Todd has been actively preventing wokeness for decades. Kirkbride has complained that every time he tries putting in a gay character, Todd has personally prevented it. For instance, Pelinal Whitestrake was supposed to be gay, and Todd wouldn't allow it. Bethesda has also been very careful to not have Redguards be black people by proxy, actually being more analogous to Berbers and pre-Muslim Arabs.
If it's going to be a shitty game, it's going to be because Bethesda itself has turned to shit, just look at Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. However, the first thing Microsoft did when they acquired Bethesda was order them to completely overhaul their engine. But, while the game quality itself may be higher, I can definitely also see Microsoft forcing wokeness, even overriding Todd to do so, and turning the Redguards into standard black people analogs.
Racial bonuses: Lock picking +20 Pickpocket +20 Speech -10
Racial Ability: Dindu Nuffin. Bounty less than 50GP automatically forgiven by the Hold.
Racial Power: Flashmob. Once per day a group of 13 military aged male Redguard followers may be instantly summoned for 180 seconds to loot an alchemy shop or fight alongside the player in combat. 58% chance (72% if player is Redguard) of Flashmob turning on the player if all enemies are killed before 180 seconds elapse. One random, unequipped inventory item will be lost upon invocation.
All merchants are Argonian and sell only skooma, roll of paper, and shovel. Prices are outrageous.
Every dialog offers the, "Brawl," alternative. Persuade dialog is replaced with, "Jive." "Lie," dialog renamed as, "Persuade."
There is no fire in the blacksmith forges. Grinding wheels have all been stolen. No chickens.
Redguard women attack Nord women upon sight.
All male Redguard NPC have Nord, Breton, or Imperial wives in stable marriages with well dressed children for whom they ably provide. Every NPC home has either a shrine to Zenithar, a garden, or both.
Beggars continue as Nord, Imperial, or Breton races. No change there.
The fucking same engine since Morrowind, just gussied up with shaders and more polygons. What's inexcusable is the horrendous uncanny valley character design that never changed over the years. Worse than Source engine games. I really hate Valve's facial expressions though. Straight out of some DreamWorks movie. I hated all of the characters in HL2 and TF2 looks terrible.
The problem isn't the engine, there's been plenty of perfectly good games made on Gamebryo (en.wikipedia.org), in fact, for what they're doing Gamebryo is the perfect engine. No other engine can handle so many interactable items in the world. The problem is Bethesda themselves. Everyone in a position of power is literally Todd's High School friend, and they aren't going anywhere no matter how incompetent they are. The jank characters and animations are the product of a guy who's never had any education in the fields of 3D modelling and animation whatsoever.
And presumably the same five shitty voice actors as well.
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