Well, it turns out that Bethesda’s executive producer Todd Howard and I have at least two things in common—we’re both roughly 5 feet 6 inches tall, and we’re both chronic Reddit lurkers. Admittedly, I only have IMDB to go by when it comes to the height thing. Maybe it’s wrong! But the Reddit thing is 100% true, because he went ahead and said it himself.
Howard gave the folks of r/Games a surprise jumpscare last week, making only his second public comment on the site in the last three years. It was, unsurprisingly, under a post sharing Bethesda essentially vomiting out every single thing it’s currently working on, which came shortly after the announcement of parent owner Xbox’s catastrophic layoffs.
“Hey Reddit. I’m a professional lurker and read your comments all the time. Many here do and we deeply appreciate the passion for our work,” Howard wrote. “I know I don’t really post, and we’re usually very quiet. Today’s info was an attempt at changing that and letting everyone know what we’ve been working on the past several years, and a look at what’s coming. So know we’re constantly listening and keep telling us how to be even better.”
Howard then goes on to say: “You’d be surprised how many great ideas I get from Reddit. So upvote and we’ll do it. Maybe.” Well, huh. I do have to wonder if Howard is taking screenshots of comments and projecting them onto the wall during meetings, or simply jotting down little comments he reads here and there. I wonder what ideas Reddit is churning out that were so smart Howard felt the need to take note of them in the first place.