Starfield has arrived; now we’re just awaiting the waves of toxic fandom

In recent times, it’s commonplace to see PlayStation exclusives review-bombed by those left out (read: Xbox users) and Xbox/PC exclusives review-bombed by PlayStation users. (Image: Bethesda/Microsoft)

One of the most amusing things to me, growing up, was the idea that a not-insignificant percentage of the metal community thought it was borderline sacrilege to be a fan of both Metallica and Megadeth. It bears pointing out that this is some years prior to the very public rapprochement between the bands at the 2010 Sonisphere Festival.

Far from being limited to simply cheering that much louder for the thrash metal band of their choosing, fans would seek to boo the other band, discourage friends from buying their albums, and just rage against them from whatever soapbox was available. With the relatively minuscule number of netizens only just discovering p2p music sharing, review-bombing wasn’t really a thing back then.

Flash-forward to 2023 and while Metallica and Megadeth are enjoying the respective autumns of their remarkable careers, review-bombing is very much a thing. In fact, it is so much a thing that it has film and television studios, game publishers and record labels alike frequently running for cover. As the name suggests, review-bombing is an act of peppering an aggregator like Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes with enough negative reviews to greatly impact the overall rating of a piece of content.

Can Microsoft and Bethesda Game Studios expect more of the same with Starfield having officially launched (buyers of special editions of the game got a five-day head start) on September 6?

What drives toxic fandom?

You’ve seen it with Marvel fans when a DC film releases and vice versa, and you’ve seen it with Zack Snyder fans when a DC film releases. You’ve also seen it quite inexplicably with Barbie and Oppenheimer fans when the two films hit cinemas worldwide. You’ve seen it with the BTS Army, fans of Star Wars and Trek, the Swifties, proponents of the PC Master Race, Rick and Morty megafans, and so on. Much as with L’affaire Metallica-Megadeth, it’s not enough to put one entity on a pedestal, you have to pull down its rivals — real or perceived — and those who support them.

Another popular form of toxic fandom is the ‘friendly fire’ variety wherein the ‘true fan’ belittles, humiliates, or ostracises those deemed not to be as committed or as ‘correct’ in their fandom. Or get upset at the actual nature of something not resembling their own idea of it, like if their favorite band “sells out” by taking a different musical direction. Or if a director makes a film that isn’t up to some impossibly high standard of film-making held by the ‘true fan’. Having given the previous lines another read, they sound ridiculous, but sadly they’re all rooted in reality. For the ‘true fan’, this is often seen as a sort of vigilantism to maintain all that is good and pure about the topic of their obsession.

At its core, what this concept boils down to is an overpowering sense of ‘I know what’s best’, ‘I know the best way to appreciate it’, and ‘if you’re doing it differently, you’re doing it wrong’. One of the most recent and high-profile examples of this phenomenon in gaming was seen a couple of years ago with the launch of The Last of Us Part II. Rarely had critic reviews and user reviews been so massively divergent. Most intriguing of all, a chunk of user reviews had been published mere moments after the game’s launch.

To put this into numbers, shortly after the game’s launch, the average Metacritic score for critics or Metascore was 95 percent, while the average user review or User Score was 3.3. Why critic reviews are represented as a score out of 100 and user reviews as a score out of 10 on Metacritic is not known to me, but that’s not the point. Over time, both scores began to stabilise and the Metascore currently stands at 93, with the User Score at 5.8. The gulf is still far too wide to be explained by the quality of the game alone.

To clear any misconceptions at this early stage, this isn’t a case of trying to represent either critics or users as the ultimate authority. Both groups, I would like to believe, largely comprise individuals with opinions and insights based on their own experiences and not contrived agendas. With The Last of Us Part II, it is believed that a mix of the game’s LGBTQ+ themes, the death of a key character, the decision to turn an antagonist into a second protagonist, and the fact that the game was a PlayStation exclusive contributed to the reaction of a bunch of very angry users, as much as the bland gameplay did.

The key drivers of toxic fandom, as identified by several keen observers, are possessiveness, entitlement, and a sense of superiority.

Where Starfield enters the picture

In recent times, it’s commonplace to see PlayStation exclusives review-bombed by those left out (read: Xbox users) and Xbox/PC exclusives review-bombed by PlayStation users. Interestingly, PC gamers enjoy a charmed, if expensive, existence with a large majority of games finding their way to them at some point and in some form. That already meant Starfield was going to face its fair share of unfair criticism.

Now, when you combine the above with the June 2023 reveal — according to sources, this was known soon after ZeniMax Media (owner of Bethesda Game Studios, among others) was bought by Microsoft in 2021 — that Starfield was originally meant to release on the PlayStation 5 too, you have a recipe for nuclear levels of toxic fandom.

With the exception of the time when an AAA exclusive pops up, the console wars are more or less dead. Microsoft has hitched its wagon to software development and the PC, with the Xbox lying in an apparent state of dereliction and abandonment. Meanwhile, Sony is acquiring a raft of studios to build exclusives for its flagship gaming device. But given the little revelation above, the more entitled PlayStation users are bound to feel aggrieved and denied of what was ‘rightfully theirs’. This will lead to sour grapes review-bombing.

Having covered those ‘left out in the cold’, let’s look at those who can actually play the game. Today, everyone's an expert on what engine a particular game should use, what mechanics it should incorporate, how difficult it should be, and so on. And so you shouldn’t be too surprised to find this crowd crowing about how upset they are that Starfield isn’t Elden Ring, for instance. “The game sucks because it doesn’t have exceedingly long battles, massive swords, and the ugliest bosses known to man,” they’ll cry.

Sure, pal. Maybe next time.

After dark, the vigilantes will emerge. And unfortunately for Bethesda, it has a massive target drawn on its back with this crowd. Comparisons to such widely-loved and pathbreaking games as the Elder Scrolls titles and the better Fallouts will give rise to barbs about how the studio has lost its way. “This isn’t my Bethesda anymore,” they’ll scream. References to recently-published titles — Deathloop and Redfall — will give rise to heated invective about how the studio is fleecing its adoring fans. Nitpicking the tiniest of details will ensue and lines like “worst game ever” will flow thick and fast. Again unfortunately for Bethesda, the target on its back grows larger because it has something of a tradition of shipping games riddled with bugs.

All of this will be multiplied by a factor of 10 when you look at the game’s relatively high price tag. Admittedly, charging Rs 6,499 plus taxes for the base game, and Rs 9,199 plus taxes for five days of early access, some cosmetics, digital assets and access to a future DLC is very steep. Now should you claim publicly to enjoy the game, there’s a very good chance you’ll be taken to task. After all, you’ve either never played a game before, or you’re an easy-mode casual, or you’re just a simple-minded console peasant.

And finally, there will undoubtedly be those who will be apoplectic — stark raving mad, I tell you — at the audacity of the developers to include ‘they/them’ as pronouns for your character. For some with more time on their hands than is probably advisable, this could be worse than any game-breaking bug and more worthy of abuse and ridicule too.

So what should you do?

Opinions, by their very nature, are subjective. Just as there is no perfect game, film, album, painting etc, there is no perfect opinion of any of them. No matter how much we would like to believe otherwise. With a game, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy a bunch of aspects and dislike a bunch of them. Whether or not it’s worth your time and money will come down to an aggregation of views and opinions you trust. A mob generally is rather less reliable when it comes to nuanced views than an assortment of individuals.

Luckily for you, the game is available at no extra cost if you already have a PC or Xbox Game Pass membership. I’m still making up my mind about the game, you should too. Keep watching this space for my review of the game, but until then, it’s best to prepare for the inevitable outpouring of toxicity. And wouldn’t you believe it?. It’s already begun.