So let's talk about this http://kotaku.com/leaked-documents-reveal-that-fallout-4-is-real-set-in-1481322956 for the purposes of this thread, and it most likely is given that *is* the same dude in the trailer, and the same shots of him as the father and all that.

What are your thoughts on the mandatory background of the PC including a husband/wife and son?

Like it? Think it's Bethesda imposing yet more baggage on our characters and limiting our RP? Don't give a toss?

Personally, I think it's more needless baggage. I'm one of those who thinks even the Courier's vague background was pushing it, let alone this.

I'd hope they shy away from it. If they are going to be a part of it, they better die off fast. Needless baggage is distracting.

Like Dad from FO3. Too easy to rush the main quest there anyways in order to spawn enclave.

I don't like it.

I'd rather the main character's past be a load of nothing in a vault or something that the player can choose and develop.

It doesn't help when you roleplay an android character that ends up meeting his long lost biological sister.

Im for it.

Should present some interesting moral and ethical problems. IE doing what is Good for The community, vs doing what makes your bloodline service.

I do not like it, Bethesda games was always about "the clean slate" player characters, the whole idea in Fallout 3 of 18 years old vault dweller looking for his/hers dead was dumb.

Would absolutely hate it. We need cleaner backgrounds for better role-playing. I, for one, loved the Courier's background. Shroud yourself in mystery, nobody in the wastes shall know truly who you are but yourself. Reveal your intentions through actions but never be fully predictable... A family just means a bunch of meatbags that I, as a player, am expected to relate to. I would murder every single one of them.

Yeah, I'm against it. Fallout 3 was fine since it let you at least craft your own character. If this is all true, you'd be pretty screwed.

Yeah, assuming it's true, I think it smells a bit like Eidar Cheese. (Stinky)

It would very much depend on how it is implemented. It would be a pretty good idea to have a multiple choice past that you could potentially answer during the character creation.Depending on your options, you could have different dynamics for example. Peace options during the Q&A can make a strong family unit while aggressive options can yield abusive backgrounds. Traits and initial stats can potentially help with fleshing out your relationship with the family so it helps in character creation. Let's say for example a Black Widow daughter could potentially have heated conversations with the 1950's father.

Though if it isn't handled well, it would be safe to assume it would become tedious and terrible.

I still don't believe that the trailer family is ours. At most, I think we could end up being the baby. That said, I don't at all mind a pre-set family. We came from distinct families in Fallouts 2 and 3, and I didn't mind it then, either.

To this day I despise Arroyo and consider it the primary failing of FO2. But to each their own I suppose.

Also, having Liam Neeson as a dad was useless. He didn't find and kill anyone when I was kidnapped in the Pitt.

I don't like the idea. It would seem to ruin the "backstory" I come up with for my character in game. I usually play the first time like the MQ suggests, and then decide from there how I want my character to act in game based on the personality I choose for him in subsequent games. Being tied to having a family restricts the freedom we enjoy in Bethesda games to craft our character as we see fit.

The way I see the trailer, and what I choose to interpret from it, is that perhaps we are the baby in the crib at the beginning and not the father of that child. That may not be the case because I see little chance that the baby or any family member survived as they seem to have been trapped outside when the shockwave of the blast hit the vault. Hopefully all of this will be cleared up in a little over a week at E3.

If my child goes missing I'd feel like Liam Neeson. Oh wait....

And neither let you kill off your family. If they let you kill off family ties (any means) and your family wasn't completely dependent on the story I wouldn't mind it so much.

That baby was blasted unless it had an invisible infant power armor on it's not gonna happen.

And I would hate it:Having a father fine I can till play that my charcater likes whon he wants or that he is a total sociophatic [censored].But a Wife?No.

I don't mind being from a set family, but I don't like the idea of playing a character who is motivated by current family attachments in Fallout. I might not mind it if it were a spin-off where Bethesda can explore Fallout universe stories. Fallout to me is making a character and moving out into the world. Even though in three you started out looking for your father I don't think there is reason to do it again.

Assuming that the trailer does indeed depict "our" family, and the start of the game has the father/mother/son/daughter being separated and on a quest to find the rest of the family, take comfort in knowing that if you do find them, you get to watch them die.

Personally, I just roll with the bones the game deals me. Fallout 3, I was the son of a man with an obsession with water. I rolled with it, had a good time with it.

As I tell the people I run tabletops for when we sit down for D&D, or Star Wars, or whatever...Your background is only mildly important. Where you are from, is not so important as where you are going. It's not your origin that matters, but all that stuff in between the beginning and the end.

Having a wife and Child is honestly not what I consider background but instead an active part of what my character thinks.My char choose to have a wife and child thats not the same as having a father .

If need to have a husband and a child I can't say I will like it. Mostly because I prefer romancing women, in game and IRL. But the whole idea of a family? Not really against if it's done well. Maybe I could role play that hey, I'm a closet lisbian who's finally rid of her husband.

Well you can always be the deadbeat dad/mom and go "FINALLY, free of that ball and chain! Man, I tell ya, pass me another beer. Warm beer? Cool."

Really as long as they aren't actually present in the game it won't bother me *as much*. I can see them possibly dying in the nuclear fire, and their deaths could be the psychological catalyst for whether or not my character goes over the edge and becomes a cold blooded killer or maintains his good nature.

Well lets hope the quest isn't:"What happened to my Wife and Child.....let's Rescue them version 2000001 "

But children are invulnerable gods in the Fallout universe. Didn't you learn that at Little Lamplight?

Heck if they are, if they are a thing, they might just stay in the vault. Unless my wife got a serious case of wander-lust and took the kid, or raiders ransack the place after it opens and drag them off...Well, both are actually fairly compelling hooks for me personally.

But I'd be fine if they stayed at the Vault, I come back every so often, "Hey, daddy brought presents! No, hun, no, that's Daddy's Jet..."