Hmm. Maybe the preemptive strike was ill-considered.
Caution, this is going to be a long and somewhat meandering post. Maybe it'll give you some insight, though, into the thought processes of a lot of the fanbase and possibly myself. It's all in here for a reason.
---------------------------------
See, there are several problems here. The first is that your post matches the "template" that people who troll NMA tend to use- make blanket statements, attribute beliefs to the entire group, advance own beliefs as being superior in comparison and ridicule the fact that anyone could believe differently.
This is exactly what the media is doing to "hardcore" Fallout fans at the moment as well. You must forgive my assumption, as this has been happening far too often as of late.
The main problem I have with your post is your seeming belief that your tastes override those held by anyone else. This is also a common problem found in members of NMA.
A former administrator of NMA, Roshambo, had this problem in spades. He's one of the main reasons this place has such a bad name, though there are posters who are contributing to this today in their own special ways.
I
generally try not to attack others for their point of view anymore. If it's stupid, they
generally destroy themselves. It's all a vicious cycle.
The Owl and the Ouroboros. I'd rather be the Owl.
----------------------------------
The way I see it, the current problems in the Fallout fanbase about Fallout 3 all come down to this:
Perceptions.
(Note, these labels are used somewhat facetiously)
Orthodox Fallout fans
These are those who believe Fallout should stick to the original design- though a 3D engine with a rotatable camera is acceptable and real-time combat may be.
These fans place a very high priority upon the intentions of the original developers of Fallout.
New-Age Fallout fans
Those who don't care what Bethesda does to Fallout 3 (within reason), as long as the "Fallout atmosphere" remains intact. Exactly what the "Fallout atmosphere" entails varies between the members.
To them, Fallout is all about the feeling.
Heathens
Those who want Fallout 3 to be just like Oblivion, those who are going to play it because it's a shooter, who've never heard of Fallout but have heard of "that Bethesda company". These people mostly just want their next hit from the crack pipe, and they don't care about what they have to destroy to get it. To them,
"it's just a game anyway who cares right".
Keep in mind, those aren't my perceptions per se. Those are what I've gleaned from watching the fanbase as a whole ever since Bethesda's announcement in 2004.
I'm somewhere between Orthodox and New-age, though I'm hesitant to say where. Both can be pretty irrational. Maybe Protestant?
-----------------------------------
Iendicis, I can understand your point of view. VATS... eh. I don't mind it. Frankly, it sounds better than purely real-time combat.
Immersion though, that is a touchy subject. I would argue that just as much immersion is possible from reading well-written descriptive text, the image it creates in your mind as from viewing and walking around in a well-rendered First-person landscape.
The key is that either takes a large amount of skill to convey. Does Bethesda have that level of skill? You believe they do.
I'm not so sure. Morrowind was a very well done game in terms of the architecture- it was incredible, the contrasts they managed to convey between regions. Oblivion was far more bland. There was little variance, and most of the "graphical wow" that was conveyed was enabled by third-party plugins that Bethesda simply dropped in to Gamebryo. For example, SpeedTree. It was lazy.
For the most part, Morrowind wasn't. At least in terms of how it conveyed "atmosphere".
The problem here is: Are we getting Morrowind, or are we getting Oblivion?
Beyond that, Bethesda has been very arrogant in the last few years. The proof is in the handling of add-ons to Oblivion, the rushed nature of Shivering Isles, the debacle that was Star Trek Legacy, the negative expressions about providing a construction kit for Fallout 3, and worst of all:
The disdain they've been trying to convey toward the previous Fallout games. How they're "primitive", "unplayable", and "ultimately deeply disappointing". How the gaming media parrots exactly the same thing,
while at the same time expressing "how much they love Fallout".
In my opinion, that's telling. Bethesda Softworks is trying to erase the legacy of Fallout, and replace it with "the new Fallout". Fallout has to "change with the times".
Yeah, it does. Improve the TB combat, it sure as hell needs it. Turn based combat isn't bad, it's Fallout's implementation that sucks. 3D engine, go for it. Anyone who still wants 640x480 2D is a fucking kook. Get rid of hexes? THANK FUCKING GOD.
Question is: can what Bethesda's doing be called "improvement"?
----------------------------
It seems to me to be more like they're giving up on the series as it was, and instead trying to "reboot" it in a completely different style- all while claiming they're perfectly upholding the legacy in every way, and that "This is the way the original designers would have done it if they had today's technology".
Problem is, no they wouldn't have. Fallout was made to run directly against all of the trends of the time in 1997 (3D, Real-time, linear stories, FPS, decreasing amounts of text).
It was made to show that there was something else out there. And it did. Both Bioware and Bethesda have adopted parts of Fallout's design for their own, because it showed what else was possible. Thing is, neither of them have done it as well as Fallout. Bioware in particular with their "dialogue trees" and hollow choices that all lead to the same place.
And now we have Bethesda saying that Fallout needs to "get with the trends and the times". Meaning, it needs to become "3D, REAL-TIME, FPS, and simplify the dialogue so it can all be voice acted cheaply because people hate reading".
Wasn't all of that kind of what Fallout was created in opposition to in the first place? Isn't it kind of killing a lot of the purpose?
What the industry needs is another Fallout.
By that, I mean a game that's willing to break from the demands of the "Trends and the Times".
Not another "me-too" game that everyone forgets about within a few days to weeks in anticipation of "The Next Big Thing".
That's why I have no confidence in Bethesda.
Edit: ...Huh, I could probably do something with this. Needs editing, rearranging, some additional content. Could be the start of an essay. Maybe.
