Mr. New Vegas as an AI: references in game

Censor

Censor

Huh?
I've been playing Fallout New Vegas for quite some time now. I always figured there was some guy somewhere in Vegas doing his radio show, you just never got to visit the place (which is fine with me - considering Three Dog and all that). Recently I read that the radio voice of Mr. New Vegas is actually an AI programmed by Robert House.

I was wondering if there are indicators or dialogues in the game that hint towards Mr. New Vegas being an AI. In the playthroughs I have finished thus far, this fact has never occurred to me. Is it even well-known that the radio voice is a creation of Robert House?
 
I think it's the info from an official game guide, or something.

I can't recall that being mentioned in the game itself.

In fact, even though Three Dog was mostly annoying, at least every radio in FO3 is given an explanation behind it. I don't remember FNV having this, at least not in some meaningful way.
 
http://www.bethblog.com/2010/08/11/behind-the-scenes-the-many-voices-of-new-vegas/

Mr. New Vegas is interesting because he’s just a voice on the radio, he has no body. He was created by Mr. House, so he’s literally just a voice. He tells what’s going on in the world, he’s always upbeat, and he has some very bizarre lines.
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In fact, even though Three Dog was mostly annoying, at least every radio in FO3 is given an explanation behind it. I don't remember FNV having this, at least not in some meaningful way.
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Erm, there is needed explanation for bringing music and news to Mojave by House? Huh?
 
Besides, visiting him would be pretty boring, and useless. Maybe we even did. He'd be indiscernible in the many computers of the bowels of the lucky 38.
 
Languorous_Maiar said:
In fact, even though Three Dog was mostly annoying, at least every radio in FO3 is given an explanation behind it. I don't remember FNV having this, at least not in some meaningful way.
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Erm, there is needed explanation for bringing music and news to Mojave by House? Huh?
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There isn't an explanation for another radio station present in Mojave.
And no, to stretch it a bit, the whole Mr. New Vegas AI persona is left very vague.

Also, I do not appreciate your needless, yet seemingly ever-present, impolite tone you present in your posts.
 
I guess it was just a design mandate to make a bridge for FO3 players that had an ever present DJ in the only Fallout game they know. It is never stated he is an AI but he is never the one interviewing the people talking.
 
Censor said:
I've been playing Fallout New Vegas for quite some time now. I always figured there was some guy somewhere in Vegas doing his radio show, you just never got to visit the place (which is fine with me - considering Three Dog and all that). Recently I read that the radio voice of Mr. New Vegas is actually an AI programmed by Robert House.

I was wondering if there are indicators or dialogues in the game that hint towards Mr. New Vegas being an AI. In the playthroughs I have finished thus far, this fact has never occurred to me. Is it even well-known that the radio voice is a creation of Robert House?
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What about the Mojave Music Radio? There no references in game to its origins or even who is running it.
 
It's not like a radio station would need too much explanation with the NCR there. Some dude is probably just broadcasting old music from either the Strip or McCarran. It could all be just part of Houses "Vegas as a tourist location" theme he has going on with his casinos and the Strip.
 
In actuality, there are only two stations that DON'T have an in-game explanation. Black Mountain Radio and every single broadcast added by the DLCs can be followed to an in-game physical source.

As to Mr. New Vegas, I remember being similarly surprised to read of his AI nature and similarly frustrated at the lack of sourcing (Matt Grandstaff being a great guy, but a single non-coroborated blog entry from a game's community manager being a shaky basis for canonicity). I actually like that he's left unmet and unexplained, though. Along with the fact that he doesn't constantly and specifically attribute your doings to you, it reinforces the word-of-mouth, largely old-fashioned nature of communications in the wasteland and the fact that you're not going to be able to delve every corner of the wasteland and rub elbows with every mover and shaker, no matter how much of a supercourier you are.
 
Interesting points, all.

I wondered if I had missed something - seems that the only references to the nature of Mr. New Vegas are only found outside of the game itself.

The lack of in-game references to the radio stations has never bothered me, though.
 
Just one possible line hinting at it:

"This is Mr New Vegas, filling in for Mr New Vegas."

I always thought it was a shame we never got to meet that character; actually meeting Three dog and the president, and getting Agatha set up with a station of her own, was pretty cool (although they do also give you some of the stupidest player dialogue in the game; remember "so you fight the good fight with your voice!"?) but I guess Obsidian couldn't think of something new to do with a "radio station" character.
 
2house2fly said:
(...) but I guess Obsidian couldn't think of something new to do with a "radio station" character.
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I'm sure they could come up with any number of quests centered around a radio station (and in fact, they did, and rather creatively IMHO), as could anyone who gave it a modicum of thought. In the case of giving a physical presence to Radio New Vegas, though, I truly think it was more an instance of them asking themselves, "Does this add anything to our game that we actually want in there?" and answering in the negative. They seem to have been shooting to deliver the optimal Fallout experience with New Vegas: Fallout 1's tight, cohesive world without its relative dearth of content, Fallout 2's scope without its bloat, Fallout 3's style of exploration and immersion without its disjointedness. All three of those goals would necessitate that they couldn't just go throwing in quests and locations simply because there was room in the world for them, especially with the kind of accelerated production schedule they were dealing with.

They tied a quest to Black Mountain, but probably felt that the radio deejay who was to deliver news concerning your exploits was probably better left as a voice from afar, in direct contrast to chumming it up with the creepily well-informed and seemingly obsessive Three Dog in the last game. It seems they wanted the radio broadcasts to be more about the world and less about you in New Vegas, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense to give you a chance to know the announcer personally. Part of the Fallout setting has always been the ever-present awareness that there's a great wide world out there with a society and a history that has precious little to do with you. It's the necessary counterbalance to you being everyone's errand boy and being present for all of the seminal events of the game. Radio stations complicate that a bit-- it's tough to maintain the sense of being a lonesome drifter in an uncertain world when you can pop in anytime and have a chat with someone who's got eyes and ears on your world entire, or when you know that everyone within a week's traveling distance is constantly hearing you namedropped (Three Dog) or given shout-outs (I'm looking at you, Agatha), but the player still wants to hear about the impact they're having on the world (unless they're a crotchety NMA purist who's never flipped the on switch on their radio in the first place). I think Obsidian walked the tightrope admirably.

(I'm honestly a little surprised people raise this issue at all. Modern games, especially sandboxes and shooters, are replete with all kinds of voices on the radio that you never directly interact with, never even get within a country mile of. Why is it a thing here?)
 
It honestly makes perfect sense to me that Mr. New Vegas is an AI. Look at everything he reports on. It's always someplace either within sensor range of the Strip (like Freeside or even McCarran) or someplace a Securitron has been (Goodsprings, NoVac, Hidden Valley.)

Who arrived in Goodsprings from New Vegas to ask Easy Pete about the impromptu militia that fought off the Powder Gangers? There's nobody new there during the fight, immediately afterward, or when you go back later.

But you know who was there the whole time? And who we know had at least intermittent comms contact with the Strip?

Victor.

You know who was there and could have been listening to No-Bark talking to himself after Come Fly With Me?

Victor.

Not saying that Victor is Mr. New Vegas, of course; my point fits with that, though: We do know that Victor, Yes-Man, and Jane are just "neurocomputational matrices" (AIs) that can jump hardware. So it's hardly a stretch to think that Mr. New Vegas is just another neurocomputational matrix broadcasting from the Lucky 38 while being fed data by Securitrons in the field.
 
Something that blew my mind was that the voice actor for Doc Mitchell and Mr. New Vegas are not the same person. I always thought they were. I seem to remember that in the collector's edition of new vegas the card for Mr. New Vegas was just a microphone. I think this ads credibility to the idea that he is an AI.
 
Traplord209 said:
Something that blew my mind was that the voice actor for Doc Mitchell and Mr. New Vegas are not the same person. I always thought they were. I seem to remember that in the collector's edition of new vegas the card for Mr. New Vegas was just a microphone. I think this ads credibility to the idea that he is an AI.
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That is correct re the collector's card.

I'm fine with Mr. New Vegas being an AI, though some kind of in-game explanation would have been nice. Or better yet, some kind of in-game interactibility with the station, beyond the indirect interaction of him noting things that you caused. Say, a quest from the Atomic Wrangler to get an ad on the system, or a quest from the Legion to put a demoralizing message on the air. Maybe his transmitter is at the top of one of the decaying uninhabited skyscrapers you can see from the Strip.
 
Another idea that just occurred to me re: circumstantial evidence in game that could lead someone to infer that Mr. New Vegas is an AI: he knows if/when you assassinate Caesar. How would he know? Probably by overhearing Legionaries talk about it near the abandoned weather station / Securitron storage bunker at Fortification Hill.

It's possible that not just Securitrons, but other pieces of Robco equipment, are 'bugged'. He may even have access to satellite data, which would explain how first a lone Securitron -- then, later, a squad of Securitrons -- intercepted the Chairmen (nee "Boot Riders") out in the desert, prior to the Strip being cleaned up and renovated.

It strikes me that the only serious factors that prevented House from utterly dominating all of Nevada right from the word 'Go' was that his systems were running on auxiliary power and the finite number of Securitrons at his disposal. The level of technology accessible to him can be inferred (based on what he has done with it) to far exceed what we're shown directly.
 
Yamu said:
(I'm honestly a little surprised people raise this issue at all. Modern games, especially sandboxes and shooters, are replete with all kinds of voices on the radio that you never directly interact with, never even get within a country mile of. Why is it a thing here?)
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Two things: First, the setting. A functioning radio station stands out in an environment where so much of the modern technoscape has been reduced to rubble. Second, the fact that the radio station in question seems to follow your player character's exploits.

In a franchise like Grand Theft Auto, where the radio stations just play music and current events news that has nothing to do with you, that's just background set dressing. What we get in New Vegas is almost like having a radio station in Red Dead Redemption with a DJ that comments on where you last drained the lizard. It kinda stands out. lol
 
When I played FO3, My PC visited Three Dog's radio station, and laid a dozen land mines around his sleeping cot.

Later he walked into them, and was blown to pieces. The building was empty, but moments later a woman's voice came over the radio, condemning Three Dog's death... but the building was still empty.
 
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