Fallout: A Simple Tale (some spoilers)

Cafe Society
41

I think it has more to do with being pissed off that they won’t make a third one than anything else. The fans mindset is something like this.

Fans: Great games! More sequels!
Black Isle: Here, we made Icewind Dale! We’ll be getting to Fallout 2 shortly.
Fans: Don’t want Icewind Dale. Want Fallout 3.
Black Isle: We licensed Fallout to make an inferior version of Jagged Alliance. But we’ll be getting to Fallout 3 real soon now!
Fans: Don’t WANT Jagged Alliance. Want Fallout 3.
Black Isle: We’re making another fantasy RPG, called TORN! But we’ll be getting to Fallout 3 real soon now!
Fans: Don’t WANT another fanta. . . what the hell kind of name is TORN anyway?
Black Isle: Ok, we canceled TORN. But we made Icewind Dale 2! And we’ll be getting to Fallout 3 real soon now! Really!
Fans: Didn’t we already say we didn’t WANT Icewind Dale? I’m SURE we did. Want Fallout 3.
Black Isle: We’re almost done with Lionheart! But really, we’ll be getting to Fallout 3 real soon now! I absolutely guarantee it.
Fans: -frustrated shriek, followed by bitter sobs-

That’s why they got so pissed over Fallout: Tactics. It was a passable though underachieving version of Jagged Alliance, but the Fallout community loathed it. Not because of what it was, but because it wasn’t Fallout 3.

I can understand Black Isle mindset, they need to sell games, and non-fantasy (Or non-final-fantasy-ish) RPGs are a subcategory of a subcategory of games. Same reason they’re switching to ‘real time’ crap. It would be nice if they were a more open about it though. They’ve said, over and over ‘We’d LOVE to make another Fallout,’ and I’m sure they would. They really should finish the sentence, though, with ‘but it’s really not economically feasible.’

I AM kind of suprised that no other company has even TRIED to make a SF or modern themed RPG. Really, though, how many companies have given old-style RPGs even a shot? It seems they’re going the way of the old ‘adventure’ games. There are loads of shooters and RTS with ‘rpg elements,’ but the real thing is still fairly rare, even with the post Baldur’s Gate burst.

–
‘Radiation made it bigger.’

42

Well, Anarchy Online is a SF online RPG. Although it’s set over 30,000 years in the future, it reminds me of Shadowrun in many ways, and it has a wide variety of weapons. It has the same failings of every other MMORPG, though. I really think it’s going to be a while before there is a really good RPG that also happens to be online. The MMORPG is almost a separate genre, as they all have so much in common.

43

There is another problem, too. In Fallout, your ranged firing range is limited by your sight range. In a MMORPG, you are going to have snipers EVERYWHERE! I mean, nearly everyone is going to want to be using ranged attacks eventually. And MMORPG’s don’t always handle those very well. Even those that do do ot optimize the whole game aorund them, partly because then it starts to look like “Unreal with chat”.