» Sat Jul 30, 2011 4:44 pm Skip down to *SKIP HERE* if you want me to get to the point fast.
The common wastelander has all of their time committed to survival. Education is a privilege that is not as immediately useful to a wastelander as practical experience. You know that a door will open if you turn the handle even if you are not a locksmith. I don't see classrooms in Megaton, Rivet City, Freeside, Westside, Novak, and other places where there are wasteland people.
Why are water beggars, children, goons, etc. so well spoken?:
"Help. I need purified water or I won't survive. Dirty water won't help me because I'm too sick."
"Come to Mick and Ralph's for all your shopping needs! If we don't have it then it doesn't exist."
"Welcome to Little Lamplight. I'm Knock Knock, what's your name? If you're hurt then see our doctor."
"Don't confront me in public. If you want to talk then take this key and meet me upstairs where you can kill me."
Imo, the average wastelander in FO3 and FNV is 'too aware' of their situation and why things are the way they are. I hate that they have opinions and ideas on what the higher factions should do. You read that correctly. A random junkie will say that the NCR should begin preparations to help improve the lives of people because the Legion has been struck with such a blow with the death of Caesar that their destruction is inevitable, and that the time to recover will be near. If the average settler is so capable of understanding their future with clarity because they are in tune with the dealings of the rest of the world then life shouldn't be so bad for them now.
Isn't the lesson of the apocalypse that human beings will blow each other up to win an argument? War never changes, isn't that right? Because people are garbage.
*SKIP HERE*
I typed all of that to express how I feel, that even in FNV ordinary people are too black and white and too educated. Why is it that only the raiders and goons are corrupt rebels but common settlers with no access to formal education are so good and noble and understanding of each other? Do I just not get Fallout? The average person should be at the level of a third grader, with terrible language and the wrong idea about what is important and how a person should behave. They shouldn't play with ideas outside of their personal lives, they should be stuck in a narrow world of comparing themselves to others, competition over who has the better house, criticizing each other behind their backs, and continuing the daily narcissistic attitude that lead to the bombs dropping long ago.
The average person should be nastier. Remember the gloomy, hopeless feeling in Fallout 1? It's not present in FO3 or FNV. Wouldn't you be glad to see that whoever was in charge of npcs and dialogue objectively lowered the standard of people in Fallout 4? The atmosphere would be darker but it would leave no question that asks "how could humanity have destroyed itself?"
