What originally drew me in to Fallout 3, other than the promise of an amazing story and intuitive combat, is the Capital Wasteland, its ruins, and the people who inhabit them. Over time, the Capital Wasteland becomes a character in itself. You can begin to feel the hopelessness that surrounds the survivors of the war that left the Earth in ruins. The wasteland is a constant reminder of the burden placed on these survivors, reminding them that they must be the ones to rebuild humanity. And just as important as the wasteland, are the remnants of building and culture that still populate it like a ghost. Now, for those of you who may be unaware of the basic story of the Fallout series, it goes a bit like this. In the 1950's, after a period of high tension between the United States and China, nuclear fallout occurs. The capitol of the United States, along with the outlying area, and even including far off major cities, become devastated, mere shells of their former selves. Buildings are skeletal shells of their former selves, and are rarely even standing anymore.


Welcome home, son.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects about Fallout 3 was the affect of nuclear fallout on culture and society. If you've ever spent a brief amount of time playing Fallout 3, you should know what I mean. The music, clothing, diction, and more are all straight out of the 1950's. Fallout 3 takes place in 2277 (according to the Fallout wiki located at fallout.wikia.com). That's about 300 years of difference, and yet half of the culture and society that is represented and shown in Fallout 3 prefers to cling to the previously established culture of the 1950's. Survivors of this man-made Hell roam the wasteland as an age of lawlessness and a new era of history begins. Raiders, Slavers, and others of their type have no problem adjusting to this new world. In fact, they seem to prefer it. Due to the lack of law being enforced in a post apocalyptic environment (with the exception of people such as Lucas Simms, who is interesting enough to write another full length entry on), not only is the possibility of living out a person’s sick fantasy now a slight bit more possible. However, there are those that do not wish to move on.

This is what absolutely confuses me. Why does Three Dog continue to play music from the 1950's from artists like Billie Holiday, or play songs like "Butcher Pete" (other than the fact that Three Dog likes to "chop dat meat")? Shouldn't both society and culture have evolved at least somewhat in those 300 years? Shouldn't new buildings have been built, other than the shantytowns and scrap metal huts? For months of playing this game, I couldn't find the answer to these questions. For the life of me, I couldn't understand why the people couldn't have rebuilt.



Then, it hit me. It hit me so hard; it made me feel almost stupid for not seeing it earlier. The people, the "wastelanders", are scared out of their minds. They've been placed into a world where everything was being done by machine. Many of them have no way of learning other than by working with what little they have. Their culture hasn't evolved in 300 years because, to be honest, it's all they have left. When the bombs came and destroyed the buildings and the landscape, it destroyed records of history, along with most knowledge that was written down. The only real information lays scattered throughout the wasteland in small handbooks that the player finds, or whatever information that may have been stored on terminals. So they cling to the past. They cling to whatever has already been established, because I can imagine it's too damn hard to move on. So, in a way, they stop a bit of culture from advancing, so they can stop something from leaving them behind on a new, defiled Earth.


Probably too unintelligent to be scared of anything other than a fly.