Fallout New Vegas Helped Me to Listen
I have a habit of talking a lot. When my excitement and passion get the best of me, I talk over people, even when I try not to.
I was either overly interrupting or getting caught up in all the other details and not the actual words. But despite the reminders, warnings, and at times scoldings, from teachers and friends, nothing exposed my listening skills more than the hellish wasteland of the Mojave in Fallout: New Vegas.
Released in 2010 by Obsidian Entertainment, “Fallout: New Vegas” is regarded as the greatest “Fallout” game. The future of an anarchy-ruled, post-nuclear Nevada is all up to the player’s choice: What shape will you engrave onto the mountains?
Infamously made in only 18 months, this is a game with a deeply tangled tree of outcomes and with that, multiple save files are mandatory. So going into my new yearly save file of New Vegas, I wanted to come away from my familiar ‘Lonesome Road’ with new memories.
Through research, I found a YouTube video on ways to freshen up a roleplaying game’s playthrough:
1. To judge your skill selection, gun selection, dialogue choices, joined factions, choice of fast travel and all other choice-based aspects a backdrop of: does this in-game decision make sense for the created story of your character?
2. Simply just slow down; stop and really take in and listen to the world around you.
These two simple changes in gameplay sparked a new row of torches across the Mojave.
I made it a point to really stop, listen, and look around at the world around me. To research the places I’m visiting, in game or on a wiki. I noticed that in the past, I was playing but not really immersifying myself into this story rich RPG; Lacking a whole new layer of experience. But once I turned over one rock, I got addicted to turning them all over.
Here are a handful of my favorite places and quests throughout Obsidian’s masterpiece:
Jacobstown
Tucked away on the far west side of the Mojave is Jacobstown, a worn out ski resort that is now a haven for Super Mutants: a breed of creature in the Falloutverse born as a result of relentless human experimentation that frankensteined other adjacent breeds such as The Nightkin.
A once covert elite mercenary force in ‘The Master’s’ army, also known as The Unity, The Nightkin fall victim to what crafted their infamy. Their deeply violent and ruthless work of purging humans from the wastes was exclusively done in invisibility, leaving them addicted to the lifestyle and causing skin to turn blue and memory black.
In hopes of finding a cure from human ‘Doctor Henry’, they migrated to Jacobstown. A mutant getaway that offers community, stability, and kinship through both location and demographic.
The town was founded by Marcus and was a second attempt at establishing a home for his brethren. Marcus, although a mutant himself, is mild-mannered and grounds his kin in messaging of collectivism. Preaching co-existence with humans and acceptance of the self. His calm, elderly mannerism balances out the impatient Nightkin living out a frustrated, punch-first mindset.
In the end, it’s up to the player to help the Doctor Henry and, in turn, the Nightkin; it is a struggle of sympathy and empathy amongst a land that promised morals was extinct. But as I learned, what’s truly wrapped beneath Nightkin’s races’ deeply rooted anger is a desperate want for belonging, acceptance and judgment-free existence.
Choosing to sit and let the dialogue play out with each of the Nightkin humanized and added great depth to an otherwise unstable and abrasive race in “New Vegas.” These no longer became side quests to build character level; they were people and creatures with stories worth listening to. Further pushing my choices down the road of empathy and away from revenge and in the end I chose to help the Nightkin.
Novac
The city of Novac, a small motel town beaconed by a large green toy dinosaur, was in a civil war of its own over: Who kidnapped resident Craig Boon’s wife?
Although a small town and stop on your way to the light beam of the New Vegas strip, its residents Craige Boone, Jeanie May, Manny Vargas, Cliff, Ada, Ranger Andy and No Bark-Noonan and their interweaving, overlapping stories, are crafted with deception in mind; bringing a detective edge to a desert land that rarely rewards a speak first shoot later approach.
Who are you going to choose? Who are you going to believe?
The seemingly innocent motel receptionist, Jeanie May, or the sincere but off the rails hobo, No Bark-Noonan. This early quest titled, “One for My Baby” serves as a foreshadow to the larger New Vegas experience: An array of personalities and sides to choose that only multiplies in scale of consequence or reward depending on who you side with.
The Great Khans & Jerry The Punk
Later while visiting the Red Rock Canyons to meet with the Great Khans, a large raider faction in the wastes akin to a Native American tribe, I met Jerry The Punk. Although born into the Khans and on the precipice of becoming an Adult Khan in a brutal ritual, Jerry couldn’t feel more out of place.
His half clean-shaven, half thick, greasy comb-over hair sported both rebellion and practicality. And as I came to find out, Jerry had his desires based in literature and not hard-nosed warfare, rendering him essentially useless among the Khans.
Helping Jerry not only find a way out of Red Rock Canyon but also a way towards a place that accepts his true self shines a beacon of belonging in a world that shunned it in mushroom clouds.
Jerry is my favorite punk.
White Glove Society
Resting in a corner among the scruffy barbed-wired walls of the New Vegas Strip, was the Ultra Luxe Hotel. A towering white-colored throne guarded by a fountain and pearlescent steps, angled steep towards its pearly gates.
Run by the White Glove Society, a mysterious masked tuxedo wearing cult, the Ultra Luxe is upheld by luxury, class and elegance. A lifestyle extinct in the hellscape of the desert; f the White Glove Society are almost screaming to be a cult.
And a cult they were, kind of. I suggest learning more about them on the wikipages; lots to unpack.
In earning the White Glove’s trust with my words, I chose to integrate within the game’s Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) counterparts, aiding their intentions and in the end fueling my entertainment.
But as I left the lightshow of comfort and traveled into Freeside, the barely livable projects just outside the vibrant crowning jewel of the Mojave, I slowed down to watch the trashed-out habitat. The abandoned rotting garden of Freeside squatting next to the flashing roses of New Vegas left a sour taste in my mouth as I noticed the similarities in our living world.
Reflection
All the assorted stories in the Mojave, along with so many many more large and small, helped to paint humanity back into a world that was stripped of a hopeful tomorrow. The stories, the roads, the towns, the violence, the atmospheres are a mirror into our daily living world.
How we do anything is how we do everything.
In the sixth grade after getting a math test back I was annoyed score as my arrogance told me I did much better than a B+. It wasn’t until years later I realized that the broad shoulders of confidence I relied on for shrewd completion of the test became a hindrance to my overall growth. I still remember the words, “Slow Down,” written in big in red across the bottom of the page.
This small memory has stuck with me in a negative way. Since then, I had moments in which details were overlooked but I didn’t want to believe it. Was I simply getting unlucky or was this just how I was?
But it’s games such as New Vegas, and others (mass effect 1 & 2 shoutout) that exposed my small ears and loud mouth.
They taught me to pause, that slowing down is worth it; it is necessary.
All the gems of our experiences and lessons in life are rarely found by strictly looking inward. As we are constantly overstimulated by the world around us and obsessed with our own thoughts and goals we have to and remember that to learn best is to listen.
Listen to the crosswalk officer or a person at work telling you about their dinner. Listen to your siblings and their troubles or to the person handing free samples at the grocery store.
Life only allows one playthrough, one save. So, try not to skip through the dialogue, as you might miss something important.
sidenote*
This was originally a piece I wrote almost a year ago that was vaulted (pun intended);
I’m aware there is so much more to this game. New Vegas is an endlessly replayable experience that I have sunk at least an additional couple hundred hours into since writing this. This is simply a handful of small excerpts that aid a larger picture of how this digital mojave changed me for the better.
And I hope this piece can inspire a reader to boot up a Fallout New Vegas and create their own path.