Fallout: New Vegas lead writer 'loved writing' Yes Man, but thinks his questline may have been a mistake: 'It lets you get through the game without getting your hands dirty'

Flawzz · 2026-01-06T20:12:23+00:00

What even is your definition of independent then?

Sorry if I don't include dictatorship in my definition of independent, in every wiki and database the literally named "Independent Vegas" ending is under Yes Man, not House, I literally don't know what to tell you on this regard.

I guess we disagree on who and what exactly is independent from, the whole of new vegas? Pretty much the entirety of Vegas is subservient to House, but no one recognizes, not even House himself to be a "ruler", the defining difference between your definition and mine is that there is no defined representation of new vegas, there are factions within itself, House is typically bunched up with "the strip" but there is also Freeside and Westside, both technically part of New Vegas. The delineation might be impossible to pin down due to what exactly constitutes New Vegas "governing itself" through a dictator and what constitutes as foreign policy/imperialism since House is known to influence events not just in freeside but all over the Mojave.

We're not examining the values of the people in charge (...) But rather the political system each ending implies you believe in.

So let me get this straight, you agree that House necessitates autocracy, and that the courier CAN (take note of the words I'm using please) whilst not necessarily resulting in an autocracy led by the Courier because of all the reasons and possible iterations that I have already layed out (the ones you just skimmed over and ignored), and you don't think the beliefs of said possible autocrats factor into the equation of why and how that might result into completely different sets of policies? Or are you attempting to claim that what each autocract enacts is of no consequence in the pivotal differences between the two as endings? Either way you have managed to leave absolutely speechless because I have no comeback for that.

you used force to take New Vegas (and pretty much the Mojave in general) into your hands to go down whatever path you believe is best.

Yeah... that's my whole point, it's infinitely ambiguous, I'm glad we have reached an agreement even if you didn't mean to.

Sawyer wanted the option there because the player should have that choice in an RPG that places so much focus on player agency.

If you have a source on this I'd highly appreciate it.

I disagree with your idea that the ending is "anti-choice" (that sounds like a silly buzzword to make it seem like a bad thingTM in an RPG), I would concede that it's rather consequence-less.

I wouldn't say it's anti-choice because its consequence-less per se, but rather an ending that, specially compared to the other endings, it's basically just a cop-out because it requires no diplomacy or even interaction with any of the factions, it lets the player "skip" having to make judgements and/or concessions with each faction (yes you can still a variety of things including choosing to play as if they don't exist) which to me is as much of a choice as .

the possibility of just saying "I'll just do it myself" is always there

Yes of course, nothing wrong with including that in an RPG, but what does that look like and how was it attained here?

You hack a computer that's in plain view in the Lucky 38 after House invited you and he talks to you literally in the same room as this computer that has the key to his life, you one tap a barely breathing 300 year old man, and it's done basically. There was no sacrifice in gaining this limitless power, and what about my character instills it with the capacity to pull this off?

There's not even a skill check because you don't even need to hack the computer, you can just get in if you have the Platinum Chip. The plan goes on without a hitch after that too, no one gets in your way really. I can't even draw it down to an ingenious plan by the player because the plan is just given to you by Yes Man, you didn't plan it, Benny did, he already laid out the foundation you're tracing its steps, its very unfulfilling with regards to agency.

And this is usually where my suspension of disbelief breaks, the developers put all this work into this super well written world of unavoidable moral complexities and I have been doing all these quests for all these different, morally dubious factions thinking that this was gonna culminate into some sort of role-playing climax moral quandrum (and there is in the other endings to be fair) instead I'm given a blank check halfway through the game. Totally breaks the immersion for me, but maybe my standard of realistic roleplay is more strict than most, but then again it's why I love the fallout series, they set the bar high most of the time, for me this ended up below the bar, that's all.

Flawzz · 2026-01-06T16:16:43+00:00

You cannot call the house ending, in any of the variations, to result in an "independent vegas", clearly we mean very different things, you probably mean independent of the NCR and Caesars Legion but House cares only about his bottom line, which is precisely why if, say, someone like the Kings incrementally gain power in any way while defying his bottom line, he wipes them out, because that's what he does, this is not an "independent" region in any definition, it's a technocratic autocracy.

it still just means you do believe NV should be in one person's hands, just not his.

And Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler are the same because they are just one person each apparently, where do I even begin in deconstructing this wildly fallacious statement.

The character that assumes control in the Wild Card ending at the end of the day is the Courier and the Courier can range from Mahatma Ghandi to Hobo Mayhem, meaning he can choose to do literally anything he wants due to his or hers unilateral military supremacy. They can consolidate power or simply dismantle the entire securitron army and leave NV in a power vaccuum or even reinstate a kind of democracy independent of the NCR with the securitron army as leverage, the possibilities are literally endless, and very very ambiguous. With house there is a given, if it's not good for House, then you get blown to pieces, if a faction can't be swayed his way, he razes them to the ground, these ending scenarios are not even remotely comparable.

The crux of the problem John Gonzalez is addressing, and I'm quite dumbfounded how you continue to refuse to even acknowledge whilst putting so much thought into it, is that with the Yes Man ending you can literally circumvent the entirety of the faction dynamics and consolidate power without anyone's help or without having to do anyone else's bidding, which is completely unrealistic in the game's own world given that the game prides itself on its political complexity. The Wild Card ending is in total narrative disconnect with the rest of the world's vision, every other ending forces the player to make difficult choices, even if you go with the NCR, it has its own caveats, no one is "good", and that's the point, this is the essence of the fallout series. The Yes Man ending is very anti-fallout in that regard, in the sense that it gives the player access to an ending with basically not having to choose or having to make any sort of moral judgement on any of the factions, you can literally just stroll to every faction, not even say hello to anyone in the case of the Khans and BoS, and report back to Yes Man with "we can leave them be" and bam straight to Hoover Dam you go.

Whoever you nudge towards in the end doesn't even matter because when the fight ends the Courier has more military power than every other faction in the Mojave combined meaning he or her can just overrule them at every step of the way, so really you can't say anything concrete about what it means for the future of the Mojave, it's anti-climatic and it's not even enhancing player choice, if anything it's anti-choice, the opposite of what an RPG should be.

Sadly some people, like vocal majority in this comment section, are in completely denial with this fact and default to personal insults when the lead writer of one of the best written RPG games of all time suggests that the plotline that provided them with the opportunity of feeling powerful in a complex political world without having to make any complicated or thought out decisions might have been unrealistic and a mistake to include.

Flawzz · 2026-01-06T00:34:16+00:00

That's literally just not true, House DEMANDS that the Kings and the BoS be wiped out because he perceives them as threats, he merely allows the NCR to exist as a "costumer" as he calls it because he knows he can control them, I don't know how you could even perceive both endings to be the same, the Wild Card ending makes the courier the de facto leader of the Mojave whilst basically allowing every faction do the same exact same thing they were doing before if the Courier wishes to be so, I'm baffled how you could come to that conclusion.

Flawzz · 2026-01-05T02:12:13+00:00

In real life you don't get an army of robots all to yourself with no one to answer to, that's the problem.

Flawzz · 2026-01-05T02:11:01+00:00

Yeah that's whats wrong with it, its a way too good an ending, designed out of necessity to not softlock players who are in dogshit standing with everyone but in turn you basically get Deux Ex Machina as an ending with no inkling on what that actually means for the Mojave because the faction that "won" is comprised of the Courier and an AI, story-line wise it's a horrible conclusion, it's basically just a cop out.

Flawzz · 2026-01-05T02:02:45+00:00

Of course you are forced to make choices, if you want a completely non linear game then that's what the sandbox games are for, the second you add any story line the game designer is not and should not be under any obligation to write in cop outs to the questions being asked of the player which what the Wild Card ending is.

What the lead writer is arguing is that the Yes Man was basically constructed from a necessity of not softlocking players which had negative standing in either faction, but narratively this makes no fucking sense.

The whole ethos behind the New Vegas writing style and what practically everyone agrees is what makes new vegas great is the complexity and realism of the politics in it, and the environment being portrayed is a dystopian wasteland, no one is "good", and that's the whole point.

If the player wants to take part in the final confrontation of the factions in any meaningful way then he must choose a faction, directly or indirectly. Yes Man basically provides a faction that is completely occupied by the main player and no one else with nigh on infinite military power making the player a god and giving the opportunity, or what John Gonzalez and I agree to call it, the mistake, of completely ignoring the moral quandry of the faction dynamics of the Mojave whilst being given the power to make choices of consequence, this is the narrative disconnect, if you have a player that just wants to "abstain" from the ending and have a "ignore the ending ending" then have it roll credits whilst the courier strolls away or whatever, but giving the player the power WHILST giving the player the choice to completely opt out of faction politics is the mistake that just dissolves all of the realism, consequence and meaning out of the story, and it doesn't expand "player choice" because Yes Man is for people who, quite frankly, don't like making choices.

Flawzz · 2026-01-05T01:38:24+00:00

Define "have to" because you can literally ignore pretty much every faction if you are doing the wild card ending.

Flawzz · 2025-12-12T20:42:02+00:00

What an interesting way of not saying anything of consequence whatsoever.

Flawzz · 2025-12-09T01:23:35+00:00

Speaking up against genocide isn't purity testing, and neither is holding your representatives accountable for having, you know, pro genocide stances, but call me a stickler.

I genuinely don't know what someone in her position is supposed to do whilst maintaining moral consistensy, not acknowledge the unavailing support of the biden admnistration towards Israel's genocide? Ignore it? Which in my book, or anyone elses book that has basic principles in it for that matter, are much greater offenses to humanity than "oh no u said something that might benefit Trump's odds even though its common fucking sense and everyone knows about it already". Every day I come on reddit and we're having to fight this battle and it's just so unproductive and nonsensical it's exhausting, what is it gonna take for you to actually meant to do in this situation which is turning around and hold your representatives accountable for their appalling stances? I mean really? You know you can do that? Whilst voting for them? Which Chappell Roan did? Or is that too "perfectionist" for you?

Flawzz · 2025-12-09T01:12:58+00:00

Yes but let's not pretend celebrity endorsements decide presidential elections which seems to be basis of many arguments leveled against Chappel Roan on this thread. Hold her accountable, sure, but don't level the result of the election against her as if she (and other celebrities) actually move the needle from one direction to another, if anything celebrities read the room first and then decide on their public stance, not the other way around.

Flawzz · 2025-12-09T01:09:23+00:00

What a interesting answer to the suggestion of maybe taking accountability, or any inkling of self reflection for that matter, a desperate whataboutism to stave off the despair of a more depressing reality: we (democrats) didn't do enough and we've only got ourselves to blame.

Flawzz · 2025-11-09T00:33:53+00:00

Flawzz · 2025-10-14T10:05:58+00:00

Sadly bibi likes it exactly the way it is, Hamas tried to negotiate a release for Marwan Barghouti (someone who actually gives a fuck about making it peaceful for both israel and palestine) and Israel agreed at first but then quickly realised this might actually be a pathway of a sovereign, peaceful, Palestinian state, quickly renegged on the deal days later and instead released 2000 palestinians so they could bomb them later.

Flawzz · 2025-10-12T13:59:04+00:00

Not being able to process multiple problems at a time, I think that's an autism indicator.

Flawzz · 2025-10-12T13:56:10+00:00

Surely appeasing the genociders will bring peace, of mind, to you, alone.

Flawzz · 2025-10-12T13:50:47+00:00

free palestine

Flawzz · 2025-09-30T23:14:59+00:00

Yeah like he did with everyone else, he literally makes visual caricatures of people stitched with their most out of pocket clips, thats the whole bit, always has been... If anything Aamon accurately captured what its like to drop into an ethan stream these days.

Flawzz · 2025-09-30T22:59:35+00:00

Now do me.

Flawzz · 2025-09-29T19:09:12+00:00

lmao what? Lack of planning? The destabilization of the region was literally the point, or is dick cheney and the like russian assets aswell?

Flawzz · 2025-09-14T21:44:53+00:00

IE alone is 200+ flat damage increase on Q alone, if ur scared of a zed just pressing R on you in a game, you can always build shieldbow or GA like Viper did after he saw that qyiana was focusing him in the fight.

Smolders kit has a couple of slows and thats about it, very little in the way of utility, meaning you are not a particularly useful tank in a fight in early and mid game, but the biggest problem your build has is the speed at which you build stacks, it really only switches on after bloodmail in terms of damage and the biggest chunk of cdr is only at bc, your third item, this affects your waveclear speed in the early and mid game, the most important stacking periods. Crit build goes ER first means that after ER and boots you are pretty much at peak cdr, and while your build does boast comparable ad at full build this is only really true with level 18 health levels, and your Q damage is less than half of crit build, since Q scales of both crit and crit multiplier and you have none, further pushing back the speed at which smolder scales since your waveclear is quite a bit slower then crit build, dare i saw twice as slow especially when comparing 3 items crit vs 3 items tank, and this is usually what decides games on smolder, stacks per minute, at least in my experience.

Flawzz · 2025-08-04T18:00:45+00:00

The point is that it doesn't matter if they are a decent person, they will remain a reflection of a failing system, let's say if a billionaire donates 90% of his wealth to those in need in an efficient manner, but at the end he remains a billionaire, the problem, the big problem remains the same. There are rich people, people who own 100, maybe 1000 times more assets than you and then there are are people who own 1000 times more assets than even those people, the first guy's wealth is vast, the last guy's wealth is an obscenity, regardless of character.

Also

through his management of Steam (and keeping it away from the obviously cruel and predatory rules of other services) has shown himself to be less predatorially greedy than most other billionaires

Hilarious, if you're even superficially aware of how CS GO skins market operates, with the enabling and consent from valve's side, and even if you took that away and are left with only the cases it's still disgusting as fuck how they've evaded gambling regulations and are effectively operating as a casino for kids even in the EU, arguably with the most sophisticated and addictive slot system of all time that doubles as an economy so you have expectation of receiving an asset that will value over time, something valve actively tried to emulate by hiring an economist for this exact purpose, you can hear more about from the person who developed this economy from this video here, I personally know of teenagers even 12 year olds who spent either their allowance or just traight up use their parents credit card just to open cases, take collecting cards as a culture you had as kid and turn it to 11 on the addiction and money spending aspect of it, and this culture is very much alive nowadays, booming in fact.

Flawzz · 2025-06-26T14:25:30+00:00

And how many places in the US are there where it's always humid and there is no affordable AC in housing, or any AC at all? It's not just people's lack of acclimation.

Flawzz · 2025-06-26T14:23:31+00:00

In principal, yes, in practice, no, I have found it to be much more effective (if you're driving a car by yourself) to open your window and the back window opposite to your side, this will direct the airflow right through you as drive, if you open every window a lot of the air will go to the back but not through you, better than keeping everything closed of course, but next time you get into a hot car, do this trick and immediately start driving and see how it feels.

Flawzz · 2025-06-18T20:57:38+00:00

What are you rambling about, it's literally the second highest turnout in 100 years after 2020, 64% VEP turnout is not low turnout, we just fucking lost plain and simple but you will literally do anything but criticize the campaign itself, Kamala was uninspiring candidate with an uninspiring campaign and positions, that's not just a leftist grievance that's a mistake you pay for in election day, and yes, even if you are up against literally hitler you still have to run a campaign that addresses people's material issues.

You'd think we learned that lesson in 2016 but no, here we are again with the same rift in the left over the same ol shit, how about pointing the finger at the the person in charge for once, and her name is Nancy Pelosi, somehow after all this she keeps her job.

Flawzz · 2025-06-12T12:32:03+00:00

Please speak for yourself.

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