Starfield's design director stands up for developers against growing criticism

Bethesda’s Starfield didn’t have as smooth of a launch as the studio had been hoping, and now that players have had some time with the game, a growing number of creators and influencers have been voicing their frustrations. In response, Bethesda’s design director has come out in defense of the studio’s developers, arguing that some critics are “disconnected [...] from the realities of game development”.

In a thread on X, formerly Twitter, design director Emil Pagliarulo responded to the growing criticism from disgruntled players. While Pagliarulo acknowledges that players have a right to critique or “hate” a game if they so choose, he takes issue with how a minority of “unreasonable people” have chosen to make their views known, as the game’s developers are not at fault for why certain design choices were made.

Now that it’s been a few months since Starfield’s initial release, more creators are starting to give their overall thoughts on the game, with many condemning some of the design choices that were made. Recently, we reported that the modder behind the highly-popular Skyrim Together mod has abandoned work on a similar Starfield mod, as the game is simply "trash".

In a recent video, the creator NakeyJakey also took aim at how dated many of the design decisions made in recent Bethesda games are, and that justifying them because “it’s a Bethesda game” is giving the studio a free pass. Each of Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and Starfield receive a fair share of criticism, with the latter drawing the brunt of NakeyJakey’s ire.

The video, which was released four days ago, already has 3.5 million views and 241 thousand likes on YouTube. Clearly, NakeyJakey's frustrations have resonated widely amongst Starfield players, and many of his points do fairly criticise aspects of Starfield's design where alternative decisions could, and probably should, have been made.

However, while Starfield and other recent Bethesda games may have some questionable design choices behind them, Pagliarulo thinks that its unfair for criticism to be directed at the game's developers. "You don't know who made certain decisions; who did specific work; how many people were actually available to do that work; any time challenges faced; or how often you had to overcome technology itself."

It's not that Pagliarulo thinks that Bethesda, or any other studio, should escape any criticism for their games, but he has a point that, while some decisions will look bad from an outside perspective, nobody outside of the development process will have any insight into why these decisions were made.

Therefore, judging the design choices in a vacuum, without a complete understanding of the game's development process, is somewhat unfair to developers.

While yes, players have every right to criticise a game that they paid £50 or more for that didn't live up to their expectations, in the grand scheme of things, it is a "freaking miracle" that games like Starfield are even able to be made.