Forum Overview :: Fallout III
 
On the subject of the Brotherhood by Jerry Whorebach 01/13/2010, 5:56am PST
Fat White Lump, Lead Designer of Fallout 3 wrote:

How, exactly, does one worship technology?

Is it as simple as praying to a golden, robotic calf? Perhaps “god” is recognized as some kind of sentient artificial intelligence who demands subservience in exchange for feats and favors?

Or maybe, just maybe, the human race has already answered this question: technology is worshipped, simply and plainly, through obsession and attainment. We are a people dominated by technology, from our electrically-powered cities right down to our scientifically engineered anti-depressant medications. And every Sunday mass we miss to stay home and watch football on our HDTVs is further proof that now, more than ever, technology is the deity we hold most dear.

Now imagine all of that compulsion, all of that addiction we as an entire race share, and encapsulate it into one group of people. Imagine the obsession and fervor, the unending need for technological superiority, and the ultimate futility of such a goal.

Imagine, if you will, the Brotherhood of Steel.


The Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 1 did not worship technology as an abstract concept. They worshiped the specific technological devices that allowed them to survive as everyone around them died - items like power armor, and energy weapons. Had they not spent the last seventy years painstakingly cleaning, maintaining, and yes, even worshiping their equipment, those devices would no longer exist. And neither would they.

Everyone remembers the gun prayer from Full Metal Jacket: "This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine. Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless." Imagine if those were the last rifles in the world. What kind of culture might grow up around them? Forget "leave no man behind", how about "leave no rifle behind"? They say there are no athiests in foxholes, and what was the Brotherhood bunker if not one big foxhole?

The Brotherhood's "addiction" to technology wasn't like an addiction to narcotics, it was more like an addiction to food. But that's not how it's portrayed in Fallout 3. In Fallout 3, the Brotherhood is as quick to abandon their fallen comrades as any other group, power armor and all. Imagine the time and effort devoted to keeping just one of those holy relics functioning for the last two hundred years. Now imagine leaving it on the ground without a second thought, to go chase fleeing mutants. Like everything else in Fallout 3, it doesn't make a goddamn bit of sense.

Fat White Lump, Lead Designer of Fallout 3 wrote:

In Fallout 3, the Brotherhood of Steel is one of the most important and influential factions you’ll encounter. And while it’s true they are a military organization, the Brotherhood’s values and command structure are actually more representative of a medieval knightly order. Like the Templars of old, in their own eyes, the members of the Brotherhood of Steel are pure, they are just – they are truly human in a world filled with both physical and moral corruption.

But it is the worship of technology that truly defines and drives them. For a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin, Power Armor is his plate mail, a powered Super Sledge his warhammer. A non-combatant Scribe is more scientist than scholar, utilizing computers as a monk in the Middle Ages would a quill and ink.

It’s not enough for the Brotherhood of Steel’s members to use whatever high-tech gadgetry they’ve acquired, though. The organization’s entire existence is predicated on the acquisition of technology. Whatever they’ve got is never enough. Their best equipment? It could be better. Even if this endless search for high-tech toys means keeping the good stuff out of the hands of others who could really benefit from it, well, that’s okay with the Brotherhood of Steel.


That last sentence really cuts to the heart of what's wrong with Bethesda's Fallout 3, which is that it's a sequel to Fallout. Fallout presented a world where humanity was dead or dying, where people and organizations were to be laughed at or pitied - not respected or feared. But Fallout also had a happy ending. It wasn't the only ending, but it was the one the sequels acknowledged. So where Fallout was free to show doomed societies clinging to life on a dead world, the sequels are forced to manufacture reasons why humanity still hasn't pulled itself up by its bootstraps, despite the Vault Dweller giving everyone a second shot at utopia. So they come up with irrational prejudices, and obsessive compulsions, and a wasteland where life is more than mere survival. In effect, they have created the first post-Mr. Belvedere post-apocalypse.



Also, they pretty much just ripped off the Space Marines from Warhammer 40,000 :(
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There sure are a lot of scorpions in D.C. o_O by Jerry Whorebach 01/13/2010, 4:37am PST NEW
    There still isn't a mod that makes power armor huge? NT by Worm 01/13/2010, 5:02am PST NEW
        I wouldn't know, I'm playing the 360 GOTY version LIKE A SAP. by Jerry Whorebach 01/13/2010, 6:03am PST NEW
            Now you fucked up (repeat etc). NT by Jhoh Creexul (custom software) 01/13/2010, 6:05am PST NEW
            how are all those user made mods and free dlcs treating you? NT by irony 01/13/2010, 6:09am PST NEW
                THEY AIN'T by Jhoh Creexul (custom software) 01/13/2010, 6:13am PST NEW
                    I have the cheapest computer I could get the same day my old one broke. by Jerry Whorebach 01/13/2010, 6:33am PST NEW
                        You're missing out on mods, SUCKA NT by Jhoh Creexul (custom software) 01/13/2010, 7:17am PST NEW
                free dlcs... you mean stolen dlcs. NT by anything is free if you steal it. 01/13/2010, 11:55am PST NEW
                    Thanks for spelling it out (for yourself). NT by Jhoh Creexul (custom software) 01/13/2010, 11:57am PST NEW
            gruman NT by gruman 01/13/2010, 6:12am PST NEW
    On the subject of the Brotherhood by Jerry Whorebach 01/13/2010, 5:56am PST NEW
        In a world with Avatar and WOWcrap, I really can't complain about this. by laudablepuss 01/13/2010, 9:50am PST NEW
            It's probably in the 90th percentile of games. Higher, if you only count RPGs. NT by Jerry Whorebach 01/13/2010, 11:00am PST NEW
                Re: It's probably in the 90th percentile of games. Higher, if you only count RPG by Ice Cream Jonsey 01/13/2010, 11:59am PST NEW
        By the Emperor! Jerry has fallen to the gods of chaos! NT by Brotherhood Marine 01/13/2010, 12:25pm PST NEW
    Thanks for posting this, Jerry. Finally someone agrees with us. NT by No Mutants Allowed 01/13/2010, 10:54am PST NEW
        I wish I could read your site without throwing up in my mouth :( by Jerry Whorebach 01/13/2010, 11:28am PST NEW
    Re: There sure are a lot of scorpions in D.C. o_O by J.E. Sawyer 01/13/2010, 1:11pm PST NEW
        Forget game design, Sawyer's real talent has always been making excuses. by Jerry Whorebach 01/13/2010, 2:32pm PST NEW
            Our marketing department has informed me there's no money in placating shut-ins by J.E. Sawyer 01/13/2010, 2:34pm PST NEW
                That's not what Troika believed! NT by Jerry Whorebach 01/13/2010, 2:40pm PST NEW
                    troika's recipe for success NT by irony 01/13/2010, 5:56pm PST NEW
            That power armor looks pretty cool. ^_^ NT by Jhoh Creexul (custom software) 01/13/2010, 2:44pm PST NEW
            Is that a real undoctored screenshot? by laudablepuss 01/13/2010, 3:50pm PST NEW
                It's from the uncompleted Van Buren demo. Don't read too much into it. NT by Fortinbras 01/13/2010, 3:54pm PST NEW
                Oh laudablepuss don't ever change (not that you need the suggestion). NT by Jhoh Creexul (custom software) 01/13/2010, 6:18pm PST NEW
                    what? NT by laudablepuss 01/13/2010, 6:37pm PST NEW
                Re: Is that a real undoctored screenshot? by laudablepuss 01/13/2010, 8:07pm PST NEW
 
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