There have been many complaints made about Starfield and how it takes too long to play or truly to get going. Some have criticized the game’s beginning as not making sense.
These are valid criticisms. Some reviewers on YouTube and the gaming press have tended to be somewhat divergent in their criticisms, however. The reviewers on the gaming websites have tended to criticize the game for being too big with no character to it. Reviewers on YouTube tend to be more vulgar in their criticisms and tend to focus on the idea that bigger isn’t necessarily the thing that we want in our games.
It is important to remember that Bethesda wanted to push boundaries and make the biggest game possible. This was what was promised by the developers of No Man Sky and was ultimately a disappointment for many gamers. Bethesda was working hard to make the best game possible but also a game that could actually release unlike games like Star Citizen that are literally being made to milk the pockets of gamers. People have to remember that Starfield was made with no microtransactions. It is important to emphasize that point. Bethesda could have hidden content such as the ship building section of the game behind microtransactions. They decided not to and this should be applauded. However, what’s more important is that people seem to miss the point that this game is not meant to be something that one picks up and then just forgets about it. The ship building aspect of this game is one of those things that will give the game a longevity that will be comparable to Skyrim.
However, that is not main thing that people have to try to understand about this game.
What’s important to remember is that Starfield is a slow burn game. It is not simply a video game but an experience. It allows you go to other planets and be able to experience what is on those realms. That is why it is special as a game.
People can dismiss the planets as not being important but you have to remember that Bethesda did not simply follow the Star Wars approach and make every planet the same. There are multiple biomes that add character to every planet in the game. This is one of the unique aspects of this great experience.
All the planets have their own unique characteristics to them and are worth to explore. It is a game that takes its time and asks that the player enjoy the journey more than the destination.
Starfield is all about the journey and that’s what makes it a standout game.
It is no surprise that Starfield would be a successful game. Considering the amount of advertising power that placed behind this game, I would say that Bethesda has managed to outdo themselves and release something that will have cultural impact on the video game industry for years to come. It is important remember how important Starfield is to the gaming industry and to Xbox. For the video game industry, Starfield puts confidence back into gamers who were burned after the release of Cyberpunk 2077. It is also important for the Xbox gaming universe as it gives the console an important app that is boosting the sales. Overall, Starfield has been highly successful in more ways than one and that is quite accomplishment by Bethesda, which has been turning out great games year after year.
Starfield vs Baldur’s Gate III
However, what’s more significant is that 10 million people have decided to take the jump and start playing in a galaxy of possibilities. Considering that Starfield was sold at 69.99 for the regular version and at 99.99 for the premium version. This is one of the reasons for the lower player counts compared to competitors like Baldur’s Gate III and Hogwarts: Legacy. It is important to remember that Starfield is a new IP with very little in the way of previous user experience to drive sales. In mid-July, Bethesda began releasing anime short films of the various characters and factions. These videos generated millions of views, which is amazing considering that these are the only real narrative aspects of Starfield that had been seen other than the release of Starfield Direct in 2023 and the preview that occurred in 2022. These videos were quite well made and the reception to them by the Starfield community proves that there is interest in the lore of the game. Currently, there is a subreddit called the Starfield Lore and people are discussing the attributes of the universe that Bethesda has created for us to explore.
Space games are a tough market
Consider that space games are generally not that popular as the gaming community would have us suggest. According to previous posts that I have made on this topic, the space game genre hasn’t sold as well as other genres, such as the fantasy genre. This is one of the reasons that Baldur’s Gate 3 has more players on Steam than Starfield. However, Baldur’s Gate 3, which is amazing achievement in character interaction and graphics, is still a gamer’s game. It appeals to gamers more than the general public, resulting in the game being more popular in the gaming community as whole. Starfield is trying to be a game for everyone, and I call Starfield, the middle-brow game that we saw more in 1990s than today. Starfield can’t really be called a High-Brow game even though it has some of those pretensions. The game is sophisticated enough that it appeals to higher thinking, but it isn’t too sophisticated in that they are unable to hold the great middle that just wants to play a video game. ‘
However, this does not mean that Starfield is a really dumbed down game. This is an incredibly complex game that is easy to learn but hard to master. There are many aspects of Starfield that ensure that this game has longevity long after its release. The ship building aspects and the crafting systems are all important aspects of this game that give it depth and breath at the same time. This is why I believe that Starfield will continue to be successful, and its sales will continue to help uplift Xbox and PC sales.
Starfield is essentially a space game that is trying to appeal to wide audience.
Baldur’s Gate 3 reminds me of the appeal of the classic BioWare games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. They are games made for the gaming community, a particular type of people who are crucial for the industry as they spend alot of their hard-earned money on video games. They are the foundation of what makes the industry turn. Many of the foundational ideas of video games are there in the titles since the 1980s and 70s. Who came up with those ideas? People who were pen and paper gamers, the audience that Baldur’s Gate 3 thrives on.
It also helps that Baldur’s Gate 3 is game that comes from a franchise that already has a great reputation in the industry. The game is legendary among previous generations of video gamers. It has a reputation. That goes a long way in selling copies.
Starfield is a new ip, which means that it is an untested game. Bethesda probably did tons of research on how to make the game marketable to all groups of people, but no really knows how a game is going to do until it released at launch.
Here are the elements of Starfield that are most popular right now.
What makes Starfield a special game
1. Ship Building.
This is an area of the game that largely conformed to how I believed that it would appeal to gamers. Since release, there are online articles in the press that are showcasing the many ships that people are building. This is free advertising for the game and will help Bethesda gain more sales. I bet that there are people who will purchase the game simply because of the ship building aspect of the game.
2. Modding
By far, this is one of the most important elements to the success of Starfield. While Starfield may not have the greatest story or greatest characters, it does have incredible modding support. According to Nexus Mods, only after two weeks, there were 14 million downloads of mods for this game. There are many games out there that would love to have this type of community support for a game. There is already huge interest and the official modding software hasn’t been released yet. It coming out in the coming year.
3. The scope of the game
One of the greatest examples of the success of this game is how there are still many parts of the game that people are not aware of. It is one of the defining aspects of this game. Starfield is game that is almost inhumanly unable to digested in one afternoon. I know that there are some criticisms that it is too big and that is a symptom of the industry focusing too much on bigger is better, but Starfield’s approach was absolutely needed for a game of this type. While games like the Outer Worlds and Mass Effect can benefit from having smaller focuses, this is the game that is culmination of so many space games over the years. Many space games are big by their very nature and Starfield needed to meet up to those expectations. There is a place for more character focused games, but video games need to continue pushing boundaries, and the only way for a game studio like Bethesda to truly wow audiences is by making a large game.
The Truth about Starfield and Its success
We need to be honest. The only way to really get the mainstream to hear about this game is to make it as big as possible. There is a place for games like Outer Worlds. However, the size of Starfield does not mean there isn’t moments of character development that are what I call the small moments that make a game special. It is important to remember that Bethesda’s games are not entirely about these small moments, but about its big moments. There will always be games that are huge and small and we gamers have to be willing to accept both. Bethesda has at least released a game that had very little bugs and glitches upon launch. Yes, people can complain about the strange NPC eyes and movements, but Starfield overall is a success and will continue to influence the industry at large for years to come.
I was thinking about the criticisms of Starfield which boil down to these main points.
It is a boring game
The game doesn’t have interesting characters
Starfield has a boring story that does not pull in the player.
The planets are not handcrafted and are boring
There is no character to the factions
Space travel is clunky and not as interesting as in other space games
Combat is not very interesting
The skills are not deep enough
You don’t feel the grandeur of space.
Why Starfield is like EverQuest
All these concerns are valid, but they are missing something very important. Starfield is essentially a single-player MMO game. It is not a traditional RPG game. It is not a Dragon Age or Mass Effect style game. To be honest, I would rather Starfield stick to what makes it great and not become another clone of those games.
Try to be honest here. Starfield is more like EverQuest in 1999 than Mass Effect in 2007. It may sound strange that a single-player game has more in common with a late 90s MMO but one has to consider the many features in Starfield that make it more of a MMO than a regular RPG.
Role-playing is an option in Starfield, but some players complain that your choices do not matter in the game. However, what I think players are missing about Starfield is that the game has some really deep mechanics that go beyond interacting with characters.
Starfield’s strength is not necessarily in its characters but in its ability of the player to build things. That is as simple as it is. Building something over interacting passively is what really distinguishes Starfield from other games out there. It is not a game that is all about the building of a character but of extending the reaches of human society beyond the reaches of the Settled Systems.
Everquest, similarly had a story but was focused on the construction of a virtual community on the planet that it was set on.
This is what the developers focused on in the game. Construction and exploration is the name of the game. While all the traditional RPG elements are there, it is really this sense you have incredibly large galaxy out there for you to discover and tame is an incredibly interesting prospect.
I have barely even started building outposts in Starfield. The idea of building a home on another planet is a highly tantalizing idea that is truly unique to Starfield. It was the same alluring idea that made so many players stay with EverQuest, even when WOW surpassed it in subscribers in 2004.
EverQuest when it was released in 1999, was all about building new worlds rather being a theme park like many later games. EverQuest was all about building community. While Starfield may not have an online aspect, Starfield’s deep crafting systems are really the highlight of this game. Older games like Everquest rewarded players who stuck with the game rather than expecting it to be done in a couple of days. This is one of the reasons that I compare these two games.
Starfield would translate well into the MMO genre. Let’s see what Bethesda has up their sleeves.
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