>>729638709
What happened? Did it happen? Are we okay Toddbros? What the fuck happened!?

>>729638709
Todd Howard has always seen deep systems, fully realized stories and fleshed out settings as obstacles to making products the largest number of people will want.

Todd wants every game that comes out of BGS to be targeted at 30-something men who can only spare an hour or two a night to play after work.

With that goal in mind, you'd want to do the following:
>Make the stories simpler and easier to follow between sessions, but with constant, flashy beats to maximize attention.
>eliminate the risk of creating an unplayable build.
>Tear out any systems which may require experimentation to understand and use optimally.
>Add features that allow the player to feel like they're progressing, even while they're not playing, or while they're doing other things in game.
>Stack the game full of repetitive or open ended content that's meant to keep players invested for longer without having to write additional main story content or additional unique assets.

Which is exactly what Todd Howard has done with every single project he's directed, with the only mediating factor being the need to continue appealing to returning fans. Starfield is what happens when Todd Howard's decisions and goals aren't beholden to anything that came before.

Morrowind scaled back from Daggerfall, and got slightly less edgy.

Oblivion streamlined Morrowind's winning formula, and turned Cyrodiil into a generic Medieval fantasy world.


Skyrim removed multiple layers of complexity in mechanics and eliminated so-called "pain points" by putting even less weight on character creation than ever before. And it had the most generic, straightforward story in the whole series. Oblivion at least threw you a curveball by making your character less important in the narrative than Martin.

I have the slightest bit of hope for TES VI, because I'm willing to believe Todd could have taken a step back and reevaluated his goals after Starfield's failure. Not that I believe he actually did.