With how the information was transfered to the pip-boy?
I guess but I mean, say we find an old diary that some girl wrote.
It explains how her friends got killed by feral ghouls and what her last thoughts were.
It wouldn't be the same to read it on some ugly pip-boy screen.
I'd want a diary with bloodstains and dirt and smeared ink instead.

Point is, would be nice with some more diarys from people.
Each diary should look differently.
Like if the diary was found in cave then some pages should be torn out and look like rats have been eating on it while if we find one in a doctors office it'll look really clean and well preserved.
Diary's are personal, the overall feeling of the book should be personal, how it looks, how torn up it is, how dirty it is, how the text is written (cursive, normal, shaky hand) etc.
A text on a pip-boy screen just isn't any personal at all.

Of course, this is if diaries are in New Vegas in the first place.

No, but its not particularly "Fallouty", whereas written tomes add to the whole medieval style theme in classical fantasy.

I think the question has to be, what is a book going to add that a Holodisk as currently implemented doesnt?
IF Answer = "Nothing" OR answer = "Very little" THEN GOTO something better for Devs to spend their time and resources on.

The same effect in the post above could be done via an audio log, like those heard in FO3 - and can even include a dramatic hushed whisper and/or scream for effect.

Yep. Maintaining thematic integrity with the previous installments in the series.



Like the diaries of the teacher whose class went on a field to trip to Lamplight Caverns the day the bombs fell?



:shrug: Seems from 3 games so far (by two different developers) that folks in the Fallout universe kept their diaries on holotapes. The teacher, the Keller family's notes, the list goes on and on.

Well whatever then.
I guess a pen and paper which logically is more easier to get a hold of then a holodisk is just not "fallout" enough...

Forgive us, we can be purists sometimes. Don't let that get you down though. Sometimes the best ideas come from a new perspective.

We're talking games here, chief. "Logic" isn't necessarily logic where those are involved. In this case, I'm inclined to think the developer's take is to emphasize "civilized" folks, who use holotapes and audio recordings, as contrasted with Raiders and the like who graffiti walls and such.

I dunno, maybe the lack of using them is why there are so many pencils around?

There's even a parallel in current reality- how many people don't write down phone numbers any more, only to panic when the battery in the "smart" phone they store them all in dies?

I...what