I can understand that this is not everyone's cup of tea, but you know that the modders will create an Alternate Start mod fairly soon.

So no one this time will be locked in to playing the game only one way.

This time, the console gamers are going to see just how amazing Fallout can be.

I'll be looking forward to seeing all the alternate starts that they come up with.

I bet one of the first is where the Lone Survivor really is an Android with manufactured memories.

They may or may not be voiced (maybe both), but I'll bet most of them will be very well done.

If Bethesda wants to try to up their story game with a well defined Lone Survivor and a deep story line, we should trust them enough to wait till we can see the results.

Well, yes to everything Nefla said and no to everything Gizmo said. Pretty much sums up my opinion.

Yes to everything Gizmo said. Don't disagree with Nefla either.

But Gizmo's got the right idea imo. I mean if you want to tell a story, you need to create certain structures that by definition restrict ultimate character freedom.

Fallout 4 deliberately switches the formula up in order to convey a certain story that we know nothing about yet.

What we do know is this: It's all over. It's all over but the crying. Two hundred years of ice between the PC and the past. Emerging from Vault 111 is the starting point into a new life. The Fallout after the end of our old life. Will this new chapter offer some new insights and challenge the fundamental beliefs and convictions of our protagonist? You bet, kid.

Back to the point: Why the need to restrict character concepts? Well, honestly you don't. There's a million possibilities no matter the circumstances.

But why no possible selection of other archetypes than the heterosixual married ex-military parent from the suburbs?

REASON NUMBER 1: DISILLUSION

The Fallout world of 2077 is characterized by nationalism, paranoia and ignorance. The United States of America, while rapidly amassing wealth, widows (there have been some women serving too btw) and technological advancements during the ongoing war, are plagued by public uprisings, corruption, megalomania and internal power-struggles - in nearly all societal realms. The typical middle-class civilians live in blissful ignorance and blind patriotism, lulled and drunken from the potions of mass media (largely radio, but TV too) propaganda.

You want to know what the very first thing was we heard and saw in Fallout (after logos)? Yeah, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dquq8DABdw8.

They wanted to show people who do not suffer persecution, discrimination or anything negative about the system in their lives. They wanted to show people who live in complete illusion and are to be disillusioned completely.

Now, since you're smart, how does the whole ex-military (is it confirmed?) stuff fit? Surely the footage from Fallout's intro doesn't look like one would remain an illusioned, naive, good-hearted and patriotic person after some field experience, or hell even after watching the news and giving the slightest [censored]. Well, what the character would have seen would surely be up to us anyway (I don't think it's going to be explained in detail) but think about this:

What Fallout tries to tell is that the pre-war culture is something unique. Many believe that it's just the whole 50s thing, but it's not only the soundtrack you hear, it's also the images we see from the old world. They showed an execution on public tv and they used that as propaganda. That was not inteded as a message to terrorize (well, in a way it was) but to glorify America. You need a certain cultural standard to make that in any way a promising attempt.

Surely not everyone would have been tricked. But there are some who bought into this kind of thinking and have made a culture out of it. The illusioned ones, the lucky ones, the ones who benefit from the system.

They aren't guiltless. But they are the ones who will experience ultimate disillusionment. Fallout 4 wants to capture the essence of the Ink Spot's music by making the narrative thread resonate to it in the most fundamental way, by involving everything our protagonist probably believed in.

REASON NUMBER 2: VAULT 111

Any American citizen was allowed to buy a ticket to a brighter future underground. Not everyone could afford it though.

Vault-Tec (while recieving hefty funds by the government - possibly secret additions by the secret gov) wanted the Dollar. I don't know how much the entry cost and I'm aware that many people didn't bother to even give buying a ticket a thought (which would normally lead to price decrease). I assume that good earning to wealthy people would nontheless certainly be the majority of purchasers (unless there was a certain experiment involved), especially considering they would be the major, most gullible recipients of propaganda such as http://www.tannerhiggin.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/VaultTec.jpg.

Maybe Vault 111 involved an experiment that has to do with your military past? In either case, depicting the protagonist as a middle-class, robot-owning, family raising, ex-military suburbanist was a good decision in order to convey financial independence.

Additionally, the army background is perhaps the most earning one when it comes to logically explaining your later proficiencies anyway. So it's quite smooth.

REASON NUMBER 3: STILL A LOT OF FREEDOM

Yes, it's all over. Let the wasteland shape your further fate.

Maybe the fundamentals bother you? The game will not go too much into detail! You see, we're definitely going to be able to play a black or interracial couple that fits the same cultural bill as a white couple would. Of course they'd be an exception given the general mindset of the pre-war era, likely looked at irritatedly and secretly mocked at best. I imagine asian people had it worst (Little Yangtze?) due to the overbearing enemy image.

Of course racial and sixual discrimination was still a thing then (even though the government made some attempts to fuel their machinery). Will we see it? No. Of course culture would have demanded homosixuality a sin or just indecent and harmful outside the religious context. I assume that while interracial marriage or black couples who had come to wealth were a thing, same-six marriage was not.

Does that mean you can't play gay or lisbian characters? Of course not. There will be enough freedom within the set story to allow for loopholes.

You want another intro? They won't give you one. Because the intro doesn't matter ultimately. It's all over. Whoever your character was before, whatever explanation you come up with, it will not define the protagonist of the present (the fallen world) who is disillusioned.

Very concise point. You took the words out of my mouth.

This doesn't make a bit of sense to me. Your not playing ball because a developer wants to keep things quiet? Wants us to discover it for ourselves? Anyone remember how mad they were when being a werewolf in Skyrim was leaked a few days before release? Pete was FURIOUS. They like to keep things quiet, why does that make their statement any less true about putting more work in the story?

What funny is Todd knew what people were gonna say and you know what... In the end its their vision and their decision. Like he says, they make games they want to play. If they thought their own game svcked they wouldn't release it. They actually started over on Quake 2 because they thought it wasn't good enough.

This is going to be a terrible RPG, I haven't heard anywhere that there will be spears in it.

This is literally what I have been saying the whole time.

Cept' I used different words like "reborn" and such haha. People nit pick to much sometimes. I like to think I am coming from the perspective of a video game reviewer. Is this fun? Is it worthwhile? Can it be replayed? Yes, I want my Fallout to be Fallout. I want my freedom to do what I want. So far its evident we have that. Can we shoot BoS? Yep. Kill whoever we want? Heck yeah! In the end everyone will love it (the majority) then you'll have the grumpy old men like you did with Skyrim who picked ONE thing they didn't like and decided to hate it.

People just don't want to give Bethesda a chance. We know so little about the plot, it's disingenuous to assume it will fail this early on.

They think that making a semi-set protagonist pre-existing relationships and connections and voice acting will make for a better story but...I never had a problem with the way it was done before. I loved the freedom of Fallout 3 and TES series and Obsidian's addition of factions and extra emphasis on skills to solve non combat problems and much more frequent use of S.P.E.C.I.A.L and skills in conversation (as well as the perks letting you be gay or lisbian) made FO:NV one of my favorite games of all time. Now dialogue options are reduced, skills are gone, we're straight and semi-preset. I personally would much rather have played as the baby (if you could choose the gender and looks) than either of the parents and choose who I want to be and how I want to live.

Your absolutely right, but knowing Bethesda we probably won't know TOO much more about the story until later, so until then, we gotta slug through all the theories, early speculation, and discussions on how we think someone should design their game.