I think the biggest sign of the grand “fall of Bethesda” or whatever is the fact that Starfield officially released a full calendar month ago today and I literally have zero idea what it is about or what happens in it. absolutely zero cultural osmosis seems to have happened, which would’ve been unthinkable for a Bethesda RPG like ten years ago
you don’t get it. Skyrim is one of the most iconic video games ever released, the Dovahkiin is firmly cemented in pop culture and stuff like “arrow to the knee” and “ah, you’re finally awake-“ became the bedrock of gaming culture for literally years. New Vegas is a continually surviving series of Simpsons-fan-level injokes about Benny and Courier and Joshua Graham, endlessly quoting every line of dialogue and modding the game with seemingly infinite hyper specific absurd add-ons. even the relatively middling reception for Fallout 4 was followed by months worth of people memeing about The Institute or Dogmeat, hair twirling over how much they were attracted to robots like Curie or Codsworth or Nick Valentine, it gave us THE FINAL PAM for gods sake. even Fallout Fucking 76 had John Denver stuck in everyone’s head for six fucking months.
the idea that I have not seen a single character or plot point or literally anything about Starfield in the month after its release other then “it looks pretty and runs at 60fps” is an impossibility. it’s absurd. absolute downfall material for bethesda
