About Todd's "lies"

[Imperialist Eggplant]

I saw an interesting post a while back claiming most of the lies Todd Howard is accused of are generally taken out of context or not as bad as they're made out to be. I don't see these counter arguments very often so I figured I'd share what that guy said here and see what you all think. I'm including a link to the post and also a copy paste here for those that don't care to click said link for any reason.
(Also might be refreshing given how many repeating topics I see)
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I see people here every now and then quote this crowbcat video talking about how Todd has a history of being a liar, so I just want to go over how so many of these quotes are taken out of context and why this video is blatant misinformation. This might break rule 1 but I think it's worth sharing to make talking about Starfield interviews a little easier

"see that mountain, you can climb it" is just true, anyone that has played Skyrim can attest to that

"we have recorded 1000 popular names for him to say" is true for Codsworth in FO4, and even more were added in updates, here's a link to the list https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Codsworth/recognized_names

"we have recorded over 40,000 lines" FO4 before DLC has over 110,000 lines, treating this a lie is ignorant

"mods have been transferred played and shared for free on Xbox one" was true for a while, creation club content came after and was mostly made by Bethesda on their own. If there's any legit criticism in the video it was this, but even that would be ignoring the 5000+ free mods that are available

"fallout 3 has over 200 endings" was not referring to actual endings, but variations of the ending cinematic taking into account certain lines/slides that changed for certain decisions you had made, things like that. Here's the full interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDcC94UZaz4&ab_channel=RoyalPublickGamer

"skyrim has infinite quests" is 100% true, every faction and a few other sources provide you with several different types of radiant quests that will repeat infinitely. Here's a full list https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Radiant_Quests

"radiant AI" is true, listen to the interviews and how they describe it. Everyone has their own definition for that term but Oblivion and Skyrim both definitely achieve Bethesda's definition which was given immediately after the quote

"you can play forever" I think every RPG game director says this, but if there's one you could really say it's true for it'd be Bethesda's stuff. and for a game like Skyrim, which is a decade old now and currently has 40k logged in and playing on steam, and a game as controversial as fo4 having almost 25k, I'd say it's an honest quote.

even "16 times the detail" is true, and that's the big one people love throwing around. It's taken completely out of context and was referring to the new way they were handling draw distance.
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Link to the original post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/rumac6/quick_todd_howard_lies_debunk/

[vonbleak]

Yeah there is a video that people love to post 'sweet little lies' that claims all these 'lies' Todd has said - Its funny that people post this without doing their homework because everything in that video is true... haha...

While he may exaggerate or over-hype some features sure, Todd has never flat out lied about anything... And more the point he and his team make some of the best games ever...

[Jaggid Edje]

I've been saying the same thing ever since people have been calling him a liar.

It's pretty standard for the internet. Someone says something, and the internet makes all kinds of assumptions regarding what it means, and then says they are lying when those assumptions prove to be false.

[Imperialist Eggplant]

Nice to see the first two responses are positive. I was half worried I'd get nothing but flack for this post. Of course, Todd certainly isn't perfect and definitely can overhype certain things, but I like to believe he always has good intentions.

[DasWulf]

I remember the nickname for him was "Toddler Howard" back in the day. He wasn't well liked by the Elder Scrolls fanbase. Its also worth noting that his rise in the studio seems to directly correlate with him helping Altman take over the company from its founder, Christopher Weaver, who was then effectively kicked out of his own company, while Howard rose to the top.

The management of Bethesda after Weaver's exile was about as corrupt as you can get. Something people should never forget.

[diMaggio]

To be honest, I only ever played the games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout), didn't listen to what any people on the internet say.
So when Skyrim came out back in the day, I was aware of the hype, sure.
But I didn't read anything about it and just played, and it blew me away.

I didn't know whether anything was missing that might've been promised.
I didn't know whether something had changed from what it was during development.
Etc.

I played the game I got and what I got was amazing.
I usually don't prescribe to "ignorance is bliss" when it comes to questions about reality, but when it comes to games, then I'm all for it. 👌

[Caduryn]

Originally posted by Imperialist Eggplant:

I saw an interesting post a while back claiming most of the lies Todd Howard is accused of are generally taken out of context or not as bad as they're made out to be. I don't see these counter arguments very often so I figured I'd share what that guy said here and see what you all think. I'm including a link to the post and also a copy paste here for those that don't care to click said link for any reason.
(Also might be refreshing given how many repeating topics I see)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I see people here every now and then quote this crowbcat video talking about how Todd has a history of being a liar, so I just want to go over how so many of these quotes are taken out of context and why this video is blatant misinformation. This might break rule 1 but I think it's worth sharing to make talking about Starfield interviews a little easier

"see that mountain, you can climb it" is just true, anyone that has played Skyrim can attest to that

"we have recorded 1000 popular names for him to say" is true for Codsworth in FO4, and even more were added in updates, here's a link to the list https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Codsworth/recognized_names

"we have recorded over 40,000 lines" FO4 before DLC has over 110,000 lines, treating this a lie is ignorant

"mods have been transferred played and shared for free on Xbox one" was true for a while, creation club content came after and was mostly made by Bethesda on their own. If there's any legit criticism in the video it was this, but even that would be ignoring the 5000+ free mods that are available

"fallout 3 has over 200 endings" was not referring to actual endings, but variations of the ending cinematic taking into account certain lines/slides that changed for certain decisions you had made, things like that. Here's the full interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDcC94UZaz4&ab_channel=RoyalPublickGamer

"skyrim has infinite quests" is 100% true, every faction and a few other sources provide you with several different types of radiant quests that will repeat infinitely. Here's a full list https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Radiant_Quests

"radiant AI" is true, listen to the interviews and how they describe it. Everyone has their own definition for that term but Oblivion and Skyrim both definitely achieve Bethesda's definition which was given immediately after the quote

"you can play forever" I think every RPG game director says this, but if there's one you could really say it's true for it'd be Bethesda's stuff. and for a game like Skyrim, which is a decade old now and currently has 40k logged in and playing on steam, and a game as controversial as fo4 having almost 25k, I'd say it's an honest quote.

even "16 times the detail" is true, and that's the big one people love throwing around. It's taken completely out of context and was referring to the new way they were handling draw distance.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Link to the original post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/rumac6/quick_todd_howard_lies_debunk/

Because Haters gonna hate, no matter the facts.

[M0butu]

Streamer/Influencer "content" is - as usual - missing the point. This is nitpicking.

There is a constantly growing number of people having problems with this:
Players degrade to betatesters, modders fix the game.
"Cut" content is delivered as payed DLC.
Microtransactions creeping into singleplayer.
Game design is tailored for streaming, not actually playing.

And Bethesda especially:
"Collectors" Editions

[Doctor Zalgo]

I think the only lie he's really told is 'it just works': https://youtu.be/B7trmEmI5Js

[Raytraced]

Originally posted by Mazovian Socio-Economist:

I think the only lie he's really told is 'it just works':

Despite people constantly dishing out these hyperexagerrated compilations, it is in fact working, and this paradigm is one of the best kinds in game design.

[Daedrius]

Originally posted by Mazovian Socio-Economist:

I think the only lie he's really told is 'it just works': https://youtu.be/B7trmEmI5Js

If you watch the presentation instead of a troll vid, you'd know that he's referring to the settlement building when he says "it just works". No one denies that big open world games have bugs.

[SophieSkyrim1984]

That is right, no other game studio lies. They are all truthful to the core. I mean my bad for thinking all gaming studios lie.

" KILLZONE "

[lnomsim]

Originally posted by Ezeris:

Originally posted by Mazovian Socio-Economist:

I think the only lie he's really told is 'it just works': https://youtu.be/B7trmEmI5Js

If you watch the presentation instead of a troll vid, you'd know that he's referring to the settlement building when he says "it just works". No one denies that big open world games have bugs.

And if you had played fallout4 when it was released and in the months following, you'd know that settlement building definitely didn't "just work".

the snap nodes didn't work correctly, sometimes it detected collisions where there shouldn't have been any. Some objects disappeared for no reason.

By the way, the Brahmine on the Concord roof is still not fixed, 8 years later.

Just how far some people go to justify or protect someone/thing is astonishing.

Oh, and I almost forgot, there is also the issue with some settlements acquisition quests not triggering, still an issue nowadays.

[Daedrius]

Originally posted by lnomsim:

Originally posted by Ezeris:

If you watch the presentation instead of a troll vid, you'd know that he's referring to the settlement building when he says "it just works". No one denies that big open world games have bugs.

And if you had played fallout4 when it was released and in the months following, you'd know that settlement building definitely didn't "just work".

the snap nodes didn't work correctly, sometimes it detected collisions where there shouldn't have been any. Some objects disappeared for no reason.

By the way, the Brahmine on the Concord roof is still not fixed, 8 years later.

Just how far some people go to justify or protect someone/thing is astonishing.

Oh, and I almost forgot, there is also the issue with some settlements acquisition quests not triggering, still an issue nowadays.

What's really astonishing is how often people come to the forums to lie and spread disinformation. Not saying you are, but I've seen it many times.

I did play Fallout 4 at release and the only time I had an issue with the building was when trying to clip through something while placing building parts. Sure, It's not the greatest system, sometimes it's tricky pacing something, but I've not had an issue of it not working.

Objects disappearing - I haven't had that happen. Brahmin on the roof, typical bug and not what he was referring to.

The only real issue with settlements was settlers suddenly becoming unemployed now and then and the weird crop issue at Abernathy farm which can be solved by storing and replanting all the tatos.

The settlements attacks were pretty lame to at times - the way enemy would just spawn into the middle of a settlement sometimes.

[kdodds]

Massengill poster children will be what they are. The best thing you can do when you see a problematic post is to let Steam know about. If there's a problem with a particular user, you have the tools to take care of that as well. Creating more OT spam only adds to the problem.

[King DaMuncha]

Todd has some tells when he starts lying. Just like Peter Moleneux. He becomes euphoric and overly excited and starts making some huge claims his game will never be able to meet. In the case of Peter you can almost see his eyes roll back as he day dreams about what his vision is for his games. His boasts are almost palpable and you get sucked right in as you listen to him. It just works. Also Fo3 has as many endings as Mass Effect 3.