“‘Environmental storytelling’ just means skeletons on toilets, and teddy bears next to drugs and a gun”

Like ok that’s specifically the Fallout 3 aesthetic and yeah it wore thin

But consider that making the gameplay need to provide lootable items work with the artistic drive to evoke an atmosphere or narrative at all was a step forward

Compare with how before they were in tension like the classic JRPG gripe “why is the beloved chosen hero walking into your house and stealing stuff from your drawers”

Or at best disconnected, healing items in practical medicine cabinets or as non sequiturs, the arbitrary wooden item-bearing crates that inspired the 2000 “Time To Crate” metric