Starfield, a game mainly about space travel/exploration, couldn’t convince a chunk of its players to leave the surface of the tutorial planet.
Starfield has been out for long enough now that anyone interested in playing it likely already has. But just how many of the game’s millions of players stopped playing before finishing the first mission?
Well, according to achievement stats from TrueAchievements, around 25%! The For All, Into the Starfield achievement is awarded the first time you go to space, which happens maybe 30 minutes into the game. After a brief tutorial and some combat, you meet one of the game’s major NPCs, and he gives you his ship.
As soon as you leave the surface of the planet and take to space, the achievement should unlock. According to the numbers, however, 75% of players did that, which seems a little low considering how early into the game that happens, and how practically unavoidable the achievement is.
Given that they have you meet a cowboy at the end of that mission, it is kinda understandable. I wonder who thought that having a cowboy as a main character would be a good idea for people outside of the US.
Whats wrong with a space cowboy? His faction is often referred to as lawless and wild. They believe in a wild sort of freedom. Astronauts are kinda space cowboys anyway. Also space cowboys are not a new concept in media. What about a cowboy would make people not get the tutorial?
It certainly put me off. Personally, I hate it when sci-fi writers use worn-out stereotypes in futuristic settings. Like the ‘Irish, but not Irish’ episode of StarTrek TNG.
I’d already seen a couple of streamers play random side quests, and this intro just made me definitively realise that this was not the game for me.
What’s wrong with cowboys? The US was one of the first countries into space (2nd) and space explorers are often thought of as “space cowboys.”
🎵It’s been a long road🎵
Cowboys could easily appeal to people from Canada, Mexico, and Argentina as well. I’ve come across a disturbing number of British men who harbor secret fantasies of being wild west cowboys, so probably them too.
I remember reading about a growing cowboy obsession going on in China a bit before COVID too lol
Oh shit, you’re right. They had a huge amount of photoshoots or ads or something all dressed up in cowboy clothes lol
For one, Bethesda is an American studio, owned by Microsoft, a company who’s console has only barely started to gain success outside of the US.
Secondly, space westerns are, like, a pretty major genre, with major successes outside the US market. Ever heard of cowboy bebop?
It’s a classic figure in western culture… and a fitting character given his story and the planet he’s from. We’ve had plenty cowboys in movies, comic strips and I’m from europe… Not my favourite setting but it works…
They were absolutely trying to appeal to Americans by making a cowboy character. Americans go nuts for cowboys. Everyone is downright obsessed with them. You can’t find a single home in the country without seeing cowboy memorabilia and they watch cowboy movies on the weekends, it’s crazy
As an American… what the fuck are you talking about? I don’t know anyone who watches cowboy movies or have cowboy stuff in their homes. That would be fucking weird.
And I live in fucking Texas of all places.
“Nah, that hat and those boots don’t count. Those are everyday items.”
I’m joking because the guy implied cowboys are for American appeal
Oh, I guess it went over my head.
Be honest, do you actually live in the US? lol
I live in CA, literally entrenched in the history of “the old west” and I can honestly say not a single person I know has any cowboy memorabilia in their homes lol.
My dad had a little cast iron statue of a cowboy wrangling a bull on his desk at work growing up (a gift from a client) , but that is literally the only instance I can think of lol
And I also don’t know a single person who regularly watches cowboy movies, I can’t even remember the last time a cowboy movie was made in the US… I think that remake with Chris Pratt?
I was being sarcastic. The guy is saying that cowboys don’t appeal to non-americans…as if Americans love to see cowboys or something
Well shit, guess I got wooshed lol
Yup. Wednesday is national cowboy day.
Every week.