Im conflicted both side are true in my eyes. Mainly though i just want to see some dude in all white randomly come up to you and try and kill you if your character was black. And if your white he'll ask you if you've seen any blacks.

Mirelurk kings
Wonder why Mirelurks were never in New Vegas and were just replaced with Lakelurks - maybe just regional difference

Thats the most reasonable answer

It could, but that doesn't mean that those racists would be anything more than they are now, which is just a few idiots with sickening ideas. They'd probably be even more shunned from society, or simply just shot on sight since nobody's going to say anything. Just another killing in the wilds of the wasteland.

when you are a small group of people all struggling for a common goal most the time it dont matter cus these things matter most: life, foot, shelter and the future and you use what you got to secure the future.

you would see a lot of mixed people just like many americans are mixed today but hey if your community/vault needed new people most the time they would be happy to get them unless they would rather die out.

I dont see races working for Fallout but being able to make or start with any faction you want has some sort of promise if done right.
Or
Just being able to make your own backstory to your character might be enough.

Well mirelurks and hunters are mutated crabs, crabs don't exist in the mojave region as part of the wildlife.
Kings or Lakelurks on the other hand are mutated turtles so they fit into the Mojave.

I can see the appeal, but I can't see talking animals as a solution to bringing something new to the table. The talking deathclaws, talking sporeplant, "moo, I say" brahmin, talking giant molerats, and chessplaying scorpion were quite enough of that sort for me - and, imo, for the series too.

Well I think the problem with that is that they did too much of it.
Having just one single type of speaking animal (Deathclaws in this case) would be fine.
It's when they overdo it that it becomes absolutely ridiculous.

I think having animals talk at all is pushing it and feels forced in the context of the series. There are ways you could "explain" it, but I just don't see it as something that would fit in or add anything worthwhile without hurting the overall feel at the same time.

I don't feel it would hurt the overall feel at all.
Would be great for exploring racism and bigotry and even the food chain.
Like Intelligent Lakelurks for example, the idea behind it isn't just for kicks and giggles or for teh lulz or teh cool factor, but to explore racial interactions.
Lakelurk meat could be considered a delicacy, and despite them trying to maintain good relations with humans it can be shattered if they find out that a hunting group has been responsible for abducting, killing and selling mirelurks as food.
I see positive things coming from it, exploring new storylines revolving around sentient species.
Not like ghouls or super mutants, that goes into a form of cannibalism.
No I mean that lakelurks and humans/mutants are two different species, and that technically, while sentient, eating an intelligent lakelurk wouldn't be considered cannibalism, but could still be morally wrong.

Same with talking deathclaws.

Fallout is after all about exploring humanity, and a great area to explore would be this kind of racial interaction with a species that isn't human and never were.

Yeah, and that's a good idea. No really, I like the idea of morals and consequences of eating the (animal) species you're trying to interact (and possibly even commerce) with at the same time.

But it's - to me - just not very... Fallout (at all). It's, imo, too much of a fantasy element in a game which still tries to be more "from this world" (so to speak). If the philosophy of humanity and its deficiencies is explored through their interaction with animals and having the animals voice out their concerns in the same language, I think is something that would reach absurd levels of parody. "What does the cattle, or game, think about how it's being treated by humans; and how does it react now that it can speak and think?" It's not even about the species of animals, but the whole general idea. It's much like how the whole feel of Fallout would've changed, like R. Scott Campbell said about the creation and cut down of the "watership down meets ewoks" talking racoons and bunnies (etc) from Fallout 1.

I'd leave it at just human. It would be a long time to write out the different dialoge responses and reactions to your race, and being a super mutant or ghoul as the pc and hero is kinda silly.

Guess we have different ideas on what fits in Fallout then.
I don't think it's fantasy at all to have mutated animals that have become able to speak.
(At least no more so than having hulk's and civilized and uncivilized zombies in the game)
And I think there is a difference between having the S'Lanter and having the Talking Deathclaws or Intelligent Mirelurks.
I never thought in Fallout 2 or Tactics "Man, this is just completely ridiculous and feels way too off and fantasy-like".
I suppose it's about preference, some people absolutely loathe energy weapons for being too "pew pew" or "Halo".
I don't think it's a bad concept though, it was done pretty well in Fallout 2, could be done pretty well again.
I don't want to be able to play as one of them though, not yet anyway.

I thought Kings were further mutated crabs, a step up from Mirelurks
I didn't think there would be crabs in a desert

-- Just read up on Mirelurks and it turns out they are going extinct by the time of Fallout New Vegas / Fallout 4

Wait what? Where? I don't want them to go extinct too.

(starwars noooooo placed) nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

That we appear to have. I just can't see the talking animals fitting with the context (not in large like the deathclaws anyway) of the setting. I chuckled at the Keeng Ra'at and "Moo, I say" the first time I played Fallout 2 (they worked fine as jokes), but when there started to appear similiar other things like Brain, the talking sporeplant, and finally a vault full of talking deathclaws, it went completely off the mood and setup for me. Like if the third movie in Romero's Dead trilogy (Day of the Dead) was a Pixar cartoon aimed for children - could be fun, sure, but not belonging at all to the setting and context. I don't specifically like the anything goes mentality of explain it with radiation and FEV and Science! as that route doesn't lead to anything good when all brainfarts get implemented.

I find it peculiar that while we are generally on the same line with how and what Fallout is, the things we disagree about are something we're on completely opposite sides of the fence.

Sometimes I think you just make crap up. Did you read that on the wiki and if so where did that wiki info come from? Cause the last time I checked Mirelurks are all over the damn place. They have thousands of eggs in DC. They are found in the Mojave, so that means they are from DC to Vegas. That is alot of America. That isn't a species going extinct.

Also keep in mind Fallout New Vegas is only 4 years after Fallout 3.

Where are there Mirelurks in the Mojave?

They're not the same race, they're Lakelurks.

Damn thats right. Sorry Lobotomite.

But still Mirelurks are all over the place in DC. I can't see them going extinct. Unless people start hunting the hell out of them, or they get some disease.

Yeah that lady near the river who says she has boys hunting them mention they take a hell lot of bullets (fo3).

As a line wanderer who had to leave the vault and look for his father and met that physco moria brown, I can safely say they take a hell of a beating before going down.

Sometimes taking me with them...

Hell no.

If I hear a black joke (or any racial and mean joke for that matter in fallout), I will be very disappointed.

Just no dude. Fallout is realistic and all, but does not need to go there to excel in creating an awesome post apocalyptic world.

Why would you even suggest that?

Not to mention they're also present in Maryland and possibly wherever else crabs were pre-war.