28 ms·

How the video game Fallout became a backdrop for live Shakespeare shows

118 points by helsinkiandrew 4y ago

josephduffy 4y ago
Fallout has been a great game for those wanting to invest heavily in the role-playing aspect of a game. Fallout 76 and its groups are an example of how the internet can be fantastic. IGN released a good video on some of the players of Fallout 76, including the Wasteland Theatre Company featured in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0wccxcmrlA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0wccxcmrlA
- orbital-decay 4y ago
  Paradoxically, this mostly happens because Fallout 76 doesn't have much to offer after finishing the story, so players found other ways to amuse themselves than perpetual grinding in a glorified slot machine.
  - xen2xen1 4y ago
    Ha. I'm starting a chain store of vendors near train stations (run 6 copies of the game and sell stuff to other players) for pretty much that reason.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- LegitShady 4y ago
  The game is overmonetized trash, and the fallout game doesn't seem to add anything at all to the theater company's performance. It might as well be second life or vrchat or any of a million other games that aren't abusive microtransaction garbage. Fallout 76 was a real turning point from bethesda, where they went from inept buggy RPGs to actively evil over monetization on a game that should never have been released in that state.
  - orbital-decay 4y ago
    Bethesda is the company that invented microtransactions (horse armor in TES IV Oblivion) and coined the term "DLC" if I'm not mistaken, so I'm not sure if that was that different from what they were doing before.
    - technothrasher 4y ago
      I thought it was Microsoft that basically invented microtransactions for their Xbox Live Marketplace, and encouraged developers to utilize the model. But you can go all the way back to the 1980's with Atari's GameLine to see the very first "download a game for $1" type of digital transactions. As to who coined the term DLC, could have been Bethesda, I don't know that one.
    - LegitShady 4y ago
      play fallout 4 and then 76 and tell me which is more overmonetized. Even better if you can somehow play the launch fallout 76 before they started taking back their "game design decisions" that removed NPCs and the entire story was told through reading and tapes. Don't forget your premium fallout 76 monthly subscription.
      - ehnto 4y ago
        Two very different game types, F76 was not a sequel to F4, and it was not even a spin off like Fallout New Vegas. It is a forever game/Game as a Service/ Always Online game. They were super duper clear about it all too. All good if you don't like it but you are spinning tales if you act like they put microtransactions into a singleplayer game.
        LegitShady 4y ago
        I never said it was a sequel, I said one is overmonetized garbage, and it isn't free to play overmonetized garbage either - it was a full price game at launch. A full price fallout full of microtransactions, now with a premium monthly membership, etc. that it isn't a sequel isn't relevant.
- footlose_3815 4y ago
  That whole video watched like an ad, it made me sick.
beardog 4y ago
Is this the metaverse?
- ByThyGrace 4y ago
  Or perhaps a covert Fallout 76 ad?
Barrin92 4y ago
That's fantastic. Reminded me immediately of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven as well. During the pandemic I spent a fair amount of time with VRChat and the platform has a lot of theatre or performance art related people on it as well. There seems to be an increasing overlap between immersive online games and the arts.
smolder 4y ago
I wondered if the article would make mention of the parallels to Station Eleven. Neat. It's always nice to see players create their own game or story on top of what they're given. I'm reminded of a RP focused telnet MUD I played in the dialup days. There was a sort of roleplay credit system where you'd earn points from other players for contributing to the overall story and atmosphere. You'd get prizes from the admins such as custom content (sort of the textual equivalent of cosmetics in graphical games) after earning enough points.
- komali2 4y ago
  That's a really awesome idea, I was just thinking coming into the thread that it'd be cool if there was a way to actually motivate players to do this more, and frankly, "play the game" less. The most fun I ever had in multiplayer games was when things went against the game itself. Funny interactions with reps in WoW, working with the enemy faction in WoW to ensure that literally nobody is allowed to leave a given town of either faction because, why not? Walking around CS source maps and just speculating about wtf the maps actually were, like, is de_dust2... just... a road in some town? Anyway I'd love to hear about more games with these kinds of interactions. According to what I see on youtube, the final fantasy MMO seems to have this kind of things in droves. I wanted to explore it but I found the actual gameplay to be mind numbingly grindy and was turned off by that, plus lots of people telling me it sucks until level cap.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - KVFinn 4y ago
    There's a huge community of roleplaying GTA 5 custom servers. Some take it pretty seriously and have really talented actors/performers.
Aaronstotle 4y ago
This is the first time I've read anything positive relating to Fallout 76
- tnel77 4y ago
  It breaks my heart thinking about Fallout 76. It’s just so bad and it seems like everyone I talk to has the same response. Who is playing this game?
  - beardog 4y ago
    It improved since launch (much less bugs, NPCs added, less PvP focus). I liked the story and exploring the world but I find the combat to be too grindy compared to 3/4/New Vegas. I also don't like there is no way from the UI to pick a server or make free community servers. However I would say if you liked fallout 4 then current 76 is worth it on sale especially if you have a friend to join.
    - technothrasher 4y ago
      I played hundreds and hundreds of hours of 3, NV, and 4. Multiple play-throughs of each, and then lots of screwing around with mods. I played 76 for about two hours and gave up. It's just not the same. I guess that's not inherently bad, if people want different. But I wouldn't say that if you liked 4 that it is definitely worth playing 76.
      - ido 4y ago
        So you got the same experience us fans of 1 & 2 got when trying 3/NV/4 ;) Honestly I no longer resent the Bethesda games but for whatever reason despite replaying 1 & 2 multiple times (including in recent years) I just can’t get into the 3d ones. NV was the closest but it still didn’t manage to grab my attention for more than a weekend. 3, 4 & (via gamepass) 76 didn’t even get that far (a couple of hours each).
        4y ago
waltbosz 4y ago
I have a children's book of illustrated story versions of Shakespeare's plays. After seeing how much my kids enjoyed the book, and how much they enjoy watching Minecraft role play videos on youtube, I wondered if there would be a market for videos of Shakespeare plays performed in Minecraft. But, I suspect it would be hard to get traction. Minecraft youtube is a flooded market, and the popular channels are often really lazy with their content. They just churn out improvised drivel featuring other media properties that kids recognize.
luxuryballs 4y ago
In case anyone hasn’t played it the original 1997 Fallout is still the best one, you can snag it on GOG, I believe it runs on DOSBox.
- arp242 4y ago
  It's the Windows version; you can run it on Linux with Wine though. I'm not sure there ever was a DOS version of Fallout. IMHO Fallout 2 was a lot better; it's a lot larger and has a lot more story to it. Neither game has aged especially well though. The UI in particular is awkward. Underrail is a pretty good "modern Fallout", although it also shares some of the general problems (e.g. too much reliance on randomness, can be unfairly hard unless you already know the game well, bit of a walking simulator at times).
  - WA 4y ago
    I liked Fallout Tactics a lot.
  - mdp2021 4y ago
    > aged especially well ... The UI in particular is awkward Both views extremely subjective. Some judge the '97 and '98 as "excellence" and Vegas as "excellence bound to compromise with the times". And still dream of a proper sequel to the original (same line, style and features). Oh by the way: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/b0/ff/a4b0ff508d5e7fda4a6a9ab591e39449.png https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/b0/ff/a4b0ff508d5e7fda4a6a...
    - postexitus 4y ago
      where is the screenshot from?
      - luxuryballs 4y ago
        the original Fallout series
hiidrew 4y ago
Related and mentioned in the article - Station Eleven is a pretty good show. I have to admit though, the Shakespeare stuff was kind of lost on me but really enjoyed the dystopian surviving the virus scenes.

Fallout has been a great game for those wanting to invest heavily in the role-playing aspect of a game. Fallout 76 and its groups are an example of how the internet can be fantastic. IGN released a good video on some of the players of Fallout 76, including the Wasteland Theatre Company featured in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0wccxcmrlA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0wccxcmrlA

orbital-decay 4y ago
Paradoxically, this mostly happens because Fallout 76 doesn't have much to offer after finishing the story, so players found other ways to amuse themselves than perpetual grinding in a glorified slot machine.
- xen2xen1 4y ago
  Ha. I'm starting a chain store of vendors near train stations (run 6 copies of the game and sell stuff to other players) for pretty much that reason.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
LegitShady 4y ago
The game is overmonetized trash, and the fallout game doesn't seem to add anything at all to the theater company's performance. It might as well be second life or vrchat or any of a million other games that aren't abusive microtransaction garbage. Fallout 76 was a real turning point from bethesda, where they went from inept buggy RPGs to actively evil over monetization on a game that should never have been released in that state.
- orbital-decay 4y ago
  Bethesda is the company that invented microtransactions (horse armor in TES IV Oblivion) and coined the term "DLC" if I'm not mistaken, so I'm not sure if that was that different from what they were doing before.
  - technothrasher 4y ago
    I thought it was Microsoft that basically invented microtransactions for their Xbox Live Marketplace, and encouraged developers to utilize the model. But you can go all the way back to the 1980's with Atari's GameLine to see the very first "download a game for $1" type of digital transactions. As to who coined the term DLC, could have been Bethesda, I don't know that one.
  - LegitShady 4y ago
    play fallout 4 and then 76 and tell me which is more overmonetized. Even better if you can somehow play the launch fallout 76 before they started taking back their "game design decisions" that removed NPCs and the entire story was told through reading and tapes. Don't forget your premium fallout 76 monthly subscription.
    - ehnto 4y ago
      Two very different game types, F76 was not a sequel to F4, and it was not even a spin off like Fallout New Vegas. It is a forever game/Game as a Service/ Always Online game. They were super duper clear about it all too. All good if you don't like it but you are spinning tales if you act like they put microtransactions into a singleplayer game.
      - LegitShady 4y ago
        I never said it was a sequel, I said one is overmonetized garbage, and it isn't free to play overmonetized garbage either - it was a full price game at launch. A full price fallout full of microtransactions, now with a premium monthly membership, etc. that it isn't a sequel isn't relevant.
footlose_3815 4y ago
That whole video watched like an ad, it made me sick.

beardog 4y ago

Is this the metaverse?

ByThyGrace 4y ago
Or perhaps a covert Fallout 76 ad?

Barrin92 4y ago

That's fantastic. Reminded me immediately of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven as well. During the pandemic I spent a fair amount of time with VRChat and the platform has a lot of theatre or performance art related people on it as well. There seems to be an increasing overlap between immersive online games and the arts.

smolder 4y ago

I wondered if the article would make mention of the parallels to Station Eleven. Neat. It's always nice to see players create their own game or story on top of what they're given. I'm reminded of a RP focused telnet MUD I played in the dialup days. There was a sort of roleplay credit system where you'd earn points from other players for contributing to the overall story and atmosphere. You'd get prizes from the admins such as custom content (sort of the textual equivalent of cosmetics in graphical games) after earning enough points.

komali2 4y ago
That's a really awesome idea, I was just thinking coming into the thread that it'd be cool if there was a way to actually motivate players to do this more, and frankly, "play the game" less. The most fun I ever had in multiplayer games was when things went against the game itself. Funny interactions with reps in WoW, working with the enemy faction in WoW to ensure that literally nobody is allowed to leave a given town of either faction because, why not? Walking around CS source maps and just speculating about wtf the maps actually were, like, is de_dust2... just... a road in some town? Anyway I'd love to hear about more games with these kinds of interactions. According to what I see on youtube, the final fantasy MMO seems to have this kind of things in droves. I wanted to explore it but I found the actual gameplay to be mind numbingly grindy and was turned off by that, plus lots of people telling me it sucks until level cap.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- KVFinn 4y ago
  There's a huge community of roleplaying GTA 5 custom servers. Some take it pretty seriously and have really talented actors/performers.

Aaronstotle 4y ago

This is the first time I've read anything positive relating to Fallout 76

tnel77 4y ago
It breaks my heart thinking about Fallout 76. It’s just so bad and it seems like everyone I talk to has the same response. Who is playing this game?
- beardog 4y ago
  It improved since launch (much less bugs, NPCs added, less PvP focus). I liked the story and exploring the world but I find the combat to be too grindy compared to 3/4/New Vegas. I also don't like there is no way from the UI to pick a server or make free community servers. However I would say if you liked fallout 4 then current 76 is worth it on sale especially if you have a friend to join.
  - technothrasher 4y ago
    I played hundreds and hundreds of hours of 3, NV, and 4. Multiple play-throughs of each, and then lots of screwing around with mods. I played 76 for about two hours and gave up. It's just not the same. I guess that's not inherently bad, if people want different. But I wouldn't say that if you liked 4 that it is definitely worth playing 76.
    - ido 4y ago
      So you got the same experience us fans of 1 & 2 got when trying 3/NV/4 ;) Honestly I no longer resent the Bethesda games but for whatever reason despite replaying 1 & 2 multiple times (including in recent years) I just can’t get into the 3d ones. NV was the closest but it still didn’t manage to grab my attention for more than a weekend. 3, 4 & (via gamepass) 76 didn’t even get that far (a couple of hours each).
      - 4y ago

waltbosz 4y ago

I have a children's book of illustrated story versions of Shakespeare's plays. After seeing how much my kids enjoyed the book, and how much they enjoy watching Minecraft role play videos on youtube, I wondered if there would be a market for videos of Shakespeare plays performed in Minecraft. But, I suspect it would be hard to get traction. Minecraft youtube is a flooded market, and the popular channels are often really lazy with their content. They just churn out improvised drivel featuring other media properties that kids recognize.

luxuryballs 4y ago

In case anyone hasn’t played it the original 1997 Fallout is still the best one, you can snag it on GOG, I believe it runs on DOSBox.

arp242 4y ago
It's the Windows version; you can run it on Linux with Wine though. I'm not sure there ever was a DOS version of Fallout. IMHO Fallout 2 was a lot better; it's a lot larger and has a lot more story to it. Neither game has aged especially well though. The UI in particular is awkward. Underrail is a pretty good "modern Fallout", although it also shares some of the general problems (e.g. too much reliance on randomness, can be unfairly hard unless you already know the game well, bit of a walking simulator at times).
- WA 4y ago
  I liked Fallout Tactics a lot.
- mdp2021 4y ago
  > aged especially well ... The UI in particular is awkward Both views extremely subjective. Some judge the '97 and '98 as "excellence" and Vegas as "excellence bound to compromise with the times". And still dream of a proper sequel to the original (same line, style and features). Oh by the way: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/b0/ff/a4b0ff508d5e7fda4a6a9ab591e39449.png https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/b0/ff/a4b0ff508d5e7fda4a6a...
  - postexitus 4y ago
    where is the screenshot from?
    - luxuryballs 4y ago
      the original Fallout series

hiidrew 4y ago

Related and mentioned in the article - Station Eleven is a pretty good show. I have to admit though, the Shakespeare stuff was kind of lost on me but really enjoyed the dystopian surviving the virus scenes.