It feels like when Fallout 3, 4 and Skyrim came out you couldn't escape people posting about them for weeks, especially with Skyrim. Now the most I've seen are complaints about how disappointing Starfield was.
Is the game that much blander or does Internet culture just move on that much faster these days? On the other hand, I do feel like there was a lot more enthusiasm for other games like Elden Ring, and sometimes you get an Among Us that just completely take over the Internet.
BGS used to have a few weirdos at the office ((Kirkbride included) who made things messy and interesting. Another one was lead concept artist Adam Adamowicz. He did all the art for Fallout 3 and like 75% of it for Skyrim (this is coming from an AMA with another BGS artist who was there at the time).
Adam died of lung cancer in 2012.
Bethesda's games' look and feel and writing have been nosediving. Everything feels more focus-grouped and hermetically-sealed and clean and horrifically uninteresting.
All that being said, I think I have like 60 hours in Starfield and while it is indeed boring as shit, it's boring in a very BGS-type of way only BGS can do, and in a weird way I actually like it and plan on finishing the game. I can't describe it, I think I'm just an uncurable Bethesda stan.