Fallout the boardgame and New California controversy

The_Proletarian

The_Proletarian

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Last year Fantasty Flight Games published a Fallout boardgame based on the Bethesda games. Newly announced an expansion called New California is on it's way. The expansion is set on the west coast and will include locations familiar to fans of the real Fallout games.

The potential controvercy is that there already is a famous total conversion New Vegas mod of the same name. The TC Falllout: New California has been under development for over seven years now and will release this fall. The developers express their concern in a Facebook post. The board game expansion having the same name as their mod could make it possible for Bethesda to send them a cease and desist order, something that is not uncommon. PC Gamer had an article about it. However, since the publication of the article in PC Gamer a representative of Bethesda has given the following statement:

Bethesda representative said:
The great thing about modding is that people can build mods about whatever they want. We don’t foresee an issue with this team’s work, and we wish them well in their development.
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It annoys me that they are using shitty Fallout 4 style for figurines and other stuff in this expansion, instead of classic Fallout style... Look at their figurines and you will see what I mean.

Come on... Super Mutant Behemoth enemy card?
Bethesda lore says that Behemoths are only made using the Capital Wasteland strand of FEV, so what the hell are they doing in California?
You're SPECIAL book?

Someone make it stop!
 
Risewild said:
It annoys me that they are using shitty Fallout 4 style for figurines and other stuff in this expansion, instead of classic Fallout style... Look at their figurines and you will see what I mean.

Come on... Super Mutant Behemoth enemy card?
Bethesda lore says that Behemoths are only made using the Capital Wasteland strand of FEV, so what the hell are they doing in California?
You're SPECIAL book?
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Beth using Beth stuff for Beth products. I don't see the issue in this situation. It's better they don't touch east coast lore at all but that's a whole other discussion.

This is one thing I'm going to support Beth and Capcom at. They're very open to people using their assets and IPs to create mods and fangames with.
If this were Nintendo or Squaresoft they'd wait 'til the last minute when the mods have been promoted to the shit then send their Cease & Desist rendering all work useless.
 
MPPlantOfficial said:
Beth using Beth stuff for Beth products. I don't see the issue in this situation. It's better they don't touch east coast lore at all but that's a whole other discussion.

This is one thing I'm going to support Beth and Capcom at. They're very open to people using their assets and IPs to create mods and fangames with.
If this were Nintendo or Squaresoft they'd wait 'til the last minute when the mods have been promoted to the shit then send their Cease & Desist rendering all work useless.
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I assume you mean "It's better they don't touch west coast lore" instead of east... But then they make a west coast board game expansion that has The Rise of the Master and other classic games stuff in it? Then they should be faithful to the material and at least make the figurines and all of that look like west coast and not Commonwealth junk.

And by having behemoths in this expansion they are already messing with west coast lore. This will make new players think that the Master could make Behemoths...
 
Another stupid thing is that it depicts the Enclave using this junk:

yvBiIyb.png

Instead of this badassery:

L6em84y.png

They could even have used the New Vegas Version and it would still have been better:

FRuEslD.png
 
The thing is that Bethesda owns Fallout 1, 2 and even tactics, so there is no reason for the board game to only use Bethesda assets and not use the classic Fallout games ones, since they are owned by Bethesda too.

You point out the Ranger armor, and that is another proof that they can use assets based from NV without a problem.

There is really nothing in terms of legality preventing Bethesda from using the classic imagery/assets/style, because they are the owners of all of that. They fully own the Intellectual Property, which includes everything in every Fallout game ever made. They just don't seem to want to use them. :shrug:

They could also use Fallout 3 style weapons for example. Many Fallout 3 and 4 players say they prefer the style of Fallout 3's weapons over Fallout 4. Bethesda seems intent on never return to the past games, including their own games.
It's like it tries to make people forget old games exist and focus always on the newer releases.
 
Risewild said:
The thing is that Bethesda owns Fallout 1, 2 and even tactics, so there is no reason for the board game to only use Bethesda assets and not use the classic Fallout games ones, since they are owned by Bethesda too.

You point out the Ranger armor, and that is another proof that they can use assets based from NV without a problem.

There is really nothing in terms of legality preventing Bethesda from using the classic imagery/assets/style, because they are the owners of all of that. They fully own the Intellectual Property, which includes everything in every Fallout game ever made. They just don't seem to want to use them. :shrug:

They could also use Fallout 3 style weapons for example. Many Fallout 3 and 4 players say they prefer the style of Fallout 3's weapons over Fallout 4. Bethesda seems intent on never return to the past games, including their own games.
It's like it tries to make people forget old games exist and focus always on the newer releases.
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The reason for this ignorant focus on Fallout 4's style is the same reason ESO uses Skyrim aesthetics down to the health/stamina/magicka bars. Marketability. People nowadays more readily recognize Fallout through Fallout 4's (awful) artistic style just like people recognize TES with Skyrim's (also awfully cartoony) style.

The (also awful) modern MODERN fans wouldn't recognize a style derived from F1/F2 even though said style is superior in every way. Now, I admit, I started with F3. But many of us played the originals eventually and now see them for the masterpieces they are. Not many people that started with F4 did that or will ever do it. Bethesda know this, and so they ignore the past in favor of catering to the newer folks. It's all about money in the end.

Obsidian gave us the last of old Fallout we will ever have through New Vegas.

Yeah. The West Coast's last song, one only a few people are ever going to hear. A little sad, but what can you do?
 
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But the thing is... I don't think many of the people who prefer Fallout 4 "style" will be interested in board games.

Also, making a West Coast expansion for the board game with events like "The rise of the Master" is obviously aimed at the classic Fallout fans. So they should have fully pulled the "nostalgia" trump-card and go with some "old style" designs.
 
Risewild said:
But the thing is... I don't think many of the people who prefer Fallout 4 "style" will be interested in board games.

Also, making a West Coast expansion for the board game with events like "The rise of the Master" is obviously aimed at the classic Fallout fans. So they should have fully pulled the "nostalgia" trump-card and go with some "old style" designs.
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They should have, but they are all about money. They aren't fans of the series. They bought it for the theme. They will drain the IP of all value while paying lip service to the classics like they really care about the fans.
 
TorontRayne said:
They should have, but they are all about money. They aren't fans of the series. They bought it for the theme. They will drain the IP of all value while paying lip service to the classics like they really care about the fans.
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Yes, but again, they would be making more money by appealing more to the classic fans. This expansion is trying to appeal to those, but then it fails miserably by doing it the "Fallout 4" way. :lmao:

Like I said before, I doubt the majority of Fallout 4 fans will play board games. I wonder if this expansion was made because after the board game was released, it didn't sell as much as they thought, so they decided to make an expansion to appeal to the older fans. I wonder if Bethesda failed to realize that the typical Fallout 4 fan will not be into board games. That would have been a really giant fail from their part. :lol:
 
Risewild said:
Yes, but again, they would be making more money by appealing more to the classic fans. This expansion is trying to appeal to those, but then it fails miserably by doing it the "Fallout 4" way. :lmao:

Like I said before, I doubt the majority of Fallout 4 fans will play board games. I wonder if this expansion was made because after the board game was released, it didn't sell as much as they thought, so they decided to make an expansion to appeal to the older fans. I wonder if Bethesda failed to realize that the typical Fallout 4 fan will not be into board games. That would have been a really giant fail from their part. :lol:
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Personally I look at it as soulless marketing that they don't really expect to sell a ton of anyway but you see fill the stores. I see what you are saying, but they do not. They hear OLD FALLOUT FAN and they don't give a flying fuck. Interplay didn't either. NMA is a joke to them.
 
Risewild said:
Another stupid thing is that it depicts the Enclave using this junk:

yvBiIyb.png

Instead of this badassery:

L6em84y.png

They could even have used the New Vegas Version and it would still have been better:

FRuEslD.png
Click to expand...
So Betty decided to bitchslap Obsidian entirely! and I see why Bethesda chose not to permit The Old Gang to do any Fallout 'westcoast sidestory' anymore.
 
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