Left-wing Bias in Bethesda's Fallout Products

RetroAmerica

RetroAmerica

It Wandered In From the Wastes
I've noticed that Bethesda in their take on the Fallout Series, seems to portray events from a very leftist point of view, and throughout their games promote leftist talking points (Note I have not played Fallout 4, but I'm sure there are a ton leftist bits in there too)

Fallout 3:
The Main Story: Environmentalist Topics(Clean and Free Drinking Water)
Side Quests:
Tenpenny Tower(Pro Oppressed Underdog narrative (Ghouls), vs the Rich and privileged
The Incompetent Store Keeper in Megaton (Jab as Sarah Palin? Due to accent and personality)
Left Wing DJ (Constantly talking about "The Good Fight" (Often times used by Left Leaning Activists as a buzzword for a particular stance)
Knights of Charity (The Brotherhood of Steel are shown as Knights in Shining Armor Helping others)
Harold (Pro end of life choice/ environmental issues)
Children's Cave (Giving children free reign over adults, and being disrespectful to them)
USS Oriskany (Saving the "enslaved" robot from his "master")

Computerized notes:
References to in Universe ATF with a pro-gun control narrative in mind.


So I'm curious, did Fallout 4 do the same thing, was there also a high degree of left wing narrative?
 
I think you're trying to look too deep into this. Also, the tenpenny quest ends with the ghouls killing the residents, so it's hardly pro-poor, if anything, it's pro-rich.
 
RetroAmerica said:
I've noticed that Bethesda in their take on the Fallout Series, seems to portray events from a very leftist point of view, and throughout their games promote leftist talking points (Note I have not played Fallout 4, but I'm sure there are a ton leftist bits in there too)

Fallout 3:
The Main Story: Environmentalist Topics(Clean and Free Drinking Water)
Side Quests:
Tenpenny Tower(Pro Oppressed Underdog narrative (Ghouls), vs the Rich and privileged
The Incompetent Store Keeper in Megaton (Jab as Sarah Palin? Due to accent and personality)
Left Wing DJ (Constantly talking about "The Good Fight" (Often times used by Left Leaning Activists as a buzzword for a particular stance)
Knights of Charity (The Brotherhood of Steel are shown as Knights in Shining Armor Helping others)
Harold (Pro end of life choice/ environmental issues)
Children's Cave (Giving children free reign over adults, and being disrespectful to them)
USS Oriskany (Saving the "enslaved" robot from his "master")

Computerized notes:
References to in Universe ATF with a pro-gun control narrative in mind.


So I'm curious, did Fallout 4 do the same thing, was there also a high degree of left wing narrative?
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The Tenpenny one is where, if you help the supposedly "poor and downtrodden" ghouls, they massacre everyone in their sleep? Not sure that's a great example for your point.
"The Good Fight" is a retarded propaganda phrase because it's used for anything and everything (left, right, sports teams, anything with conflict).
There's no way Bethesda based Sarah (that's who you're talking about right?) off of Sarah Palin, considering the game was released like a month or two after the first time anyone heard her name. Sara's also portrayed in a pretty good light in the game.
BoS is a highly disciplined semi-religious paramilitary organization. In FO3 they do charity work for others. None of that strikes me as particularly leftist. Especially not because FO3's BoS are too good to be interesting in any way.
The ATLF is also not portrayed as particularly positive in the game.

Bethesda does put some vague leftist shit in their games, but it's really not anything more potent than general mainstream "gay marriage" type thing. They like money too much to try to make a bigger point.
 
Fallout has always been pretty liberal, as it's basic premise is critical of the underlying right-wing ethos that leads to the war, plus I believe Fallout 2 was the very first video game to allow for same-sex relationships.

I don't think that "bias" is really the right word here, because all fiction is inherently political, so you're really just going to see either the messages that the creators intend to get across or the subconscious politics that are inherent in their understanding of the world. We shouldn't expect fiction to be neutral, because if fiction is neutral it's not saying anything so it's probably garbage anyway.

I mean, "war is good" or "war is bad" are political messages you see in a majority of AAA games, and it's hard to get more political than war.
 
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Please, no. Discussing politics and a real world point of view in a game like FNV is fine and dandy, but Beth is just way too stupid for this to be worth it.

FYI, gun control advocacy in a game with guns bigger than yo momma? No. Not buying it for one second.
 
Walpknut said:
Also, pretty sure Fallout was always pretty left wing, what with the criticism of war and consumerist society and all that...
Click to expand...

If we can criticize Beth for anything in the politics of Fallout it's that they are insufficiently critical of the notion of the 50s-esque pre-war era and its many vices. It's here and there, but it seems to be equal parts celebrated and criticized.

Like what justifies satire's excesses is not its insincerity, but that it's making a point about something important.
 
In theory, a post war world that idolizes the prewar world can be interesting, especially in the context of Fallout. In practice, however, it'd be really hard to pull off without coming off as completely asinine.
 
Walpknut said:
Fallout 3 embracs lots of jingoistic ideas and FO4 outright idolizes the pre war society the other games criticized...
Click to expand...

I'm sure Bethesda realises this and are trying to be really blatant with post-ironic sarcasm or something like that, but fails horribly.
 
So, being anti-slavery is a liberal agenda? If that is true, and from the main post it seems to be, then the inverse is that the right is pro slavery.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that in the rush to find ERMEGERD LIEBERALS in everything, critical thought and an open mind were checked at the door.
 
It's a game. Any 'percieved', political context is purely subjective on the part of the player. I save my political views for actual politics, not game fiction.
 
Walpknut said:
Man, you americans and your crazy politics.... always just looking for this WING BIAS! on shit...


Also, pretty sure Fallout was always pretty left wing, what with the criticism of war and consumerist society and all that...
Click to expand...

Maybe it's hard to understand for me, as the retarded European I am ... or maybe beacause many of us actually had REAL communists as neighbours. But ... why is it often considered leftist to do ... good things? Like beeing social, sharing with the poor, treating the sick, in short. Simply helping people.

Seriously. I thought more than 40% of the US believe in angels and heaven and even more in Jesus Christ. Considering todays attitude, Jesus could be described as leftist too, simply because of what he did.
 
Crni Vuk said:
Walpknut said:
Man, you americans and your crazy politics.... always just looking for this WING BIAS! on shit...


Also, pretty sure Fallout was always pretty left wing, what with the criticism of war and consumerist society and all that...
Click to expand...

Maybe it's hard to understand for me, as the retarded European I am ... or maybe beacause many of us actually had REAL communists as neighbours. But ... why is it often considered leftist to do ... good things? Like beeing social, sharing with the poor, treating the sick, in short. Simply helping people.

Seriously. I thought more than 40% of the US believe in angels and heaven and even more in Jesus Christ. Considering todays attitude, Jesus could be described as leftist too, simply because of what he did.
Click to expand...

You commie fucking bastard! How dare you bring your socialism to AMERICA!? Helping people? Preposterous, the red-blooded american male, a stallion, a self made man, not a weakling sucking at the government's teats!

Next you're gonna tell me what, the earth is more than 6000 years old? Europeans, frankly...
 
Eh, as a leftist I feel slightly flattered that it is considered left-wing to let people live, to not want to actively destroy the environment, and so on.. :D
In all honesty, I doubt Beth meant these things to be left-wing...

It would be a bit of a sweeping generalization to conclude that the opposite is typically right wing:
More dirty drinking water for everyone!
Celebrate the unfair difference between those born into wealthy vs squalorous conditions!
Soldiers no longer do charitable things, purely a force of destruction!!!

And wait, what, since when is it leftist to allow kids to walk all over you?

I think this thread culminates into the need to refresh peoples understanding of what "right wing" and "left wing" actually means.
As much as I like to paint the right wing in an unflattering light, they are not "pro evil"
And as a representative of the left wing, we are actually not "pro helpless sissyness above all! Hail helplessness!", its a bit more complicated than that.
 
zegh8578 said:
Eh, as a leftist I feel slightly flattered that it is considered left-wing to let people live, to not want to actively destroy the environment, and so on.. :D
In all honesty, I doubt Beth meant these things to be left-wing...

It would be a bit of a sweeping generalization to conclude that the opposite is typically right wing:
More dirty drinking water for everyone!
Celebrate the unfair difference between those born into wealthy vs squalorous conditions!
Soldiers no longer do charitable things, purely a force of destruction!!!

And wait, what, since when is it leftist to allow kids to walk all over you?

I think this thread culminates into the need to refresh peoples understanding of what "right wing" and "left wing" actually means.
As much as I like to paint the right wing in an unflattering light, they are not "pro evil"
And as a representative of the left wing, we are actually not "pro helpless sissyness above all! Hail helplessness!", its a bit more complicated than that.
Click to expand...

You know the american right-wing ACTUALLY pays people to falsify global warming reports? And they do their utmost to widen the wealth gap and fuck people over in the name of meritocracy?

But I do agree left-wing and right-wing are VERY subjective terms, and they can mean very different things in different countries, at different points in history. To a common discussion, I've come to the point that I don't even consider it a useful terminology in general, unless dealing with a very specific subject.
 
Fallout 4 doesn't idolize the pre war world from the point of view of the common wastelander as a thing of myth.... it literary forces a love for it on the player character, the pre war segment at the beginning is also cartoonishly zaccharine, "perfect", colorful and it doesn't even reflect the civil unrest and the general crisis of the country right before the bombs dropped at all. Your character is even going to a fucking Ball and planning an outing to the park with the baby despite the narration stating that he was worried about his family because of the war but he is apparently okay with going out witj on going riots. That's not how the pre war world should've been presented at all.... completely missed an opportunity to show the contrast between idealized future and gritty reality of a consumerist society devolving into war. But I guess that would've involved good writting.
 
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