Starfield design lead says players are "disconnected" from how games are actually made: "Don't fool yourself into thinking you know why it is the way it is"

In a lengthy Twitter thread, Starfield lead and Bethesda studio design director Emil Pagliarulo laments "how disconnected some players are" from the realities of game development, and encourages passionate fans to avoid making assumptions about how and why design decisions are made. 

"Funny how disconnected some players are from the realities of game development, and yet they speak with complete authority," Pagliarulo begins. "I mean, I can guess what it takes to make a Hostess Twinkie, but I don't work in the factory, so what the hell do I really know? Not a lot." 

Pagliarulo acknowledges that consumers have a right to complain about the things they spend money on, though he doesn't publicly complain about games because of "respect for my fellow devs" and because "it would be uncool and unprofessional of me to do so. But sometimes I want to. Oh boy." 

The director points to his time writing game reviews for 1995-founded website Adrenaline Vault, back when he "would say whatever I wanted about a game," with some negative remarks amounting to him "being a sarcastic asshat."

"But throughout that time, I actually had no inkling what game development was actually like. How hard the designers, programmers, artists, producers, and everyone else worked," he says. "The struggle to bring a vision to life with constantly shifting resources. The stress."

Having experienced game development, his perspective on it has changed. "I can't not share the truth," he adds. "And that truth is, nobody sets out to make a bad game. And most game devs are incredibly talented... even if the game they release isn't up to par." 

Pagliarulo describes game dev as "a series of concessions and tough decisions," framing a gradient between "that perfect game you want to make" and "the game you can make." Closing that gap is hard in the best conditions, he says, and is made harder by "devs being shuffled around (or leaving), looming deadlines, and creative decisions you wish you didn't have to make." 

"So sure, you can dislike parts of a game," he concludes. "You can hate on a game entirely. But don't fool yourself into thinking you know why it is the way it is (unless it's somehow documented and verified), or how it got to be that way (good or bad).

"Chances are, unless you've made a game yourself, you don't know who made certain decisions; who did specific work; how many people were actually available to do that work; any time challenges faced; or how often you had to overcome technology itself (this one is HUGE)." 

Pagliarulo notably doesn't specify Starfield here or directly point to any specific pain points from its long development cycle, but it's not hard to read between the lines. The mixed response to Starfield has sparked discussions about Bethesda's design philosophy, the game engine it uses, Starfield's weak links and bugs, and much more. 

Such discussions recently reintensified following a viral video from YouTuber NakeyJakey, which calls Bethesda's approach "outdated," that has spread around the Starfield community and racked up over 3.3 million views in four days. Around the same time, the well-known creator of a popular Skyrim multiplayer mod, who'd initially planned to bring their modding talents to Starfield, threw up their hands and said "this game is f***ing trash." There was also quite some discussion about Bethesda customer support responding to individual negative user reviews on Steam. 

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has shared ambitions for Starfield to become a 12-year hit just like Skyrim. Just yesterday, Bethesda committed to regular Starfield updates which will address some of the RPG's biggest bugbears, "from city maps, to mod support, to all-new ways of traveling." These and other changes will arrive starting in early 2024, with patches coming "roughly" every six weeks. 

The Starfield community patch mod is out and already has dozens of player-made fixes.