Silva said:
Sure, then there's still the option of there being similar companies made in the rest of the Fallout world. And they needn't be extremely different to Vault-Tec. My retcon idea still stands as well.
You're missing the point. The issue is that one the biggest icons of the series could not be present. That's obviously a problem. You'd be stripping the game of what makes it
Fallout.
Also from a cannon standpoint, other countries shouldn't have companies similar to Vault-tec since they had fallen apart long before the war.
What, so other countries aren't as geographically or culturally diverse? Ridiculous.
When did I say that? All I said was the America is diverse enoguh to the poitn where making games set in other countries just for the sake of diversity would be unnesecary. That doesn't mean other countries aren't diverse.
And I maintain that it could be as similar as the designers wanted it to be. You're speaking as though setting determines theme, but it doesn't have to at all. There are places other than America that could evoke similar themes, in any case.
Not in the setting clearly established in
Fallout. Of course, you have no problem retconning that all away, so I guess this would be a moot point to you.
Not to mention, Fallout is not really known for realistically sticking to its setting so much as sticking random but funny elements into a caricature of the setting the game is supposed to be in. As you yourself said, the lore differs from real history, so settings can go through as much change as the designers need or want.
Except that it has already been clearly established the America was one of the only countries still maintaining it's wealth and prosperity prior to the war. The developers can;t just magically alter that without making major changes the game's history. And if you're going to do that, then I have to ask why bother making it a
Fallout game? If you're going to mess with the lore that much you might as well make it a new series since that is what it's going to feel like.
No I'm not. I'm telling you that you can make Fallout as long as you maintain the themes and tone.
How many times do I have to remind you that these themes are tied to the American setting?
I can imagine having this same argument after the first Fallout game with people who might have thought that moving the setting to a different part of the US would ruin it.
There are fans that do think
Fallout 3 was to radically different from the other two. But at least
Fallout 3 at least tried to incorporate themes and elements from the other two games. If you put it in a foreign country you wouldn't be able to do this since they are
tied to the American setting, something you seem to forget.
But if the US is as "diverse" as you say it is, then considering how many different settings AT the US have been covered, using a different country as a setting is not such a bad idea. The format has proven itself to be applicable over a diverse amount of terrain, so why limit things?
Because the themes and elements established in the Fallout series are tied to the American setting.
Seriously, this is not really a debatable point. It's something that has been established throughout the series. If it's not in America, it's not going to feel like a
Fallout game.
That's not true. American accents, American Government, and American patriotism are something that an American can identify with much stronger than anyone from anywhere else. I think you don't realise how different the effect can be because it requires too much of a leap out of your own context. I suspect that it is an essential part of the experience. Seeing your own capital city as a post-nuclear wasteland would have a different effect from seeing someone else's. That's obvious.
Wrong. I don't think you need to be American to feel the impact of the setting. I'm not from the Ukraine, yet the settings shown in the
S.T.A.L.K.E.R game still has an impact on me. It doesn't matter if I've been to Chernobyl. I still recognize the feeling of loneliness and desolation present in the game just by walking through it. Just like you don't need to be American to experience the similar feelings brought forth in
Fallout 3.
You must live in a very unpatriotic neighbourhood, because most of the things I hear from my friends in America about the country contradict what you say. And my friends are very patriotic themselves. Some of them went to war. So I suspect that they're underestimating it.
Mind you, Fallout does stretch it a little further.
A "little" is gross undervaluation. The American setting of
Fallout is very different from modern America, and I think most Americans will agree with me on this. It's a parody of an old American age, not the modern one.
Sure, well I like the series for these reasons anyway, but I still think that there is a special theme at work for those who recognise the settings involved.
I will admit that the game probably does affect someone who has actually visited these historic relics than someone who only knows of them by photo. But I still don't see that as an adequate reason to completely abandon most of the things associated with the
Fallout series.
Guess what? I was. Deal with it.
Sometimes it's warranted to widen a discussion.
And in this case it isn't. You can't convince me that your position is justified based on potential sales. I'm not going to consider what you say more valid when it involves ditching everything I like about the games just because it might make a larger profit for the developers.
In short, you seem to be missing the point that no matter what you say about what they could do, it doesn't change what they can't do. They can't magically transfer all of reoccurring characters, factions, themes, and pretty much everything that forms the
Fallout setting to another country.
