Honestly at this point I feel like if Skyrim were completely bug free, it'd actually be less entertaining than it is, because sometimes it's fun to exploit some of them or watch some experienced player completely break the game at every turn to do ridiculous things like beat the game without even using the walk controls.
It'll almost certainly be moddable, but the only mod I'll have on my first playthrough will be the unofficial patch. Maybe a UI overhaul if it's as console-centric as vanilla Skyrim.
You'll definitely know within a day, at most a week, how fucked it is. The only kind of bug I can think of that may take so long to come out is if there's a save bug that wipes saves. Which is more of a concern on console.
At least in Bethesda's case, the bugs are rarely game-breaking. Must of them are just visual or physics bugs which can be amusing. If Starfield releases in a similar state to Skyrim's launch, I'll be happy.
Then again there was that one game-breaking bug on PS3 when your Skyrim save got too big. Hopefully we don't have a repeat of that.
Personally, in retrospect, I feel like Bethesda games did less "push the boundaries" and more "spread the spill".
Skyrim was always touted as this deep character development based game, but in terms of functional combat mechanics and interactability it felt wide as an ocean, but actual meaningful character development both personal and story driven, seems only as deep as a puddle.
physics bugs arent so amusing when it causes quest items to fall through the floor into the endless void of misery, forcing you to reload a save repeatedly until it decides to not phase through solid matter.
WE RESPECT THE LAWS OF PHYSICS IN THIS GOD DAMN HOUSE, GOD DAMNIT.
I can't wait for Starfield to come out. If it's a broken mess on day 1 and there will be lots of juicy internet drama. It might even be as entertaining as the 2020 presidential debate.
Indeed. So many problems are fixable too, to the point where users have patches for hundreds of the game bugs by just modifying attributes and using the game engines scripting. It's honestly unexcusable, they can do better than this.