Not exclusive, which makes this whole thing even crazier. He can even still stream on Twitch. 2 year contract worth $70m that can hit $100m with incentives. This should let you read it.
I feel like in Fallout 4, even though you were forced to interact with the settlement system in the early game, helping gain new settlements, add some things to Sanctuary etc., it didn’t feel like I was missing out on things or being punished for largely ignoring the settlement system after those tutorial missions ended. There are things you have to build through the system for major quests later, but it wasn’t much more than ‘place these items and connect them’.
The bigger issue for me was how janky the settlement system was to get the pieces to fit together and look cohesive. Building a perimeter wall around the Red Rocket Truck Stop for example was nearly impossible because the wall pieces wouldn’t align so they would clip, and be shorter or taller than the piece next to it, rather than fitting to the terrain.
If Bethesda fixed the clipping/alignment issues in Startfield it should at least be easier to use so you can finish any mandatory settlement quests faster!
I don't agree with Amouranth's statement of "I don’t think it’s harmful for people to form a social aspect with it. As long as we’re aware that it’s not a real person." You can tell people it's not real all you want, but when you model it off your voice/likeness, you're inherently attaching yourself to it. I'm sure the majority of people will understand it's an AI modeled off her voice, but there will always be some that get more attached to it than they should. Just saying "I don't think it's harmful because people should know it's not real" doesn't magically solve the issue and cause everyone to behave.
Replika is another smutty type AI, but it's clearly designated as such, and the avatar is pretty generic looking, which is more of what I'd want to see, at least for now. It being text-only also helps keep that separation. Who knows, it could end up fine, but this is closer to diving in the deep end before people have waded in to see what the water is like.