Sure... I read the Wiki. And I usually take what it says at face value... because more often than not, it's true.

The difference is, I know what's true or not, because I still regularly play every (playable: Fallout 1, 2, Tactics, 3, and New Vegas) game in the series. As for all the 'word of dante' crap, call me an atheist but I sure as hell don't rely on Bethesda for my information on what is or is not Canon. No matter how much they may wish it to be so, they are -newcomers- to the series... and it already has an established universe of history and what-have-you. The series died off once with shoddy development and spin-offs breaking continuity.

The word of God is written by men... and what makes it to the 'stone' is entirely dependent upon who holds the chisel.


That being said, I think Lore is one of the things Fallout does amazingly well. Even Bethesda, I feel, has given interesting new materials for the Lore to be built upon. The D.C. Wasteland is one of my favorite places, honestly. I love the feel of exploring the ruined seat of my crappy government.

I particularly love deleting the spawns at the Capitol Building after having killed everything there and taking the place over.

Rebuilding America: One landmark at a time.

Yes yes, that's all well and good, but my essential point was people shouldn't trust wiki's and non-dev's 100% about lore, and that people should only fully trust dev statements (like the fallout bible, for example) and primary source material. (games) I suppose I read tvtropes too much, as word of dante and word of god are simply tropes listed on that website.

And -my- point is... sometimes a developer needs to EARN the right to dictate canon.

With a game like Fallout, there's not a great many people who believe Bethesda has that right. And they're not about to go whimpering off into the dark. Now, having said that, as a general rule, yes, you're right!

Also: tvtropes is awesome... and I totally can't believe I failed to recognize that one! So, carry on then. Keep using them! But not on me... because I spend too much time there myself... and before long we'll be talking about magnificent bastards and the slippery slope. And then things will just get silly, and out of hand.

Having played all of the Fallout games extensively, I don't read the wiki. When each new game comes out I prefer to learn the lore updates and changes by playing that games as much as possible to find out everything it has to say.

Ultimately, I consider ownership to be what's important in determining canon dictation rights, not the merit of the current developer. In my view, Legal ownership has a concreteness that the developer's merit does not. After all, you either own an IP or you don't. Since there are a wide range of factors that effect merit evaluations, and we have no reason to believe that there is a consensus across the fandom, I do not think we can use merit as any sort of standard for evaluating a dev's right to dictate canon. (and since the "merits" rely heavily on personal taste in this case, I doubt consensus is possible)



And a good chunk of the forum won't know what we're talking about either.

I use the wiki a lot. In fact I happen to have it in a tab right now.

Both, you don't get stats and biographies for weapons in the games, except FO1 and 2. Plus the wiki gives lots of creator-fueled backstory to the universe.