I meant - they are not lore that one should take super-seriously, as in, the games are not called "The Vault Experiments!", it is a background world detail.
I didn't mean "they are not lore", they ARE lore - but they are minor lore.
And emphasizing: To me. To me, the vault-experiment angle is a piece of less-significant lore, that I don't pay too much attention to, other than for chuckles.
It IS important, though. But the difference is that the story didn't revolve around "HOLY SHIT, isn't this a twist???" like some lame Shamalan film. The build up of the reveal was something lingering and festering in the back of the player's mind. "Why is this going on?" They'd wonder, but more pestering would be "How do I rescue my family?" The central story was set in the aftermath of a post apocalypse, and it was all about human beings coping with their daily living. It was NOT about what happened decades or centuries past, before the bombs dropped. The Vault Experiment was an integral facet of the lore of the vaults, which were an integral source of background lore for the player character in the first 2 games, so it was important. But by contrast, they were NOT this in-you-face gimmick being rubbed in your face. True, the fact that Vault 15 ADVERTISED structural reinforcement, only for the player to already know by the time they read this that the reinforcements had catastrophically failed, was all just a dark humor joke in
Fallout. Likewise, all the bigotry and xenophobia and hypocrisy experienced in Vault City, leading up to donating "preferred genetic material" to their gene banks, was also a grim joke about the situation. But they didn't lessen the impact of what was going on. Vault City WAS crippled in many, many ways, and any degree of exploring the city's situation would reveal that it was doomed in more ways than one, as a consequence of its circumstances, and these circumstances were the indirect result of the experiment, just as much as NCR's founding was an indirect result. It's not about "Hey, let's look at this crazy situation here!" nor was it about "Hey, let's feel this emotional roller coaster because of a crazy twist!" It was an experience of living (via playing the game) in this world, and how that makes you feel. And this world is personified by its individual components, its multi-faceted lore.
The world is colored by the events that transpired within it, although those events weren't always integral to the GAMES' stories. The same could be said about the fate of Richard Grey as could be said about the Vault Experiment. In
Fallout, the story of Richard Grey was the game's big twist that players didn't see coming. You heard about Richard Grey from some character in some town that ultimately was involved in little more than a wild goose chase. Sure, you found A deathclaw, but that wasn't the real cause of the caravan troubles that you were sent to investigate, and Butch wouldn't hear otherwise. Then, months later, having traveled through several more settlements, found your precious water chip- which WAS the central focus of all your attention -and been set upon a new mission after delivering it, you eventually find your way into the Military Base. You're able to piece together that this is the place Harold told you about, and some part of your mind begs the question, "What ever happened to Richard Grey, anyway?" But that was decades ago, no one's heard from him, meanwhile these vats are pumping out super mutants and you have to stop them, so once more, it's not really a concern of yours. Then, whether by diplomacy, or force, or stealth, you make your way to the bottom of the base, the control station of the vats beckons you, and you're here to put a stop to the creation of these super mutants. As you check the computer terminals, you find several recordings that catch your eye. One of them tells you the intimate history of the founding of the Brotherhood of Steel, and that comes as an unexpected surprise. NOTHING thus far had indicated that they had anything to do with this place! "Huh, what a find!" The next is corrupted, and cannot be read, but the next... chills you to your core. You find the "last words" of Richard Grey! As you read on, his horrific story starts to sink in, and the pieces of the puzzle you hadn't ever really bothered to think about until now suddenly begin to fall into place. You're struck by the most unexpected twist of the game, Richard Grey IS the Master!!! It was never telegraphed, it was never shoved in your face as an important lore detail, and in fact, it doesn't even MATTER who the Master truly is or ever was; all you have to do is kill him and destroy the vats. Hearing out the Lieutenant explain the greatness of the Unity is just color, at this point. It's fluff next to your goal, but it's GREAT fluff! The same is true of the revelation you come upon about the fate of Richard Grey. It's not this big, looming mystery that you're constantly being reminded of throughout the entire game, but it IS a major facet of the game's lore.
Basically, it was a mistake to make the modern games all about "this is what's important" being shoved in their face. Any mystery surrounding what you had to do or where you had to go or WHY any of this mattered was stripped away when the game was telegraphing it to you from the very beginning. There wasn't any REASON to look for Vault 106, but shortly after you begin your journey, you stumble upon it, and it's horrible, and that horror of what took place there is bombarding you every step of the way. "Okay, I get it, the people went crazy and killed each other. Alright already!!!" The methods that the story takes to bring along this long and joyful ride are COMPLETELY different, and the modern games focus on harassing the player with sensory input, not letting them discover these things on their own. You COULD pick up the trail on the whereabouts of your father by using the only leads from the start, heading to a saloon in the nearest town, where all the goings on are noticed and dispensed by its proprietor. Then proceed to the path he sets you on, into the ruins of D.C., which are intentionally designed like a linear maze with only one direction you can be heading, ultimately leading you to that ridiculously scripted sequence against a giant, entering GNR, and finding out where to head next. Then every step of the way, as you learn more and more about what's happening around you, you find where you need to go, but NOT because the game is holding your hand, not telling you "THIS IS WHAT'S HAPPENING!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAWR!!!!!!" Instead, you're treated to dialog options telling you what's the successful thing to say, and how successful you'll be at saying it, compass markers telling you exactly where to head to next, and all along the way you stumble into more and more vaults, making it painfully clear, "Horrible things happened here! WOOOOOO!"
But at the end of the day, going by the subtlety and brilliant design of the originals, those revelations WERE important, but what made them revelations was HOW subtle they were. They weren't constantly reminding you that your mind was gonna be getting blown in t minus X hours. They let you naturally progress as you would, to eventually stumble upon these things as you would. Perhaps you never even MADE the connection between the logs uncovered in Mariposa and Harold's story and the sinister goings on beneath the Cathedral! Perhaps it was SO subtle, you didn't even realize how the vault experiment shaped the future of the wastes. But this was retconned when the modern games made a totally different model the means for how the story was interacted with the player and the character being played.
These lore details were important, but they were handled with grace in the original stories. That's the major difference.
