It sounds odd , but do you think fallout needs an actual main character? one with a voice and name and an actual solid history?

it would make for one hell of a charecter development story , but it would also kind of ruin the "myself" feel you get when playing with the general main protagonist.

basically what i think is that like in saints row, the character needs to be able to choose a voice that fits him, and thats about it, and maybe even choose like a name so in future games you can actually get recognition in the world, imagine an instance where you killed the NCR president and everyone would go on about "Did you hear about the guy named robert? they say he's the one who assassinated kimball, i'd watch my back from him"

or "they say this guy robert just slipped in like the best of NCR and just killed him, creepy"

Personally, I like how I can immerse myself into my character. For me, giving him/her a voice would kill that.

I liked playing average "courier Joe" in NV and the way that game focused on world, not on you. Predefined background would probably help to tell better personal story, but it's not a thing I want in this particular series.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

In fact, I think they were out of order in NV making you be a former courier.

There are a billion series that force some lame character on you, please go and enjoy them and leave the select few that allow for character creation alone to continue doing what they're doing. It is the main reason many of us like these series.

If anything more series need to ditch main protagonists. I'd love for both red dead and gta to ditch pre-determined protagonists and have character creation instead, maybe even assassins creed too. They would become much MUCH better games as a result. Turning a character creation game into a set protagonist game would be a huge step backwards.

No.

Exactly. FORMER courier. You had a possibility of choosing who you wanted to be NOW.

How NV was "out of order"? In Fallout 1 and 3 you HAD to be vault dweller, in Fallout 2 and Tactics - a tribal. You HAD to do what your overseers/elders/BoS told you. Only way NV was "out of order" was giving player more roleplay possibilities.

Everyone starts out as a child, and I'm fine with being "forced" to start out as a vault dweller in a post apocalyptic world, somehow that didn't bother me. It felt like that was the whole point of the fallout universe. You still could truly create your character. If I wanted to be the type of person who would never grow up into being a courier, that was an option, and I liked that.

And being a courier is fine with me. I'd argue that any universe has a "point".

I understand that. Still, NV gives you more possibilities on your background. Other games defined your life up to the point when game started. Yes, you were a courier. But why have you became him? Maybe you come from one of vaults and you wanted to travel the world, so much bigger and different than your tiny and safe vault. Maybe you are citizen of NCR, free spirit that refused to work as a farmer. Maybe you had calm, peaceful life but you were forced to run because somebody framed you for doing something. Or maybe you even did it? Or maybe you are even frumentarius? Or a tribal? Maybe you took this job only because you needed some money. Lonesome Road limits your possibilities, but not by much. Still, I think it was a mistake.

Just compare that to F3, where you HAD to help your father on Purifier, if you wanted to move plot forward. You couldn't even kill him (when you e.g. roleplayed a psycho) or bunch of other essentials.

No, no no no no no no no. Worst idea ever. Bad enough we have had to deal with The Enclave as the Big Bad for two games, we don't need another multi-gamed big bad.

I'm not opposed to having a solid protagonist in an RPG- Alpha Protocol and Mass Effect have shown it can be done well- but I don't think it's appropriate for Fallout. A spinoff like Fallout Tactics could give it a try maybe.