I just want to point out the strange irony of GaaS in Fallout 76. It's set in a dystopian future of rural West Virginia. Relics of the past are everywhere, and

I just want to point out the strange irony of GaaS in Fallout 76. It's set in a dystopian future of rural West Virginia. Relics of the past are everywhere, and special attention is paid to dangerous "Mole Miners" resembling the old "Mole-People" of lore, who you you must battle from time to time. The Mole Miners are an echo of the real life West Virginian miners who historically struggled under exploitative mining companies. One of the exploitative measures taken by mining companies was the decision to pay miners with "scrip" instead of real money. The reason they'd give was that remote mining locations did not have banks, so they relied on a company money for a company store for goods and services. This scrip economy was often stacked against miners, who would often find themselves in debt, and eventually revolt with massive strikes. Given that context, compare it with one of the main goals of the game, which is to fight as many "legendary enemies" as possible to gain "legendary items" that can be exchanged for scrip so that the player can acquire more "legendary items." The machine that exchanges these items for scrip looks like it was pulled out of a casino. Every time a player pays Bethesda $15 per month, they are literally gambling that the aforementioned casino machine will make them scrip-rich. They are gambling on getting ahead in a game that is very much stacked against them. I wonder if the game designers realize that the plight of their game's Mole Miners is a metaphor for the average player's experience.