The Fallout 3 story was weak in terms of RPing. Firstly, it forced a backstory on your character, leaving you no room to create your own. Secondly, it assumed that the character cared about his father, which is a horrible thing to do in a RPG. You NEVER EVER assume the motivation of the PC. Lastly, it was completely railroaded.
I... know? Why are you acting like I said Fo3 was the best thing since sliced bread? It wasn't. It had it's issues too, including a 100% linear storyline. That doesn't excuse the poor job they did in NV. While part of what you say is true, part is not. Yes, you cannot and should not assume the motivation or opinion of the character, giving it that RPG aspect. But you can, however, assume the reaction of the actual
person playing. Without this, no game would have a good story. Even in an RPG; Let's say you spend 5 hours of gameplay with one NPC, and he makes jokes, act's awsome, gives you stuff and you become friends. The overall goodheartedness of the character creates an attraction (not romantic
) between him and the player. (as in person, not their character) Then, if something happened to said character, the player would feel saddened and have an adverse reaction to it. You cannot assume the player's character they are role playing as would have a reaction as so, (They may play the badass emotionless assassin, who could care less that said character just died), but they as a person would reaction in a manner that would compel them to seek revenge in some way or another. Of course, now you could have a person go, "Oh no, he just died and that's horrible!" But if they stick with their character and are truely immersed, they may react by also adding that they won't care, and will not persue their 'friends' murderer. THIS is where the diversity in story must occur. In a more 'you dont have to hunt down their killer if you dont want, but theres another central plot to drive the story' kind of way. NV just SHOVES the fact Benny shot you in the head and that you dont like it.
Oh wait, that's familiar...
You NEVER EVER assume the motivation of the PC.
New Vegas OVERKILLs this by assuming the player will have an upmost hatred for the NPC, and will want to walk to hell and back to find and kill them. I, on the otherhand, cared little about him. So what, he shot me, I lived. If I ran into him randomly, I may shoot him, but I would not chase him down. This of course, entirely kills the entire driving force of the start of the game... Plus, once I met his character, I actually liked him and found it sad that there was linearity in that aspect of the story that I could not befriend him, and one way or another he pretty much dies or gets screwed over. So they focused on non-linearity, sure, but not entirely in the right areas...
Anywho, this is now a wall of text. So I'm done for now.
I sure as hell hope there arent any serious typo's in there or anything...