Emil Pagliarulo | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Salem State University |
| Occupation | Video game designer |
| Employer | Bethesda Game Studios |
| Known for | Thief II: The Metal Age The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Fallout 3 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Starfield |
| Awards | 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards For Best Writing |
Emil Pagliarulo is an American video game designer who works at Bethesda Game Studios.
Pagliarulo started his career writing for the website Adrenaline Vault.[1] He has been working for Bethesda Softworks since 2002.[2] He previously worked for Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm Austin.[3] He was the lead designer and the lead writer of Fallout 3, for which he received the Best Writing award at the 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards.[3] He was credited as the senior designer and writer of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4.
Pagliarulo worked on Fallout 76 as design director and lead writer. As such, after the game's notoriously bad launch, Pagliarulo took much of the blame in video game media.[4] In 2022 it was uncovered by Kotaku that the development of Fallout 76 suffered massive mismanagement from top level executives, with one developer stating that “During development, our design director Emil [Pagliarulo] didn’t seem to want to be involved with the product at all. He didn’t want to have any contact with it…or read anything that we put in front of him.” Pagliarulo refused to comment to Kotaku when asked to give his side of the story. Additionally, game developers noted that they would often report problems, many of which where the same problems that players complained about on launch, but that senior management was apathetic to fixing the problems, and more focused on polishing the in-game microtransaction store. Pagliarulo, and other senior management, also made a decision to pull developers from Arkane Austin, which was working on Redfall at the time, to work on Fallout 76, while entirely ignoring the Elder Scrolls Online team, as if that MMORPG's success was a fluke, and that the Fallout MMORPG shouldn't be modeled after Elder Scrolls Online.[5]
One of the particular sticking points with the community was the lack of interaction with other players, such as co-op quests, which Pagliarulo stated was a design decision, that the game was meant to be played "Solo but Together"[6] Another issue with the game players had that Pagliarulo celebrated as a feature was the "nuke loop" where high level players make a server unplayable by endlessly launching nukes at other players.[7] The aformentioned mismanagement, combined with a cut-throat human relations department at Bethesda, led to a max-exodus of the senior game developers from the studio.[8] Pagliarulo has gone on record celebrated "fixing" Fallout 76 years after its launch and restoring payer trust in Bethesda, despite his earlier apathy in the project.[4][9]
Pagliarulo worked on Starfield as design director and lead writer. In an interview with Polygon, Pagliarulo stated that Starfield was the most ambitious RPG Bethesda has ever worked on and that the game would enduce religious experience-like events for players.[10] Pagliarulo had also insisted that the game would not have the same disastrous launch as Fallout 76, stating that the development team at Bethesda had learned their lessons and had "restored trust" with the players.[4] After the game's poor reception after launch and further souring in reviews post launch, Pagliarulo attacked the game's players, stating they where "Disconnected from the Realities of Game Developing."[11] Specifically, Pagliarulo attacked negative reviews asking for features common in more modern RPG's that were noticeably absent from Starfield.[12]