Solid Snake aside, it's patently obvious that war does in fact change (pre-nuclear war, nuclear war, and Wasteland war really have little in common), but that's stating the obvious. It sounds badass when Ron Perlman says it, but does anyone have any interpretations of its meaning?

The best explanation I can think of is that it's a statement about human nature: No matter what happens, even if the planet gets blown to hell, people will always take up arms against each other. That's probably not the intended meaning, or at least not all of it; it is war that never changes, rather than people.

"War. War Never Changes" does indeed mean that the causes for war never changes. As Fallout 3 put it: "Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood as been spilled in the name of everything: from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage."

Fallout One set the stage with it's introduction: "The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built and empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower, but war never changes."

The technology in which we wage war does indeed change. The reasons for going to war however do not. Hence "War Never Changes." Humanity almost destroyed itself. But failed to learn from that. The new world born of the old still goes to war.

This.

Damn Styles...... I can't really think of one thing to say that you don't already cover.

I could maybe add that it's not just war on a large scale that never changes. The war we fight with ourselves on an individual level to at least tolerate other people, religions, societies, forms of rule and so on seem to not change as well.

Yep, that definitely makes sense. For some reason I felt like there was some other meaning to it that eluded me, but those bits from FO3 and FO1's openings state the idea pretty straightforwardly. Thanks.

In other words it means human destiny to kill themselves. Its what we're good at.

True but not only ourselves but other humans, nature, and creatures who trouble us or to house and feed us...

The Song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUL0JitYabI by Megadeth basically sums up what Ron Pearlman meant in his words:

(A very cool song by the way).

But yeah, humans are designed to kill each other and will always go to war against each other (even this day and age, western civilization is at an economic war with each other, all sides trying to undermine everyone else's economy).

It isn't just us. Contrary to popular belief, we aren't the only species on this planet that indulges in organized warfare. Other primates do it, rats do it, hell, even ants do it. We are only the ones that have clawed their way to the top of the heap.

I've even seen different factions of cats go at it. Like at my friend's farm, he's got like 20 cats that fight with a group of 10 other cats that all live on his farm, but are from different litters (their home bases are two different barns). But yeah, those cats are literally at war with each other. Lions do it too. Yeah animals go to war with each other all the time, we just came up with technology to do it better.

Man vs Himself is a struggle I would like to see more of in FO.

We definitely need more alcoholics and degenerate gamblers.

I like Coenesque characters which are somewhat comically flawed. They could choose not to be and yet they can't. The perfect amalgamation of tragedy and comedy -> would fit Fallout very well.

Crushed dreams is cool, but desperate hope without any chance of fulfillment is even greater.

While NPCs representing said struggles are alright, I would like to see this represented by a personal struggle the protagonist needs to face. But, that requires at least some kind of back story, in which some folks get all up in arms about, because it "limits their roleplaying!!"

Eh, I think you're overstating the futility angle. There are three overarching messages to the series, and each game seems to highlight them more and more (to the point that New Vegas pretty much batters you over the head with them). The first is that "War Never Changes". This isn't just referring to the cycle of violence and greed that produces war, but to the effects of war as well. War never changes. There is no utopia on the other side, and no matter how many enemies you destroy, something will take their place. It might even be yourself.

This brings up the other two messages: that the choices of one person can change everything, and that the only way to escape the tragedies of the past is to let the past go and instead look to the future. Throughout each game, you decide the fate not only of yourself, but of nearly everyone you meet. By the time your journey ends, you'll have set in motion the rise and fall of entire communities, and maybe even a fledgling nation or two. Pay attention to how their fates play out. Those who cling to the past (like Ulysses, the Enclave, Caesar's Legion, the West Coast Brotherhood of Steel, Elijah, or the Think Tank) end up as villians or tragic figures. Those who try to work towards the future instead tend to end up more successful. Again, this gets highlighted a lot by New Vegas, especially in the DLC mini-saga. In Dead Money, Elijah and many others can't let go of the Sierra Madre, a symbol of the Old World. The final message? ""Let go, and begin again." In Old World Blues, the Think Tank are a relic of the Old World, and if set free, would only do to this new world exactly what they did to the old. In the end, "People had Old World Blues, and New World Hope.", as Mobius puts it. Lonesome Road is all about how Ulysses can't let go of his own past. Not only his history with the Courier, but how his bitterness that none of the groups in the Mojave live up to his ideals of Old World glory, and it leads him to try and wake things that should remain in the past. But in the end...

War never changes because man never changes. That is to say that man's basic character has barely budged since the beginning of recorded history.

It means war never changes and that means that war is always the same....

Also that ultimately, the outcome of war never changes; the deaths of many.

Unless it's the war between england and zanzibar that only lasted 31 minutes