Starfield design lead and Bethesda studio design director Emil Pagliarulo has taken to social media to discuss how he believes a lot of gamers are disconnected from the realities of game development and don't understand the truth of it.
In a thread on Twitter/X, Pagliarulo begins by acknowledging how players will know next to nothing about game development and then speak with absolute authority. "Funny how disconnected some players are from the realities of game development, and yet they speak with complete authority," he writes. "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 remembers the time in the mid-90s where he wrote reviews, and calls himself a "sarcastic asshat." He continues: "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. The struggle to bring a vision to life with constantly shifting resources. The stress."
"I can't not share the truth. 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."
There's no mention of Starfield here, but it doesn't take much to understand why he might be making this kind of post. There has been a lot of debating around Starfield, the design decisions behind it, and why it hasn't quite hit the mark for a lot of fans. Some of this has been in bad faith, but other genuine criticism has also been put forwards, which is hoping that come the next release from the RPG developer, some of these issues will be sorted.