A Defense of Emil Pagliarulo's Speech
Ever since this video came out, people have flocked to it to misquote it, take things out of context, lie through omission, and...everything in between. Many unaware of what "KISS" (keep it simple, stupid) means or are aware and choose to intentionally lie.
I've someone touched on this topic in the past, however, since I've seen it sprung up again I figure I'll go a bit more over the topic. I didn't go over the infamous (and unfinished) quote in that post, so I will now. The quote in question is:
"And you're gonna give this book (often omitted "this great American novel") to the player and what are they gonna do with it? They are gonna rip out every page and make paper airplanes out of them. And they are gonna throw them around. And they are never gonna see your story."
This is where this quote "ends" on Reddit, because this subreddit doesn't enjoy actual context. This is taken in the middle of his speech, and doesn't have the ending. So, I'll go ahead and give the entire, full length quote:
"We're going to write the great American novel. It's gonna be this thick, and on every page will be written comedy and tragedy and it will be wonderful, it'll be amazing. And you're gonna give this book, this great American novel, to the player and what are they gonna do with it? They are gonna rip out every page and make paper airplanes out of them. And they are gonna throw them around. And they are never gonna see your story. Because, the story is there but they are going to spend 30 hours making shacks. They're going to spend 20 hours looking for bobbleheads. But that's okay, we know that going in. That's the jagged pill that we swallow when we do this."
Now, there is a little more after this, but it's pretty much him just reiterating this point, that great games are played and the greatest stories are the players themselves. People take to the often omitted quote (the first one) as Emil (and the greater Bethesda) not caring about writing a story or a good story...despite Emil saying that he's going to write a great American novel full of emotions and everything. That'd be a bit contradictory if he's saying he doesn't care; in fact, he says the opposite in that ignored last part.
I don't really have an ending statement, without coming off as hostile towards the fanbase that I'm apart of, but I just wanted to really go over this and clear up a repeated lie. Now that repeated lie will be hard to get rid of, but at least this might help. I did link the video, because I actually have evidence of what's said and have no reason to lie. I can't omit facts, here, and for a little ease of finding it (though I think the entire video is a good watch) it's around the 21 minute mark.