Yes, I have played Bethesda games for decades, going all the way back to Elder Scrolls 1: Arena.

Yes, I play Elder Scrolls Online even to this day, though I am now reconsidering that.

That does not and should not have any consequence whatsoever when it comes to my, or anyone else’s, opinion when it comes to how fucked up Bethesda/Zenimax are as corporations, and the corporate ownership at Microsoft for that matter.

My interest in Starfield has diminished significantly and the hype wave is already putting me off. Yes, it’s only one individual’s story and not the first from the company, but I’m not enough to LARP as a perfect logical machine that only does perfectly Rational™ calculations regarding whether I should care about something or not.

I expect Hexbear to have a lot of “let people enjoy things” discourse about Starfield in the upcoming weeks and months, and a lot of it will ride on the "everyone does these bad things in game development" thought terminating cliche that primarily serves as a palate cleanser so the consumer can avoid feeling as much guilt or disgust for what they’re now consuming.

Fuck that.

And fuck that corporate empire.