Starfield fans reckon it has good chance of matching Skyrim's impact on gaming

For those who’ve invested thousands of hours into the likes of Skyrim and Fallout 4, the release of Starfield can’t come soon enough.

Regardless of how you feel about the prospects of Bethesda's venture into space, what you think the end goal of its story might be or whether you like what it looks like in Far Cry 5, the idea of being able to delve into a freshly curated game filled with new quests, characters and locations has RPG lovers of all stripes intrigued.

While some of the game’s most hyped would-be players have recently been recommending each other sci-fi films and TV shows to stick on while they wait for it to arrive, one sect have now turned their attention to voting in a poll based around the kind of cultural impact they think Bethesda’s adventure in space might have.

What kind of impact do you think Starfield will have?

The thread containing this interesting attempt to predict the future on the Starfield subreddit began with a post from user Stunning_Hornet6568, who asked their fellow players: “Do you think Starfield will have the same far-reaching effects in gaming that Skyrim had?” and set up a ballot to gauge opinion on their query.

Divided into two simple answers, ‘yes’ or ‘no’, the poll has received 1.2k votes as of writing, with 733 of these having been cast for ‘yes’ and 466 in favour of ‘no’. In the responses below this survey, some fans offered detailed explanations of the reasoning behind their choices.

For example, user Reasonabledwarf said: “I'd be shocked (if it does). Skyrim had a bunch of stuff going for it that Starfield doesn't.” and cited factors like the affordability of hardware and attitude of the gaming community towards Bethesda arguably being more favourable in 2011 than they are now.

On the other hand, user AbstractMirror argued: “Skyrim was like lightning in a bottle for Bethesda and then the same thing has happened with Fallout 4 as well. Both games are not perfect, people have their opinions, but it's undeniable they've both stayed alive over the years and have developed bustling modding communities to carry them.”, adding that, in their opinion, enthusiasm around modding is what gives Starfield a good chance at remaining relevant for a long time.

Meanwhile, user CarpeNatem5 concluded: “Skyrim was a cultural phenomenon purely due to the fact that at the time BGS's games had yet to hit the mainstream. Skyrim was the first game most people had seen from Bethesda, and at a time (during which) large scale open world games weren't anywhere near as common, it was very unique.”

Regardless of your take on the potential of Starfield to make a transcendent impression on the gaming medium, make sure to follow us for lots of guides to its world and mechanics. You can also check out our latest mods of the month for some killer Skyrim and Fallout mods that’ll help tide you over until it arrives.