• ashinadash [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    NV is pretty based but I still catch people in queer servers and stuff saying “NCR has problems but theyre the best one!!!” like the only viable option isn’t to say “NOBODY CAN HAVE THE STRIP” and do as much damage to all three major factions as possible. Give the Followers free stuff.

    Good post for leddit though generally.

    • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      It’s an issue with the game’s framing, where while it shows that none of the endings are good, no actual alternative is given. This naturally leads to less-evilism, and it’s not hard to see how that gets to the NCR. Like, if you have to choose 1 of 4, where the options are:

      • Fascism
      • “Libertarianism” (Fascism)
      • Personal Dictatorship by a bethesda protagonist
      • “Liberal Democracy” (Fascism with extra steps)

      it’s easy to see how “liberal democracy” wins out, especially given that’s the base accepted political view in the real world. Yes the Followers might be nice, but they’re just not electable! You have to choose between Rome LARPers or the ideology that caused the apocalypse.

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        I think it’s a reflection of existing hegemony. People look at the NCR and see them as the closest thing to what they’re used to, therefore they see it as the default.

        • Gay_Tomato [they/them, it/its]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          Yes that is the actual reason they think this way. I was mentioning the NCR’s perceived ability to work with everyone (even if you literally have to do all the actual work for them) is what alot of people who like the NCR seem to point to as there reason for supporting them. Its wild that people still think America tries to be cooperative in this day and age.

        • Tunnelvision [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          Damn really? That’s disappointing. I’ve been playing fo3 lately and although I think new Vegas is fun I think there is something to be said about fallout focusing more on how and why prewar society led to the destruction of the world than trying to make new societies and stuff. When you put your effort into creating new societies or having them be facsimile of a real life ideology unironically anything other than communism or anarchism just seems stupid and wrong. That’s what I thought the entire point of war never changing was supposed to be about. It never changes because you have to have a new ideology to actually start a new society. Fallout should always kinda be about the inherent doomed aspect of its own story. Not because nothing good can ever happen, but because the overarching story of fallout should focus on why nothing good could ever come from a society like Americas. You cannot build a new society from those ashes because OOPS ITS ALL LIBS

          • ashinadash [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            2 months ago

            think there is something to be said about fallout focusing more on how and why prewar society led to the destruction of the world than trying to make new societies and stuff.

            I mean, New Vegas does this in that its factions all represent prewar societies or ideologies. It’s one of the ways NV is truest to the original Fallout imo.

            I like the idea of a Followers ending too, but having an objective correct and good ending might be a bit on the nose for NV?

            • Tunnelvision [they/them]@hexbear.net
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              2 months ago

              New Vegas does this in that its factions all represent prewar societies or ideologies.

              I understand that, but there feels like some kind of disconnect with this idea when it’s presented to the player as “you will be making a big decision that will affect how the world works”. I think that’s why I don’t like the idea that you are progressing the history of new Vegas when in reality the stagnation is the point. In fo3 the main story has its own problems from a narrative standpoint, but it feels more like a survival game in that everything you go through is just to get access to clean water whereas new Vegas puts too much emphasis on “the fate of the Mojave”. The good karma ending of fo3 is closer to a FOA ending than anything presented in NV and I don’t think the game was worse for it. It’s worse for a bunch of other reasons, but not that one really.

              • ashinadash [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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                2 months ago

                Nah, it’s just working with the material conditions in the Mojave imo. You can’t just start building communism, so the No Gods No Masters quest is the closest you can come to setting the Mojave on a better path. On reflection I think that’s why I like Wild Card, because it splits the difference of still allowing the game to analyse sad dead old-world ideologies, while allowing the player to do something about em.

                Fallout games aren’t really about the stagnation of history, Fallout 2 features lots of societal progression since Fallout. Bethesda definitely wants to wallow in a stagnant world, but Interplay-related staff try to explore the follies of our current (western) world through the stumbling steps of the new one.

                • Tunnelvision [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                  2 months ago

                  But that’s my point exactly, these people are not only nowhere near building communism, they’ve had every bit of left wing thought exorcised from them before the bombs fell. The only idea about communism they could possibly have is Chinese commando field manuals if they can even read at all. This isn’t just a lack of material conditions, the wasteland itself is supposed to represent the ideological landscape of America itself. A barren land not only of resources, but of alternative ideas. Even the different AIs present in the wasteland which would theoretically make the central planning of what resources are left very easy only want to horde wealth or commit genocide. The stagnation of history is imho a central theme of fallout as a medium although maybe one not intended by Interplay.

          • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            2 months ago

            You cannot build a new society from those ashes because OOPS ITS ALL LIBS

            thats like… not true though lmao. like yeah the overwhelming majority are LIB but native peoples as well as many victims of the US’ violence actually live there, and don’t forget that they have plenty of militant movements and people in them that aren’t even remotely lib

                • Tunnelvision [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                  2 months ago

                  Gotcha. On the irl side I’ll say that I don’t see bipoc ideologies as part of the American society that I mentioned in the comment, it would be a genuine break from that. In the game I always took the lack of those ideologies being present as part of the narrative. The entirety of American society in the games have exorcised any and all left wing ideas from it and that would include any and all minority liberation movements before people even made it into the vaults which is why they don’t really exist in the games.

                  • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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                    2 months ago

                    I would argue that even then different minorities and political struggles (new forms of leftism) were definitely still popping up in the Wasteland. I don’t think it’s really possible for a society to completely exorcise any leftist thought in it- When it’s based on true observations, new people will rediscover it.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      Anyone who doesn’t Yes Man their ending isn’t a comrade. The quest line is even called No God’s No Masters. I can wreck the ncr, nuke the legion to cinders, provide electricity to the Mojave with more of that to come once Hoover dam is mine. Kill the Boomers and all the guys you don’t like, upgrade your robot army and there’s 2 reason you only nuke the legion when you get to the divide, to keep some of the NCR aeound but weak as hell so yiu can continue to bleed them dry financially and to have the best ace in the hole available, a fucking nuke. Hell, you could probably find more warheads in the divide and rig up some missiles out of rockets at Repconn. You can set your character up get the Mojave in a communist direction post game.

      • ashinadash [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        waow-based

        My thoughts exactly, I do not trust anyone who can pick one of the three. Also turning Mr House’s weird technocrat libertarian ideals and goon-pod body to mush is a plus too, fuck that guy lol

        • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          It wouldn’t even be hard. You’ve got the only source of electricity, so you can give people the goods and you have nukes, a robot army, no legion to worry about cause you killed em all and your capitalist NCR neighbor is now significantly weaker and you could probably get some stacks flowing by selling them electricity. Plus I’d get people to get their shit together more. Broadcast over radio New Vegas to all those somehow still functioning radios despite 200 years of rust and dirt that the hotels and motels throughout the Mojave are now free housing to those who need it or also want it, cause we’re gonna start building buildings again. There is no damn reason no one has thought to make concrete yet. Weird shotgun shacks with charred skeletons still there for some reason will be a thing of the damn past, the resources are easily available to make pre war style homes with construction planned for further incorporation with other public works projects, a big one being to get clean running water to people. None of it should be radioactive anyway at this point cause there’s this thing called the water cycle that you can learn about from the magic schoolbus. The issue is probably the pipes. Most of the problems these people face are really really easy to overcome. I’m dumb as hell and could fix most of the Fallout world’s problems with an absolute dictatorship in less than a decade. These people spent 200 years not doing the things that make surviving past 40 viable, it’s really basic stuff.

            • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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              2 months ago

              It’s the desert and the Colorado River can be found nearby. You’ve got sand and water, there’s industrial equipment. Fucking quarry junction has a hand cement mixer or two laying around. He’ll, we can move people back into.the vaults I cleared out. A few of those still have some power keeping those computers running, I’m sure.theres also lots of useful stuff to gut from them or like hydroponic farms that would need to be fixed but that’s still like, LOT of underground farms just waiting to be fixed up. If they could just not act like video game npcs for a week they’d have a lot of this stuff solved.