Todd Howard has been instrumental in the creation of some of gaming's most notable series, including his extensive work on The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises. Throughout his lengthy career, which began with 1995's The Terminator: Future Shock, Howard has never lost sight of what made gaming so special to him that he chose to pursue a career in the industry.
Howard, who is now director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios and is currently assisting with Starfield, explained how the impact and popularity of open-world games over the last generation of consoles continued to grow as as game developers honed their experiences over the years, with each new game better than the last as developers "got used to making them."
For Howard, being able to transport a gamer to another world and all that may exist and be hidden within it is what helps separate video games from other mediums. It's a sense of wonder Bethesda is no doubt hoping to accomplish once again in its forthcoming game, Starfield. He noted how, although other entertainment mediums can tell undeniably good stories, being able to place a player into another world and ask the question, 'What would you do there? What are the possibilities?' is what helps to "set gaming apart from other forms of entertainment."
Despite Bethesda's recent outings being more multiplayer-centric affairs, Howard explained that the company is still "big fans of single player." He added that the company has discovered a large number of its fanbase actually prefer to play titles like Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 as though they were single player experiences, explaining how feedback from players revealed that other gamers could "distract" from the overall experience.
He shared how when Bethesda takes a story-driven approach and embraces narrative linearity, as it is doing with Starfield, it often presents tasks to gamers through short-term, medium-term, long-term goals whilst ensuring to provide options. Developing these options to have an impact on the progression of the story, and subsequently giving the player some agency in the game, is what Howard believes leads to the "real magic" of a video game.
"That's when the player feels like, 'Look what I did!' Rather than a creator giving something to you and you consuming it, you gave something to the game. You come away with a sense of pride. You've accomplished something for the week."
According to him, this sense of accomplishment is something that those who don't play video games will "never quite understand." He expressed how, when you play a game and accomplish something within it, "[...] that's real. It's a real accomplishment in your life, or it has been to me, and to other people I meet who love gaming." Howard pointed to how gamers can come to the end of their week and look back on their experience, knowing they've 'saved the world' and that the feeling this delivers as the end credits roll is akin to magic.
Source: The Guardian