Emil Pagliarulo

Emil Pagliarulo is an American video game designer who works at Bethesda Game Studios.

Career
Pagliarulo started his career writing for the website Adrenaline Vault. He has been working for Bethesda Softworks since 2002. He previously worked for Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm Austin. His first works at Bethesda include a credit for writing and quest design for Morrowind Bloodmoon, and quest design for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, for which he wrote the Dark Brotherhood quest line. He was the lead designer and the lead writer of Fallout 3, for which he received the Game of the Year award and the Best Writing award at the 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards. He was credited as the senior designer and writer of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4.

Fallout 76
Pagliarulo worked on Fallout 76 as design director. In 2022 it was uncovered by Kotaku that the development of Fallout 76 suffered massive mismanagement from top level executives, with one developer stating that “During development, our design director Emil [Pagliarulo] didn’t seem to want to be involved with the product at all. He didn’t want to have any contact with it…or read anything that we put in front of him.” Pagliarulo refused to comment to Kotaku when asked to give his side of the story.

Pagliarulo has gone on record celebrated "fixing" Fallout 76 years after its launch and restoring payer trust in Bethesda, despite his earlier apathy in the project.

Starfield
Pagliarulo worked on Starfield as design director and lead writer. In an interview with Polygon, Pagliarulo stated that Starfield was the most ambitious RPG Bethesda has ever worked on and that the game would enduce religious experience-like events for players. After the game's mixed reception after launch and further souring in reviews post launch, Pagliarulo attacked the game's players, stating they were "Disconnected from the Realities of Game Developing."

Video game credits

 * Thief II: The Metal Age (2000)
 * The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon (2003)
 * The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
 * Fallout 3 (2008)
 * The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
 * Fallout Shelter (2015)
 * Fallout 4 (2015)
 * Fallout 76 (2018)
 * Starfield (2023)