Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 show that the future of RPGs is in games way more ambitious, weird and unexpected than anything Bethesda and Bioware have to offer
The arc from Arena -> Daggerfall -> Morrowind really made it feel like they were mastering the recipe. Daggerfall is great for weird and ambitious too but not as approachable as Morrowind, and more or less kicking off modern modding is a big deal for Morrowind. Oblivion was a bit of a slump but felt like they could recover. Then Skyrim 😞 it's embarrassing
I think Quakeworld and Half-life probably deserve more of the credit for kicking off the modding community but Morrowind on PC definitely gave Xbox gamers something to be jealous of.
Im convinced someone at the top levels of the company us super far up their ass about the things Bethesda are doing while forgetting to ask if the thing they want players to do is fun. Too many Bethsoft games are running into the "this stretch isn't fun" problem.
We've all seen Emil talk about his total lack of process and the general way he does things. Todd has said before he doesn't play games but inserts himself into random parts of development. The studio is led by total buffoons.
To be fair, it's hard to say what Bethesda has to offer when they haven't released anything since 2011. [checks wikipedia] Nope, nothing. Unless you count Fallout 4, which I wouldn't.
Starfield was like a child's half-inflated balloon: let go with high hopes only to immediately disappoint, then swiftly forgotten once it drifted out of sight. Bethesda wanted to reach the stars, yet only managed to drop trash in someone's garden.