House is likely something of an authoritarian, and the loss of life is probably due to the wasteland temporarily being anarchic after the NCR are no longer able to keep order.
That being said, House can't be too much of a tyrant, given that New Vegas is literally built on gambling. If he started doing horrific things, he'd probably lose most of his tourist industry.
Fair Point, without NCR many terrible things happen, like BOS and such. Not a tyrant in a strict sense, that would be counterproductive as you said. I think it is more of a well intentioned extremist and keeping peace through robot party. So, it's no a tyranny, rather undisputed rule, everyone has to obey. However, unlike many tyrants throughout the history, House is not cruel or sadistic, he means well. I would love to have him as my second hand, but what can you do?
That ending you quoted literally describes trade being established.
Maybe House realised that the Boomers would trade with the outside world eventually anyway, and didn't want to force there hand.
Hmm... that is fairly logical, I guess. House is not some kind of care taker, but it sounded to me like he ignored the Boomers, for no well explained reasons. Also, the traders themselves struck me as independent merchants and companies, such as crimson caravan, rather people affiliated with House or working for him. Though, he had to hire somebody to look for that silver chip. Still, not convinced though. Besides, he has already secured Boomer's trust and with courier being respected there, he could easily trade some rockets and ammunition for fuel and other things. That would be huge boon to him, yet he 'showed little interest on the Boomers'. Which is why I am bit sceptical about it.
I mean, it's not based on assumption. In said ending, The Kings literally did offer help to the NCR.
It's not wiping them out to the last man based on assumption, it's wiping them out to the last man based on the fact that they were literally signing truces with a group House deemed to be invaders.
Also, given that the whole philosophy of the Kings is about self-determination, and keeping there freedom, they probably wouldn't appreciate Mr House barging in on them.
Touche, not an assumption, my bad. Well, driving out squaters is a good thing to do, most of them are drunks, free loaders, thugs, who couldn't get to strip. So, driving them out is a correct thing to do and wiping out kings, based on the fact they could be working with NCR makes sense. Still, I find it odd, he never really ordered you to resolve or do anything about this whole situation to begin with. Sure, Freeside is not something of great interest to him, but having some basic intel about what is going on would be very beneficial to him and could make this whole situation play out in his favour with Courier's help.
The NCR Ending literally mentions Goodsprings being abandoned by the older residents due to not being able to pay the taxes.
House may potentially be a police state, but certainly not a heavily taxed one.
I believe you are wrong on the 'not heavily taxed' one. Here is a link and description:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Street_vendor
The street vendor mentions that they are heavily taxed by
Mr. House at a rate of 50%, but continue to operate on the Strip for the security it provides.
Well, House already taxes 50%, NCR is most likely similar to current goverment taking 60% of income in form of taxes and such. We do not own, the exact percentage, but you can not deny that both sides have got rather high taxes, in NCR's case even too high.
Adding to what others has said about this 'tyranny of Mr. House', I have to say the ending slides for Independent Vegas was made in such a way to portray the other factions as antagonistic. It even went as far as specifically painting Mr. House as a 'tyrant', probably because he's the main offender to the idea of Independent Vegas. And I have to say I'm baffled as to why you think I'm 'omitting' the Courier's influence when it comes to Independent Vegas. I'm not. In fact, it's you who omitted the Courier's influence when it comes to Mr. House reign, only saying that a 'Mercenary Courier' can make House as the best option. I will take this opportunity to quote: " Actually no, Brivoo is right. Though I would compare House's reign more to a dual dictatorship than I would a 1 man rule thanks to the Courier having a say in pretty much all of House's decisions as said in the ending slide."
Like I said before, House merely gave the Courier some directions on what needs to be done, while how that's done is entirely up to the Courier. A Good Karma courier would definitely ensure that whatever it is that House wants to be done, it will be done it a way that's 'good'.
Also, why do we have to just talk about New Vegas being 'stable and secure'? Ain't the rest of the Mojave can enjoy such stability and security thanks to the Courier's works? Like I mentioned, I acknowledged the fact that the differences between a House-reigned and Independent Vegas are rather minimal, but what little differences they have, it has a significant impact for the future of New Vegas, Mojave, and humanity at large: Yes-Man doesn't have the same visions and wits of Mr. House, nor he would be able to use all of the information like House did, nor would he have a good plan in case the NCR attempt to annex the Mojave again.
That's... a very beneficial cooperation, yes. Hmm... I definitely didn't think of it this way, I rather saw House as a one who orders the Courier around as his righthand man, not someone that actually influences House just gets things done for him.
About Yes-man not having a good plan, why do you think that Yes-Man can not hope to match and exceed House with Courier's help with time? Of course, early on, House is better in basically every category, but! Let's not bring any dlcs into equation for now. Considering he is an actual AI, not a set of directives, Yes-Man will evolve, will gain insight and will analyse all the data. He is like ZAX or E-de or even Skynet. And before you say, Yes-Man is just an automated personality, not a true AI, ZAX units were known to have achieved self-awareness. Wouldn't be surprised, if House had a ZAX or something similar in Lucky 38, considering his massive network, regulating his own body, etc. Not to mention, how Yes-Man REACTS to all the things that can happen. I mean, what sort of robot can basically drip with sarcasm and express disappointment like this: "Right, who wants a vast army of mechanical servants to savage your enemy? Why make it easy? " In the base game, you can get your skills to 100 perform outstanding feats, not to mention the experience of the courier as he/she has lived in the wasteland for a good part of Courier's life. Courier can teach Yes-Man, so that he can become even better advisor and an AI. Let's just name some of the Courier's feats: He can convince Lanius to run away, bluff his way out with General 'sit and do nothing' Oliver, he can fix basically anything, hack any computer, best doctor, wealth of knowledge about barganing and trade in general, can defuse bombs, basically undetectable with high sneak, etc. Here is a thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/respectthreads/comments/2iykom/respect_courier_6_fallout_new_vegas/
What Jogre said. House really don't do things like establishing trade routes and such, because it's not his job. Hell, why don't we bring the Courier into the picture again? If we're doing a Good Karma Courier, the Boomers would definitely see that the 'savages' ain't as bad as they thought, and so, just like what the ending slide said, they eventually began venturing out of Nellis to meet and trade with travelers. Without House 'establishing trade routes', the route establish itself.
I have already explained it in Jogre's post.
Ahh, the beauty of New Vegas. Even the ending slides are made in such a way to include one character's point of view. See what I did there? "loss of liberty and life" is a word that came from the mouth of one Arcade Gannon, but Arcade Gannon never entered the Lucky 38, nor he ever had conversations with Mr. House, nor he ever take a look at bigger picture. Does Arcade Gannon ever think about how New Vegas Strip springs into life in such a short time, manned by bunch of tribals that has been rehabilitated?
Fair point, none of the companions can ever meet with House for some reason, not even a dog or an eyebot. Taking Arcede's slide with a bit of salt, it is a subjective opinion at the bare minimun. That aside, he really is never happy, not even with independent New Vegas. Though, if you meet with Ceasar and take Arcade with you, he blows up like this:
. I am not saying Arcade opinion is correct, he gets way too emotional, way too easy, not to mention he has never really been a part of Enclave, so he might have education, but not experience. Though, I have to ask, why do we have to leave our companions outside, even Rex?
"So he most likely can and will keep the income of the town in mind and regulate it accordingly"? What? Where did you get that from? Again, this is where the difference between House-reign and Independent Vegas is rather minimal. Even under House-rule, Goodsprings STILL "....thrived. More travelers stopped by Goodsprings on their way to and from the Strip, and the locals grew prosperous from the traffic.", BUT with an added monitoring by Victor, of which although the good folks might get annoyed by, I don't see them complaining in the ending slides like when NCR wins the battle and impose heavy taxes upon them.
Monitored the town and mixed blessing, note the mixed blessing part. If it was just a protection or something like that, why is it a mixed blessing? Considering House already takes 50% of income on Strip, would it really be that hard to notice, how else he can benefit from the town? Besides, monitoring the town for rebelion or some scheeming could annoy some people. Basically, being under surveilance constantly. So, either way, I think you are making it a bit too tame. House has already proven he is a businessman above everything else.
Why is this a 'bad' thing? You chose to make the town surrender and getting annexed by the NCR. Of course Mr. House is going to get pissed!
I know I have mentioned this before, but I'm not sure if you ever pay attention to it. Mr. House is the best option IF you do things RIGHT. And those right things would include: NOT letting Primm getting annexed by the NCR, NOT letting the Kings reconcile with the NCR AND even encourage wiping out the missionaries and the squatters, etc etc.
NOTICE HOW AGAIN, HOUSE DOES NOT EVEN IMPLY OF THERE BEING CONSEQUENCES. I mean, look at the quests, you do for him, all of them are either related to ensuring Strip is safe and secure, gaining alies and resources for Hoover Dam, etc. It makes sense, but why is there no interest in regular folk? He did that same thing with Freeside, where he only acted once the courier made choice, not even imply what he should do. And I understand that House does not have resources for everything, but why isn't there an option to ask him? I bet a good Courier would do everything in his power to help House, besides the main quest and battle for Hoover Dam, but such option does not exist.
I'm just going to address this by saying I've already said all that I needed to say when I address Arcade's points. This is yet another beauty of New Vegas. This ending slide right here is just Cass's point of view. Again, she's not the one who entered the Lucky 38 and have conversations with Mr. House and, again, she doesn't take a look at the bigger picture nor she ever consider Mr. House's past achievements.
And heavy taxes? What? House only impose heavy taxes on Primm for their surrendering to NCR. He doesn't imposed it if Primm's law enforcer is Meyers or Primm Slim, and he doesn't impose heavy taxes anywhere else.
Heavy taxes are a fact, have a look at this article:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Street_vendor
I'm just going to quote myself from previous page for this one
Fair enough, in independent and House you just should get NCR out of Freeside, I cede my point
Think about what I said in my quote above. NCR's presence in Freeside was a propaganda to sway the local's support to them, but it's not working. Hence why you'll notice some NPCs who's nearby the relief are squatters. They're unwanted presence because the took the local's living space. And again, there's really not much for House to do other than leaving them alone. What's so bad about leaving people alone? Does he has to personally go down the field and thank people?
Nothing wrong with leaving people to letting do whatever do whatever they want with their lives. However, shouldn't a good goverment care for his people in some way? Besides collecting taxes? Also, I agree that squatters are a nuisance and should be ridden out.
Yes, exactly. They did pretty good job protecting Freeside, no? So why does Mr. House has to send some Securitrons down there? Why shouldn't he leave them alone, again?
"Also, don't you think antagonizing citizens of powerful country like NCR seems like a bad idea, don't you think?"
I don't know, man. Why don't you ask yourself this question? It isn't on a House-endings that "The Kings took the opportunity to viciously force all NCR citizens out of Freeside." Granted, on a House-ending the Kings still attacked some of the NCR citizens.... at least they didn't viciously force ALL NCR citizens out of Freeside.
You are right, instead they: "During the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, some Kings took it upon themselves to launch several attacks on NCR citizens and soldiers around Freeside.
Mr. House looked on these actions favorably, seeing them as proof of The Kings' loyalty to New Vegas, and decided to leave them alone."
That said, visciusly forcing everyone of the area is worse than House's ending on this one, I agree with you.
Seriously? Why don't you also consider that if Yes-Man is inside Lucky 38's Mainframe, someone walks inside the building and just blow every goddamn thing, then?
You can do the same thing with House, blow up Lucky 38, destroy his securitrons, damage his reactor, but Yes-Man can just jump from body to body. Heck, nothing happens no matter, how many times you kill Yes-Man. Yes-Man comes out on top of here, one way or another. And do I have to remind you, how many securitrons there are, and how many Lucky 38s in the world? Hint, hint, the difference is quite big if you ask me. EVEN DURING BATTLE FOR HOOVER DAM HE CAN JUMP FROM SECURITRON TO SECURITRON, SO DESTROYING LUCKY 38 WON'T KILL HIM.
Okay, but once again, humanity lose Mr. House's visions and wits. Yes-Man still can't use all of the information stored in the mainframe like Mr. House can, nor would he be able to procure a good plan in case the NCR re-attempt annexing the Mojave.
I have already explained why Yes-Man will be superior to House with enough time and cosidering he is an AI and most of them are pretty bloody smart, I think replacing a House and running Mojave is a matter of months, maybe a year or two. He may not be able to do it now, but given enough time, he will be gain the upper hand.
*sigh* He's already giving the Courier the freedom to choose the method on how to deal with stuff. Basically, Mr. House only wants us to get shit done, no matter how we gonna do it. He doesn't rule like a literal monarch who sit upon his throne, listening all day long to his subjects problems and dilemma. Of course, in case of the Kings reconciling with the NCR, I was initially surprised by the ending slide because my second playthrough I supported House for the very first time. But thinking about it all, we don't need to listen to Mr. House spoon-feeding all of it for us because that's not exactly his concern. Hell, why don't we blame Obsidian in this regard because why don't we have dialogue option to mention this specific concern to Mr. House?
We might as well blame them for lack of Legion content, which was bugthesda's fault. Also, already explained my stance.[/QUOTE]