WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.400 The year is 2002. I approach the desk at the rental store with a freshly minted copy of the 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:12.240 Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind. After handing over my change and scurrying home, I proceed to play for 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:18.880 roughly 24 hours straight, more captivated by this finely crafted world than anything I had seen 00:00:18.880 --> 00:00:26.000 in my entire 11 and a half years of life. Even boobs. I woke my dad up the next morning by professing 00:00:26.080 --> 00:00:31.520 my love of this game and begging him to buy a real copy of it to replace my rental version. 00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:37.360 To my surprise, he agreed. My dad and I would take turns playing on a shared save file where one of 00:00:37.360 --> 00:00:42.160 us would read through the player's guide and direct the other who would control the character. 00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:47.360 These are some of my favorite gaming memories ever. We use that player's guide so much it 00:00:47.360 --> 00:00:52.720 barely holds together at this point. The cover has been missing for decades. I was driven to get 00:00:52.720 --> 00:00:58.480 into software development because I wanted to work for Bethesda for Todd Howard. I wanted to make 00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:03.680 things like Morrowind, this piece of art that means so much to me. To say this is my favorite game 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:10.560 ever would be an understatement. Fast forward 21 years to Starfield's release and I tried with every 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:16.160 fiber of my being to find that diamond in the rough but it just wasn't there. I bought the 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:20.640 collector's edition. I tried to fight off the haters. I streamed it to try to add to the hype 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:27.200 but it just fell flat. What went wrong? I don't really know. I work here, not in the gaming industry 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:32.240 and there are people out there that have deconstructed Starfield far better than I can. I suggest 00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:36.880 Nakey Jakey's video on the topic he shares nearly identical views to me and is a better 00:01:36.880 --> 00:01:42.160 presenter so just go watch that. What I want to talk about today isn't actually Starfield itself 00:01:42.160 --> 00:01:48.640 but the machine and the environment that made it. The industry is sick, not just Bethesda. 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:53.520 Off the top of my head, other studios that have fallen from grace include Activision, 00:01:53.520 --> 00:02:00.400 Ubisoft, Blizzard, EA, 343 Studios and more. All titans of the industry that used to be known for 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:07.840 releasing generational bangers over and over again but now seem to just fart out quadruple A grade 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:14.720 trash. And it's not just bad games, it's bad culture, bad PR, bad management. From the very 00:02:14.720 --> 00:02:20.080 serious sexual harassment issues at Blizzard, EA claiming egregious microtransactions are there 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:26.640 to enable a sense of pride and accomplishment and rampant layoffs. It's clear something is wrong 00:02:26.640 --> 00:02:32.560 and no I'm not here to suggest a fix but I am here to identify a pattern. See we've seen this 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:38.960 before. Look at Atari and Activision from back in the late 70s. Atari's leadership was floundering 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:46.800 and some of their key talent broke off freeing themselves and forming Activision. I might be 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:52.960 grasping at straws here but it feels cyclical. Many giants of the 90s and early 2000s are losing 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:58.320 their spark and in some cases splinter teams are starting to form. Some examples of this would be 00:02:58.320 --> 00:03:03.680 Dreamhaven and Frost Giant, Splinters from Blizzard or Stoic Studio, a splinter from EA. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:09.920 There are others as well and more are forming all the time and you can feel it too right. It's not 00:03:09.920 --> 00:03:16.000 just those. A new dawn seems to be rising. Steam records are getting smashed left and right 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:23.040 unexpectedly. Arrowhead Studios, the makers of wildly successful Helldivers 2 proudly proclaims 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:29.760 on their website that a game made for everyone is a game made for no one. From software unabashedly 00:03:29.760 --> 00:03:35.200 sticks to their guns when it comes to difficulty and game design, eventually releasing the utterly 00:03:35.200 --> 00:03:41.600 jaw-dropping Elden Ring. Larian Studios takes a risk releasing a D&D format game in 2023, 00:03:41.600 --> 00:03:47.840 something many people and studios balked at. Yet gamers can't get enough and it easily won Game 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:54.560 of the Year continues to receive endless praise and their leader Sven Vicki seems to be incapable of 00:03:54.640 --> 00:04:00.160 saying or doing anything not completely based. The future is bright. It's a great time to be a 00:04:00.160 --> 00:04:06.240 gamer. Try not to sweat the failures of the old gods and instead enjoy the successes of the new 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:11.840 ones. Thanks for listening to me ramble. Thanks for being subscribed to Flowplain and I'll see you next time.