Fallout 3 lead designer tackles why Bethesda’s ignoring fan outcries

This really isn’t anything new for Bethesda. After fans staged a significant falling out over The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you’d think Bethesda Game Studios would soften up and be more considerate. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Now carrying Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC), the studio hopes to reincarnate the Fallout series as an FPS and not as its original RPG, paying no mind to the outcries of fans who contributed to the first two titles’ success.

 

Fallout 3 lead designer Emil Pagliarulo of Bethesda Game Studios sat down for an interview, expressing the few inspirations and facets of creating the soon-to-be-released first-person shooter adventure. While he did explain how open-endedness would be portrayed in-game, Pagliarulo also addressed another more important concern surrounding the game. Why is Bethesda shunning the fanbase? Pagliarulo answered:

ThatÂ’s always the toughest question. You listen to the fans and respect their ideas, but once you start designing a game that they want to make specifically, then you can get yourself into trouble.

So Bethesda’s focusing on making a game that they want to play. He later said that because of the Fallout 3‘s momentum, and now that its release is on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC is inevitable, they really couldn’t worry anymore about what fans are complaining about.

As holders of one of the most anticipated franchises in gaming history, Bethesda Game Studios had a lot going for them when they first announced Fallout 3 was in development. That quickly died, however, when they revealed more specific details of the game and were accused of butchering the franchise’s legacy.

But still the studio took the bad rap and now are poised to complete the less RPG, more FPS Fallout 3, ignoring fan outcries altogether. This wouldn’t be the first time Bethesda’s pulled that trick on thousands of players when the studio performed a similar handstand during the bickering over The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

“You have to make the game that youÂ’re making and know that itÂ’s a good one and continue with that,” he said. But seeing as there’s a lot of outspoken gamers still bitter at Fallout 3, we might see another Unreal Tournament 3 misfire in the making. Stay tuned for more developments.

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