Todd Howard: 'We still debate' how players should react to dying

“We've still never quite solved it. It actually is rare that a gamer will go into a situation and say, "Nope, I'm going to turn around. I don't want to keep going at this." You can change the difficulty whenever you want. But most people don't want to do that, because they don't want to feel like they wussed out.”

- Bethesda Studios creative director Todd Howard

Speaking recently with Bethesda Studios creative director Todd Howard, Glixel’s Chris Suellentrop brought up the fact that difficult combat encounters in Bethesda games don’t always clearly indicate what the player needs to do to succeed. And in an interesting revelation, Howard explained that Bethesda doesn’t quite know what they’re supposed to do either. 

In a lengthy conversation that covered everything from NCAA Football to how Howard uses action figures when making games, Howard tells Suellentrop that Bethesda “hasn’t quite solved” how players should respond when faced with difficult challenges in games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Fallout 4.

It’s a fascinating admission from Howard, who lays out some of the key reasons why they can’t quite account for what players will do when faced with a challenge, in order to guide them to what they should do. 

“It actually is rare that a gamer will go into a situation and say, ‘nope, I'm going to turn around. I don't want to keep going at this,’” Howard explains. “You can change the difficulty whenever you want. But most people don't want to do that, because they don't want to feel like they wussed out.”

Bethesda’s action-figure-owner-in-chief adds that even making sure players have some kind of potion or spell to help them through encounters isn’t enough, because players are still taught to horde power wherever possible. 

“It's kind of a joke in role-playing games. Everyone finishes the game with like, "The Potion of Ultimate Might" that they never drank, because they're always waiting for something worse to turn around the corner.”

So if you’re struggling with this problem in your own RPG design, it’s both helpful to know you’re not alone, and interesting to know what precisely Howard and his cohorts at Bethesda are interested in solving with their next game. 

Be sure to read the full Glixel interview if you’re also curious with what Howard thinks about the Nintendo Switch (he points out their Nintendo partnership will be their first Nintendo game in a long, long time).