Starfield and the Issue with Expectations

 

Astronaut on his own spaceship


Starfield and the Issue of High Expectations


Starfield has had to deal a lot with people having unrealistic expectations about it. People thought this was going to be next GTA or Red Dead Redemption 2 and yet Starfield is supposed to have its own identity separate from those games. People have to understand that Starfield is a new IP that is going to have some rough edges around it. This is Bethesda's first foray into the realm of Science Fiction that isn't retro like the Fallout series. Starfield has broken ground with its amazing procedural generation software has allowed for a greater variety of maps to be made. While this isn't a seamless model, its probably the best that I have seen. While it has its issues, Starfield is one of the best games of the year with incredible potential and possibilities for stories.

People say that the game is boring, and the stories are lackluster; I disagree with this sentiment. Starfield doesn't have the best story but at least it's not cliche and samey like Skyrim. Skyrim is one of those kinds of games that does very well with people who are not expecting much from their games. Honestly, Oblivion is clearly superior but is less well-known because Bethesda did not dumb it down as much as they did with Skyrim. 

Expectations can be a really messy thing. It can get in the way of people being able to enjoy a game. 

Bethesda has included so many features with this game and yet people are still complaining. There are so many planets and moons to explore and yet the players are constantly complaining about this game. There are full-blown wildlife simulations that have prey and predators and yet people are saying the game is not interesting.

I think that video games may have reached a plateau and that players are expecting too much of their games. I think that the AI boom in software may help to relieve some of the pressure that game developers are under right now. We can get help the developers who are under much pressure to achieve their objectives. There is a reason why crunch is such an issue in the video game industry. 

It is interesting to see that players are constantly complaining about Starfield and think that its a mediocre game at best and a terrible one at worst. If we look at the period of 2000 to 2005, there was tons of improvements in graphics.

Starfield was an attempt to bring back many of the RPG elements from older Elder Scrolls games. They added important classes and traits that make the so interesting and engaging. People have to give the game a chance. 

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