Has it even been a week? Honestly, I'm too scared to look back and find out. Already those- people at Bethesda feel it's right to test the patience of it's loyal fandom once again and I'm not sure I, personally, can take it anymore. It's tugging at my heartstings to read about these stories time and time again and wonder what happened to the studio that was once my favourite game developer. If we weren't a breath away from the release of The Outer Worlds I don't know what I would do. At least Obsidian can provide us action-RPG fans with some vague semblance of hope now that our heroes have died and been rebuilt as a sacrilegious parodies of themselves. (It just sickens me.)
If you hadn't heard or were just plain lucky enough to avoid Bethesda news altogether, Fallout 76 has found a way to get on everybody's lips once again for all the wrong reasons. Not a week after we hear news about Bethesda's attempt to squeeze the last drops of blood out of their rapidly diminishing fanbase, another blog post drops on Bethesda.Net with a chilling ultimatum. Fallout 76 will be receiving one of it's most requested (and promised) features after all this time, private servers. (with mod support at a later date.) What's the catch? A 100$ a year subscription service, obviously. (Someone pinch me. I hope I'm dreaming.)
There is so much wrong with this announcement and what it means for the future of Fallout 76, that to attempt to cover it all without any mind bleach might just prove fatal, so I'll use this blog to compare other subscription offers with this one. (I need some positivity today, else I might just explode.) Don't get me wrong, I'm not doing this on the off-chance that some Bethesda employee happens across this post by some nobody and takes inspiration, this is purely for my own catharsis. This is the way I intend to process this tragedy and I'd appreciate you sticking around and bearing with me through this one. (It's going to get rant-ey.)
First of all, let me start of by saying that I do not like subscription services. I understand why they exist and hold nothing against those who partake (which is a lot more than I can say for Lootbox consumers) but my inherent stinginess physically repulses at the idea of opting into a monthly fee. On a more practical note, I'm a huge nostalgia nut who likes to find his way back to stories that I love years down the line; Therefore I'd rather own something definitively rather than rent it for the moment only to realize that I've lost it due to having dropped my subscription years ago. (It literally took me a decade to rediscover 'Devil May Cry 2' after renting it for a week. I don't want to go through that headache again.) Yet even with that inherent distaste on my part, I can recognize when a subscription deal is too good to pass up. A good deal is a good deal no matter what the asking price is; Fallout 76's Fallout 1st program is not a good deal.
The launch period of Fallout 76 has already gone down in the books as one of the most disastrous of all times, and it wasn't just because of connection woes. (Although we did have a lot of them.) There were problems with rampant glitches, lack of progression incentives, no endgame, unbalanced world bosses, unbalanced perk cards, and a sorely empty and forgettable world space. All of this should have signalled red flags for Bethesda but they all subscribed to the belief that the game would get better, sentiments that Todd Howard shared in a candid interview. (For which he was relentlessly blasted online.) So it wasn't the end of the world that the game launched as a hollow mess, for it was a platform that would start to improve.
Fast forward one year later and many of those problems that I've mentioned still persist. In fact, some of the stability issues were relived only to be re-introduced during the Raids update. Another, just as unbalanced, world boss was added and progression has been relegated entirely to the marketplace. Higher levels are just for show at this point. All this was supposed to fixed by now due to the Wastelanders update that was recently delayed, and instead the community who have stuck by this game have been sidelined and told that future incremental updates to player's quality of life will be exclusive to either the in-game store or an embarrassingly overpriced subscription service.
I'm sure that Bethesda 'diehards' (see: sunk cost fallacy) will march to Bethesda's defence and claim that none of the items on offer are necessities, but, once again, Bethesda are playing a game of attrition. The more small nicks of annoyance that they poke you with, the weaker you become to their attempts to sell the big items to you. This is simple marketing strategy, you don't need to be genius to see it. This time, Bethesda are offering an ingame camp system as an exclusive subscription item (Which allows players to create a fast-travel beacon without moving their entire base) and a free Desert Ranger outfit. Which makes no sense canonically as that organization was born on the West coast and were famously exclusive to the area of the Mojave until they encountered the NCR (Which wouldn't be formed yet for a good hundred years.), but it's nice to see that Bethesda are profiteering off of Obsidian's work on New Vegas. Real classy, guys.
The paltry offering isn't even the biggest rub here, nor is the fact that Bethesda want to attach another paywall to their sinking ship. For me, it's that ludicrous price tag. $11.99 a month? Will Todd Howard personally come around my house to give me a foot massage? If not then I expect a damn good explanation as to why I should fork out three times the cost of one month of Xbox game pass in order to play the worst Fallout game ever made. (And I'm including 'Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel' in that comparison) Game pass, may I remind you, is a service that allows buyers to play over 100 high-quality games for a paltry monthly sum, sometimes on the day of release! (And I'm not even paid to say that. I just hate Fallout 1st so much that I'll sing the praises of a serial killer if he offered a subscription for his crimes.)
But Microsoft aren't the only ones who offer a superior 'paid subscription'. Perhaps the closest direct comparison I can make off the top of my head is that of WoW Classic. (Seeing as how Bethesda fancy this game as their very own MMO) WoW was the game the defined the MMO genre and spawned a thousand failure copy cats. (Ranks that Bethesda seem eager to join.) I'm not sure how subscription works today, but back in it's prime WoW operated on a nominal fee that could be purchased directly or earnt through playing the game religiously, meaning that you theoretically only had to buy a subscription once. (Wait... is this how Battlepasses were born too? This game really was ahead of it's time!)
How about Nintendo's online service that they offer with the Switch. Initially it seemed like something of a raw deal. (Especially with the way they robbed previously online games of their connectivity.) But the deal has become a whole of a lot sweeter since the 'virtual' consoles were introduced. Just like with game pass, you can play through Nintendo's legendary library of classic games (albeit, drip fed from the big N) for no extra charge then the purchase of the online itself. "How much does it cost?" you ask? £15 for a year. (Bethesda best be taking some serious notes right now.)
If you're looking for a more traditional one-on-one comparison with a modern MMO, look no further than the best MMO on the market right now; Final Fantasy XIV. This is a game that nails every aspect of it's required agenda as an MMO and does so with absolute style. There are countless activities, events, vocations, end-game grinds, and top-tier raids to take part in. Not only that, but many of the DLC story add ons have been hailed as some of the best Final Fantasy stories ever told. (And that's coming from the franchise that practically wrote the book on epic storytelling.) How much is this game's subscription? Well for the first 35 levels it's free, after that you are hit with a $12 monthly fee. (That's kinda deceptive, honestly.) So this is a price that is closer to Fallout 76's proposition, but what's the difference? Hmm, how about the fact that you are paying for the best MMO on the market right now that is renowned for inundating it's player base with premium quality content. Not exactly a one-to-one comparison to Bethesda's game, and yet they seem to think their worth it. (Some folk are easily deluded.)
I didn't think I'd have to write another blog about abject stupidity on Bethesda's front. I hoped I wouldn't have to. But when you are met by a studio that are so adamant on throttling their loyal consumer base to their last penny, it's hard not to point and stare. At this point, I can't imagine anyone taking this game seriously unless they do a 'Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn' style overhaul, but honestly, I doubt modern Bethesda have enough passion and ingenuity to pull something like that off. Well, the blog has done the trick. I'm no longer seething with rage and have settled into my natural state of despair. So I guess I'm going to end this here. See you the next time Bethesda do something dumb, I guess.
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