Bethesda Compares "Hardcore" Call Of Duty To Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Fans have been quick to accuse Square Enix of failing to cater to their fans while attempting to appeal to a larger mainstream audience.

But Bethesda isn't about to annoy their hardcore followers. When asked about "accessibility" - i.e., satisfying the ardent role-players versus ushering in new fans - studio design director Todd Howard told Gamasutra that such a question isn't "something that we think about a lot." The bottom line is they've obtained quite a large audience by making games they want to make, and as far as accessibility goes:

"We want to remove confusion, that's what I'd say. As opposed to making it more accessible, we'd like to remove confusion for anyone who's playing. What we're trying to do now is lead you into it more... In our games or others' games, they give you a character menu and say, 'Who do you want to be, what powers do you want?' [Players think,] 'I don't know, I haven't played yet!'

What happens in Oblivion is you start the game, play for three hours, and then think 'I want to start over, I chose wrong.' So we'd like to sort of alleviate some of that. I also think the controls work better [too] ... it's more elegant."

Then Howard makes an interesting observation: he says Call of Duty is actually quite hardcore, as it features RPG elements in multiplayer, like making classes and selecting perks. So it's not like all CoD players won't be interested in Skyrim and we like to hear Bethesda say: "We tend to make our game more for ourselves and other people who play a lot of games."

Related Game(s): The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Tags: the elder scrolls v, skyrim, bethesda

7/7/2011 10:24:15 AM Ben Dutka

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