Until recently, I've kept my reading to the General Discussion topics, avoiding as many spoilers as possible, as I like to discover on my own. I've also made very few comments, as I'm still forming my opinions about the game. Now I'm ready to share my thoughts, and if my ramblings seem TLDR, to you, well, I won't make any apologies, but I do understand. For the rest of you:

I'm working my way through my second playthrough with an EW build (because I heard the patch would help). On my first build, I tried to be a good person. I figured that most people I met were going to ask me to do stuff for them, and being nice to them and helping them when you could usually made them happy, and I'd be happy with whatever reward they gave me. (It's easy to be grateful when you've got next to nothing!) I knew that New Vegas was going to have various factions in it, some of them completely opposed to each other, but I deliberately set out to help people as long as it did not conflict with another faction. I wasn't going to be somebody's hired assassin. But that turned out to be harder than I expected, as the first actions I did by helping Goodsprings put me at odds with the powder gangers. Ok, I wasn't terribly broken up at this, since the powder gangers were basically hostile to me from the start, and as it turned out, they're pretty much a bunch of ne'er-do-wells who robbed and murdered anyone who approached them. Hey, they had all that dynamite that they could have traded, but instead, they never gave up the methods that landed them in the correctional facility. F*** 'em, I say.

Later, I took on quests to help NCR members. I wasn't delighted by the NCR, but I didn't see them crucifying anybody. Now when some NCR members wanted me to go and raid some Legion posts, I said no, thanks. I didn't like the legion one bit, especially their attitude toward me (sorta reminded my of my feelings for Outcasts in DC) but I wasn't about to make waves with them. I was still hoping that maybe someday in the future, I'd get a chance to be the diplomat or peacemaker and have these two reconcile their differences. After all, if war never changes, it's also true that almost all wars eventually end.

By the time I got to the Strip, I'd spent so much time protecting myself from all the ghouls, fiends, deathclaws and all sorts of terrible things, that when I met that guy in the funny suit, he seemed so frail in comparison to all that tried to destroy me, I'd pretty much lost my taste for vengeance. I let him slip away. Mr. House couldn't be honest with me about his goals or motives and quite frankly, he gave me the creeps. I was pretty damn sure I wouldn't do anything he asked of me. Then I met this robot who was just too damn charming not to listen to. What I couldn't get over was how quickly things got out of my control. I never set out to take over the strip for myself, but I had no idea that helping Yes Man would lead me down that path. Later, I would have to take on the Legion, but by then I knew that there wasn't going to be any peaceful settlement. Then Yes Man sent me out where I had to combat NCR troops, which spoiled my rep with them. And the funny thing about that independent ending is that you're not even really in charge. It seems obvious that Yes Man has found a way to prevent you from giving him orders in the future. So that no matter what actions you take, you will be somebody's pawn.

I wonder, had nobody given any thought of appeasing Caesar by building a casino on the strip, naming it after him, (seriously, isn't that a no-brainer) and let him set up shop there? I know the Legion thinks the Strip is full of degenerates who booze, [censored] and gamble, but doesn't it look a lot different when you're taking a cut of the action?