Hey folks,

okay, common sense is that Fallout is basically depicting a retro future from a point of view of a person living in the 50s. I got that, as it isn't actually difficult (and well written in the manual of Fallout 3).

But my question is: is it so that the presented world in Fallout would REALLY be the future people imagined in the 50s? And who is 'people'? What makes you believe or from which sources do you know that a person in the 50s would most likely have a futuristic image which would be like the Fallout Universe:

Is it
- that everybody says so (quoting from the Vault Wiki)
- common knowledge that I, as a German, do not have (considering US socio-history?)
- that you have interest in the 50s which, then most players spend additional time reading stuff about the 50si?
- a very coherent and detailed presentation of a believable 50s future presented in the Game(s), so you say "Okay, that looks believable, so the developers most likely made good research on that?

Actually one might argue that Fallout is depicting a view of a Nerd/Geek in the 50s, who consumed Sci-Fi literature (so people = 50s nerds). But that being said, does anyone know to which degree the 50s television, literature and cinema influenced the WHOLE population?

Would be awesome if you share your thoughts!

I believe its closer to the pre war politics and technology that the 50's generation thought would be in the future. You can view a generations ideas and visions through their media, or you could see their quality of humor (meaning us with beavus and butthead), what they find intriguing, etc. :fallout:

Well, science fiction - in any form - can tell you a lot about about that culture's sensibilities and style. As the genre represents that culture dealing with the concerns that were relevant to that time period. In all cases, it's that culture's view of an idealized future, as seen through the lens of that time period, and all it's influences. As such, you can make broad comparisons and notice similarities when look at that period's media, as a whole.

Star Trek is a good example of this, I think. Compare the original series with The Next Generation, and on to the newest movie reboot, and you'll see three distinct visions of what each generation thought the future would look like - and each represents that particular time period's own influences and point of view. You could probably write a term paper comparing the various influences and their relative manifestations in each, so rather than get bogged down in details, I'll just leave it at that.

Going back to the whole "World of Tomorrow" aesthetic that represents Pre-War Fallout civilization, this all comes from a condensation of the sci-fi works and visions of "tomorrow" from the 1950's (and if you want to get really technical, also includes bit of the late 40's and early 60's.)

In short, you can notice some broad trends when looking over the works of the artists of that era, when dealing with the concept of "what will the future look like?" Wikipedia actually has a rather informative article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro_futurism, which goes into a bit more depth, and also has some other links for some more in-depth reading of the topic.

Thanks for the good answers! Still, I find one important aspect of my question unanswered (or I do not fully understand your answers, for which I apologize if this is so).

What I am asking for is a reason why people accept, without having read any of the often mentioned sources, that Fallout depicts a postnuclear alternate future which diverged from the real 50s. It's like everyone, who is interested into the game played it and accepts a kind of canon saying "Yeah, this is what people in the 50s might have expected or feared." But WHY do players thinks so? I guess noone or the smallest minority read 'The World of Tomorrow' from August Derleth, which is often cited as a source for the future image of the 50s.

Well, in America at least, this is just kind of a part of our culture, I suppose. That distinctive visual style wasn't apparent only in the form of movies and comic books, but also influenced everything from the designs of cars, to refrigerators and toaster ovens. Back in the 50's, over here, there was a kind of a movement where products were designed to kind of make you feel that "The World of Tomorrow" was already here. (And when you get right down to it, that's still a common phenomenon - if you buy a TV or Blue-Ray player, you're still buying something that's been designed to look like it came from "the future.") There's even a word for that particular stylistic movement (though at the moment, I can't think of what it is.)

In the US, you can still see a lot of this today. If you drive across country, you'll come across gas stations that look like spaceships, or flea markets that sell toaster ovens with lots of aerodynamic fins, etc. Or growing up, I had http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jetsons cartoon, stuff like that.

In short, the visual styles that Fallout borrows comes from a distinct visual style that was at one time very popular (at least here in the states) and even remains an influence today. There's an instant connection when playing Fallout 3 (for us yankees, at least) because that stylization is embedded on our social consciousness. It's referring to a distinct and well-known (at least on a sub-conscious level) aspect of that time period.

Edit: Another way of putting it is kind of like how if you see a movie that takes place in the Middle Ages, or the 1920's, or the 1800's, you just kind of immediately make that connection. There's no one "source" to point to, to say "oh, that's how I know what the Middle Ages looked like," it's just a lot of factors. It's the same thing with the "World of Tomorrow" deal (again - for us in America, at least.) It's hard to explain much better, because it's like trying to answer something like "how can you immediately tell that Robin Hood takes place in England in the Middle Ages?"

It's a futurama gone wrong. Most basic description. If you're German, look at some Perry Rhodan illustrations - that's the future of Fallout, just not gone wrong in 2070. Same kind of Googie art style that's the base for the pre-war world in Fallout.
That's why it's actually accepted. It looks like something that people designed in the 50s to be "futuristic looking".

As we Germans might say: wunderbar! Great answers and I thank you girls and guys very much for answering me. That's all a part of my big final paper for the university, counterfactual history in modern computer games And Fallout, though not intended, seems to be a very intriguing counterfactual (alternate history) game.!