#because bethesda/zenimax loves it

[bam-monsterhospital]

it also says:

support the slavery house of slavery because they need slavery power back to continue their slave industry. yay!

we've heard slavery is bad but..... uh.... naw. it's fine. the ebonheart pact formed together and we've gaslit you all into believing a main part of that alliance is for morrowind to stop slavery. But we lied. Morrowind can keep using slaves. Its slavery house can keep on going. It's fine because hey, at least they're not argonian slaves, and that's where the beef was right? Right!

It's so fun and cool of humans to slaughter the orsimer people all throughout history, but goddammit those savages should feel grateful the bretons and nords bordering the wrothgarian mountains allow them to have that land. Why won't those savages join our human covenant? Why won't they let us humans have free reign into the land we've allowed them to have? Gawd, the nerve.

High elves are also racist supremacists, because elves amirite, so we're going to detail all sorts of micro and macro aggressions they inflict on others, as well as this racism school. Because it's fun. Oh wait, you want to stop racism?... okay fine, the school and the system isn't the problem, it's just a few bad apples, and no one learns anything. Done. Quest over. Nothing has changed. Phew that was a close one.

Hey nature magic is only special nature magic when white bretons living on rich-fuck vacation island do it while scoffing at civilization they benefit from. Argonians? Bosmer? Nah they don't count. They don't do nature magic hahahaha.

and on and on.

Isn't it wild that ESO looks you in the eye and says "Yes we're aware that goblins are sapient people with their own culture. And that you're slaughtering an entire clan just because they are blocking your path to some kind of artifact that ancient people took pains to carefully hide and defend for some reason. We're fully aware that what you're supposed to do here is stupid and evil, and we're still making you do it because lol who cares about goblins they don't really count amirite."

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Do you know if it was Corey Loving doing all the art for The Improved Emperor's Guide to Tamriel? Ex. the Watcher you just posted?

If not, it would be awesome to know all the authors from that book!

So its pretty clear that Corey Loving (was) a big concept artist for ESO when he was still with Zenimax. As such he has only posted probability a smaller portion of concepts he created for ESO. I say this because he has an online portfolio of ESO art that is clearly missing large portions of his work which can be found elsewhere. I'm pretty dang sure he did a lot of concepts for ESO which we can find publicly, but don't have known credits for since he's never claimed those pieces specifically. As far as I can tell, yes his concepts were used for the Guide to Tamriel book, but many other artist's pieces were used as well.

From what I can tell Bethesda/Zenimax have a suuuper frustrating tendency to just slap concept art from numerous artists and even games into their physical books and art books without specifying who did what or what project the art is even from.

For example, there's Oblivion concept art in The Improved Emperor's Guide to Tamriel and there's Oblivion concept art in the Skyrim Library Book Set. There's even Oblivion concept art which can *only* be found in the Skyrim Library book set! They FR put unpublished Oblivion concept art in a *SKYRIM* book set.

---

As far as I can tell, if whoever is compiling these books doesn't have an exact art asset from the most relevant game, they simply tap into the broader (non-public) art archives from Bethesda/Zenimax.

What this leads to (annoyingly!) is a mish mash of uncredited art from all sorts of sources and artists, most of which are uncredited or poorly credited in the books.

All in all, there are absolutely alot of pieces in the Improved Emperor's Guide to Tamriel which we can safely attribute to Artist's like Corey Loving, BUT thanks to sloppy compiling and poor crediting, folks like myself and the good people at The Imperial Library, UESP etc. have to do the research and footwork to find the definitive credits for all the pieces the people at Bethesda/Zenimax *know the credits for already* but bafflingly just don't give direct credit.

Seriously, allllll these artist credit problems would be solved by having tiny lil footnotes for each art piece on the page. I've seen other non-TES art books do that and it works wonderfully and doesn't distract or diminish the presentation of the book and art whatsoever.

Sorry for being so rambly. The big problem with ESO is there's so so so so many different artists who have worked on it over the past decade and we really only have a handful of names to cite for the concept art credits when we know there are so many more people who's names we should know but Bethesda/Zenimax don't credit properly or clearly.

Tales of Tamriel is the only ESO book AFAIK which actually lists the artists who's pieces were used for it. You will note a certain Corey Loving is on the list. From everything I know, the "Special Thanks to:" artists are probably the same people who did the art for The Guide to Tamriel.

[tomsawyee]

Every time a Pretty Good RPG comes out, the same brand of post crops up and gets reblogged by Pretty Much Everyone, and it always functionally boils down to:

"See??? People still love single player games!!"

It's pretty easy to see where this take comes from. With the advent of consoles and internet connections that can functionally "always" be online (ymmv, our private internet infrastructure is woefully lacking), AAA has been on a shift away from offline standalone experiences for ~15 years.

What this take ignores, though, is where this shift in what gets greenlit and published comes from.

No amount of "proof" that single player character RPGs still make money is going to change the fact that shitting out Call of Duty every year makes more.

The games audience on Tumblr is heavily skewed toward character games with flexibly approachable RPG mechanics and gamified relationship interactions. This community, large though it may seem from the inside as all fan communities feel, is a microscopic slice of the games market. Every rando who's ever worked in a store that sells consoles can confirm: The vast majority of Xbox One's and PS4's are/were Call of Duty + Fifa and/or Madden Machines. These games are annual releases with minimal change between titles and robust+heavily monetized online features.

Bioware didn't shit out Anthem because the (exhausted, mismanaged) workers there wanted to make Destiny: But Worse. Bethesda didn't shit out Fallout 76 because their devs thought it would be a compelling restructuring of the IP they had already rendered unrecognizable under the survival MMO umbrella. They did it because EA and Zenimax, publicly traded billion dollar parasites, wanted to cash in on the fact that, if you can tap this content well just right, you can convince people to keep paying for your game forever. They did it because we've been modding the shit out of Skyrim for 10 years and they're losing sleep over the fact that we haven't had to keep giving Zenimax (Microsoft, lmao) more money to do so.

The antidote to this problem isn't to cross our fingers and pray that Dragon Age 4 doesn't suck (It's going to) (If it even comes out at all). It's to stop placing our hopes in the hands of enormous publishers, and to do start digging for games that scratch the itches AAA is intentionally missing because they aren't infinite money pits.

The antidote to the frustration of corporatized art-making is the same for every medium: Go looking for the thing that you want. It probably exists, and it is probably being drowned out in the mainstream by multi-million dollar marketing campaigns for Assassin's Creed: We Promise We Don't Abuse Women Anymore Lmao XIII. You don't even have to manually dig through itch.io-- Investing a little more in this hobby we all love can start with something as simple as clicking the "more like this" equivalent tab on whatever online marketplace you use and reading more about a title that doesn't cost $59.99 but still catches your eye. Mainstream indie-adjacent publishers like Devolver and Annapurna Interactive have strong recent track records of enabling small/medium studios to make games that are compelling and fun without the looming specter of infinite monetization and breaking employee's backs to make sure horse balls shrink in the cold.

I really hope you consider this perspective if you feel like BG3 came out of nowhere. It was in Early Access for almost 3 years, but it was largely panned from the mainstream Hype Cycle. Larian self-publishes, and games journalism is by-and-large not journalism but marketing, so this enormous game was incredibly easy to miss if you weren't actively looking for it.

Every tier of this industry has its own foundational rot, its own bad actors, its own entities that we really don't want to give our money to. But I promise, taking a little bit of time to go digging past the AAA buzz of the week will net you a better experience than waiting for megacorps to place something in front of you that is worthy of your time.

[regrettablemeasure]

im always so curious what people’s most controversial tes opinions are because i say this with genuine love as a long term fan, every long term fan is fucking weird inherently as a person so

mine are

- i prefer the narrative that foul murder and the direct reincarnation of the nerevarine is Canon

- i like alamalexia having once genuinely been in love w nerevar and he reciprocated and it was a fine relationship at some point in time

- i think morrowind needs a genuine AAA remake SOTC style. id also like literally any other company that isnt zenimax/bethesda to do it

- morrowind gets a lot of criticism regarding cultural insensitivity or appropriation and while i’m not able to speak on all aspects of it the parts that DO reflect stuff relating to me irl i fucking adore and i dont find it offensive when people go “ohhh so weird so cool” bc i’d rather take that than have another fantasy christian story

[svartalfhild]

What’s your favorite High Fantasy Story?

Oh boy. What a big question. Buckle in; this is going to take a minute.

Okay, so as you might expect, it's very hard for me to say one particular story is my absolute favourite, especially considering how I engage with the genre across many different types of media, so let me talk about a few different stories arranged by medium.

Books

Obviously the works of Tolkien are high on my list of favourites. LOTR is the ur-story of Western high fantasy.

I've mentioned it many times before, but the Starlight & Shadows trilogy by Elaine Cunningham has always been a big favourite of mine and a very formative read for me when I was a preteen. If you like DnD, elves (esp. dark elves), and/or morally complicated female protagonists, this one is for you. It also has a romance between a wizard and a barbarian and incorporates lots of aspects of Forgotten Realms lore that take inspiration from Norse and Slavic mythology.

Film and TV

LOTR defs makes this list again. I am the Spiders Georg for Times Watched LOTR Movies.

The Witcher. "But Svar, why did you list this here and not under books?" Because the books are full of misogyny. Don't get me wrong, the books have good stuff, but the Netflix series got rid of a lot of the misogyny that I greatly dislike about the books (and games). I also just really enjoy the show in its own right. The Blood Origin miniseries spinoff is super good too and I'm sad it got no attention. Are there flaws? Yes. But I really like the story they're trying to tell and Slavic folklore doesn't get nearly enough interest in Western media.

The Mythica Films. This is a series of five indie fantasy films that are clearly inspired by DnD and they are the best indie fantasy movies I've ever seen. They tell the story of a young disabled woman talented with magic who finds out she's got dark powers and has to run for her life. Matt Mercer plays the main villain and weirdly enough, these movies were the first time I ever saw him, and I was actually wary of Critical Role at first because those movies gave me the odd impression that he's an edgelord, even though he's a very sweet person irl lol.

Honor Among Thieves is brand new, but it instantly won my heart as a favourite. How can it not? It's set in DnD's Forgotten Realms and is about platonic friends raising a child together while also being about whacky heist shit. A story after my silly aspec heart.

Games

Okay, I'mma have to restrain myself and give you top five here, because otherwise we're gonna be here all day.

The Baldur's Gate Saga. Fucking old but truly great. The OG. The 90's graphics might turn a lot of people off these days, which is unfortunate, because they are amazing games, especially with the Enhanced Editions and the new Siege of Dragonspear expansions. It's the story of an unwitting child of the God of Murder, and you can either embrace what you are, struggle against it, or try to ride the line. I personally find the struggle against one's blood and supernatural urges a much more compelling story. It's the struggle to become something other than what you were made to be while also being pulled towards your destiny and have to choose what to do with the power that is given to you. It is the struggle for your soul and the souls of those you love. It is a journey to the Hells and a rise from its ashes, and you have to choose what the phoenix looks like. Also there's a man who carries a miniature giant space hamster everywhere with him and a gnome obsessed with turnips, to name just a few of the incredibly silly aspects of the story.

The Elder Scrolls series. The worldbuilding in TES is amazing for the specific reason that it's such a fucking mess. The folks at Bethesda and Zenimax have taken the unique approach of building the lore like historians collecting a bunch of conflicting primary sources. That's fucking fascinating because it makes the world feel more realistic. The real world is full of conflicting information, especially regarding history, and we all have to decide what we think is true based on the information given to us. Also TES III: Morrowind in particular is the most game of all time. You can tell it was made by a bunch of freaks and it's creatively braver than many of the major RPGs that have come out since. Bethesda just went "what if we did a game about the land of the dark elves, and that land is full of mushroom trees and all the fauna is either some sort of unique reptile, insect, or jellyfish- no it's not underground- anyway, here's an epic story about destiny, revenge, cultural conflict, and the gods being deeply flawed- also there's a bit where you have to kill a giant jellyfish with a fork you got from a lizard man called Big Head".

The Dragon Age series. All things considered, DA is a pretty conventional high dark fantasy story, but it has enough of its own unique twists and interesting writing/worldbuilding to be special to me. Each game has a different protagonist and a different type of story, but there's some themes that are consistent across the series. I would say the central theme of DA is finding the strength to do what must be done, even though you never asked for the responsibility and by rights shouldn't even be here. I think that's really compelling if you're the kind of person who has dealt with a lot of imposter syndrome in your life.

The Pillars of Eternity games. I don't think PoE gets nearly enough love. It has rich, carefully crafted lore that gets into things that other series tend to half-ass, like the linguistic aspects of the worldbuilding. Across the two games, Obsidian really delves deep into difficult discussions about mental illness, the relationship between gods and mortals, the cycle of life and death, ethics in magic, the effects of imperialism, and trying to make huge decisions when the right answer isn't clear. Also the visual style of these games is impeccable, as is the music.

Neverwinter Nights. This is where my love of DnD began. I watched my uncle play this game when I was a kid and I instantly fell in love with its whole vibe. The main campaign might hit different these days, because the story involves a deadly plague and the protag has to recover the pieces of a potential cure while also uncovering cult shit. There's a whole betrayal/scapegoat thing going on that's super tragic. Anyway, pile this one on the list of reasons I grew up to be a DnD obsessed goth.

Other

If you follow me, you're probably familiar with how much I love the DnD actual play show Critical Role. I've been watching since 2016 and I'm forever amazed at the compelling stories the cast and the dice rolls have built across three campaigns now.

Black Dice Society is my other favourite DnD actual play show. It's Ravenloft, so it's a gothic horror/high fantasy fushion. It has two seasons and tells such a beautiful story about the struggle for love and power.

[teal-deer]

a bad game is almost never the fault of QA, the devs, the designers, or the writers. 99% of the time it's because the CEO of the holding company wanted a bigger yacht.

the person to currently blame for any Bethesda Softworks game sucking isn't Todd Howard, it is Phil Spencer, current CEO of Microsoft Game Studios, which owns ZeniMax Media, which owns Bethesda Softworks.

games should be delayed more often. Games should take 20+ years to come out. Cyberpunk 2077 is a case study in this: the current DLC stuff is what the game was *supposed* to be like at launch, except the CEO wanted another yacht, so it got released half baked. See also Mass Effect: Andromeda, which actually has the bones of a perfectly lovely game, but someone at EA wanted another yacht.

The reason wee indie games are often "better" is because there is no billionaire asshole who only sees games as a way to make Line Go Up involved.

what is your most controversial video game hot take? 🎮🎮🎮

[yarns-and-d20s]

The Greedy Truth Behind BioWare's Layoffs...

This is an excellent video!

What I'm about to say isn't an attack on devs, and is, instead, about we the gamers and the "AAA" side of the industry (eg, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, UbiSoft, Bethesda Softworks/Zenimax Studios, Square Enix, Nintendo, etc). It's about money being the root of all evil, just like the video says.

What's important to the "AAA" gaming industry is paying their shareholders and their CEOs. It's important to them to pay the people who don't actually make their flipping games. Their workers' livilihoods and lives aren't important to them; that's why they fire them en masse after stock buybacks and record profits, that's why they get rid of people with 10+ years of experience (they're too expensive). That's why CEOs get massive bonuses and workers get crunch and layoffs. Meanwhile, players are only important to them when we open our wallets. That's why we get broken games, bugs, "live services", and microtransactions from them.

Let's not forget how recent it was that Activision Blizzard bragged about their record profits and immediately turned around and fired hundreds of people.

Let's not forget "stress casualties". Let's not forget crunch; microtransactions right out the gate or being added after reviews are out saying "hey, there's no microtransactions!"; loot boxes; pay-to-win "mechanics"; games that are so broken they are unplayable on launch (hi, Jedi Survivor); games still filled with bugs 13 years after release (hi, Skyrim, love your Unofficial Skyrim Patch mod); games that are shipped incomplete and we have to buy the ending; horse armour; garnishing a man's wages for life.

They'll do this so long as we reward them with our money. I'm not saying to boycott (unless of course you actually are boycotting the entire "AAA" video game industry, and in that case, my hat goes off to you, you're a more ethical person than I am)!

I'm saying to unclench about FOMO (and maybe even spoilers) and wait. The devs have been paid. Buy "AAA" games on sale--especially when you're playing on PC (and I know that Nintendo-made Nintendo games go on sale so rarely; I almost don't even know what to say about that).

Every time we pre-order/buy on day one for full price, every time we buy "cosmetic" DLC, etc, we reward these companies for doing what they do to their workers and to their customers. And, look, this video itself--and the whole thing with Activision + profits + layoffs--is proof positive that we are not actually helping or rewarding the workers when we pre-order and buy their games at full price. They've been paid, and chances are they're gonna be laid off anyway. Chances are studios are going to be shuttered anyway. That's how the "AAA" gaming industry works, because we just give them all of our money.

All we're doing is padding the pockets of CEOs and shareholders. We are not helping the working class. We are helping the owner class. That's the truth of it. They make massive profits, and they pay the shareholders and CEOs, and they lay off hundreds of workers. The only way they will learn anything is if we stop rewarding them for their bullshit.

Pay full price for indie games, or for games from studios that are "AA" and below that (eg, Focus Home Entertainment, though they have had their problems, too), and especially pay full price for games from studios that have a proven track record (eg, Supergiant). I know the feeling of the FOMO, and acknowledge that I'm kind of uniquely apathetic about spoilers, but I also know I have a massive backlog of games that I can play while I wait for the Next Big Thing to go on sale, even if it's only 10% off.

[littlegalerion]

Wait wtf is C0DA ? I'm kind of new to the TES fanbase, so I have no clue what is this thing

It's a complicated subject. I'll provide a link to UESP on the subject so as you can get a non-biased opinion on it ♡

Basically, it's a series of fiction written by one of Morrowind's writers, Michael Kirkbride. A lot of people try to insist it is solid Elder Scrolls canon, but as it isn't offically published by Bethesda nor Zenimax, it's basically fanfiction. Really cool fanfiction, but just fanfiction. Many a war has been started within the Elder Scrolls fandom over this subject.

Personally, I just think everyone should enjoy the games however you want! If you consider C0DA canon, that's great! It's your playthrough and your OCs, so have fun with Elder Scrolls however you please! But back in the day, this brought on a lot of online all out war and cyberbullying. There are a lot of die-hard, core games Elder Scrolls fans that would kill over insisting it's canon.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/General:C0DA

[edaworks]

I love seeing everyone’s headcanons for where MacCready’s homestead would be located, and since I’m piecing together more parts of One if By Land, here’s my own unhinged way-overthought headcanon on the topic.

The first time I played through Mac’s affinity quests, a location for the homestead IMMEDIATELY clicked for me (complete with vocal “oh. well shiiiit.”) because, well, you’ll see!

 Let’s take a look at the affinity dialogue about Duncan’s illness for a sec:

With that in mind, let me introduce y’all to still-partially-agricultural Frederick, Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C. - and its largest local employer, Fort Detrick. (For reference, the Bethesda, MD location for Bethesda’s/Zenimax’s studios is literally 30min away from this location...unless it’s rush hour! Then it’s 90min away. That commute sucks.)

1) Um, what do you mean, “there’s a military installation for WWII/Cold-War-era bioweapons research, turned military installation for modern infectious disease research, just outside DC?”

Yup! Welcome to Frederick City.

______________________________________________________________

Blah, blah. But I didn’t come here to show off population stats, I’ve got Actual Reasons™ I promise, so lemme skip to those: ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Back up, though: “Bioscience/communications research” doesn’t quite grasp the scope of what my homies at Detrick have going on. This is more like it: ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

If you hear “unknown disease” or “bioweapon research” or “Ebola zaire” or “the plague” or other scary phrases regarding disease around the DC-MD-VA area, this is kind of the one and only place that comes to mind. It was the center of US bioweapons research for an extraordinarily long time, starting prior to the Fallout universe’s continuity split.

After Detrick’s bioweapons research was, ahem, shut down (as far as we civvies know), biological defense research and biomedical research continued to persist and still persists through present date: ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Remember the US’s Ebola zaire outbreak a few years back? In 2014 (right before Fallout 4 was released)? They brought several Ebola patients to Detrick for observation when they weren’t under observation with the CDC.

Biomedical research has better optics than bioweapons development, though, right? Uhhh…Detrick’s recent history here has not been without its complications. Observe: ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________ Yeah. Just imagine how much worse the ‘safety violations’ would have been in the Fallout universe, right? And there’s more – decades of controversy regarding materials disposal methods predating the latest issues: ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

There’s been argument for years about whether there is a “cancer cell” area for civilians located around Area B (colloquially ‘B-site.’) Funsies.

So - sometime in the 2280s after 200+ years of facility abandonment, a kid getting sick playing in the back 40 of a farm in this area? It’s not only believable, I’d freaking expect it.

2) Okay, but does the area have agricultural potential?

100% yes! Uhh…at least, it does pre-nuclear-apocalypse.

This area was (and in some places still is) HEAVILY agricultural, particularly up until about a decade and a half ago. There is still active farmland RIGHT next to Detrick. It’s good soil.

Basically: farms, the I-70/I-270 interchange, the Barbara Fritchie house, many DC suburbs, the downtown area, various important Civil War historical locations, and Fort Detrick. That’s the whole area in a nutshell.

3) But is it on the Fallout 3 map? I don’t remember seeing a location named “Frederick” anywhere.

Frederick isn’t a named location on the FO3 map, likely because the area where it would have been pre-war is half-on, half-off the northern map edge. However, consider: there’s a military installation nearby the area where Frederick would sit on the map, and it’s a sattcomm base. Fort Detrick, as you might’ve seen above, is also known for communications research.

Here’s a shitty overlay image for reference - I’ve traced some of the major roadways on the FO3 map and have labeled them with their likely IRL equivalents (everything’s very skewed to IRL locations), to give a general idea of where this area falls on the map.

Compare to IRL:

TL;DR: I’ll die on my headcanon hill that Mac’s homestead is in what used to be Frederick County near Detrick’s Area B, just at or just above the northern edge of the FO3 map.

(Fun bonus fact: I took some summer courses with Detrick employees when I was college age! One of those classes was a public speaking course. For his demonstrative speech, one of them walked us through how he gets into his HAZMAT suit in a span of less than 15 seconds! Oof.)

[majorarlene]

Re: Mick Gordon, Marty Stratton, Doom Eternal OST

I want to start off by saying that absolutely none of this should have happened. I mean, obviously.

I’m not going to break the entire article down but please be sure to read here: https://medium.com/@mickgordon/my-full-statement-regarding-doom-eternal-5f98266b27ce 1. much of the first couple of sections just highlights the issues the AAA part of the gaming industry has as a whole, therefore unionization is important. 2. know consumer protection laws, whether you’re a subcontractor or not- or seek legal counsel if you are able. this is not to blame Mick for this piece, this was still Marty’s responsibility to communicate those deadlines clearly, but when working in AAA the game is different. 3. volunteering a contractor before a contract is written is absolutely ghoulish behavior on id’s part. 4. a few people will likely ask “why didn’t Mick complain about not getting paid sooner” and as an accountant, I can tell you that if you’re trying to get work out the door on insane deadlines, you’re going to either forget to invoice things or if on contract, you shouldn’t have to fucking worry about that? contracts are there for a reason and id knew the agreement, it should not be an employee or subcontractor’s job to remind their employer to pay them. dunno how accounting works in the AAA industry but it would never fly where I work. 5. Marty posting his statement on REDDIT as the original source is awful behavior and completely unprofessional. Not even on a company-run Reddit, but a Reddit run and moderated by volunteers (r/Doom) whom ultimately should have never been dragged into this issue. Since Mick’s statement, mods have been harassed and have quit moderating. I know some of the mods and they absolutely do not deserve this treatment. I imagine being told by the executive producer of the game you love that if you take his post down you’ll likely be threatened with legal action would not be a great situation to be in. 6. The lawyers at Zenimax sound like they’d have been great on Theranos’s team (hint, not a good thing). some other thoughts: - from how it sounds, id needs to be clearly communicating to Bethesda/Zenimax its legal needs because it cannot handle them on its own. - Marty should never produce a game again. or if he does, he needs to be kept a mile away from press because he cannot be trusted to handle it safely. - I hope Mick finally gets the compensation he deserves. Musicians are just as much contractors as they are creators, especially in circumstances where they are being told they need to create music for levels that haven’t even been conceptualized yet. Musicians should be paid for the hours they spend formulating as well as the songs they ultimately produce. - the harassment of the creator of an OST is absolutely disgusting and gamer entitlement needs to be addressed. fuck anyone who engaged in the behavior described. - Review bombing on Steam will not fix this issue. harassment of anyone involved will not fix this issue. frank discussions about how creators of all kinds in the industry will.

[saturniandragon]

Idk how to tell you this. I never ever simp for characters in fiction. It's never been a thing in my life and I'm a huge asexual. But I played ESO once. I talked to Razum-Dar once. I still think about him even though I haven't played ESO since. It's been months. I think about him all the time. I've read all his wiki pages. Never until now have I been interested in fanfiction, I went on ao3 for the first time just for him. Idk what it is about him. What's so special about Raz Elder Scrolls? Why is he the one my brain has decided to fixate on? He's so goddamn attractive he even broke through my asexuality. It's even stranger because I was never a fan of the way Khajiit looked. Idk if I should go back in game to see him, I kinda wanna but I don't want to commit to another mmo. It's like he's trying to beckon me to return. He's so irresistible. But mmos are hard work and I don't have the time or energy. What the hell I can't stop thinking about Raz Elder Scrolls

I'm fucking crying lmao

We all love Raz down here, anon :) Even if this blog isn't specifically Razum-Dar simp blog. What can I say, it's one NPC that Bethesda/Zenimax did right.

(probably more than right because you claimed he broke through your asexuality lmao)

You can treat ESO as single player game, anon, like I do. Despite being MMO there are loads of SP content. I never really cared about PvP, PvE, trials and dungeons and whatnot. I'm here for stories, NPCs to hate and love, new regions of Nirn that previous TES games never depicted :)

Really appreciate taking some time off your day to confess specifically to this blog, anon, it really made my morning. Especially because I've been having a bit of flu in the last 2 days, this has been a great cheer up for me, thank you <3

[t00thpasteface]

Expanding on the ask about the TES fandom having stage IV terminal Hiatus-Brain (paging @allroadsstilllead and @pleasespellchimerical):

It's a blessing and a curse, really. I love that it's become such a close-knit, creative, and supportive community for all sorts of OCs, canon divergence art/fic, speculative worldbuilding, you name it. Honest, it's wonderful!

But (and I don't know how to say this next bit without sounding like a total wet-blanket buzzkill) when you spend far, far more time creating and engaging with completely fanmade fabrications than the actual games/canon, even if it’s beautiful and bespoke and very lovingly crafted, I think there's definitely a line you cross where canon-- the actual thing you claim to like-- is really just holding you back.

And I mean this in a completely 100% affectionate, positive, even admiring way. The TES fandom has the most brilliant, creative, galaxy-brained, and just plain talented artists, writers, and worldbuilders I've ever seen in any fandom in all my years. And I think Todd is holding them back!! I firmly believe they could all easily launch into their own 100% original illustrations, short stories, comics, novels, you name it, to raucous applause. They have the talent, the drive, and the loyal fans!

If nothing else, I think they could benefit from seeking out things that already have what they want. Yes, it's hard to find anything with good, positive representation for all sorts of people and places. But TES, Bethesda, Zenimax, Todd himself... they will never give you any of that representation, either. I'm not going to use the phrase "consuming media" because (I despise it and) I think it waters down the profound experience of engaging with art. You need to engage with new, fresh, vibrant, different art. It’s wonderful to be inspired by art, to let any art move you into creating your own art, but being inspired to expand on something and being compelled to fix something are two completely separate ballgames. And they are not interchangeably constructive. One is buying brand new running-shoes and the other is tying lead weights to your bathing suit.

And, yes, even mass-produced blockbuster AAA games are art. And being inspired by art, creating things derived from the art you love, is a natural and wonderful part of the human experience. And it is because, not in spite, of those facts that I think you should never limit yourself to only the same tired art that ultimately makes you unhappy just because it is comfortable or familiar.  You don't owe Bethesda anything, any loyalty or continued affection, just because you have enjoyed their games in the past. You can shake off that chrysalis and find something that truly makes you happy as it is, without you putting it through the wringer of ten million fix-it fics.

I can’t say I’ve ever felt compelled to get into this degree of speculation and worldbuilding with TES in particular, but goodness knows I’ve gone through this a hundred times myself with my own fandoms. Over the course of only five or so years I went from wearing Eridan’s horns to class and talking everyone’s ears off about my own theories in high school to hardly breathing a word of Homestuck once I started college. My love of Overwatch pulled me out of a catastrophic months-long depressive episode where I didn’t draw from June to September until I just had to sketch McCree again and write pages and pages of fic, but I just flat-out do not play it anymore, and it’s not even installed on my current computer. I wanted them to be things they weren’t and could never be. I wanted the characters to grow and thrive beyond what their creators would ever write for them. And with every new update or lore tidbit I was left bitter and unsatisfied and ultimately resentful that I liked it only for its potential.

As an autistic woman I’ve had a new identity crisis with everything I thought was a crumbling cornerstone of my artistic identity-- I wanted the dopamine to hit in the exact same way forever. Ultimately they sloughed off like dead skin. Even an inferno can cool down to an ember, and they weren’t the only flames in town.

I mean, if you don’t like Picasso, why do you spend your precious time and money seeing Picasso exhibits? If you don’t like the taste of fish or shrimp or crab, why are you eating at the same seafood place every Thursday just to get your unsatisfying bread rolls and hush puppies? If you don't like your boyfriend one bit, you bicker with him all the time, and you wish you could just change everything about him from the ground up, why are you still dating him?

And if you don’t like the game-- the game itself, as the ones and zeros published by Bethesda Softworks, not the game as it exists in the nebulous aether of the fandom’s collective subconscious-- why haven’t you uninstalled it and played/watched/read something you really, truly, genuinely love?

Just sweetrolls for thought, I suppose. Again, I mean all of this affectionately, sincerely, and passionately, with nothing but love and appreciation from the bottom of my heart for all my wonderful artists and writers in the TES fandom. Todd doesn’t deserve you. You’re too good for him. All of you.

[demifiendrsa]

Microsoft has announced that it has acquired ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion.

Bethesda Softworks is the parent company of Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane Studios, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios, and owns major franchises such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Dishonored, Prey, Quake, Starfield, and more. 

Comments from each party:

Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox

Today is a special day, as we welcome some of the most accomplished studios in the games industry to Xbox. We are thrilled to announce Microsoft has entered into an agreement to acquire ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks.

As one of the largest, most critically acclaimed, privately held game developers and publishers in the world, Bethesda is an incredibly talented group of 2,300 people worldwide who make up some of the most accomplished creative studios in our industry across Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios. These are the teams responsible for franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Dishonored, Prey, Quake, Starfield, and many more.

Bethesda’s games have always had a special place on Xbox and in the hearts of millions of gamers around the world. Our teams have a close and storied history working together, from the amazing first DOOM, and its id Tech engine, innovating games on PCs to Bethesda bringing their first console game to the original Xbox, the groundbreaking The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Over the years I’ve had many deep conversations with the creative leaders at Bethesda on the future of gaming and we’ve long shared similar visions for the opportunities for creators and their games to reach more players in more ways.

Just as they took the bold first steps to bring The Elder Scrolls franchise to the original Xbox, Bethesda were early supporters of Xbox Game Pass, bringing their games to new audiences across devices and have been actively investing in new gaming technology like cloud streaming of games. We will be adding Bethesda’s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. One of the things that has me most excited is seeing the roadmap with Bethesda’s future games, some announced and many unannounced, to Xbox console and PC including Starfield, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios.

Like us, Bethesda are passionate believers in building a diverse array of creative experiences, in exploring new game franchises, and in telling stories in bold ways. All of their great work will of course continue and grow and we look forward to empowering them with the resources and support of Microsoft to scale their creative visions to more players in new ways for you.

All of our work, and the foundation of our relationship with you, starts with a commitment to deliver a breadth of amazing games to discover and play on Xbox. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been excited to share more detail on important elements of a plan we’ve been building towards for years. A plan that is the fulfilment of a promise, to you the Xbox player, to deliver the most performant, immersive and compatible next-generation gaming experiences, and the freedom to play blockbuster games with your friends, anytime, anywhere. Today is a landmark step in our journey together and I’m incredibly energized by what this step means for Xbox.

Please join me in welcoming all of our friends at Bethesda to Team Xbox.

Pete Hines, Bethesda Softworks

Today we announced we’re joining the Microsoft family.

And if you haven’t had a chance to read what Phil Spencer and Todd Howard shared in their posts this morning, be sure to check them both out. When you work at a place as long as I’ve worked at Bethesda—just a month short of 21 years—you see some things. Chief amongst them is change. When I started, Bethesda was not much more than a handful of people. The team working on Morrowind fit in a couple of offices, and there were probably six or seven of us spread across everything else.

Bethesda Softworks, our parent company ZeniMax Media, and our many internal studios, now employ thousands of talented people working in publishing offices and development studios around the world. We’ve gone from one internal studio to many; from a focus on single-player fantasy RPGS to developing massive MMOs, first person shooters, and everything in between. The world, our industry, and our company has changed a lot in the 34 years since Bethesda Softworks was first founded. Today, it changed again. And I know that brings up questions.

But the key point is we’re still Bethesda. We’re still working on the same games we were yesterday, made by the same studios we’ve worked with for years, and those games will be published by us.

So why the change? Because it allows us to make even better games going forward. Microsoft is an incredible partner and offers access to resources that will make us a better publisher and developer. We believe that means better games for you to play. Simply put—we believe that change is an important part of getting better. We believe in pushing ourselves to be better. To innovate. To grow.

And, we have a long history of working with Microsoft. Our companies share many of the same basic principles. We believe in a culture that values passion, quality, collaboration, and innovation. When I think back to the first time we decided to shift from being a PC-only developer and make Morrowind for the original Xbox, it was a move that countless people said would never work…nobody on consoles wanted a game that big and complex. But Microsoft believed in us and so did you. And now RPGs of all shapes and sizes are hugely successful on consoles.

Yes, it’s a big change for us, but after taking a minute to absorb the magnitude of this acquisition, we’re going to continue doing what we know and love: making great games. We’re going to keep trying new things. We’re going to take the same passion we’ve poured into what we do, and the passion that our community brings to the things we make, and do even better.

And soon the conversation will move on from this deal to talking about our games again. And I can get back to answering the questions that get us all excited. Tell me more about Deathloop. When can I see more Ghostwire? What’s coming in Q4 for The Elder Scrolls Online? I want to see more of the DOOM Eternal DLC. WHEN THE HELL WILL YOU TELL ME ABOUT STARFIELD? I’m excited for those conversations and look forward to talking to you about all of that—and much, much more—-in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

I believe in the people I work with. I believe in the company we have created together. I believe in the communities that have formed around the games we make. And I believe today’s announcement is just the next in a long line of changes in our history that will lead to bigger and better games for all of us.

Pete Hines SVP, Global Marketing and Communications

Todd Howard, Bethesda Softworks

I have been incredibly blessed to spend my entire career at, and help build, one of the best places to make games in the world—Bethesda.

And I’ve had the joy of doing it with some of the most talented, humble, and passionate people there are. They are part of my family, and my good friends. I have also had the pleasure of working with, and partnering with, many of the best gaming and tech companies in the world. But our longest, and closest partner during my career, has been Microsoft.

Today we join them, and I wanted to share some personal thoughts on what it means and our shared vision.

The trajectory of Xbox, and the trajectory of Bethesda, in many ways have gone hand in hand.

From our beginning, we had primarily been a PC developer. In 1999, two things happened. One, Bethesda became part of a brand-new startup—ZeniMax Media. And Microsoft started development of their first video game console—the Xbox. I can remember my first trip to Redmond to discuss the new system and bringing our next game, Morrowind, to the Xbox.

I was dubious Xbox Morrowind would be worth the time, somewhat on a technical level, but more so from taking a hardcore RPG and moving it from a PC desktop experience to a controller-and-sofa experience. If we made it work, would people want it?

Microsoft and their new Xbox crew had a view, that I came to share completely. Shouldn’t we allow anyone to have this experience? Why does it matter where the screen is or what the controller is? There are many people without the same access, and we can bring it to them.

Morrowind would go on to become one of the best-selling Xbox games of all time, behind Halo, another PC style game some said wouldn’t work. Its success paved the way for the growth of our company, and proved the point – people wanted this experience, regardless of device.

Microsoft quickly let us in on their next system, the Xbox 360. More than a PC port, our aim with our next game, Oblivion, was to usher in the next generation of gaming. With each game, from Fallout 3 to Skyrim, our studio and company grew, adding brilliant and like-minded studios across the globe. All of us sharing in the belief that expanding the reach of gaming was fundamental, whether it was on a pc, console, your phone, or the cloud.

With each new console cycle, we evolved together. From bringing mods to consoles with Fallout 4, now over a billion downloads, to the latest technologies fueling Xbox Series X/S. These new systems are optimized for the vast worlds we love to create, with generational leaps not just in graphics, but CPU and data streaming as well. It’s led to our largest engine overhaul since Oblivion, with all new technologies powering our first new IP in 25 years, Starfield, as well as The Elder Scrolls VI.

Like our original partnership, this one is about more than one system or one screen. We share a deep belief in the fundamental power of games, in their ability to connect, empower, and bring joy. And a belief we should bring that to everyone—regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you play on. Regardless of the screen size, the controller, or your ability to even use one.

We can’t think of a better group of people to do that with than those at Xbox. We have friendships that go back to those original days. From Phil to his senior leaders to developer support, they don’t just talk about putting players first, they passionately live it.

At Bethesda, we’ve been lucky enough to create games we love, and have an audience who loves them as much as we do. I have personally been humbled by the many industry honors I have received, as they belong to the entire studio. But one has always stood out to me for a special reason. When I received the Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC, I joked in my acceptance “I wonder how many achievement points this one is worth?” At the end of the ceremony, some good friends from Microsoft congratulated me and said they’d find out. A few months later I was given a code to a game they had created, named after me and locked to my account. When ran, it unlocks a single achievement – “Lifetime – 1000pts.” It still sits in my list when I check, and I smile every time.

It has been a lifetime. But there’s more to come and achievements to unlock together. We hope you join us.

All the best, Todd

Todd Howard Bethesda Game Studios

[ayrenn]

Just apologize for saying your friends content is better than the majority of what gets promoted, that's the line that was crossed. Regardless of intentions, you lumped in nearly every artist who's ever been promoted and said "my friends are better than you" while expressing frustration at not being acknowledged.

Short response: I don't feel comfortable retracting a statement that I made that I still believe in. However, hold this against me and not Vivi who did not agree with this statement and did message me about her disagreement.

Long answer: I've deliberated about this for a while, over whether to respond or not. Yes, I do hold the belief that what my friends create is better than other things I see. Just like a mother will believe any piece of art her child makes is the best. It's a matter of love, and wishing the best for others, and seeing the best in what they create.  But this doesn't mean I don't think anyone else should be promoted, even if their art isn't what I see as good.

What you lack is a greater understanding of the situation. This anger is because Zenimax/Bethesda has promoted a known abuser, someone who ABUSED VIVI, and has not given her any promotion in return. That is irredeemable to me. We (being our friends group) have tried since the very beginning for her to be recognized, and have been met with no response. Not only that, but other people who have attacked her for no reason have been featured. At this point, it clearly comes across as deliberate, which is so fucked up. To me, her being promoted isn't just me wanting my friend to get a gold star. It's an opportunity for her, someone who has devoted her life to art, to get into an industry. To be noticed. And for whatever fucked up reason, she has been consistently ignored by the company/fandom she's devoted years of her life to creating content for.

So no, I'm not going to apologize for that. And I am also not taking this comment as "the real reason" people are mad, because it's not fucking true. People are mad at me, and vivi, and boethiah, because of lies. Lies people have been told by people who don't have anything better to do with their time than kick others down.

So, even with this, it shouldn't affect Vivi or boethiah at all. And it still doesn't negate the fact that Zenimax should actually pay proper homage to the fans whose ideas they implement in game.

[alyssblack-blog]

Quaren-tinis and video games! Because why the fuck not? #instamood #instapic #picoftheday #love #food #relax #yum #liquor #covid19 #socialdistancing #videogames #eso #bethesda #zenimax #elderscrollsonline https://www.instagram.com/p/B-b2yWFpzBU/?igshid=zx5cnhwijhmz

[icarus-vr]

Good people of the internet

Do you happen, by chance, to recognize this man?

Instantly recognizable right? Quite the seductive visage.

We all know him we all love him or we all hate him. We’ve certainly all laughed at his expense, in many circumstances.

His face brings to mind many things. Creation Club, Elder Scrolls Blades, Fallout Shelter, the entire wrecked mess that was Fallout 76. He’s quite the personality, and known pretty widely on the internet.

He's a very convenient face to rant at, has a very catchy name to scream at the heavens.

We mock him daily, particularly for the decisions made who we think he's responsible for.

However, would you be interested to know that he’s not actually the be all end all of his company? There are bigger people behind the scenes making the actual decisions that we all hate.

This man’s name is Robert A. Altman, and he’s the CEO of Zenimax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, the publisher of Bethesda Game Studios, that which Todd Howard happens to be the lead director and producer of.

This is the man, and other shareholders and corporate members in total, making the real decisions behind Bethesda’s content policy. He’s the real reason why things such as TES Blades, Fallout Shelter, the creation club, and Fallout 76′s monetization policy exist, and I have found a video that can tell you why.

Zenimax Media is, in short, trying to become a publicly owned company, or be purchased by another company entirely. This is the case for other, more infamous media companies, with names we recognize. Electronic Arts, Activision, and others.

So the next time “Bethesda” does something we scratch our heads about, the next time they do sleazy or *greed* corporate policies, befitting that of EA, maybe instead of gnashing our teeth and calling out to the heavens:

“TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODD”

Maybe instead we should be calling out:

“ALTMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN”

because he’s the REAL mover and shaker behind the scenes. Todd Howard is a very convenient fall guy for him, and the other shareholders and investors like him.

P.S.

Whenever you question the design philosphy or small scale decisions made by Bethesda Game Studios in regard to things like the Elder Scrolls or Fallout, such as the engine and the glitches, Todd is the correct one to single out. He is in charge of the games developed directly, and the games themselves are his responsibility, and the responsibility of the dev team in general. However, large business decisions are not his to make. Todd has part of the blame here, but he’s not everything the company is, and it’s important to remember that.

So as many sweet little lies Todd tells us, there’s a bigger hand behind the scenes. He works for someone else, at the end of the day.