Fallout: New Vegas - pt 2 Good Morning Goodsprings!

Cut-scene over, I wake up in Doc Mitchell's. Assuming you've played the game, you know the scenario. I'm a courier that has been left for dead in a ditch and saved by an over-friendly robot named Victor, then brought from the brink of death by Dr Mitchell. I couldn't help but be grateful to this man. Not only did he save my life but he did it for free. In this game accessing free medical care is extremely hard, considering how easy it is to get seriously hurt. On top of this uncharacteristically socialistic move, I can take pretty much anything from his house without losing karma. Despite my wanting to be a somewhat 'moral' anarchist character, my methods of getting through these games involve lots of sneak and stealth skills, and stealing and lock picking, so I tend to start out my games in the evil and work my way to heaven as I earn my own means of survival. I chose skill and attribute points to accommodate this, as well as high intelligence and science. I will try to up my speech also, as that enables me to get the endings I want far easier. Now, unlike in Fallout 3 (F3) in New Vegas (NV) my choices for personality and skills are much more limited. I can only pick a few things, which raise significantly at the expense of other things. Personally I prefer being well-rounded over specialised in many ways, but I understand why many RP'ers enjoy this, so that every character they create has a slightly different experience in this world. When it came to perks, I was happy to see an option to charm the same sex as well as the opposite sex. A silly afterthought it may be, but it's amazing what a small shoutout to the LGBTQ gaming community from the games themselves can do to make people feel more at home in the wider gaming community. In somewhere like the US, which has a lot of open and deep-rooted homophobia, I would imagine that this little line in the sand to say "hey, we know you're out there, and we're on your side" can make a world of difference to someone feeling alone and rejected. The character creation was near exactly the same as on F3, which was a bit boring, but there was nothing wrong with it, I suppose. It defaults you to a caucasian male rather than random (meh) and makes you pick between male and female. But other than that it gives you plenty of options on gender presentation. At least as a female character. You don't have to worry too much about sexualisation at this point, because unless you're using a mod, your character will look worn, ragged and plain. I quite like that, honestly. I don't know if it's trying to be realistic, or if these games prefer spending time on pretty environments over pretty characters, but I'm fine with it. All player characters have the same of two body shapes, depending on sex. My Seregon is a pale skinned female character with a purple boy's cut, if you must know.

So I step out of the house into a pretty big town. The houses I break into don't have much personality or individuality but there's a good atmosphere in the town itself. I talk to the locals about the robot and my attack, fairly early on coming across a woman names "Sunny Smiles. Cute name. Anyways, it's her job to teach me how to fight by shooting geckos around town. Apparently this is her occupation and she goes out regularly on her own with little trouble, despite super speed and fast bites. Unfortunately for her though, because she is in the beginner arena, as it were, it doesn't seem like her HP and shooting power are up to much. Presumably the latter is to give me a chance, and the former is in case I want to make an easy kill for bad karma. Either way, her fighting skills apparently do not compliment my 'step back, hide, and snipe from a distance' techniques, as she had got herself killed before I'd made 4 hits. Did I mention Fallout is a fairly hard game? When you are level 1, the killable NPCs don't slide down to level 1 to match you. I started F3 quite a few times before getting into it enough to be bothered to venture outside of Megaton because a Molerat could kill me easily and even a Radroach took 7 or so shots to finish off. Once you level up it's mostly fine, but it is a challenge till you break, say, level 15. 1-3 might be okay for people who love rushing in to fight, but me? It took me ages before I didn't hide from giant spiders and run the fuck away from the dragons in Skyrim!

Not Smiling any more =(

Most the characters here aside from the robot aren't hugely interesting. There are 2 main women. Well, 1 now. They're written okay. Ms Smiles is a slight cliche young-peppy-girl-with-a-gun, crossed with our tutorial leader in Red Dead Redemption. Actually I think there's quite a few times where the person to show you the ropes is female, usually in games with male leads. They act sort of like hardcore hosts for safety information tapes. F3 and NV in general are decent with race and gender. There are a whole lot of NPCs and they come in a wide range of colours, fairly realistically represented for the United States. I wouldn't say it doesn't fall into any traps and cliches here, particularly with gender, but I get the impression that a lot of the time it is randomly chosen what race a character will be, and sometimes gender too. This can be great in a lot of ways because it avoids a lot of issues around stereotyping, but it can lead to characters occasionally seeming a bit bland or 2D without their lives or personality being affected by their culture or gendered upbringing. From playing F3 or Skyrim, I could assume that there just isn't really gender oppression in this world, but I'm very well aware that this game is going to confront me with highly misogynistic characters and societies, so it would be interesting to see the effects. A lot of history has been lost in the Wastelands of Fallout over the years, and many people have been killed, groups scattered, new 'tribes' reformed,  (though I'm not a fan of them being called tribes and imitating things like Native American names etc) new (old) types of slavery so it's perfectly possible that culture, race, and a large chunk of racism has also been nuked out, and people have found other things, like the persecution of ghouls, to rally around instead.

So finally I come across Ringo, the dude who is hiding from the Powder Gangers. I... totally put off this quest until later. I spoke before how I feel about attacking a largely black former chain gang, especially as when I come across them, they aren't hostile to me. Course, I pretty much blow myself up on mines going near them, of which them seem wholly unconcerned, but that's beside the point! At this stage of playing at least, it seems good form not to get too involved. If they step up in trying to seize territory or I see them attacking somebody unprovoked then I'll step in. For now this guy is safe and the town is calm. I want to learn more about them and see if any other options are open to me. I do minor tasks like checking out the school house and fixing radios. There are a few things interesting around, like graveyards which give me an option to unbury the dead, apparently, but mostly not. I spent quite a while wandering in one direction until I would get killed by a bunch of fairly hard giant scorpions and motherfucking deathclaws. Like I say, not a low-level friendly game. Eventually I manage to find an outpost called Sloan, where I am able to get my vegan-brain some comfort by patching up a wounded but friendly molerat, called Snuffles. I can even have a one way conversation with the ugly sweetheart. Apparently I can turn her hostile with my NCR reputation, but I plan to keep it fairly neutral. Not far from this post were angry deathclaws, as expected. I died after it chased me. I thought if I hid behind the person who had apparently been keeping them at bay all this time, he would be able to save us, but apparently Sunny Smiles' curse lived on in this bloke too, and snuffles and himself went down with me. But not to worry about Snuffles, coz saves and respawning are awesome, awesome things.

Find me something cuter in this game. It's a challenge

So, I'm going to leave it here for this post. In the next, I'll be meeting the main two factions. Sorry there wasn't a huge scope for analysis in this section, but I'm writing a part of the game I already played. Hopefully when I speed up I will notice more things just as I'm going along.

Later Days!

I need an edgy Anarchist sign off. Ideas in comments

Posts

Intro

pt1
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pt4

Fallout: New Vegas - pt 1

Factions and Planning

I plan to play this with very specific goals in mind, which involve me somewhat creating spoilers for myself and looking up the factions and some of the outcomes in advance. A few of the choices I will make might not have been the choices I'd have made had I not known the outcome of my actions.

So here are the impressions I got from the main factions. I won't tell you my intentions of what to do with them until I get to that part in my gaming experience. There is a good chance I will fail to do everything I want (speech checks etc) in which case I will let you know what I had planned, and how my failure affected my experience.

This is a really long post which will involved spoilers about the choices I make, so I will understand if you skip it.

My Character's Aims as an Anarchist

My character (Seregon) would like to be an Anarchist Communist, but in a capitalist wasteland she will have to do her best in Libertarianism and Socialism, possibly as separate entities. She will struggle against the ruling class wherever possible. She should avoid stealing from and fighting with her own class wherever possible, (and offer help and aid when asked) but not think twice about stealing from the majority of what remains of an upper class. She will try to convince them around to her way of thinking, but not hesitate to wipe them out should it make tactical sense. She is an anti fascist. Whilst she may decide to give bigots a chance or knock them straight out, any out-and-out fascists can burn on sight. This is sad in some ways, given that many of the fascist soldiers in this game are victims of slavery, ethnic cleansing and brainwashing by the core members, but it must be done. Seregon will avoid imperialism and groups which seek dominance particularly over other tribes and cultures. She may avoid engaging with military struggles and have a hostile relationship towards those who see themselves as police, armies, sheriffs or rangers, depending on the situation. She will live and let live factions she does not believe in but do not heavily oppress their own people or others. She will aim for racial harmony, even from Super Mutants and Night Kin where possible, and will act against Ghoul-haters. She is a feminist, anti trafficking and slavery, but in favour of sex workers choosing their own line of work. She is pro-drug legalisation, but against those who take advantage of addictions. She will eat vegan and not attack animals which are not attacking her. Above all, she will avoid the reformation of one large state.

List of Factions

I am using the Fallout Wikia as a basis for figuring out potential allies and enemies. Have a look at the links if you wish, for a fuller account of these groups

Major factions

The following factions are the three major players in Fallout: New Vegas. During the course of the game, there will be an option to side with one of them or to go independent, to the expense of relations with the other major factions.

• New California Republic
• Caesar's Legion
• Robert House
• Yes Man (Independent New Vegas)

Minor factions

The following factions can be recruited as allies (of you and the major faction one allies with, if any.)

• Boomers
• Brotherhood of Steel
• Followers of the Apocalypse
• Great Khans
• Enclave Remnants

The Strip factions

In addition to the Brotherhood of Steel and the Great Khans, the following are parties one can choose to destroy or spare if one chooses to go it alone instead of siding with one of the three major factions. All three of these factions run casinos on The Strip.

• Chairmen
• Omertas
• White Glove Society

Other factions

• Merchant companies
  • Crimson Caravan
  • Van Graffs
  • Gun Runners
  • Happy Trails Caravan Company 
• Raider Gangs
  • Fiends
  • Jackals
  • Vipers
  • Scorpions
• Towns
  • Goodsprings
  • Freeside
  • The Strip
  • Novac
  • Jacobstown
  • Primm
• Others
• Bright Brotherhood
• State of Utobitha
• Kings
• New Canaanites 
• Powder Gangers
• Westside Militia
• Sorrows 
• Dead Horses 
• White Legs 
• The Think Tank 
• Twisted Hairs 

Analysis of the Groups from A-Fem Perspective

Major Factions

It goes without saying that Caeser's Legion will be my main enemies in this game. Open militaristic fascists who believe in absolute authority and discipline, and survival of the fittest, who imperialistically take over other tribes and cultures and commit acts of genocide to the ethnicity through killing, brainwashing and slavery. They execute homosexual people, and have separate misogynistic roles for men and women. Interestingly most people view Romans as one of the positive modernising tribes, but Caeser's Legion, based on ancient Rome, puts in in a context which puts him alongside Franco, Mussolini and Hitler. They are, however, anti-consumerist, and dislike value of character being decided upon by birth and wealth and greed. This is what leads them away from traditional democracy. They also have a reputation for having the safest and stable environments, so I will need to plan for alternatives which best fill that gap.

As for the NCR, obviously I am against a new government forming and restoring the old world of parliamentary failure. However, many within this group mean well and value democracy for understandable reasons, so I would if possible prefer to lead their downfall without open hostility and instead create something better. They have egalitarian aims and show no hostility towards women or ghouls, and want to "abolish" *cough* slavery. They allow religion, but don't allow religion into politics. Much like the Legion, NCR is creating a feeling of stability under one larger body of people. It is also trying to establish electricity and water. I am hoping I will have a chance to do these things without creating a state, rather than leading to "anarchy" as the media calls it. The NCR is in some ways doing a good thing in protecting the trader caravans, but this is done in exchange for taxation. On a wider scale, this essentially means businesses and those with money, are who the military forces are paid to protect. We again will have the police protecting capitalist interests from the people. They are known to be swayed by private financial and ogliarchal interests. This also encourages corporatism. Also, whilst the punishments for small crimes are generally liberal, larger crimes are punishable by death, and working in forced labour camps, discussed in the earlier post, and things you can be arrested for include gambling, drugs and drinking sex work, and owning guns (in a dangerous wasteland). Essentially they are what people fear about social liberal democrats, at the same time as mirroring the far right. Whilst I would pick them over Caeser's Legion in a heartbeat, I am rather glad this game does not force me to choose between the two.

MR House is essentially a capitalistic figure. Whilst he represents independence in some ways and does not make huge demand for authority over those under this reign, the things he allows are questionable. Everything seems to have been done for the sake of a dream of his. He is a sympathetic character from what I can see, and nice towards the player character, however he is not a creature of interest towards libertarian socialism. I have no specific interest as of yet to wipe him out, but I would were it tactical. I hope towards coming to some other arrangement, but unlike the NCR, House is a one-man show. The members of his society all running businesses, many of which are shady in themselves, and preying upon addiction for the sake of money, etc.

I believe the ending I want involves a robot called Yes Man. It feels counter intuitive having somebody under my full control, but this is the only way to strive for an Independent New Vegas. "This is going to be great! I'm going to help you accomplish so much, whether I want to or not!" Independence of course, does not necessarily mean less authoritarian and more anarchistic however. It simply means that the power is devolved, leaving more chance for the political power to be grass roots. It's hard to say whether New Vegas is better off "independent" under House, or the robots. Whilst this is the obvious choice for anarchists, it seems fairly undemocratic. The NCR is made up of a huge body of people who support them, and many civilians like the NCR. The installation of the robotic-ruled "independent" Vegas will be created purely because it was the player's choice, rather than the will of the people in any form. Either way, the law is kept by Securitrons. Who gets to create these laws is another matter. You may delete all securitrons' personalities other than Yes Man's. I am not sure how sentient these personalities were or their level of intelligence. If you do not do this, however, there will be "chaos". Independent New Vegas has been called the "Anarchist Ending" by a few out there, but it seems rather limited. However, as the player only represents one person, so unless Libertarian Communists were one of the major factions, an anarchist revolution is not possible. This ending shows how much can be achieved by a single individual in the wasteland. Let's see if it is more anarchistic when paired with other factions and quests.

Minor Factions

Now, the Followers of the Apocalypse were, as previously mentioned, my main inspiration for this blog. As such, I plan to stick close to them and prioritise their success as much as possible. As well as humanitarian and medical aid, they want to spread education, science and technology. Other groups do this, but they work without hierarchy and on the basis of promoting mutual aid and peace. The quote used "Those in positions of power often regard them as seditious anarchists; though such accusations are not entirely without truth, the organization as a whole has no interest in seizing power."  is kind of funny. Mostly because Anarchists have no interest in seizing power as such. They are my kind of Anarchist. Pacifistic by nature, but being willing to defend themselves and fight inherently bad dominating forces. It is said that they have the technology but lack the resources. If only I could inspire them to a bit of syndicalism. We could occupy some power source and create something. Ah well! From the looks of it, not siding with the NCR could automatically give me a less pleasant ending for FOTA.

Terrifying Anarchists

The Enclave were essentially power-hungry neoliberal patriots, and whilst it doesn't look as though they are out to cause trouble with me, I am not especially bothered about their wellbeing. They might have been useful if I were planning on fighting for the NCR. As I'm likely not - meh to them! I'll leave them be.

I'm viewing the Brotherhood of Steel as somewhere between there and the NCR. They aren't the same as the ones in Fallout 3, who were a split off from the main group. The main group is more insular, quasi religious, and like the split, descended from ex-servicepeople and operated in a way resembling knights. They are basically good people who are looking to restore knowledge to the world, but they are anything but a grassroots organisation, entrusting this knowledge only to themselves to keep safe.

The Boomers are interesting. On the plus side, they are self sufficient, sustainable and eco friendly, and mind their own business and have created their own society. But the outweighing negatives are that they are quick to kill any "savages" they see approaching, being xenophobic and paranoid, and are highly militaristic. Their leader also wields authority over them. It would be the best ending for them for them to integrate and be left alone otherwise. But the Independent Vegas option will make that difficult.

I'm likely to allow the Great Khans to live in peace as they have a decent relationship with FotA. However, they have often acted as raiders and have poor rapport with other groups, and would consider joining Caeser to spite the NCR, so again, I'm not bothered.

Strip Factions

WOW SUCH CHOICE

The White Glove Society is essentially the epitome of the bourgeoisie anarchists hate: privileged, rich supremacist people who believe their lives to be more valuable than that of others, happily exploit those in less fortunate positions and will kill a person just to say they've tried the meat, and for the pleasure of being that human meat, one must meet elitist and eugenic requirements. Only the best! On top of that, they can side with Caeser only.  I'm looking forward to gunning them all down! Though they seem like interesting characters, so I'd like to have a chat to them before going hostile.

The Omertas run Gomorrah, which involves exploitation, forced drug use, and sex slavery. All of which they were doing before they came to reside on the strip. They also have hands working with Caeser. Being "ghoul friendly" is no consolation. There is even evidence of torturous murder for snuff films. If I can do so without turning the victims of sex slavery (these are not willing sex workers) hostile, then I look forward to destroying this misogynistic cesspool and pretty much everybody inside it.

The only strip faction I don't immediately want to kill are the Chairmen, and I am not especially bothered about this "macho posturing" group of suited white men playing business! That certainly takes the Vegas out of the game for me, but at least I can have some guilt-free shooting sprees.

Merchant Companies

Of course support for capitalist ventures is a strange ponderance in the first place. But without a state or sustainable communities and production lines, the merchants represent communication between groups and the way to get provisions from one place to another. Unfortunately the clients pay for more than the trouble of the merchant and trading tit for tat. But the wasteland is the US, and the doctors are all charging. In absence of society it's the only way to afford to use the medical equipment. But still, coming from the UK it's a shock the first time on a game when you are charged for aid.

The caravans are mostly involved in competing with each other in underhand and deadly manners to gain the upper hand, therefore choosing to side with them may not be in my interests. The Van Graffs outright kill their competition and so will be brought down. The Gun Runners on the hand, operate as a collective and specialise in having the best products and in defence rather than attack. This makes them the best of a bad bunch for me. The Happy Hearts Caravan Company don't play a significant role. The Crimson Caravan company may be brought down in a peaceful manner along with the Van Graffs, but I won't necessarily let the latter off the hook.

They should go into graphic design, really.

Raider Gangs

Most raider gangs will be hostile upon seeing me, so I'm not terribly invested. The Fiends are typically violent and apparently drugged up. The few you can engage in conversation will make it clear they side with Caesar if anyone, so no favour from me. The Jackals are cannibalistic and opportunistic, attacking those weaker than themselves. Scorpions have nothing notable about them and will attack the player on sight. So the fates of these three groups are decided already. The exception is the group called the Vipers, who are shamanic stealth killers, with bizarre and curious origins and religious rites, which is far more interesting to me. All the same, another violent gang attacking the player on sight.

Towns

It's a bit strange to characterise all civilians of a town under the same banner, so I'll be brief. It seems like I hate most factions on the strip, and ultimately I won't be fighting for Mr House. Therefore I will not be aiming for positive reputation in that area.  Novac is fairly un-noteworthy. I will try to save it from Caeser etc. I'd like to stay on the nicer side of Goodsprings purely due to it being the first town I encounter, which helps me out. Unfortunately though, that means I will likely scavenge the shit out of it for caps. Not very anarchist of me! Prime basically makes a decision about the Powder Gangers for me. But I won't give that away yet. 

Jacobstown is a fascinating idea, which involves a place in which supermutants and night kin live in peace with humans and ghouls. Whilst no anarchist utopia, I would like the best ending possible for the place. Freeside too, is a happily independent community. It is 'ruled' by the Kings in many ways, but it is also the base for the FotA. Therefore it is of importance to my quest how this place turns out. More about the Kings in a moment.

Reminds me of Liberty from The Tribe series. Anyone?

Others

Okay, moment passed. So the Kings are not ran along anarchistic lines in any way. But they are resisting imperialism by the NCR and Mr House and have set up a decentralised community, which is basically helpful and friendly to others, and are very well liked. The worst thing about them is that they are Elvis. I will be looking to ease tensions between them and the NCR whilst fighting for independent Vegas. In a positive light, it looks like the game will at least let the "Anarchist" ending work out fairly well for the decentralised, independent and sufficient communities, even if it brings chaos outside of them.

The Westside Militia, is in a similar position, growing its own crops in a tight community, and wanting to remain independent, whilst at odds with the NCR over their water supply. The Westside is  known as a co-operative, and is somewhat communistic in nature, with members working hard through poverty for the sake of the common good. They produce enough to sell and keep themselves fed. I would like to protect this group if possible, and join their co-op.

With the Powder Gangers, I don't think I can keep positive reputation, but I think I can avoid outright hostility and give them a not entirely awful ending. I have spoken already about my issues with the Powder Gangers in the first post.

The Bright Followers, whilst probably deluded in their religious beliefs, want only to journey to a place free of prejudice against their kinds. They will be supported in their Journey.

The State of Utobitha is the flip=side to Jacobstown, and tbh testament to the sense of humour in this game. Essentially Tabitha is a night kin running a dictatorship, which is therefore opposed to my anarchist values. However it is in my interest to support communities which keep the race relations positive and violence to a minimum. It appears possible to bring Tabitha down in a peaceful manner and redirect night kin and supermutants towards Jacobstown.

Because anarchy = chaos, right?

There are some other noticeable groups, but they are available through the add-on game. 

Intro
Pt 2
Pt 3
Pt 4