Starfield and the Cottage Industry of Complaints

The company that made Starfield is committed to making sure that the game succeeds, and people continue to enjoy it. They released a patch for the game a couple of days ago, and it seems like to me that Todd Howard and company are determined to see it through to make sure that it successful and that it continues to attract players. They are not just going to drop this game like so many other games have been dropped by other developers over the years. I have to say that I am very impressed with what Todd Howard and his team has managed to accomplish.

There is however, another major issue that is somewhat confusing when it comes to Starfield. That issue is that the community, especially on the influential site on Reddit is flooding the internet with negativity. While the modding community has been hard at work trying to make the game better with a variety of improvements and quality of life additions, the community on Reddit has mostly been about attacking the game. The Starfield subreddit in particular, is more interested in boosting posts about how the game is great instead of focusing on the great creativity of the community that is making all these mods. It is unfortunate that the community is so negative and unwilling to look at the positive side of things. This is why that I am more interested in getting people to like this game instead of complaining about it online. 

This cottage industry of complaints as I call it is responsible for much of the animus that surrounds our culture today. It permeates everything from politics to even some of the most innocuous things, like our favorite hobbies, Video games. This criticism, which was generally limited to the word of mouth and angry letters and phone calls in the decades before the internet, has become an entire industry. People have entire YouTube channels that are devoted entirely to criticizing gaming. 

We need to start being more careful about why we criticize and how. 

Video gaming is a very capital intensive job. Many programmers who work on these projects have to spend many months and years working on these projects. Starfield alone probably took around 7 to 8 years to complete, with its planning phases stretching back towards the release of Skyrim. As we know from what Todd Howard has told us, is that the he always wanted to make a game such as this and they managed to accomplish that. Many people do not understand that making games is a tall order for any studio to achieve. Many games end up being cancelled and their ideas don't seem transition into other games. 

We need to have more realistic expectations surrounding video games. Too often, people expect them to be like the next Rockstar title. I believe that Rockstar should be commended for their efforts at creating immersive worlds. They were particularly very innovative with games going far back as their first titles in the 1990s. However, with the release of GTA III in 2001, the video gaming landscape has been more and more influenced by open world games. This sort of mechanic has been popping up in so many games that it is even becoming an issue for innovation in video games. 

People have to stop thinking that every video game is going to be like Red Dead Redemption 2 or GTA V. Some games are going to be different from one another and Starfield shouldn't have to be compared to those games. It is important that people temper their expectations of games so that they approach those games with more realistic views of games are made in the industry. The developers on Starfield spent many years making the game and people should try to respect that. 

Starfield as it is designed is a tough game for many people to like. Because of the emphasis on the Nasapunk aesthetic, the game is really trying to focus on making people reminisce about a time of Nasa where the organization was making records after chasing the Soviets for almost a whole decade after Sputnik was launched into space. Nasa is still an important Space organization and probably the most important there is. However, people no longer hold Nasa in the same high view as they did before and this makes Starfield almost seem outdated in its sentiments about space exploration. People are willing to be really harsh on this game probably because the age is very cynical in its very nature. Video games, even ones that are considered to be great are suffering from all these cynics who only care about criticizing games. 

This cottage industry of criticism is a product of our times and it is unlikely to go away considering that many people are making money on it. 

What I think is best for us is to not rely on the thoughts of random people on the internet and try on enjoying what we like. Instead of trying to please the unknowable crowds that are on the internet is not the approach we should be taking. It's time to just support the game.