Dear Bethesda: Why are Starfield’s books so short?

Bethesda Game Studios is a rare breed of video game developer that has the gift of consistency. You can play one of their games, and know what you’ll get from them all: a vast open world with everything a Staples or medieval Whole Foods has ever offered, characters who will run stiffly through gunfire in order to request a magical cheese curd and most importantly, literature. You can read as many books, emails, letters and notes at your own pace, unaffected by the world-ending crises you’re supposed to be preventing.

You can also find out more about the following: LoveI love all the writing. There is just so much writing. I also love the fact that most of it is not for any discernible reason. Most of all, I love that the lion’s share of these books are Fucking boringThere are several works that span multiple volumes with over a dozen page each on shite I will You can never have enough of your own?Take care of in a million year.

I find this to be a key part of Bethesda’s appeal. Even if You can also find out more about the following: don’t care about the fictional exploits of Mehrunes Whoever, it is incredible to me that You can also contact us by clicking here.It was enough for me to type several hundred words, which most people are likely to ignore. They’re there because they should be. They’re there because Bethesda games are set in worlds where people read, and those worlds are made with the conviction that the player should be able to read many of those books — even the goddamn turgid histories that make me want to tear my eyes out. Perhaps the Elder Scrolls characters feel the same about them.

The question is: “Where are you?” FuckThe books are in Starfield? What is this nonsense where you pick up a book — real neat that they’re still around in the future, by the way — and all you get is the first couple paragraphs and then a line about the book’s importance in the world??? Some of these books aren’t even fictional, but public domain works! What’s stopping you from putting all of Anna KareninaTodd Howard, what’s your favorite game? Not concern for my hard drive, I’ll say! You’re already taking up 100 of my god-given gigabytes. What’s a few books that come free on every Kindle gonna hurt?

Going from the ridiculously expansive books and terminal entries of Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls and Fallout games to the little blurbs that compose Starfield’s diegetic texts feels like a personal slight, a ridiculous assumption that just because I did not choose to read all those very long books in Skyrim that I wouldn’t read them Today is a day to remember. While it’s understandable that you would want to have your players read short messages over longer ones that they might ignore, this has the horrible knock-on that it implies that Starfield’s characters just don’t want to read anymore, turning me into a judgy Boomer.

In the interest of covering my ass, I should be clear: I’m aware that Starfield The game is huge, and I’ve only played a few hours. I’m willing to believe that I have not experienced all the literary material to be found in Starfield’s universe, and maybe I never will. I wouldn’t even bat an eye if Todd Howard put a whole-ass Library Planet in the game where I can read all six volumes of Searching Lost Time and also Sam Coe’s favorite erotic fantasy series. Hell, add one later in a patch, after I’ve moved on! It would be funny to play this joke on someone as indignant and pissanted as me.