That's what happens with bad writing. :\

I try not to let it bother me but it's pretty grating this time around.

The forced backstory is annoying. I'm in no rush to buy a next gen machine until Obsidian works on a Fallout title or Cyberpunk 2077 releases.

You can RP any way you want to RP, enjoy the game your way.

You are only a bad mom if you do this

https://youtu.be/J3GRn0Kv8iQ

Just epic. Shaun Launcher!

Well what do you expect from a newborn to contribute?

Ah, so you're RPing a character with Antisocial Parsonality Disorder. Why stop there? Go full Psychopath, man! That was sarcasm, btw.

Yes

Someone who's seen the world end, been frozen for 2 centuries, and seen their spouse killed and child taken, without knowing when it happened or if the kid is still alive I think it's believable they might find the search hopeless and wander the wasteland instead. Of course, if she's just happy to be burden free she likely is not a very good mother.

If you don't want that as part of the character's backstory you can make up a different one. I have one character who wandered a while looking for Shaun before going to Diamond City as suggested, and another that I imagine is just another survivor from the vault that survived cryo and left the vault.

I'm not a parent irl, why would I want a child in a video game.

Exactly. I'd rather they have made Shaun a toddler or a 7 year old or something. Give him some character development so we can get attached to him.

Let's face it, the main reason humans are attached to babies that don't belong to them is because it's instinctual and reinforced by social norms. We see the features of a baby and (typically) feel an instinctual need to protect it even if it's not ours.

But this is a video game. We know Shaun is just a collection of pixels. We haven't even interacted with it in any way shape or form...oh wait we spun its mobile...Therefore we as the player have no emotional connection to it.

They should have made Shaun a little older, have his personality reflect our SPECIAL skills, let us play catch with him and have him crack a joke and say how much he loves us.

My inner father is already more attached to the Shaun I made up in my head than the mass of skin-colored data we're supposed to care about.