How Bethesda Designs for Moments

<p><em>Starfield</em>&nbsp;has been released lately and is a huge deal for the industry &mdash; with this being the first original IP from Bethesda in years, and taking the fantasy developer to the realm of the sci-fi. With that said, if you&rsquo;re hoping that this would be a bold new world for the studio, it is not.&nbsp;<em>Starfield</em>&nbsp;represents the peak of Bethesda&rsquo;s, and by extension, the distinction of CRPG design and why this kind of gameplay just doesn&rsquo;t interest me. At long last, I think I can finally explain why this kind of CRPG design has yet to grab me.</p> <h1>A Slice of Swords and Lasers</h1> <p>For people reading this, let me just say that this is not going to be a review of&nbsp;<em>Starfield</em>, I spent about 90 minutes in the game, didn&rsquo;t enjoy it, and uninstalled it after two different game crashes. I recently finished my book on RPG design, and one of the hardest parts of it was trying to break down the differences between a JRPG and a CRPG.</p> <p>It&rsquo;s easy to just say &ldquo;One is from Japan and one is from the West&rdquo; and call it a day, but that doesn&rsquo;t get at the systemic differences that occupy each part of the genre. While both aspects draw heavily from tabletop RPGs and Pen and Paper design, CRPGs heavily emphasize the &ldquo;role-playing&rdquo; elements, while JRPG design focuses on the systems and abstraction. When you play a CRPG, it is about you obviously inhabiting the role of a character in that world &mdash; or universe if we&rsquo;re talking about&nbsp;<em>Starfield</em>. You are meant to guide the progression of your character just as you impact the story and characters in that space.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@GWBycer/how-bethesda-designs-for-moments-a2264177e22d"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>