» Sat Jul 04, 2009 9:32 pm
OK, so Harold is in the game. Or Harold as a Deity. The Church of Harold, pretty interesting idea. The ghoul that wanted to be left alone becomes a god.
First, there's a good chance that the Church originated on the west coast since they talk about the Vault Dweller and the Chosen One, but not of the Lone Wanderer. As for the pamphlet, I particularly liked the first page, which presents the church as noble soul searching establishment. That was probably how it started anyway. The other pages show, especially the last 2, that the Church deviated from its original meaning and intentions. Just look at all the crap books they are selling, table manners, cook books, what to wear, distorted history...I'm sad to say that this church went from soul searching to money mongering. That sorta thing usually does not happen over night. So with that in mind and the fact that the story of the Vault Dweller and the Chosen One are distorted, a lot of time has passed since FO2. How much?? I'm not sure. But I think that there at least enough time for a generation to have been born, lived and died. So perhaps we are looking at the usual 80 years gap, so that would take us to about 240 years after the bombs fell.
Another thing that support the fact that a lot of time has passed is that the Church has a pamphlet to begin with. Pamphlets are meant to be distributed to many people on the street, and you have to assume that, hold on to your hats, they can READ. I know that people could read in FO1 and FO2, but it was reserved to the settlements that had, the time, money and resources to educate the young, like the vaults and the NCR. Because when you have to worry about, food, mutants, radscorpions, zombies, etc, every single day, reading is not your priority.
OK, so the average bloke can read. Why??? Why is that, that most folk have a basic education. We turn back to the pamphlet my friends. To spread the word about the Church of Halord with pamphlets you need a lot of them. Now, unless they have an army of monks working day and night to write the pamphlets and all of the books they are selling, the printing press is back baby and in full swing!!! If you look at the real history, the average Joe began to be educated when the printing press was invented. Because books were everywhere and the skill of reading and writing was no longer reserved to the Church and the wealthy. And what happened when people in general were educated? The Renaissance!! I'm not saying that we will play in a fallout new-renaissance scenario. But gamesas said that the game would be in a rebuilding phase. So I'm seeing more of a game that is between "The Dark Ages" and "The Renaissance". Some rebuilding, but not to much. And the player will probably decide if the world will sink back to the Dark Ages or it will boldly go into the Renessance.
I know I'm stretching a bit, but for now, that's my take on it. "War. War never changes."
- Ron Perlman