Just buy the IP and make it your own way. I'm content with what they make, as are most players.

It would be funny if Bethesda went under and some really [censored] company like EA bought the rights. I bet you wouldn't be saying the same then would you?

SPECIAL system, perks and lore. Everything else is open to discussion but removing/changing those vastly would break it for me since they are the best in their respective areas.

That it's a superb single-player RPG, stress the RPG

Good story & quests should be an option. And well developed NPCs.

Well, for this game I really want to have each character to feel different through skills, abilities, gender, goals, career, occupation, etc.

Fallout 3 was a huge letdown as each character race ended up exactly meaning nothing other than a template to make them look different. Sure, each race in the real world has very little difference when taken as a whole, yet we all know that we are also so different in values, education, likes and dislikes. These are the things I wish were in the game.

However you asked what I cannot do without. Of course it is a huge, open world!

Personally what I love most about fallout is how the Post apocalypse really isn't THAT bad a place. The game is always showing you people surviving and sometimes thriving in the wasteland, and sometimes it shares with you really heartbreaking stories of people who despite all that was lost to them somehow find the will to go on and make tomorrow a brighter place.

I call it the "Hope springs Eternal factor" and its my favorite thing about the post-apocalypse.

I voted 'other' purely because I can't break it down to just one thing. For me it has to be a large open world, which I can role play properly in (not be railroaded into a husband/wife and father/mother), good character creation and skills (character creation and skills are essentially the same thing for role playing purposes) and probably most importantly is LORE!

The Fallout Universe is so enduring and appealing because of it's rich lore.

Hah, story or writing is not even an option. Figures.

Not to mention there is the most important aspect (although most of it could be summed under writing, which is a rather broad term).

Edit: Here's how I see it:

1. Dialogue - that's not just "number of dialogue options", which is an extremely simplistic way to look at dialogues, but at least we can clearly see why is this poll a thing
2. Characters
3. Story, or more precisely 'stories' (including proper choice & consequence)
4. Lore
5. Believable world that's not defying basics of logic (and other things you could sum up under "maturity")
6. RPG elements like skills, attributes, perks, traits
7. Art (not 'graphics' per se)
8. Exploration
9. Items?
10. Combat / game mechanics
11. Audiovisual presentation
12. ...
13. ...
14. ...
15. ...
16. Character creator (I mean looks)

I voted Other: Most important factor for me is good writing/story-telling. Large open world is second.

"A large open world is what bethesda is well known for". But that's not the central point of fallout. The priority should be story and lore. The precepts of the old games. Bethesda kept the phrase "war never changes" because sounds cool, they don't back it up with good written stories. They make a futuristic '50 themed meaningless world, and that's it, and that's not fallout.

None of these factors mean anything without any other.

Thus it's a tough question. But for me it would be Character Skills and Abilities.

I can't put an answer to that question because it's a sum greater than that of it's parts. While things like a huge, enjoyable open world are certainly a required canvas, without adhering to lore and creating good mechanics to use in that canvas it's a worthless game in terms of context with the series. In short, I think my answer is "Other".

That's a matter of culture, not race.

You make it sound like Beth made numerous Fallout games. They made only one, and the first--and only--attempt is rarely a good indicator of anything.

And it's not a matter of "should be." Since people voting here are the ones who eventually vote with their wallets, it seems Beth's open world is the most important thing for the majority of the players here. If Bethesda suddenly decided to create a story-driven game at the expense of open world, I bet the majority would be unhappy, because it's not what they expect when they buy a Bethesda game(and yes, FO4 is a Bethesda game, hate it or not). Of course I hope BGS manages to have both without sacrificing either the open world or the story. We'll see.

*double post*

I don't get why people choose empty space over deep gameplay... I mean its nice for a few sessions, but ultimately you end up realising just how shallow the experience is.

Well, clearly majority of modern "Fallout fans" have became one because of those TES qualities, nothing else. I think that's very obvious

Well, for me to want to play a game, I want it to be single player, offline, and have character creation and relative freedom to play characters with different personalities. I can accept semi-set protagonists, but the less restrictions the better. I can also be interested in other types of games that allow me some creativity and can be played offline.

However, I don't consider that as defining a Fallout game. So I agree with this:

(except I haven't played any Halo games.)

I'm kind of torn between open world and character skills and abilities, but ended up picking character S&A. While I really like the open world, I think what I like more is to see the affect my chosen S&A have on the game world. I know in previous games some of them seemed like they didn't have an impact on anything. I'm really hoping they've refined the new system so that our SPECIAL, and other choices are very noticeable.

Good story and good combat system.

I chose other, as I would like the hopefully large world to connect with itself, like FNV did. So that when I was pointed in a direction, a couple additional quests were hinted at by the locals, or there was something visually interesting that I had to check out (like the rangers statue in FNV). The only times I felt this occurred naturally in FO3 was with The Replicated Man, Wasteland Survival Guide, You Gotta Shoot Em in the Head, and Tenpenney Tower. FO3 just felt too disconnected. Basically interesting quests in an interesting world, that story (whether side or main) is naturally occurring most of the time.