Todd Howard calls out encumbered Starfield hoarders: "No, you don't need the trays and the pencils"

If you're tired of Starfield encumbrance, guess what: it's your own fault. Even director Todd Howard will tell you that you should stop picking everything up.

In an interview with Insomniac Games' Ted Price, Howard was asked about the "muscles" Bethesda has developed over the years - the particular strengths and emphases the studio has found itself specializing in leading up to the launch of Starfield.

It's about "prioritizing player freedom in terms of where you can go, what you can do," Howard said. "It seems like people hit this every time they play one of our new games: picking up all the stuff. They immediately get encumbered. No, you don't need the trays and the pencils. But we like that you can pick them up."

With that comment, Todd has ignited open warfare in the GamesRadar+ chat. "Everything I've been weighed down by has a function, there's just too much of it and the game's bad at signposting what's actually helpful," guides writer Joel argues. "I'm scraping Caesium off the walls because I'm worried I'll need it later, what I needed was somebody to just say 'I wouldn't worry about it, mate.'"

Staff writer Heather puts it even more simply: being "overencumbered is the plague of games."

I'm the one person in the office brave enough to say it: Todd Howard is right. (Editor's note: Dustin is right.) Stop picking up junk! Deep down, you know you don't need it. Sure, yeah, that seventh gun might come in handy in 30 hours, but you're going to find so much better stuff in the meantime. Starfield - and Bethesda games in general - are about offering wide open sandboxes, not tightly-wound clockworks where every single item has a purpose. You've got to choose not to roleplay as a hoarder.

Of course, I think we all know the real solution here - just download some Starfield mods and turn the game into whatever you want it to be. If you want to play Starfield as a human department store, that's your business in the end.

If you really want to break the game open, check out these Starfield money glitches.