No Mutants Allowed

[Brother None]

The Vault has some solid roundups for us. First up, a collection of developers quotes from the forums and Formspring. J.E. Sawyer on energy weapons:

First, let me get this out of the way: I do not believe that it should be a design goal to make one skill better than another. While it's impossible to perfectly balance all skills, I don't think that Unarmed should be designed with the goal of being inferior to Guns, or that Energy Weapons should be designed with the goal of being inferior to Explosives. I believe the goal should be to make the weapon skills (specifically, in this case) distinct but comparable in overall utility. This means that I think Energy Weapons should not be inherently better than Guns and I don't think that someone who focuses in Unarmed should drop dead in every open fight because it would be realistic to do so.

The goal with Energy Weapons was ultimately to make them "outside the boundaries" of Guns. By that I mean that Laser Weapons would tend to be more accurate, faster firing, and lower DAM (usually, not not always) with higher DPS than its equivalent gun. Conversely, Plasma Weapons would tend to be slower firing and higher DAM. There are some cases where this isn't true, the most notable example being the Cowboy Repeater and Plasma Rifle, both of which are considered "tier 2" weapons for their classes. When balancing some of the Guns toward the end of the project, I did bump the Cowboy Repeater up relative to other Guns but did not bump up the Plasma Rifle, which is an oversight that I regret. The Plasma Rifle does have a much faster reload rate than the Cowboy Repeater, but it should also do a higher base damage. Ultimately I do think that I did tune some of the Energy Weapons too far out of "spec" compared to Guns, mostly at the low and mid-range. I did not intend to make Energy Weapons "bad" and I apologize if that is the perceived result.

There's another tidbit roundup with some junk at the edges, review-esque pieces from Planet Fallout and Zero Punctuation. Here's a Filefront piece on homosexuality in New Vegas.

Now, you may be asking what the big deal is, and why something so absolutely forgettable and easy to miss is fantastic and worthy of merit. That’s just the point though — Arcade Gannon’s sexuality isn’t a big deal, and that’s how videogames should play it. Not just videogames, in fact, but all media would do well to not make such a big deal out of homosexuality. Rarely is there a gay character whose identity doesn’t completely revolve around their sexuality. Maybe they have a gay crush on the main character, or are tastelessly camp, or have to struggle in a straight world full of homophobia. Often they tick all three of those boxes. In Fallout: New Vegas, gay characters just … are. Which is how most gay people exist in real life, too. If you’ve grown up watching too much television, you may think that gay people are all lisping, mincing crossdressers who constantly talk about how gay they are, and more often than not try to murder a heterosexual best friend who spurned their gay advances. Unfortunately for you, gay people generally aren’t like that in real life. They’re normal, and as boring as straight people are.

[Makagulfazel]

On currency types:

[Kindo]

The bit about homosexuality is something I noticed instantly - and loved - in FNV. Neither Arcade's nor Veronica's sexuality becomes a topic of conversation, it's just something that's there, and no focus is ever placed upon it. The same goes for all the other homosexual NPC's you come across: You might find out that they go after their own gender in romance, but you're never approaching the subject of their sexuality itself. This far into the future, and in a post-post-apocalyptic world none the less, it makes perfect sense that homosexuality simply isn't an issue anymore, and is quite generally accepted as "normal." I praise Obsidian for making this call - it's quite possibly the first game I've ever played where it's been done in such a neutral way, and not with some agenda behind it, trying to draw attention to it as if saying: "Look! We accept homosexuality!" which is much more common to happen if you look at media and entertainment these days.

[Brother None]

[Drifter420]

RE: Homosexuality...

It is very well handled in the game. Not surprising, considering who the Creative Director is...

[Faceless Stranger]

[Brother None]

[Lexx]

Maybe it was just not that important for the devs to add hints on racism and sexism into the game and they simply "forgot" about it. :>
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[blindberg]

NCR are apperantly somewhat homophobic, I played a man flirting with a ncr man, and he commented that the ncr wasnt so accepting to homosexuals and the legion were better in that regard.

[Makagulfazel]

Joined: 23 Nov 2008
Posts: 1

Damn, dude. You've been savoring this moment.
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The world is a dick.

[blindberg]

I can take pride I still have 0 post at the codex at least.
No, now I have two post...
But never mind me. Proceed.

[Diomedes20]

I always thought that the world of fallout was just a post apocalyptic world built on the ruins of a 1950's style future, not that the people have 1950s ideals.
Also about the NCR soldiers being homophobic, I think that can be expected from a military organization, considering America's don't ask don't tell policy.

[Deelron]

[Thomas de Aynesworth]

spe·cies·ism
 
–noun
discrimination in favor of one species, usually the human species, over another, esp. in the exploitation or mistreatment of animals by humans.

There is no racism and there has never been racism in any of the Fallout games.

That being said, I would argue that Three-Dog is painfully stereotypical.
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A fever in the heart, a shivering flame
The whirlwind of life, it takes us again
The flicker of a light, the yearn of forever beyond

The towers of the mind, the shadows of the world
Descend into the night, wither in the heights
Cling to the abyss, a tight rope on the edge of dreams

Victory Surrender - Ostara

[grayx]

Well, in game 20% of my companions are homosexuals. Too much, but whatever. It's obviously some contemporary US thing and I found it only interesting. Thing that annoys me is that I can't fuck (ok, make love with) virtual Cass, and that's unforgivable.

On other hand, more mature attitude toward sex issues in this game is highly commendable (I'm glad to see some improvement compared to Beth's kindergarden one), but I don't think "real" post-apoc. world would look favorably on any case of homosexuality (with some unique exceptions), whether that be "50's" future or "regular" one.

Simply, isolated and threatened from every side of life in the battle for survival, it's not in primal human nature to tolerate someone who is "above-threshold" different. That create taboos and these are, as a rule, pretty consistent in human history.

Isolation and lack of education, as a rule again, always tent to create prejudices.

As fallout era is somewhat frozen, dystopian era "without" future, people generally are going to perceive any difference of each other as a threat, react more violently and more extremely, especially when pure survival is at stake and difference is not obviously in favor of that group in some, tangible, way. As a result, those outcasts are destined to roam wasteland alone and that's not healthy prospect in a long term.

Exceptions are, of course, rich, cults and tribal micro-societies, but those are much rarer in numbers and, generally, isolated pockets of humankind that, statistically, didn't create taboos as the rest of the humankind for some reason.

So, any difference in post-apocalyptical world between any man or women is a reason for conflict and in that lays vast potential for stories to be told...

[DemonNick]

I dunno if I necessarily agree. Homosexuality is a thing in Fallout: New Vegas. Some characters are closeted or latent, like Major Knight or Manny Vargas. Toleration, or even encouragement, of homosexuality is one of the things that separates Caesar's Legion. I don't think that Gays in New Vegas just are. It's just that being Gay isn't a life sentence to having their personalities and identities turned into tools to hamfistedly explore issues.

Also, his sexuality does inform Arcade's personality more than the article's author seems to think. He's witty and acerbic, he forms friendships with women easier than men, he was extremely close to his mother as a boy, he keeps his lovers at arm's length... I mean he's not a lisping, flaming queen but that just means that he's more of an up-market gay.

[HyperionOmega]

I wonder if there might be significance in that the companions from both BoS and Enclave backgrounds are homosexual. hmm
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Somtimes I wonder about the world. Other days I know.

[Servus]

Maybe BoS and enclave only accept gay people. Actually........

[gumbarrel]

OK, the game is gay, we get it people

[Stanislao Moulinsky]