view from the present

an extended meditation on presence (we also have chickens)

i've forgotten how to play Fallout 4 normally

One of my students recently got into Fallout 4 (thanks, Prime), and they are talking my ear off about the game. It's actually fun to listen to. I don't play a lot of video games; instead I tend to find a game I like and play it to death. Break the hell out of it. Learn so much lore I qualify as Hopeless.

In short, I have forgotten how to play Fallout 4 normally - a thing I had to admit to my student, who yesterday was grilling me on my preferred perks and weapons.

My sweet summer child. You play Fallout 4 thinking about how you're going to beat the game. When I start a new playthrough, I do it with one particular scene in mind.

SPOILERS-------------

At the end of the Battle of Bunker Hill (no matter how you play it), you meet Father on the roof of CIT. Among other things Father says during the conversation, he admits that he let you (the player character) out of the vault "because I wanted to see what you'd do."

END SPOILERS-----------------------

I play Fallout 4 with "I wanted to see what you'd do" in mind, every single time.

So when normal people start a new build, they're thinking about things like melee vs ranged attacks, stealth vs tank, and so on. When I do it, it's with plans like

(yes these are all in save files I actually have)

• filling Jamaica Plain with mannequins
• building a network of settlements solely to support "Live Nude Ghouls," my OC (original corporation) of franchised Wasteland speakeasies
• dropping so much scavenged junk on Spectacle Island that the game crashes whenever I fast travel there
• installing artillery at every settlement within striking distance of the Prydwen...and using it (the results were disappointing)
• refusing to leave Sanctuary until I have made a million caps
• refusing to leave Sanctuary for at least one in-game year
• doing every possible side quest before even starting the main quest line
• doing the main quest line before doing even one side quest
• moving to Far Harbor as fast as possible and never returning to the Commonwealth (or talking to Kasumi)
• turning the Minutemen into my personal army of leftist comrades, complete with pro-Soviet propaganda neon signs in every settlement
• filling Boston Airport with ghoul settlers, Hancock, Curie, Codsworth, Nick Valentine, and Strong, and a giant neon sign that says "GET FUCKED ARTHUR"
• promoting myself to Vice President of Vault-Tec's "See It, Scrap It" program, wherein I enter occupied settlements, scrap everything in sight, and assign each settler one sleeping bag, one chair, and one mutfruit tree, whether they want them or not
• factory farming the Wasteland: water farm at Taffington Boathouse, melons at Oberland Station, and so on
• slowly destroying Vault 88 by building things and deleting them
• naming a fire extinguisher "Ethel" and carrying her around the Wasteland, brutally murdering anyone or anything that causes me to drop Ethel (ETHEL NOO!)
• Stabitha: playing the entire game with switchblade only
• Punchnelope: playing the entire game unarmed
• Eleapzabeth: spawned in the Freefall Armor at the start of the game and set my jump height to 10x normal; no weapons, only leaping away
• Taking the Brotherhood to Its Logical Conclusion: I kill everything that's not human but let the humans live no matter how horrible they are (Kellogg has too much hardware to count so he can die so I can get on the Prydwen)
• Taking the Railroad to Its Logical Conclusion: I rescue toasters, hot plates, and other electronics, give them names, and set them free on sanctuary farms at various settlements (toasters always get Outpost Zimonja, because duh). Settlers get replaced with robots.
• Taking the Institute to Its Logical Conclusion: I kill everything that's not the Institute and set up farms run by robots
• Taking the Minutemen to Their Logical Conclusion: see "refusing to leave Sanctuary"
• Graygarden/Finch Farm, but everything's on the overpass and there are no stairs up there, just a fast travel target (settlers are...fine with this for some reason?)

I have no idea how to play video games normally. Blame my mother. If I'd been allowed to have an Atari or NES as a kid, this never would have happened.

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