazine or website has its own GOTY award they give out, so it could very possibly win some GOTY award..


there isn't just a single GOTY award, which is why we can see multiple games released within the same year get GOTY editions.. there are literally dozens of GOTY awards

The Witcher team is twice as large and the game had a development budget of 300 million. Skyrim had a development budget of 90 million. I haven't seen any figure for F4's budget.

I'm not disagreeing with you, it can be done if you have the resources in the form of both cash and man-power. In fact, that was my point.

I don't think this might be too late, but I think Bethesda Game Studios should change the current dialogue options instead of Yes. Yes. No. Yes or whatever people are saying and improve it as well as get rid of the dialogue wheel in a future patch or a update.

I read somewhere that future updates and DLC's will be based on community feedback. Lets hope it's true.

Its more than what I hoped for so I don't care in the slightest. Witcher 3 is amazing as well but Fallout 4 is Fallout 4 and then some.

I think they should note that it's the voiced protagonist that killed their GOTY chance and let it be stricken from their design forever

Too tough of a competition this year. but seriously Beth need to fix up their writing or they are going to be in deep trouble.

Let's cut voice because they lost a meaningless award from a voiced game.

While the writing needs more work, especially the consequences of the quests, people place too much emphasis on a useless award from a random group of people that no one voted for to decide what the game of the year is.

The Voiced Protoganist wasn't the problem. it was the final part and ending which killed its GOTY chance, especially the ending.

I think the consensus on FO4 was too polarizing for it to really be a contender against witcher, which almost had unanimous praise. The writing among many other things like voiced protag is what split everyone and what lost them the award imo but they'll pull at least 1 GOTY award from some other place anyway.

But the RPG that won last year has a voiced protag, and the RPG that won this year has one, so logic. Not sure if you are sarcastic or not though.

On topic, i don't really care about the award, but i am not shocked either. TW3 had the win stink on it for a long time. On the writing, well yes and no. Fallout 4 is well written in many ways, it is ofc still lacking in some sections, but i find that most games are lacking when it comes to writing. Games as a storytelling medium has yet to take off to the heights it can reach. One can always improve upon a product, which is why there are sequels and such.

Well 3 of these features absolutely made me not want to if ever purchase Fallout 4.

#1. The dialogue wheel.

#2. Removal of armor and weapons degradation system just like in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

#3. Immortal companions just like the Essential NPC's system since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Those 3 features I just can't play video games with those.

That dialogue wheel and the 4 options is what permanently will turn me away from a Bethesda Game Studios developed video game. Bethesda Game Studios should go back to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's dialogue system or even Th Elder Scrolls V" Skyrim's dialogue system.

Witcher 3 deserved to win.

FO4 is a nice game, but it's not revolutionary and it doesn't excel in any aspect. It's not a very good Fallout game.

I hope Bethesda takes the lesson from this that when too many features are removed and not replaced with anything, the end result just lacks luster.

I've played to the ending once and have no desire to start a new game. Even Skyrim, which was hollowed out a lot compared to Oblivion, was a game where I made character after character. The path Bethesda has taken ever since Oblivion, of the removal of ever more features in a sort of quest to make an as minimalist of a game as possible, seems to have exceeded the maximum threshold of what makes an interesting, replayable game this time around.

^sarcasm

Although their last game with a silent character did win GOTY

I do not really care about awards and never really did. The only opinion that matters to me is my own opinion if the game is good. It is good if I am enjoying the game.

All of us will have different tastes and opinions on what is a good game. There are likely people out there that think E.T. game for the Atari 2600 was a good game. I have not met one yet.

I think Fallout 4 was released a bit late in the year to be included in the running. Games like Witcher 3 had quite a bit more time to work out bugs and on top of that it had time to release 17 DLC's. Fallout 4 Won't have any released until 2016.

Fair point. What is great is that atleast some RPG's are winning these things. Granted they are all streamlined RPG's, but RPG's non the less.

Skyrim won a lot of 2011 awards and was released on 11/11.

I don't care about GOTY awards, and neither should they.

As for the quest lines and dialogs, I would gladly see them more decelopped and varied. However I'd rather see shallow game mechanics like companions sudden burst of stupidity when you dare jump over something be corrected first. Seeing the same ,problems game after game really gets my patience more than bland dialogs.

Yeah, and that's just as weird. It should have been in the 2012 running since the game wasn't completely released until 2012. Meaning all DLC's.

I'm not sure where you got 300 million from.
http://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-cost-81-million-to-make/

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/this-is-how-much-the-witcher-3-cost-to-make/1100-6430409/

Multiple sources confirmed that it cost 81 million, so in fact, it was less than Skyrim (Which is more astounding when you consider inflation and the skyrocketing costs of modern games). Granted, the larger team size it true, and the costs of developing games in Poland is far lower than in the west.

IMO, this just shows that Bethesda has no excuse to stay so small. Studios like CDPR have started to beat them roundly at their own game, and with a studio of their size it will be very difficult to raise the bar or even to meet the new standard of the RPG industry.