But it's entirely true, popularity gives a creator way more leeway to get worse because the LCD doesn't give a shit. Not to mention the suits that are attracted to popularity, they take pleasure in ruining things. Then there is the fact that too many normies will ruin whatever culture exists besides the direct product.

Not that it matters for Bethesda, pretty sure they literally couldn't get worse at this point without falling through completely. They are the suits that ruined lefey's work!

I honestly don’t mind people discovering Fallout. Heck, I’ve bought and lent copies to people to get them interested in it.

But I’ve also been in gaming since the late ‘80’s, and I’ve seen franchises ruined because developers chased the mass market instead of sticking to what made their games popular in the first place.

People came to Call of Duty for tight, sweet multiplayer matches with a military aesthetic.

Nowadays it’s got silly battle royale modes which let you play as Snoop-Dogg, The Terminator or a Warhammer 40K character. It looks nothing like what the original games were. And as a result, the playerbase has declined and shifted towards casual.

Battlefield is a shell of its former self after they moved away from what made it good. Need for Speed games also suck because they chased the Fast and the Furious trend. Flight Simulator has become too mainstream leading to quality decline because developers chase casual players. And there’s numerous other examples of games moving towards a more casual, wider base. Usually because newcomers think the old gameplay is ‘boring’ or ‘too difficult’. Go talk to some Diablo veterans about their thoughts on IV…

And yes, as someone who’s been with Fallout since 1: 76 should never have been made. Fallout is a single player, story driven experience. And it should stay that way. The mobile game… I’d rather they put that effort into making a proper game.