Starfield and the Elder Scrolls: Arena connection

 It has been stated many times that Starfield in many ways is a continuation of what Bethesda was using in Skyrim. It is in a long lineage from the days of Arena in 1994, which was an important stepping stone towards Starfield. It is said that Arena had many of the elements of procedural generation already in 1994 and this has been seen by many astute YouTubers. However, in 1994, such technology was primitive and only starting to be used in the video game industry. This was an industry that only a decade before been relying on graphics that did not display many pixels at all. Arena in many ways was a revolution in open world RPGs. To the gamers of that year, which was already filled to the prim with amazing games, Arena was incredible achievement. They had only seen games that were largely top perspective games, but this was something entirely new and interesting.

This is what many of these gamers today do not understand. Many of them complain about Starfield as if they were expecting another version of GTA set in space. I have explained many times that this game is not the next GTA but is something unique to Bethesda's way of making games.

I have talked at length as to why I am supporting this game. This is a special game and I believe that people need to be willing to give a chance and stop going on the bandwagon to criticize it. The cottage industry of complaints that come about on YouTube is very influential in getting people not to support games. Games such as this often suffer from expectations being too high. 

As I stated in my previous article that talked about this comparison to Skyrim, I said that Skyrim was around for so long that it seems as such that the whole genre revolves around it. Many people have been criticizing the game since the day it came out. One does not have to look far in order to get that Skyrim has been getting people to criticize the style and structure of Bethesda's game structures. Take any search engine of your choice and you see that there are tons of forums and Reddit posts that are criticizing the game right from the release of the game. Skyrim has only recently been able to turn its mediocrity upon release into something of a legend of its greatness. It is a propaganda in such a way. While Skyrim was a huge success upon release, it became a huge influence that outpaced anything else in the industry excluding GTA and some other games.

As you can clearly see here. Skyrim really put the Elder Scrolls on the map. No other game comes close to Skyrim in comparison. For many people, Skyrim was the Elder Scrolls. As much as YouTube autists want to talk about Daggerfall, hardly anyone even remembers that game. It was an influential game to be sure but it was a product of the 1990s and while the Internet may make it easier for archive things, it doesn't mean that those things remain relevant for people, especially the younger generation. 

This influence is what is really skewing people's views on Starfield to a degree that it is making them too dependent on that game for comparison. 

Skyrim was always a game that was made for the masses in a way that Oblivion was not. While Oblivion did sell many copies, the pace by which it sold copies was going to pale in comparison to Skyrim. 

Skyrim's sales figures are incredible when one thinks about it. In comparison with every other title that Bethesda has made, the game is the most dominant in this area. Every other title pale in comparison to it and that shows the success of this game.

It is because of this incredible success that Bethesda has wandering the seas, wondering what it needs to do to best Skyrim in sales. Honestly, I will say that will be very tall order. GTA VI will probably outsell GTA V because Rockstar Games is a legendary studio that has lots of support. However, can Bethesda even hope to surpass Skyrim in sales? I do not believe so. They have milked the cow way too much and now the hype and expectations are so high that it seems that Bethesda will have a hard time even getting to meet them. 

In many ways, Skyrim is alot more dumbed down than Starfield. While Starfield may seem too big to a rather sedentary generation, it is game that wants the player to take an active role getting to know what the world is about. 

This is a game about exploration at its very heart. It's not just about exploring incredible planets and space but about exploring the state of mankind after they have abandoned Earth to make a new home in the cosmos.

Starfield isn't really a stereotypical Science-fiction story. Many science-fiction stories before the Apollo Missions were generally speaking, strictly about science. Then they became more about social issues. With Starfield being a video game and not an educational game, this is not a game that seeks to educate players on the complexities of maintaining a ship on long journeys across space. It provides an abstraction while also simulating some of what occurs in real space exploration as work in the game. 

Starfield is more about a soft-science fiction exploration of what humanity is after leaving Earth. One could say that Bethesda wanted to pull its punches and not push too many buttons. They sought to be respectful to other political groups, whether they be secular or religious. 

There is a need to get the game to be in the style of Skyrim. I am not sure why people are not willing to move on accept Starfield for what it is. Once people understand that the Elder Scrolls Arena is the more appropriate analogue to Starfield, I think that people will start accepting this game.