Culture of Fallout

Earth said:
As @Dr Fallout says, the final days would have been nightmarish. People killing each other to get to vaults or any other kind of safety when they realised the nuclear fallout was imminent. Was it the west coast that was bombed first? Imagine living on the east coast realising you only have less than an hour to live.
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Perhaps have Ron Perlman saying this... 'For most of America, the apocalypse began one hour before the bombs fell.'
 
There's just so much wrong with the Fallout 4 intro it's infuriating. The culture presented is wrong, there are vertibirds somehow, your family gets into a vault regardless of whether you signed up to Vault-Tec or not, and the atmosphere is just so wooden, lacking any kind of real raw emotion.

Also, the people the Vault Dweller was originally descended from would have had to enter the vault at least a week or so before the bombs fell. People outside would have had no time to reach a vault in time on the specific day. It annoys me that in Fallout 4 the vault is just a nice brisk walk away. People on the east coast would have presumably have had more time but it's just so dumb. I'm pretty sure Vault 13 is in the middle of nowhere, up in the mountains somewhere, far away from the targeted cities.
 


Interesting bit of history. 1970s British infomercial.

EDIT: Just thoughtI'd quote Randall Clark as I feel his description of the bombings is pretty decent.

It's good as it describes the initial EMP and then the actual blast, alongside the blinding flashes that would come with the atomic explosion:

I was north of Spanish Fork. Took the 77 along Provo Bay to steer clear of town. Would've been home in an hour. Engine died, truck just stopped. So did a Chryslus in the other lane. Knew right away.

First nuke hit SLC inside a minute. I was looking South - Lucky Man! Flash behind me so bright world looked on fire. Old couple from the Chryslus starts screaming they can't see.

Didn't watch you die, Char. Saved my eyes. Counted 12 more flashes next 7 minutes. Ground shook each time, 18 seconds later.

When nothing hit for half an hour, took a look. Globe of fire where you and Alex died. Didn't kid myself.

Didn't know what to do. Grabbed my pack and rifle.

Saw to the old couple. Sat them up against car, let them hold and comfort each other. Told them I was going to get help, everything be okay. One bullet through both heads. Instant.
 
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I once watched a really provocative German cartoon set in Britain during the third world war, it's basically about a normal British fallout having to survive after atomic warfare and it's sad as they stay alive in the hope of being reached by aid workers. It's symbolic and quite a good movie.
 
It's safe to assume that the original Fallout team were inspired by Cold War info films. But there's a big difference between some minor inspiration for one bit of lore and basing the entire fictional universe on that one source of inspiration.

Just found this gem. I get the feeling the Fallout team probably saw this:
 
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Dr Fallout said:
You know what would be better? To get to the Vault Shelter you have to run past fences with large groups of poor people trying to get past, and you can hear screams, gunshots and explosions in the distance. At some points you see power armored soldiers spraying bullets into the crowd, in a weak attempt at stopping them. After a while you're running not only to beat the bomb but also the rabid crowd which aims to enter the Vault at all costs.
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Pardon my language... But that sounds fucking badass! I would have LOVED to start a game off like that. Instead of "Hey there's a party! I got a family that loves me and a robot servant! Nothin can go wrong!" It makes it actually feel like a dystopian world that sounds dangerous and scary to live in. It's sad that we are better story writers than people who make AAA games...
 
Dr Fallout said:
Perhaps have Ron Perlman saying this... 'For most of America, the apocalypse began one hour before the bombs fell.'
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While there is rioting going on, people getting killed and stuff, your character gets into a vault and the camera pans out to go to the surface. The rioting is still happening and then BOOM a nuke goes off in the horizon, then another, and another. And while this is all happening the Star Spangled Banner is playing, but it's slowed down and somber. It would have a sad, creepy, and bone chilling feel to it.
 
Kadscaner said:
While there is rioting going on, people getting killed and stuff, your character gets into a vault and the camera pans out to go to the surface. The rioting is still happening and then BOOM a nuke goes off in the horizon, then another, and another. And while this is all happening the Star Spangled Banner is playing, but it's slowed down and somber. It would have a sad, creepy, and bone chilling feel to it.
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Yeah there's a lot of good artistic license to be had with the final moments of the pre-war world. It's why I like the Randall Clark story. You can picture it so perfectly. Guy driving along the highway. Cars suddenly stop running. He realises what's happening, turns around right as the first flash appears, and behind him he hears an elderly couple screaming as they're blinded by the flash. Harrowing stuff, and that's in an isolated incident.

I'd be interested to know how the pre-war government would have handled the public as the bombs started falling. Would they sound alarms, telling people to find cover, get to vaults etc.? Or would they tell people (including the troops) that it's a drill, that there's no real danger? Just get into bunkers or stay in your homes? But then that's just government orders. How would your average military man given these orders respond? Would he immediately abandon his post, running to warn his family and friends? Would he tell the people he's with at that point, and just to try to save as many people as possible? Or maybe he'd just try and save himself. Or maybe just follow orders. So many scenarios. And that's just the people with authority.
 
Let's get into actual canon stuff here:

Civil rights were not dependent on the transistor being actually invented. While we do not know if certain key figures, such as Martin Luther King, or Malcolm X were involved, we can see that their work has been finished. Examples of this is the lesbian, biracial couple neighboring the SS's beginning home.

While post-war, another example of this is the NCR's decision on discrimination."Citizens of the Republic have full civil rights and liberties and political franchise. Non-citizens are protected under law, without franchise. Discrimination outlawed. Mutants officially protected by law."

The only race that has had any form of governmental discrimination are the Chinese Internment Camps created to catch spies or other traitors to the United States. This, of course, is a parody of the Japanese Internment Camps during WW2. (see below for more info)

It's somewhat murky as to what the U.S. government did to its citizens, but it's definitely not good.

Real sources:

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/fear/

Fallout sources:

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/Sexuality

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/New_California_Republic#Equality

(Personal opinion)

I think that the creators of the Fallout series made it so that these issues don't exist, because they're uncomfortable with creating stuff-ist material.
 
Judah Kreger is a black former Enclave officer, which means there were black people at the highest level of the US government pre-war. It's not concrete evidence, of course, but to me that suggests at least some of the regions of the commonwealth had moved on from segregation, in spite of being less-than-lovely to the Chinese.
 
Could be a cool concept actually. People in the post-apocalypse might be pretty concerned with repopulating the world, and I can see how that would lead to some intolerance of people who weren't "doing their part", so to speak. A tribe of exiled homosexuals could be an interesting thing to explore. Their dialogue file looks horrible though, it would be quite a difficult thing to treat properly
 
peadar87 said:
Could be a cool concept actually. People in the post-apocalypse might be pretty concerned with repopulating the world, and I can see how that would lead to some intolerance of people who weren't "doing their part", so to speak. A tribe of exiled homosexuals could be an interesting thing to explore. Their dialogue file looks horrible though, it would be quite a difficult thing to treat properly
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Please no, just please, please no...
 
peadar87 said:
Could be a cool concept actually. People in the post-apocalypse might be pretty concerned with repopulating the world, and I can see how that would lead to some intolerance of people who weren't "doing their part", so to speak. A tribe of exiled homosexuals could be an interesting thing to explore. Their dialogue file looks horrible though, it would be quite a difficult thing to treat properly
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They kinda did that with the Brotherhood. Veronica, if you ask her, will tell you how the Brotherhood looks down on same-sex relationships since they are a isolationist faction that shuns outsiders and because of it breeding is mandatory in the BoS since its their only way to get new members with the exception of rare occasions where they let outsiders join their ranks.
The Legion also looks down on homosexuality as, just like the Brotherhood, breeding new soldiers is mandatory and to engage in same-sex activities is punishable by death in the Legion.
 
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