Since the plotline with finding Shaun gets old in subsequent playthroughs, I was wondering what would work as a MQ in a Fallout game? I can think of two ways I would like it to play out. One is that the MQ is just a form of tutorial before you're set lose into a wasteland where you can choose to get tangled up in major and minor disputes between factions, but none that will alone decide the entire fate of the wasteland. The second one is more along the lines of New Vegas, your character has no real ties to the wasteland or the plot and you can do it if you wish, but it will practically never be brought up in dialogue outside the actual MQ.

I actually think I'd like the former idea, setting the PC loose into the wasteland to choose what you want to do without any universe-altering civilization-ending Grand Quest to distract you.

That's what makes me wonder if a Fallout MMO would work. So much of what we enjoy in Fallout has nothing to do with the main single-player storyline. It's exploring, and fighting, and crafting and (now) settlement building. I wonder how that would work in an MMO, though. Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) back in the day before the New Game Experience and it's downward spiral, had numerous worlds and people would create player cities and build their own homes and decorate them and so on, and people had professions like Dancer or Musician as well as Bounty Hunter and so on.

It may be that a "pure sandbox" kind of MMO won't work any more, as the MMO market has grown, but it'd be interesting to try and Fallout seems a world ripe for it (Fallen Earth was a fun MMO, for example, and set in a similar world).

Only thing that makes me really nervous about a Fallout MMO would be how to distinguish player A from player B. In Fallout, there's only so many ways to play... sneaky melee, sneaky sniper, chem-user (or not), minigun - power armor - hulk, etc... and really those amount to gear choices. If you consider SPECIAL and Perks to be the "class" defining attributes, then I suppose you could have a high CHA/INT "Smooth Talker" with Wasteland Whisperer perks and so on.... and have a high END/INT character with a lot of the Chem resistance / duration-boosting perks (a "Juicer", as they were called in the RIFTS pen-and-paper RPG back in the day).

But to reiterate, I think a more sandbox, less Global Messiah Grand Main Quest would be preferable.

I think it's still important that the player has some sort of emotional involvement to the story; I don't mind the game establishing some backstory so long as I can take that in a ton of cool directions. Tbh as long as the story keeps me entertained I'll be okay with it.


I really do think they should dump the "embark on quest to find thing, get mixed up in the fate of the wasteland" structure they've always been using. Unraveling a vast conspiracy could be cool. And an escaped slave origin might work too; put the slavers in a reclaimed vault and they could still start us off in a vault suit and pipboy, which is something I'd still prefer they keep doing.

Yes, I think a fallout MMO could work, but you have to keep in mind that the MMO market has for the most part gone f2p/b2p, which has a number of strings attached and I doubt that's going to change any time soon. At least until the economy actually recovers from the slump it's been in for ten years or so. I also suspect that it would suffer some of the same problems ESO did, like how people were expecting multiplayer Skyrim rather than Elder Scrolls MMO.

To use a topical example, the wildly popular Deadpool movie's plot basically consists of:

- Guy Gets Cancer

- Guy Gets Superpowers To Cure Cancer

- Guy Tries To Find Doc Who Changed Him

- Guy Finds Doc Who Changed Him

And that's that. There is no grand world-shattering story, and it works perfectly fine for what it is.

We don't have to be Saviours Of The Wasteland every single time, Bethesda!

RE: Fallout MMO being Free To Play.... true, it would almost have to be, but think of the mod "market", now... they could easily sell "vanity" costume pieces and weapon retextures as microtransactions. Bundles of Jet inhalers for 25-cents and whatever. As I mentioned, though, my main worry about be the sameness of everyone. And if they did make 'classes' like a Chem User, a Power Armor, a Sniper, a Smooth Talker, and so on, it would not really be ~as~ "Fallout" as many would like, where the go-word is Freedom.

While I can appreciate the premise of creating a more dramatic back story this go round, I think it really weakened the questlines to have all of them working towards the same goal. Yes, more than one major faction can be left standing at the end aside from the minutemen, who really are more like wandering policemen than anything, but too much just keys to taking out whoever you feel is the greatest wrong/aggressor.

Long sidequests were practically non-existent outside the big 3 factions, and once the ending is reached, well, the game has a hollow feel to it. Could there not be more substantive issues, say a charismatic raider leader, like at the forge rising to power to unite the masses, or a BOS sub-commander who was out in the field away from the points of annilhation establishing a secret base to raise havoc ( invert this if BOS triumphs). Maybe either Glory or Deacon head the Railroad resurrection for their faction. Stepping outside those boxes, there needed to be a lot more questlines like the Cabots ....

In another thread, I suggested that a MQ should allow the character to begin with one of a choice backgrounds. That there should be a number of factions, each with its own quests. That the Main Quest should start later in the play through and grow organically depending on player action.

This gives the character a sense of purpose and belonging to the world, while not sacrificing player agency.

Deeper developed factions, leading to a more dynamic 'who controls the commonwealth' main quest. As the current main quest falls flat, and it seems intentional for the game to continue on afterwards, there should be no real limit to ongoing fighting over which faction/s will dominate. It would take some decent development work, but at least it would get away from what is pretty much a one dimensional storyline...the missing family member idea really wore thin this time around.

Then I suggest you look into The Secret World. Instead of classes, they went the opposite direction. Everybody has access to everything, of which there are over 500 abilities, plus some secondary stuff to pick from. Not to mention a very large wardrobe for your characters. Might give you some ideas on what a Fallout version would look like.

Anything where the endgame doesn't devolve into a Michael Bae film.

"It ain't over 'till summink blows up REAL good."