Why one adoring Starfield fan has chronicled over 1,000 pages of pre-release history: “Working at Bethesda is my dream job”

A dedicated Starfield fan has spent the past year amassing an extensive compendium for the space RPG, an online tome that now sits at 86,000 words across 1,071 pages. 

The dedication to keeping a one-stop shop supplied with rich detail for fans caught the attention of many at the reveal of the latest literature milestone – us included – so we reached out to the budding historian to find out more. 

Gokamo's Starfield compendium was born through their desire to curate a single source that fans could visit to get all the information on Bethesda's lofty RPG. It made for less work when Bethesda was more tight-lipped about the project, with demands swiftly growing the deeper we find ourselves through the Starfield marketing cycle. 

"Even when it was just a trademark, I was excited for the game," they say. "The only thing we could deduce was that it was a Bethesda game in space, and that was enough for me and the rest of the community back then. I've played just about every BGS game since Daggerfall and interned with NASA, so the combination of my two major interests was great."

Lift off

Gokamo tells us that his work follows on the heels of another, as another fan called Odah turned a two-minute teaser into a 48-page Google doc back in 2021. Fast forward to a meatier showcase in 2022, and Gokamo was spurred on to follow in their footsteps by one of the greatest motivators known to us all – procrastination.

"Back then, all the info was spread out between random concept art images, videos, and interviews where Starfield was mentioned in passing," they tell me.

"Eventually (only partly procrastinating on studying for a final), I started to jot stuff down and actually work on it. It grew and grew into the 120-page original doc, which I thought was already ridiculous. The community response was great to it, so after the showcase I updated it again to include the 15 mins of gameplay we got that year. And again this year, even with so so much more stuff to go through, I couldn't leave to doc half finished. So it just grew and grew into this 1k-page monstrosity."

Challenges maintaining the project mainly stem from how fleeting and fiddly information is on the internet. Plenty of Starfield images leave something to interpretation, and you're never guaranteed to be right. Gokamo also wanted to include a section dedicated to bogus rumours and leaks, though that type of information habitually disappears when debunked.

Despite the work involved, maintaining the compendium hasn't dampened Gokamo's enthusiasm for Starfield. When I ask them if the project has made them more or less excited for the eventual release, they lean towards the former.

"Definitely more," they say. "I'd get a lil burnt out if I tried to rush through too many pages at once, but it would quickly subside. There were so many cool details that I found that I'm even more excited to actually get to play it."

Back down to earth

While a great deal of effort has gone into the compendium, the end is in sight. Once Starfield releases, Gokamo sees the online tome's value swiftly diminishing. 

"Right now, since we have only gotten limited information over time, my document going over it all chronologically works well," they explain. "It also tells the story of the pre-release information for anyone looking backwards. 

"Once we have all the information, I feel like using wikis will make a lot more sense as you can look up anything in the game much easier. So I'll probably not continue once it's out, but I may be able to get one more update right before the game releases with whatever information we get." 

Hopefully, though, it won't be all for naught. As job vacancies for lore historians become more prevalent across the industry, Gokamo hopes that what they've accomplished with the Starfield compendium might give them a shot at something similar at Bethesda. 

"Working at Bethesda is my dream job," they say. "I've put in for numerous open positions they have, and a pretty large motivation to making this document was boosting those applications. I wanted to have something to show the amount of passion I have for this industry. 

"I recently graduated with a computer science degree, have experience in game design and development, and worked with NASA on simulation development, and I'd love to bring that experience and my passion to a career there!"

This newly detailed Starfield system requirements are actually just kind of an AMD ad.