Or do you think they only love it for the money?

I personally think that they love their game, but have to make hard decisions, such as the exclusion of depth, to appeal to a wider range of customers to gain money.

By the way I'm talking about TES specifically.

Do you think this discussion is kinda trivial?

Only as trivial as posting about it being trivial.

Considering how long it takes to make these games, I think they do love what their game.

Does a parent love their child?

I think many of them care deeply. Consider this excerpt from a post by vsions, a developer:


These are human beings, many of whom got into this business because they loved video games as kids. I think Bethesda's employees, on the whole, do the best they are capable of under the constraints they are forced to work under.

They don't strike me as being money greedy individuals at all (at least not those actually involved in developing games at BGS). I think it's fairly obvious they love games and put a lot of effort into their work.

At the same time though, I don't really buy into the whole "we make the kind of games we want to play" comment. The themes of streamlining and accessibility have dominated their design direction far too much over recent years for such a statement to carry any weight.

Of course they do, otherwise they'd quit their job...

I've gotten the impression they don't like Morrowind, or at least don't like Morrowind's fans. Or even fan's of previous games in general.

I truly believe that the vast majority of the people developing these games have to love what they're doing. On the other hand, the overall direction of the project has to meet the criteria and guidelines laid out by the investors or corporate heads, and forces many hard compromises. That overall direction and guidance, leading the series in a direction which has already abandoned me as a consumer, is what I question, not the nearly miraculous implementation of it by those who are actually doing the work.

Am I the only person that likes the new more streamline TES games, I mean come on, morrowind was a great game, but it was far from perfect, I honestly cannot play morrowind nowadays without mods.

As oppose to oblivion where I only run the mod to limit level scaling and skyrim, where I don't run any mods at all.

Many TES players have been around since day-one, and THAT'S some serious dedication!!! I, myself
started w/ #4, then #5, then back to #3; so I can see, admire, and respect the "old timers" opinions.
I found myself becoming a whinner when things didn't go my way (on a console), so I became invested when I felt the game wasn't worth the money...pay back, money back, whatever. But to answer your question, it's both...money, and passion.
Let's face it, we have to pay for it; and the only folks who can truely get what they want are the PCers,
and they, half the time, need to "repair" the original codes. Blessed are those who MOD!!!! Anyway, I'm
sure Bethesda game makers love making games, however, it's our money that keeps them warm at night, because above all....it's a for PROFIT company(ies)!!!!
money, money, money, makes the games come around, the games come around, the games come around!!! (to the choires of 'Cabaret').

Of course I do, I believe they genuinely do care about their games and that no one else could ever come close to their dedication to them. I want to say more so on their current title, but their are several factors that would make that statement an obvious one.

I DO however believe the hierarchy is far too focused on -what sells-, what others are doing to make money, whats recognizable and rakes in coin. rather than just making a unique independent creation not known because it resembles something else or has elements from other well known mediums but because it has its own aspects that make it unique.

its a business, I am well aware of that. but run the company like a business and make the game like Devs making a Game.

eh that didn't come out right.

That's the thing, I believe that many of the "streamlined" features were necesary. Like really, a chance to not hit? That's BS. As well as a chance to fail spells or making potions. Stuff like that needed to go. I think that Skyrim is TOO strteamlined, but not all streamlining is bad.

This. What developer doesn't love their game? Oh I know, BIOWARE .

BioWare love their game. Some people don't

I feel kind of bad for Bioware. Now they are asking the fans what they want in the next ME, what the story should be about, and the fans are still spitting on their shoes. I mean I hate that ending as the next guy but they are trying to make amends for it or that is what I think they are doing.

OT: I think they love their game. I mean the dedication to make the game probably took them forever. They even said they wanted to come back to TES because they love the series. If they hated it so much why would they keep making patches and DLC for the game? They could easily just take your money and run away with it and never try to fix anything in the game pertaining to your preference.

I say both. The company needs money to thrive and they love the series. I think sometimes they forget that taking things away will cause consequences.

My beef is with the publisher. Not the devs. I love the devs. However BGS is pretty much it's own publisher iirc. So...i simply do not agree with their priorities. I wouldn't call them lazy or say they do not love their games. I still will criticize them highly for their writing in faction quest lines, the length and pacing of said questlines and the general lack of impact in choices throughout the entire game. Those are my major beefs. I want the freedom to effect the game world. Even if the effects in the lore are minimal. Like saving a village or destroying it. Villages can rebuild.

THE most terrible thing to do period IMO.

I think the devs love their games, but I think they look at each project individually: "What do we want to make this game be about?" or "What do we want to see happen this time?" And if what they want to happen doesn't make sense, they probably shrug their shoulders and say, "We'll make it make sense!" I also wouldn't be surprised if they were so thrilled with the new stuff they were doing that they might be leaving some other things on the back burner for too long, only to find it slightly crispy when they remember to do something with it a little late in the day. I don't have too many issues with the gameplay, mainly because I've never tried to RP or pretend to be anything other than the default hero of the setting, so anything to do with balance, streamlining, or design flaws will go right over my head. But I see where the RPers and stat-keepers are going when they complain about things that have been removed from game to game (and I admit that even I would like to go back to the major and minor skill sets, if only because that would mean I could level up the miscellaneous stuff without worrying about leveling up overall--and yes, with attributes that sometimes became an actual problem, although perhaps only for Morrowind).

Bethesda need to make sacrifices in order to keep making Elder Scrolls games. Games are so expensive these days, they need to make the game appeal to as many people as possible in order to break even.

They have never broke even on any of their TES games. At least the main ones. I don't even think Redguard or Battlespire just broke even. Pretty sure they made substantial profit off of each game from Morrowind and on. Prior to that they still made good profit afaik. There is this thing called profit margins. If they fall below what is considered profitable then they are in trouble. They are very much into the gaming industry to make money. Which is as it should be. Artists , coders, managers etc etc need to get paid after all.

I think Bethesda love their game, I don't think they would spend so long developing it if they didn't.

I do however think they are becomming to focused on getting new fans rather thatn just making the best game they can, which will in itself bring new fans anyway. I think their design decisions refelct this and reflects their view (or what it seems to me) that the average gamer is dumb and doesn't like a challenge

The Dragonborn dlc would seem to refute this. They seem to be giving older fans (Morrowind fans in particular) a big hug

Not really, Zenimax is the one calling the shots at the end of the day, at least I think. Bethesda Softworks (the publisher) is headed by Zenimax people. BGS needs to fight for some freedom from Zenimax, because if TES Online becomes a WoW killer (there is a high chance of that), BGS will not be needed anymore, they're done for then.

They can't produce content of the quality of Morrowind anymore, that doesn't mean that they hate Morrowind or its fans. Also Todd Howard's favorite TES game is Arena.

Matter of taste. I like Oblivion's new lore more than Morrowind's, and I like Skyrim's gameplay more (including from an RP standpoint).