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Part 11: Just because there are alternatives doesn't mean they apply to you...


Content Consumer

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Part 11: Just because there are alternatives doesn't mean they apply to you...
Previous: Part 10: I watched as the Lamb opened the first of seven seals...

 

Convenient. What does it mean, exactly? A dictionary may define the word as "fitting in well with a person's needs, activities, and plans." Another definition might be "involving little trouble or effort." Perhaps you might define it as "situated so as to allow easy access to." Convenient may also be a different way of saying suitable, favorable, or advantageous.

 

The definition I'm wanting right now is more along the lines of "extraordinary events opportunistically occurring through inexplicable or supernatural means." Convenient, in this case, is shorthand for "deus ex machina" or "unexpectedly and unaccountably favorable and timely" or possibly "bloody stupid game design."

 

Clara's encounters with convenient world events, conveniently helpful people, conveniently found items, and conveniently occurring situations happen like clockwork. If you examine everything that's happened up to her until this point, you'll see someone who is not only preternaturally lucky, but someone for whom the world seems to bend over backwards. A strange attractor, if you will. First she almost gets killed by a nuclear bomb that kills most everything else, then she almost gets killed by a mercenary who murders her husband, then she happens to encounter a series of people, one after another, who direct her on her chosen path (despite a few sidetracks prompted by her innately acquisitive nature and possible ADHD problem), then she miraculously finds a trail of items leading to exactly where she wants to be... it's almost like the whole world revolves around her.

 

Why am I going on about this at length? Because it's starting to scare me. I was bemused at first, then confused, then irritated, and now fearful. What's next in the "five stages of realizing that you're bound to a lightning rod of random lucky strikes?" Awe? Respect? I certainly hope not. I'd like to think I'm a little more intelligent than that. Time will tell.

 

Anyway, the reason I'm spouting off at length here is because Nick Valentine conveniently knows exactly who Clara is looking for, despite a vast number of other possibilities and the very unlikely chance that he would know in the first place.

 

After taking a seat in Valentine's office, he asks Clara for the details, all the details, no matter how small, and no matter how painful. After a single sentence, Nick's secretary interrupts and tells Clara that she doesn't need to go on. A little bit of mixed message here, considering that Elle isn't rebuked for this contradictory interruption, but hey, whatever. Valentine at first seems fairly competent at his job, jumping to reasonable conclusions that are not outlandish. He slips up a bit when he jumps a bit too far on his conclusion about the gun, but whatever. He also manfully resists the urge to poke fun at Clara for her description of the guy's voice, which ups my estimation of him a bit. I don't think I would have that kind of self-control.

 

When Clara gets around to actually describing the guy, "bald head and scar" being her whole contribution, he immediately assumes it's this guy Kellog. Now I'm not saying he's definitely wrong here, but in a world where radiation poisoning would ostensibly lead to a lot of bald people, and where 99% of the population is immediately hostile at first sight leading to gun battles and knife fights meaning facial scars are probably not that uncommon, taking these two bits of evidence as gospel that Kellog is the right guy is a little far-fetched to my mind. Based on this very slim evidence, Nick gets up and leads the way to Kellog's apartment. Apparently he's been missing for a while, and though "a while" is never specifically explained, one gets the impression that Kellog has been gone for a considerable amount of time. You don't open up a missing persons case for someone who's been gone less than a day, after all. Around here, with people going missing left and right, you'd think it would take at least a couple of weeks for someone to notice, much less care, that the resident hermit who keeps to himself is no longer present. Nick at first seems to only vaguely remember whether Kellog even has a house in town, though he does remember that the guy had a child in tow.

 

Despite Kellog's relatively secretive nature, and the fact that nobody really remembers him around here, Nick does suddenly remember that Kellog has a nasty reputation for dangerous work and that Clara's description of his activities fit his MO. Yep, that's right, this is in line with his normal behavior patterns. So apparently it was more than just his physical description that went into this identification. I guess Kellog has a relatively well-known habit of descending into impenetrable cryogen facilities and kidnapping babies. For all I know, it's not uncommon in the Commonwealth. There's probably a support group for people with that problem. "Hi, my name is a breakfast cereal brand, and I like going underground and stealing children and shooting one parent leaving the other one alive." "Welcome! Glad you came to us, we all have the same problem. You're among friends here." Yeah.

 

Exploring Kellog's house, both Nick and Clara seem more interested in the cigars and booze than the fact that he managed to build a secret room in his house without anyone in town noticing. Frankly I find the little sleeping bag on the ground at the foot of his bed to be a little more concerning, especially when you consider the two corncobs, handcuffs, and duct tape on the bedside table. Now I'm not saying that he got up to anything improper, but I wonder if there are any other secret rooms in this little house, possibly leading to a sex dungeon or something.

 

At any rate, the cigars seem to be the key to tracking him down. Nick suggests that Dogmeat could track the scent, despite the fact that it may have been literally months or even longer since Kellog was here with an unknown number of rainstorms in that time not to mention the "track" being obscured by other people or creatures. If you couldn't spot it, the italicized words there are my attempt to draw attention to more of the convenient stuff that happens to Clara. Not only is Dogmeat waiting just outside, despite the fact that he was last seen in Sanctuary and must have freaking teleported to get here this quick, and how did he know he was supposed to be here, and how did Nick know that Dogmeat was his name, and how the hell is Dogmeat supposed to track the scent of very old cigars, no matter how ripe, halfway across the world after God knows how long...

 

Argh. If I start thinking about it, I'm likely to burst a seam. Let's ignore the whole thing, shall we? In fact, let's skip ahead, past the whole tracking scenario, cigars and bloody bandages and profoundly stupid "decoy" attempts and dead robots and everything else, to the end. Fort Hagen.

 

Next: Part 12: In time, you may come back some day, to live once more, or die once more...
Go to TOC

 

Author's note: Dogmeat picks up the scent of the cigars, and tracks them to a little pond, where he loses the scent. But what luck - there are more cigars right there! The next time he loses the scent, it's at some bloody bandages that give him a new smell to follow. And then more bandages at the next stop. Dogmeat's nose and the trail of breadcrumbs is another one of those convenient things that keep happening to Clara.

 

Image: Proof that it's been quite some time since Kellog came this way. After all, Mole Rats, Yao Guai, and Ghouls have infested the route since then. Ignore the fact that areas respawn every three days (so why the missing person's report on a guy nobody cares about after only three days?) and the dead assaultron indicating that it's been a shorter time. The contradictions are almost as irritating as the serendipitous events.
The railroad in the picture we're following can't possibly be a subtle reminder of how the game is going, now can it?
blogentry-462261-0-40206700-1464146971_thumb.jpg

 

Have a question or comment for Vault Suit? All things are as one in the grand design of the Universe, and thus your question has already been answered.

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Dictionary, convenience defined as railroading, and ennui. Wall of text here!

 

 

Yes, those dictionary definitions are pulled right off the front page of Google search "define convenient," because I can't be bothered to get off my ass and go into the other room and look at the real dictionary.

 

Now... you could make the argument that it's not stupid (or rather railroading) game design for everything to point directly at the next stop in the story target. Bethesda hasn't done anything else in quest design since Morrowind, but rather than get embroiled in a "just because it's in line with the status quo doesn't mean it's not a bad idea" vs. "haters gonna hate" argument, I'll just skip it all and try desperately to come up with an in-game justification for all this.

In fact, there are several pointers to the Institute (or more specifically Shaun) being directly responsible for setting up this trail of breadcrumbs. Kellog is written in such a way that he certainly believes so. One could make the argument that Shaun's actions in releasing Nate/Nora from stasis (though IIRC it's never explicitly stated that he was responsible, it is implied) and putting Kellog up in Diamond City are akin to releasing a male and a female wolf into a national park and hoping they reproduce. I'd make the counterargument that it's more like releasing a male orangutan into the ocean and a female llama into the upper atmosphere and hoping they reproduce, but the truth is that you could make this tenuous leap. Father's logic is flawed in oh, so very very very many ways, so perhaps we can reasonably expect him to assume that a prewar lawyer would have the skills, training, charisma, or luck to make it across a hostile, radiated landscape populated with all manner of hungry human-eating predators and kill-on-sight psychopaths. You could argue that this game was originally designed only for the Nate story and that Nora was tacked on at the last minute, and it is assumed that someone with a military background would be a little better prepared to navigate the dangerous Commonwealth. Or maybe Father just took Vault-Tec's ideas of experimentation (i.e. the theory that a good experiment is one with dozens of unrelated variables and only a vague notion of what the end result might be) to heart. A sort of "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" attitude.

Fine.

But that doesn't excuse just how much "convenient" things are happening, how much railroading is going on. In other recent Bethesda games, the main quest is set up in a very linear path, sure, but at least they had the good grace to at least attempt to hide it.

When Delphine sends you to the Thalmor Embassy in Skyrim, she doesn't say "Go here and find out the truth!" She says "I'm out of ideas, so maybe this is a good place to look next."

When Jauffre tells you to track down the agents of the Mythic Dawn that are spying on Cloud Ruler Temple in Oblivion, he doesn't say that doing so will lead to information about an impending attack on Bruma. He just doesn't know what to do with you next, and has come up with some busywork to keep you occupied until Martin can figure out what's going on.

When you are supposed to ask Scribe Rothchild for pre-war computer access in Fallout 3, you aren't directly told that this will help you find a GECK, merely that it is a good chance.

All of these things have quest pointers and map markers associated with them, and even without these quest pointers, the dialogue and/or text (notes, computer terminal entries, etc) will lead you to the next link in the chain. But it is rarely stated directly that doing this will advance the quest. It's almost always painted as just the next most logical thing to do.

Fallout 4, on the other hand, makes no real effort to hide the railroading. The only point in the entire game when you're not explicitly told where to go next for more information is right at the very beginning, when you first emerge from the Vault. At that point, you can go anywhere, and though your quest pointer points you to Sanctuary Hills (where you miraculously find Codsworth), there's no expectation that you actually will find out where Kellog et al went, merely that you're surrounded on all sides by the unknown and you might as well head in the direction of something at least vaguely familiar. After that, you're set on a very obvious path, despite Bethesda's also pushing you in every conceivable other direction with quest hooks designed to pull you off track. Saying "this is where you need to go, but you instead could go here and waste time" is not the same as "you can go anywhere you want."

 

All of this is just another minor part of the non-roleplaying feature of Fallout 4. As a shooter with stat building, it's passable. As an RPG, it's a travesty.

I keep telling myself that it's not the designer's fault. Probably some mucketymuck at Bethesda or Zenimax phoned down and said "there've been a lot of games lately about a father figure trying to protect his child, so do that this time." You don't argue with the boss's boss. I keep telling myself that Bethesda did what little they could to make a decent RPG within the constraints presented by the higher ups. I can't believe that the same development group, however enlarged and altered, would change its core ideals so very much from Morrowind without some outside direction.

People blame Todd Howard for everything wrong with the game. Maybe it's not his fault! Maybe he's trying to do his level best in the face of directives from Robert Altman, Jerry Bruckheimer, Leslie Moonves, Trump (shiver), etcetera. Maybe, just maybe, the next Elder Scrolls game won't be getting deeper into this rut.

 

Hope springs eternal.

 

But not energy, I must admit. I have to say I'm getting bored with Fallout 4. I sincerely intend to finish the main quest, but I don't see myself going beyond that. This is probably not going to be like my Skyrim playthrough, where I kick around a bunch of DLC and do a bunch of sidequests. After finishing the main quest, I might do an epilogue entry or two, if any interesting sidequests present themselves. I'll probably do at least one entry on Automatron, because yowzers are there a shitload of inanities, stupidities, and convenient things there that I sort of have a pathological need to point out. But I can't see this running as long as Skyrim has run for me.

 

It's a good game, and I've had fun with it, but it's just not what I was expecting or hoping for from a Bethesda "open-world" supposedly-role-playing game. They did a lot of things right, and taken as an individual game it's not really that bad, despite all of my complaints and nitpicks... but it's not one of my favorites. I just don't think I'll be able to muster up the interest to keep writing beyond the main quest. Who knows, things might change - but the way I feel right now, I'm having trouble finishing each individual entry. They're only two pages long, and I still struggle.

 

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"(though IIRC it's never explicitly stated that he was responsible, it is implied)"

 

it IS explicitly stated during the "Meet Father at MIT" after the battle of Bunker Hill. I don't remember if you have to give the right responses to get that though.

 

I, alas, have to agree with you that FO4 is in no way, shape or form a RPG. You are (convientently) directed towards the inevitable conclusion. The only mildly RPG element is chosing which flavour of the inevitable conclusion you will take (factions). Other than that it is a first person shooter game. "Go fetch this and kill/maim as much as you like along the way". The main story is extremely underwhelming. You massmurder your way through the Commonwealth to find a son, who you only interact with for 10 seconds, after your wife (who you interact with for maybe 2 minutes?) is murdered... Yeah, I am feeling really invested in that. Revenge! OH... something shiney *wanders off*

Anyway, I still find it a pretty entertaining game. Mainly because I have modded the heck out of it. And because I kinda like settlement building, which makes me strangely "care" about my settlers. And some sidequests are well written. (Haven't tried Far Harbour yet). So I do keep playing it, because after all is said and done, it still intrigues me.

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I've never gotten as far as the battle for Bunker Hill in there. The only time I reached the Institute, I did a couple of quests and could see no immediate end in sight, and I had absolutely no desire to work for the Institute and further their goals, so I just left and never went back.

 

 

 

Revenge! OH... something shiney *wanders off*

I feel like one of those Portal cores. "Ooh, what's that? Hey, look at that thing! That has numbers on it. What's that noise? Is that a gun? Where are we going?"

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