I've only heard discussions about House casually in some discussions, and I wanted to hear opinions about his plans/endings/motives as opposed to Independence.

It's impossible to have a discussion comparing the Independent ending to others because Independence could mean practically anything.

It could be an violent anarchic wasteland or an ordered utopia protected by the Courier's Securitrons or anything in between depending on the Courier and his decisions. I would say that if you're going to go the Independent Mojave route House makes a lot more sense to me. Your Courier may be the greatest human to ever walk the wastes but he obviously can't possess House's knowledge and longevity.

When I first played the game, I thought House was the obvious best choice and I was shocked NCR and Indy were so popular. I'm a firm believer that part of the "war problem" is that people simply believe themselves to be right and that others are wrong. For example some might argue that someone (USA probably) should go to war with various middle Eastern countries for oppressing women and treating them like property. This is a fair stance on the issue as obviously individual freedom is an important issue, but at the same time, cultures will never be the same. It will never happen that all cultures see eye to eye, and in our attempt to "improve" all cultures that we view as inferior to our own, we're creating war. When North America was being colonized for example, one of the arguments was that we're not taking land from the Native Americans, we're bringing culture to savages. It's things like this, whether for better or worse, that lead to war. In that sense perhaps we should all bite our tongue and live and let live, even if it means letting the guy across the river treat his wife like trash.
In this sense, House is good. He has no interest in land beyond the borders of the Mojave. House CAN live and let live. I find this very noble of him and I think this is a step in the right direction.


The other strong point is that, even if it's only the top 5% or whatever that can afford life on the Strip, the wasteland is already such a [censored] hole, do we really wanna take that from them? For the setting, I think giving 5% a comfortable living while leaving everyone else to rot is actually fair, given that everyone is ALREADY doomed to rot anyways... Yes it svcks if you can't get on the Strip, but it's just unrealistic for the setting that everyone can. Resources are already extremely limited.


However, in my attempt to follow a canon Courier playthrough, I found myself convinced that Indy would be canon. The game simply seemed to point towards Indy. There's plenty of criticism of the other three armies but no one that cries if Indy is chosen, NCR and House are arguably TOO good whereas Caesar is TOO evil, the devs have openly called Indy their personal fave, and every so often Indy has special treatment that just seems to call it out as the blatant canon ending. So during my main character's playthrough, I basically had to challenge myself to like Indy. I wanted to make Courier Six, and I couldn't let my own personal choice get in the way if logically it seemed as though the canon ending was gonna be Indy.

And really? I actually don't think House is that great anymore.

Ulysses will criticize House, saying he's desperately trying to hold onto the past, propping up dead bodies and pretending the world hasn't changed when it obviously has. While some may hear this argument and simply respond with "that may be, but I don't see how that hinders his leadership capabilities," there are some truths to it. The people that go to Vegas, the tourists and soldiers? People along the 188 especially will tell you how nobody ever actually makes it big in Vegas, how ideas of winning big are just a dream. And that's exactly what House's Vegas is: it's just a dream. It's easy for you to look at House's Vegas in a positive light. After all, you don't have to dream you're important: you are. But the fact of the matter is that no, it's not as easy to become important for others as it is for you. The fact of the matter is that the Aerotech camp, Freeside and various other parts of Vegas are filling up with people who lost it all trying to live the dream. And no, these aren't people who had nowhere else to go anyways; these are people that had a decent living standard in the growing NCR. Vegas gave them promises of fame and fortune, and in the end it only svcked them dry, the same Three Families profiting from it.
Basically since the player IS important, I think it's easy for the player to feel detached from the hardships of the people who came to Vegas and lost it all. By default, you're winning it all; you have the platinum chip! You don't have to lose it all. But the reality of the situation is that hundreds of NCR folk with decent, stable lives end up going there and losing it all. The soldiers? The soldiers aren't gonna have anything saved up by the time they're done with their tours.

Having said that, where does this money go? Well in Indy, presumably the Three Families just keep it and function as simple casino businesses, whereas under House, the money would presumably be put to good use within 50 years' time. I think this is an argument for House, because he does have the mind and the desire to use that money whereas the Three Families are entirely self-interested. However one should also note that while House may have good intentions long term, he's COMPLETELY out-of-touch with the needs of common people. For example, he'll likely kill off the Kings before any sort of progress is made. I think it's sort of telling and tradgic that, by the time House is helping society move forward, he's already killed off a group that stands for freedom while employing materialistic would-be cannibals and backstabbing sociopaths. You wanna talk about EARNING your wealth? None of the Three Families earned it. The only way they "earned" it was by agreeing to sell out and do whatever the hell it took to gain power and wealth. Perhaps objectively House helps society move forward, but subjectively he moves backwards without even realizing it. Indy is the opposite simply because it allows for the good communities to thrive while losing any sort of "brain" at the top to organize the individual neighborhoods and societies into one entity. Both of them don't seem to show interest in expansion, nevertheless.


But yeah, I think one should realize that sure, the Mojave may look great, but the NCR is suffering because of House's existence. Not just the government, the common man and simple citizens aswell. And all in the name of progress...tomorrow. I think it's a question of what will the world look like morally by the TIME there's any technological progress.




For these kinds of discussions, I think people are interested solely in the BEST case scenario for each of the four nations. So in Indy's case, I think most of us can agree that means letting every society be save maybe the Brotherhood of Steel. (that point is debateable, probably with more opting to kill them than spare them for obvious reasons)

I never felt that holding onto the past was House's problem, it was the NCR's problem, House's style of government (autocratic technocracy) is entirely unused throughout Human history, House is also going to employ new methods of law enforcement (armies of robots as police force have never been used in the Fallout world as far as we know), Warfare (army of unstoppable Robots), will all be entirely new.

The NCR however is using systems of government which led to the War, its copying the pre-war US system without ever knowing what despicable acts that system led to. This can be seen already, the NCR citizens have elected people totally willing to destroy the Kings, annex New Vegas and wage war on Caesar's legion for resources.

House has seen the past, he saw the US government abuse it's citizens, annex Canada and wage a war for resources.

As for people in new Vegas losing their money, well its Vegas, what did you expect? If you go into a casino expecting to win then you're an idiot

As for Indy Vegas, it could surpass House's Vegas in the short term, but after the Courier is gone or too old to fix problems the cracks will appear

If good guy Indy gets to be canon, I'm gonna be disappointed. Another boring good guy ending, with one of the best characters in the franchise out of the picture. Also the Courier's Utopia will never get to become a great nation so yay, everything trivialized. I'd rather have an Explosion in the West than a good guy Indy.
On topic though, I think House will want to keep most people safe. Maybe living standards won't be skyrocketing for the simple person, but at the very least there's House and his Securitrons providing safety. I think he even sends a Securitron to Primm if there's no sheriff there and I've heard that he ends up wiping out the Fiends if you haven't already killed them, not sure about it though. He's only mean to the Kings, but to be honest the Kings deserve it. They're just stupid and they can't keep their group unified. The King's buddy, Pacer, was already an [censored], imagine what will become of the Kings after the King dies. I'm rather certain they'll just become yet another raider gang.

To be honest, the kings do not have to be exterminated in House's ending. Not to mention, the people losing their money has almost always been the point of Vegas. Indy won't change that at all. In the short term, I don't think there will be much of a difference in the quality of life in the Mojave/Outer Vegas. The differentiating variable is the Courier's amount of power and sway. Vegas will go on, and House will have to stay still until he has the money to make his reforms, taking New Vegas into a second industrial revolution (this is bad in the short term but wonderful in the long term. Hard labor, but progress like the world has never seen before. Similar to the spinning jenny, steam engine, and factories). The Courier? Who knows? That part is simply speculation. I don't believe that the Courier will be canon; it could just as easily be the NCR or Legion.

I think that Indy and House are very status quo except for the seizure of the dam, which is fine in the short term.