Yeah, exactly. They've created a viable ecosystem for themselves. They have a highly moddable engine and they tend to leave a lot of abandoned code in the game that modders find and make use of. People eat it up and they use it as a starting point to get into development.

I'm on exactly that track right now. For me it's been all about very open ended kinda buggy games that you can mod the hell out of. Wanting to change or tweak a little something here and there leads to wanting to implement more elaborate ideas. Eventually it starts looking appealing to make something of your own, or to make a bigger contribution to other projects. Personally, I don't really want to work for a big company (or anyone other than myself), but a modding portfolio can certainly be a foot in the door.

My first mod for a game was a thing to shut up the Longs in Fallout 4. Super simple, literally just broke the link to their idle audio files. That was ages ago, and my own journey has been more related to getting DayZ to do what I want and now using Conan to further explore game design and more involved elaborate systems, but Bethesda was still that first step.

They're not perfect, and their IP in some cases has certainly been watered down a little, but they make great games and have a workable business model that isn't as toxic as some others. They've done a good job fostering creativity and innovation.

I don't really get the complaints by people who've never made anything even remotely approaching a Fallout or an Elder Scrolls acting like the developers are trash and they know better. Let's see your blockbuster open world rpg.