To retrieve the package, yes, but what about all the factions and NPC's and other things going on. Why would I care? I'm just a courier.

You could say the same thing about Fallout 3 and 4, really. What reason did you have to care about the Brotherhood or Enclave in Fallout 3? Any of the factions in Fallout 4? In RPGs like this it's your responsibility to provide that reason. Maybe your Courier is an NCR patriot, maybe they agree with the Legion's belief that only the strongest should be allowed to survive, and wants to see that conviction spread throughout the wasteland, or maybe they're a trickster that thinks all of the options are a bunch of fools clinging to failed ideologies, and that they should all go soak their heads, and decides to play them against one another and then betray them all for an independent Vegas. The last one is from one of my favorite playthroughs, actually.

The difference for me was that in Fo3 and 4 there was always a pervasive sense of optimism for the future. The Capital Wasteland and The Commonwealth are terribly off places, but the people haven't given up hope for the future, and people are actually trying to do something to make it better. This extended even to The Pitt where, no matter which side you picked, there was a sense that its going to get better when the cure is made.

In New Vegas, the Mojave wasteland is a fairly well off place, at least compared to most of post-war America, but the game constantly hammers in at every turn that every faction is a miserable choice for the region, everyone is completely depressed, and basically no one besides Benny is actually trying to do anything to make it better. The game gives you no reason to want to help any faction, because they are all universally terrible, nor any reason to want to help the local people because they have no desire to help themselves.

The people of the east were trying to do things, but failing due to outside influences they couldn't control, but that I could help set right. The people of the mojave were lazy idiots sitting around waiting a doom and gloom that needn't come if they would get off their asses and DO something.

Everything about the worlds and peoples of Fallout 3/4 made me want to help them, whereas everything about the mojave and its people made me wonder why I should help them when they apparently aren't even trying to help themselves.

Eh? So the pathetic people in FO 3 and 4 who don't get off their asses and do something make you want to help them, but the pathetic people in FONV who don't get off their asses and do something, don't?

Cuz so far in every single game, FO 3, NV, and FO 4, they all a bunch of lazy idiots sitting around who just ask me to do everything for them. Many of em just waiting around for Doom and Gloom, too.

The people of Fallout 3 and 4 have done more to combat the endless super mutant hordes, and raider gangs then I can recall anyone in the mojave doing. They have done it for 200 years, and are still optimistic about their futures.

The NCR and Legion get within sneezing distance of the mojave, and basically everyone but Benny just accepts they are [censored].

All I can say is we must have played different games. I don't remember anyone in Fallout 3 or 4 doing anything at all without my intervention, or the intervention of one of the major factions - Lucy West couldn't even deliver her own own letter to her own parents at another nearby settlement without my help.

So you expect the civilians of FONV to stand up to not one, but two armies? Lol. Raider gangs is one thing, and it would seem people have mostly taken care of that problem in the west, seeing how they are not nearly a threat anymore(suggesting they got off their asses I guess). Yet in CW and Commonwealth, hundreds of raider gangs still exist. Maybe if these raider gangs were anywhere near smart they all would of banded together and formed an army. The CW and Commonwealth people must not be doing a good job, based on the mass amounts of raiders in the areas, mass amount of SM, too. Doesn't seem like they have accomplished much, other than holding them self up and not dying. Even the Minutemen are wiped out and Garvey contemplating suicide until you come around and solve everything for them.

Agreed. All the people seem to do in FO 3 and 4 is wall themselves in and with all the gang and SM activity it is a miracle they haven't been wiped out. I can't even comprehend places like Republic of Dave not being wiped out, that wired fence must be tough for raiders to figure out. But he doesn't do anything, not like he going out and fighting raiders, same with Arefu, helpless and holed up in their homes, rivet city holed up on a ancient ship, Big Town, helpless. I am with you, must have played an entirely different game.

Indeed, I find the argument that the people of the Mojave are "stupid and lazy" while the people of the east coast are somehow better to be absurd. The Capital Wasteland hasn't done anything in 200 years, and you can't blame Super Mutants and raiders for everything because there's no sign that they've tried to do anything at all, not even fight back. The Commonwealth tried to established a government once, I'll give them that, but after the Institute murdered the people who tried they decided to just lie down and cower behind whatever walls they could find. Any criticism directed at the residents of the Mojave for being lazy, the Capital Wasteland and Commonwealth deserve just as much if not more.

Indeed. Just what are common citizens supposed to do when two trained armies appear on their doorstep? Join up some kind of resistance? Against both? Join one? I mean, there are some citizens who have opinions on who would be better, usually it is the NCR, sometimes it is the Legion. Some of them may just be thinking about survival, and not committing to a side so when the dust clears they can just accept the victor and not get killed for being insubordinate. But anyway, there is a lack of raider and SM threat in the west for a reason(of course the VD and BoS are mostly important for this but whatevs).

Well, the CW has its own superhero

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mechanist

=P

It's ES 6's turn. We better not see another Fallout for at least 5 years.

Why should I care to do ANY of the side quests in fallout 3? I'm trying to find my father, why would I pointlessly blow up megaton?
Hell, why should I care about helping the brotherhood of steel or stopping the enclave?

Why would I build settlements or do side quests in fallout 4 when I'm looking for my stolen infant son? Ah my son is gone, but I'm gonna build up 5 different settlements instead.

New Vegas makes way more sense, I get ahold of an item that can shape the entire geopolitics of the region and get shot in the head trying to deliver it. Or rather, I get shot delivering it in what seems to be a setup (so I want answers), try to get revenge, and then find out how important the item is.

At least new Vegas let's me side with any of the main factions so I have more replay value, rather than siding with three brotherhood and fighting the enclave, every. Time.

The people of the Commonwealth can stand up to The Institute, and the BoS, and emerge victorious against both using primitive technology. That they TRIED, regardless of if they succeed or not, is what matters though. People who attempt to help themselves, regardless of if they fail or not, are far more sympathetic then people who do not.

The people of the Capital Wasteland and the Commonwealth live in a radioactive hellhole, and have done basic things like building water purifiers, build walls for their towns to defend them, and established trade routes across the wastes, that trug through all the raiders.

The people of the mojave accomplished absolutely nothing in nearly 200 years time, and just let House and the NCR do everything for them. But even then, they still fail even at basic things like building water purifiers to purify all the radioactive water in their town's water towers. Then they sit and mope, and people like Ruby Nash complain about how fresh food and water is worth its weight in gold, when it takes all of a day or two to build a water purifier machine, slap it on your town's water tower, then they would have all the fresh water they wanted. And they easily could have just walked over to Goodsprings, asked them for some seeds to plant crops, and then had crops of their own, solving their food problems. There is nothing to garner sympathy from anyone in the mojave. They didn't try to make their lives better in the nearly 200 years before House or the NCR showed up, and after those forces did show up, they act like they expect to be given everything by them, but don't want to actually deal with them. They are selfish, spoiled, children who did nothing ever.

No.

Goodspring dont have magic seeds. Did you see any fertile soil in Primm?

http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/fallout.gamepedia.com/3/35/Caravan_Routes.png

Uhh.. yes. The Fallout 3 caravan merchants hilariously have a more complex trading system then the ones in the Mojave. Not to mention trade all the way from Boston to the Broken Banks, both by land and by sea which. the mojave had.... literally nothing until the NCR showed up around 7 years ago.

Its the exact same soil as in Goodsprings, the same mojave desert soil as everywhere else.

Lol.

Actually, most of the people in the Mojave doing just fine as settlers and farmers and such and only had any problems pop up until recently, mainly with the emergence of the NCR and them bringing with them convicts that escape. That is the only reason why Goodsprings and Primm has any problems. They all seemed to be getting by just fine, well, until war shows up, and even then for the most part they still just living their lives. Desert Rangers kept the peace and cleaned out majority of the raiders, seems to me they just had a fairly peaceful life, with limited problems until game time.

Also, don't you mean the Commonwealth, with the guidance of the SS, accomplishes anything? For 200 years they just been under the thumb of the Institute who now strikes fear in them that people they know may actually be a synth. But yeah, they have walled themselves in, which didn't work for everyone seeing how lots of settlements been wiped out by raiders and SM, and even the Minutemen are wiped out and dead unless the SS intervenes. Not doing a good job fighting off raiders for them to still exist 200 years later there as a massive force, bud. In the Mojave they basically wiped em all out.

Outcasts. You see them running regular patrols arcross the wasteland, they engage with raiders, mutants and whatever else they find, and in Operation Anchorage you find them actively cleaning out a super-mutant nest. Or possibly fighting off an incursion, I can't honestly remember which.

Admittedly they're an exception rather than the rule.

They are only running patrols because they are looking for technology to bring back to base. Raiders and Super Mutants are in their way, so they get rid of the problem. In fact, that's part of the point of the intro to Operation Anchorage is them fending off an attack while they desperately look for a way to open the Pre-war armory because there might be something shiny in it. When you first arrive at their fort, they are fighting off raiders to protect their loot.