Should Fallout make you think about society? I think, in the best-case scenario, capitalism is an obvious candidate worth exploring, given the mainline series’ unwavering commitment to America’s Atomic Age-inspired corporate setting and the entire resource war leading up to the dropping of the atomic bombs. However, according to co-creator Tim Cain, this is not the core issue that is central to the theme of Fallout.
The veteran developer said the same thing in the comments for his latest video posted on his YouTube channel (thanks to PC Gamer) – which I definitely recommend checking out for just about anyone interested in games and how they’re made – — in response to a fan asking what he thought of reading Fallout “as a criticism of capitalism/corporate greed (Vault-Tec, etc.) and over-militarization.”
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“Criticism of capitalism was never the focus of Fallout,” Kane wrote. “In fact, the game specifically mentions other countries like China that are behaving badly as well. If anything, Fallout It’s a comment that war is inevitable because of basic human nature. So, yeah, the whole war never changed course, and ironically it’s now more of a corporate slogan than anything else.
Kane also offered some explanation for why he retains this stance, saying: “I always decide story before mechanics because the latter serves the former in my games. I don’t think I have any common themes in my of all games (maybe it’s a distrust of power) but as you can see people will interpret my games in various ways and that’s okay, everyone has their own point of view and a story speaks to different people can mean different things.
So, that’s cool, even though I definitely don’t agree with that. After all, you can criticize capitalism as the central theme of your work – as the Fallout TV show does in a beautiful way, even if it might not do much to present any alternative ideas that people in the wasteland might propose. To come out and replace this system that at least led to their world being prosperous while still saying China had a role in things. Without that, I think you’d have an explanation for the world the game presents, and even if you don’t think “people will always fight” itself is a reductive view, rather frustrating, and, at least for me, quite Boring.
In case you’re wondering, the video of Kane discussing this in the comments is a video succinctly titled “Capitalism,” which is about as unmistakable a title you’ll find for a Kane video, although I don’t think this one quite qualifies Cain’s usual standard for an insightful, thoughtful chat or insight.
As many commentators have pointed out, the overarching view of capitalism presented by Kane in it seems to blame “bad apples” consumers and employees for the bad things done by many companies, without taking into account any power dynamics and broader situations that may affect how individuals within the system play the games it presents. To be fair, Cain said in response to another comment that highlighted this point: “I’m reading all the comments and I agree with what you said. I will be watching the non-consumer side more carefully going forward.”
When you play Ashes, do you think about capitalism? Let us know below!
