No Mutants Allowed is doing a three part segment on Fallout fans. The first part was more of a history and not as interesting. The second part, however, had a long of poignon things to say.
The gaming industry believes it is in a position to dictate terms to the community by being the only provider of the resource the community desires. Because it is in a seller-buyer relationship it seeks to maximize profits and must develop a PR campaign with the community. However, its power as seller means the industry believes it can determine the scope of that relationship because of its ability as seller to withhold that which the community (the buyer) desires.
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It is clear that the values Fallout fans can agree on are inherent to the series are actually inherent to the franchise, simply because the franchise does not exist as any asset outside of people’s imaginations, even if it is an asset in a legal sense.
This deconstructs a lot of flawed reasoning. For example, some people claim that there would be nothing wrong with Fallout 3 being developed as Oblivion with Guns. Perhaps these people lack understanding of Fallout or the Fallout universe or perhaps it is because they view Fallout merely as an asset that is now the property of Bethesda. To them the strictly legalistic view that “ownership conveys right” applies. However, this would fail to appreciate the expectations and values of perhaps the most important consumers, the Fallout Fans.
I thought it was a good read, though it did employee some weasel wording. Thoughts?
Retarded, because it decides who is a fallout fan on its own. I am a fallout fan. I’d love oblivion with guns, provided the conversation options were robust liek fallout. I’d like a sidescroller metroidalike, a 1992 style 16 bit rpg, and an advance wars clone as well. Honestly, if done right almsot any kind of game. Give me mario64 with pipboy, I dont care. I liked the humor and setting more than anything. Fallout tactics didnt suck because it wasnt a fallout rpg, it sucked because it sucked.
I’ve never seen a group of fanboys draw a border quite like this before. They have legally defined the domain of Fallout fandom in the form of some kind of constitution and are seemingly claiming manifest destiny on a franchise.
Do people really believe that at this point the fans can determine what’s good about about the Fallout “franchise”?
Here’s my favorite part:
This is what happened with X-Com Enforcer. This is what happened with Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. It is thus not surprising that these games were complete failures. This has nothing to do with their quality as games. Rather, it was because the developers use of the franchise name meant that these games were not judged as individual games but rather as parts of an existing franchise with highly developed and well received elements. By ignoring the central tenets, the developers failed to incorporate the necessary requirements which form the expectations of the franchise. Essentially, by failing to abide by the expectations built by the history of the franchise, the developers did what is traditionally known as “ignoring the fanbase”. But discounting the imagined understanding that has been built by the history of the franchise and its fans is both a broader and more destructive choice than “just” ignoring the fans.
So, basically, the games didn’t suck. It’s the fact that the developer ignored some kind ineffable nothingness they called failing to “incorporate the necessary requirements which form the expectations of the franchise” that killed them.
Seriously, if what they said was even remotely true, marketing would immediately shut down anything with such a toxic group attached to it. Why take such a huge risk for such a small possible reward?
The die-hard NMA crowd is the most bitterly self-righteous bunch of gamers on the planet. Having them “defend” Fallout fans is absurd, since only a small percentage of gamers who really like Fallout qualify as fans in their eyes. Listen up, guys: most of us don’t subscribe to your newsletter.
I got banned from the NMA forums several years ago for saying, in a more polite tone than you’ll ever see over there, that people should wait and see if BOS turned out to be good before slamming it.
hehe, I got banned for saying I liked Fallout 2 more than Fallout one. Its pretty clear they have dug themselves a hole and realize they have no influence.
You’re giving them far, far too much credit. The community at large honestly believes that their hundred-odd regulars control the sales of every game in the franchise, that this was born out by the poor sales of BOS, and that Bethesda will go out of business if they don’t meet their demands regarding Fallout 3, which as far as I can tell involve giving Troika the license for free, along with the money to start back up.
