Bethesda should hire Obsidian to help with the Dialouge and NPC design in the next TES game.

[Cpt. Lozan]

Bethesda has always been able to craft huge,beautiful, and majestic worlds for us to visit. We've been blessed time and time again by some of the most mysterious caves, the saltiest ports, the most towering cities, huge oceans, dense forests,darkest prisons,coldest tundras, and whatever you can call all that stuff in Morrowind.

Everyone else who lives in these places, however, are usually just slightly more than robots. The problem has got even worse since Oblivion and Skyrim, with its inhabits staring at you with empty gazes. While understandable, after all, its hard to find time to write for those hundreds of NPC's when you're crafting the ENTIRE world they live in, and all the things we get to do in it. I never really noticed it too much untill Skyrim, and I only really noticed it because they added a marriage mechanic. When I saw they had added it, I was really excited to develop intense, meaningful relationships with a select few characters like in KOTOR and (the early) Fallout games. But then Skyrim came out and, well, we all know what happened.

I don't blame Bethesda for this. I'm really incapable staying mad at them anyway (Like how I was pissed as hell about skyrim for awhile, but now i'm reinstalling and downloading mods), but as I said before, I understand that these people are only human, and they have a HUGE world to make. So how would they fix this? Easy, ask for help.

Bethesda has already worked with Obsidian in the past with Fallout:New Vegas, and Obsidian has a STORIED history of excellent writing and character development and I think that TES 6 could the game of dreams if Bethesda asked for some help on the writing.

What do y'all think?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Actually, I think they can write good characters. I think they just focus on crafting the open world and neglect the writing. Look at Sheogorath from Shivering Isles or Serana from Dawnguard. I think they can write good characters, they just don't try.

 

[Cpt. Lozan]

Actually, I think they can write good characters. I think they just focus on crafting the open world and neglect the writing. Look at Sheogorath from Shivering Isles or Serana from Dawnguard. I think they can write good characters, they just don't try.

I agree, they are very capable of good writing, but they are not capable of building a game with a huge world,lots of quests, and items and all that other stuff we love about TES, while still giving delivering on the writing. Which is the whole point. I think they should just ask for help. And they should ask for help from someone who we know is extremely capable.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I'd rather Obsidian stick to Fallout and leave Elder Scrolls to Bethesda. Elder Scrolls games are less about themes or story than they are creating living, believable worlds.

 

[Glongpre]

Of course it is an awesome idea, but that is all it will ever be because money and stuff. It would be so good that the world would flood...from gamers blowing their loads.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

I'd be happy with that so long as Bethesda alone do the world design.

 

[BrotherRool]

I imagine trying to mesh two different company cultures would lose more than you'd get out of it. But in an ideal world that would be pretty sweet. I enjoy the relationship Obsidian and Bethesda have with each other and I really hope Bethesda keeps licensing them games in their franchises to work on, it's cool seeing the two companies takes on something. They don't differ enough that it makes the franchise seem completely inconsistent (*coughneedforspeedcough*), but they both have slightly different tones they tend imbibe in their games and different strengths and weaknesses

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

eh, as much as i am an obsidian fan, i think elder scrolls should be left to bethesda, they do their own thing, and it works for them.

i wouldn't mind them doing a hybrid team up in the future for something else perhaps, a new IP or something.

buttttt after the grumble over new vegas, i don't know if i see obsidian and bethesda working together that closely anytime soon.

 

[fezgod]

Bethesda doesn't need to hire Obsidian for the next Elder Scrolls, they need to hire Obsidian for the next Fallout game. As fun as Fallout 3 was, it didn't have the same 'feel' (for lack of a better term) that the original Fallout games had.

 

[Madman123456]

I would be very surprised if Obsidian worked with Bethesda again after bethesda stiffed them like such douchebags on their last team up.

Well, Bethesda doesn't delay games. They set a date and then the game has to be ready.
I don't get why developers don't get that...

 

[Phrozenflame500]

I'd prefer it since I despised most of Skyrim's main plot and thought that New Vegas was a better overall game then Skyrim, but I highly doubt it due to the development issues with NV.

 

[Madman123456]

It had nothing to do with a delay. Bethesda refused to give Obsidian a bonus on Fallout New Vegas because it got a 79 metacritic instead of 80 in the first couple of weeks.

As they'd agreed upon in a contract.
Why Obsidian would agree on clauses that involve metacritic ratings is beyond me and bethesda is indeed kinda assholish to do that; it's like stealing candy from a child. Or having some poor dumb twit sign a contract which involves a metacritic rating.
Which, i presume, couldn't be reached because they game was rushed. Because Bethesda doesn't do delays.

 

[Stevepinto3]

The idea that Fallout 4 will likely be made by Bethesda and not Obsidian is kind of a huge disappointment for me. I liked Fallout 3 well enough but New Vegas was just by far the superior game with the exception of FO3's intro. I just don't want to go back to the over-simplified gameplay of 3 where you wander through tunnel after tunnel of ghoul-infested metros. New Vegas just had a lot more variety for quests and gave more credit to player agency.

 

[Agayek]

I am assuming you have no idea what I am talking about.

It had nothing to do with a delay. Bethesda refused to give Obsidian a bonus on Fallout New Vegas because it got a 79 metacritic instead of 80 in the first couple of weeks.

To be entirely fair, while it is a dick move, it's also fairly reasonable. They made a business agreement that if the game scored at or above a certain score, Obsidian would be paid more. The game did not get the specified score, so they did not get paid more. From a business perspective, Bethesda did absolutely nothing wrong, and I would hope the guys running Obsidian would be mature enough to understand that.

Now, that's not to say there weren't other issues that cropped up between the two (if memory serves, rumor had it that the QA resources provided by Bethesda for the game were rather abysmal), but the particular issue you raise would generally not preclude further partnership between the companies. It certainly could, especially if there were any personal ill-feelings, but most businessmen are able to recognize when they fail to meet a milestone, especially when they've already been paid the original agreed-upon amount.

We'll just have to see, I guess.

OT: Honestly, I'm not terribly interested. Obsidian is the better developer in almost every regard but QA, and even then they don't lose by much. I'd rather Obsidian gets to fuck around with whatever they feel like.