Bethesda Game Rant

This is nothing new, but I hope Bethesda gets its act together for future RPG releases, like Starfield, Elder Scrolls VI, and the ever so distant Fallout 5. I'm far from the first to say this, of course, but I'm going to rant anyway.

The big issues are factions that you can choose to work with or join. In Fallout 4, the factions tend to become mutually exclusive after a point, and that's a good thing. Not so much in Skyrim. The Empire and the Stormcloaks are enemies and mutually exclusive, but that's about it.

There's the Companions, and they have the rival Silver Hand organization, but the Silver Hand are just bandits by another name who happen to have silver swords in their inventory. There is one named Silver Hand character, but he has a randomly generated appearance and no dialogue. You can't choose to side with the Silver Hand instead of the Companions, and there's no backstory to explain their rivalry. Many gamers have inferred something, but there's nothing official.

Siding with the Companions isn't much of a deal, either. There's a quest, but it has little to do with the stated purpose and goals of the Companions as an organization. Furthermore, the game fast-tracks you into it; you don't have to do anything special to join the "inner circle" and get involved in the Companions quest. Completing it and becoming the Harbinger doesn't really give you any authority, either; the Companions don't treat you any differently.

The College of Winterhold quest is likewise fast-tracked, not requiring any demonstrable mastery of spell-casting to start or complete. Completing it makes you the Arch Mage, but it's a title with no authority; none of the mages treat you any differently. All you really get out of it is a nice bedroom.

The Thieves' Guild has an extremely elaborate quest line, and starting it does actually require doing some thievish things, at least. Becoming the Master of the Thieves' Guild confers no authority, of course. Everything proceeds the same. Also, there's no option to oppose the Thieves' Guild as a quest, despite the fact that there's a character -- Mjoll the Lioness -- who sounds motivated to join such a quest.

The Dark Brotherhood is little better. As with the Thieves' Guild line, it's almost as if the developers want to reward evil behavior. As usual, becoming the leader of the Dark Brotherhood doesn't really confer any authority. There is an option to oppose and destroy them, but it's short and offers no substantial rewards, so why would anyone do that?

The Dawnguard offer a nice option to be good or evil, even if the paths are pretty similar and end exactly the same way. At least neither faction pretends to put you in charge without any meaningful authority.

Back in Fallout 4, there's the obvious example of the Minutemen. You can easily become the General, but it's a position with no authority; you don't assign people to missions, you just get them from Preston or the radio and do them yourself.

Neither the Railroad nor the Brotherhood of Steel ever pretends your in charge, although it would be nice to see characters like Rhys show more deference when you start out-ranking them (if you complete the main quest with the BoS, he apologizes once, then goes back to being a dick).

The Institute, on the other hand, DOES pretend to put you in charge, but that allows you to make one decision that has no significant effect on the game. The Institute's actions in the game don't even make much sense, given their stated motivation. They want to be left alone in their ivory bomb shelter to pursue their research, but they can't resist meddling in things happening on the surface. They occasionally need materials, but they could get those quietly instead of acting like raiders with clean clothes. They grow food, they make medicine, they have a variety of high-tech tools: they could easily trade for the things they need from the surface, and no one would know where they were hiding out. Nonetheless, they're dicks every step of the way, and even when you become the Director, there's nothing you can do about it.

In short, when I join an organization in the future, I want it to mean something. If I become the leader, clients should come to me with requests, which I can then do myself or assign to members of the organization.