Loved this post, and I agree on everything. I don't really have anything to say, I'm just commenting to up this post hoping more people will comment :)
I don't really get how people's problem with Bethesda is bugs and glitches, which are completely solvable, and not the writing that makes you want to remove some brain tissue from your skull so that it doesn't bother you that much
It kinda happened for me with Fallout New Vegas. I was maybe 11 and never played anything from the series. I spent my time killer hobo-ing my way through but I always felt like I was missing something, then I started reading negative opinions about it online and got influence by that, so I dropped it. After some time I played Fallout 3 after hearing people saying it was much better, I liked and I too thought it was much better than New Vegas but decided to give NV another shot (I was 12 or 13 by then). I loved it to the point where it is probably on the top of my emotional top 10. It got me into 50s/60s music, got me interested in politics and ethics, made me become a fan of science fiction and old school RPGs focused on story and a variety of approaches. Really a fantastic game.
EDIT: wanted to add that nowadays I really can't play FO3 without thinking that I could just play NV instead. That's how much I love that game
I'm Gen Z and when I was little my parents were (rightfully) very careful with how much time I spent on the internet. Even so, I saw from a distance the old internet, where forums were a thing and you could find lots of cool websites that people made for reasons that weren't limited to promoting or selling something.
When I discovered Reddit it was like I could somehow experience that time, but for many the decline had already started.
I love interacting with people, asking and answering questions, discovering and making others discover new things, but I just can't stand feeling like everything and everyone is trying to sell me something anymore.
Now that I'm here, I feel like this could be the place, at least for a while.
Loved this post, and I agree on everything. I don't really have anything to say, I'm just commenting to up this post hoping more people will comment :)