I just want to start a topic on where the Devs are so we can actually have our questions answered by the people who made the game and would know almost everything about it.

Not every game company has the policy of having there devs approachable via,forums, so where are the devs, they are at there desks doing there jobs.

There are Beth community managers wandering about occasionally. They currently will be working on patching and DLCs, much more important.

Can't say I blame them. I've seen boards where the devs do post, turns ugly fast. The usual suspects would overrun it with "give the franchise to obsidian", " why did you remove this", "why did you remove that" kind of crap. Any such thread would end when it got locked after that same crowd started insulting the devs

Agree. It would be positively traumatic (and a huge time-sink) to be a developer of this game and read some of the stuff on these boards!

Yeah but that doesn't mean that they should give up completely. This post, for instance. I don't want to hate on the Devs but I don't like how I'm meant to just sit and wonder what's wrong with this and that with no answers or knowledge on future patches to fix these problems. I'm about to remake my character after hours of playing this game due to glitches I've encountered.

Other devs managed it just fine . Obsidian did a good job of it. CDPR did a good job of it.

they haven't given up, they read and follow this board. They just don't post very often. Sometimes, but not often.

Obsidian is a different organization than Bethesda right?

"Notch" was the heart and soul of the Minecraft forums for a long time. But then he eventually became a billionaire and sold his ownership of the IP to Microsoft.

Huge difference though. It'sthe FO1 &2 crowd that gets nasty. FO3 people ddon't waste their time on the NV boards [censored]ing and complaining. They just focus on the one they like. It's the fans of the originals that feel the n3d to denigrate everything Bethesda does.

I'd rather they spend time working the patches, DLC, and future games than waste precious time getting mewled at on a forum.


It's not the devs job to engage the community.

And yet they had no issue with it making Fallout New Vegas

That's objectively false based on the number of threads I've seen locked on these forums over the years.

I guess I am sort of spoiled. many of the games I own the devs come in and speak and talk about it...It leaves me feeling they are not reading this stuff. or taking constructive criticisms or praise etc.

I'm one of the biggest quote 'Bethesda haters' on here and I'd never directly make such a demand.To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, 'speaking truth to power' is pointless.Those in power already know the truth, it would be naive of me to think Bethesda isn't well versed in our criticisms of Bethesda's ethos.

Bethesda devs have never been very active on the forums.


Generally, dev involvement is inversely proprtional to the size of the fanbase. Case in point: BioWare. Back when Dragon Age: Origins was in development, the devs regularly checked in on the BSN to get feedback and talk with fans about the game and the setting, even befriending frequent posters. Nowadays there's not nearly as much interaction.


The reasons are twofold: one, more users means more noise, meaning it's simply more difficult to have meaningful discourse; two, many fans are AWFUL. It only makes sense for devs to personally engage the fans when they actually get something out of it. When your game sells 10-20 million copies, the signal-to-noise ratio becomes such that there's no way to get any benefit from the experience. And when the noise is so awful and vitriolic, it makes perfect sense that most devs would stay away from posting on their forums.

End of thread... (that's not a literal injunction, don't ban me moderators...).

Exactly. This game is the computer game equivalent of a blockbuster and with fame and riches people naturally have to be a bit more distant. "Fan" after all is part of the word "fanatic."

I agree though, that some sort of "weekly Dev blog" coordinated by someone at a middle level (maybe even Mr. Howard himself?) in which some effort was made to "gauge sentiment" in the community (a VERY tricky business, and maybe not even best done by reading these boards) and provide commentary, clarifications, etc.

The fact that they already released a beta patch tells us they are not "disengaged," though I have no idea how they learned about the issues they corrected in their beta patch.

@ John and your Chomsky quote: that was absurd! He was talking about communist dictators, not capitalist producers of entertainment!

True, but the sentiment holds.You generally don't need to inform people in power of the 'truth', that should apply to any form of power; communist or capitalist.

But in this case, "they" only have as much power as you give them by buying their product and participating on this board.

The means in which they acquire power aren't important, only that they have it.

I'd also say it's quite naive to suggest that we freely give them their power, under no illusion.

But this is going to become political (which I'd gladly discuss), and it's going to derail the thread.

So agree to disagree, or you can pm me if you have any qualms with what I've said.

The devs are busy making DLC, to squeeze some more shekels out of their customer base.

Personally, I'd like to see more dev involvement on the forums, and think it's a no-brainer. Many other developers I follow have very visible and active participation with their forum followers, with designated reps; I've never really understood why Beth doesn't follow a similar model.

The whole " they can't handle the criticism" bit doesn't fly with me, get a professional to do a professional job. Someone with a bit thicker skin, and a direct conduit to the game's core.

That said, the OP could have worded his Topic Title much more diplomatically; catch a lot more flies with honey, I've found.

The point of me starting this was simply to find out where the Devs are or if they even care to post here. It'd be nice if any dev could give any feedback about our problems. I'm not saying every dev should be answering all our questions, but I'm saying there shouldn't be absolutely zero feedback from any of them, ever.

On Christmas Break? lol

Right, my point was that titling your post something similar to "Calling all Devs" or "Questions for Devs", etc., might be perceived a wee bit better, as opposed to calling them out en masse.