14 DAY TRIAL // The Fallout series of RPGs (Role Playing Games) has been considered one of the most well polished franchises out there. It made people take notice of the fictional post-apocalyptic games by placing difficult choices in players’ hands and raising some serious moral issues. Most of them were about the violence portrayed in the games and the very touchy subject of how that violence impacted the child characters.
Recently, Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer for Fallout 3, spoke with Edge about the violence from the series, and how only some aspects would be portrayed in the latest installment in the franchise. He went on to say that, if used carefully and with a good story around it, any act of violence can be justified for creative reasons.
"I often struggle with whether or not we as game developers should have a heightened sense of social responsibility when creating entertainment. Fallout 3 is an M-rated game—made for adults. Its violence is over-the-top and has been a central focus of not only our game, but the entire franchise. When Bethesda first started developing Fallout 3, we had early conversations [about violence towards children]. But then we began to think, really what benefit would there be [in inflicting violence on kids]? It just seems gratuitous, unnecessary and cruel. The reverse of that is some of the great stories that have been told that involve kids. Look at George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire books. Kids play an important part in that series, and violence to those kids is an important part of those stories."
Pagliarulo definitely makes a good point; developers really need to be careful if and when they use violence in order to portray the story to the gamer. No matter what characters are involved, adults or children, the developers are walking a fine line and need to carefully weigh in the different aspects and then make the big decisions that define a game and its main story.
For those of you who don't know, Fallout 3 will portray the story of a character that has been raised ever since he was a child in a secluded community, called a Vault, safe from the barren wasteland surrounding the world, after a nuclear war was waged. He is then forced to go outside in search of his father and is pitted against various other characters that call the wasteland their home.