Warlockracy - Potatozone game reviewer, has good Fallout 2 and Morrowind mod reviews, why is there no discussion about him?

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Esope said:
a russian die hard nationalist turned reformed libertarian ? yeah he's like the russian proto-breadtuber with his 1+ hour video essays with political propaganda distilled as view points and experience but yeah some videos of his are pretty good (age of decadence)
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He aint exactly special in that regard, when the Ukraine thing happened, plenty of nationalistic Russians started shrilling about "Forgive us glorious west!!", ironically only the pro-monarchy shitbags didnt do a 180 turn.
 

A good return to form even if reviewing a made up mod, wasn't a huge fan of the Enclave retcon/PC's backstory but it grew on me a bit. What really got me was his Legion part as he seems to misunderstand why people like the Legion and in changing them so much they lose part of that appeal.
 
Moja Zemlja said:
A good return to form even if reviewing a made up mod, wasn't a huge fan of the Enclave retcon/PC's backstory but it grew on me a bit. What really got me was his Legion part as he seems to misunderstand why people like the Legion and in changing them so much they lose part of that appeal.
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He didn't retcon the Legion, just added in a subfaction that follows BAPism/vitalism. I like it, it's more realistic and interesting. No one faction is ever 100% united behind a single ideology, they're always at least somewhat big tents organized under broader orientations.

I did find it ironic that the leading voice of the Fallout grognards fell into many of the same pitfalls that his camp criticizes Bethesda and nu-Fallout over. His dream Fallout game (which, to be fair, he admittedly don't rate very highly and said he made in a couple days in a dreamlike state) is just as derivative as Bethesda Fallouts, recycling several old elements and themes.
 
King Murchad Big Groypers said:
I did find it ironic that the leading voice of the Fallout grognards fell into many of the same pitfalls that his camp criticizes Bethesda and nu-Fallout over. His dream Fallout game (which, to be fair, he admittedly don't rate very highly and said he made in a couple days in a dreamlike state) is just as derivative as Bethesda Fallouts, recycling several old elements and themes.
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When it comes down to it so many people can't cook up anything more than a moderate reframing of the NV set-up. I found it entertaining at the least. Though the presence of the Brotherhood seems to be there purely because the artist made him a neat looking piece.
 
Agarathium1066 said:
When it comes down to it so many people can't cook up anything more than a moderate reframing of the NV set-up.
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In our own industrial society the main political disagreements can be boiled down roughly to liberalism vs illiberalism, so its no wonder that any sort of story set in a society that's at least somewhat similar reproduces that. I remember a ZP vid where he dubbed it "fascists vs nutters", and how any sort of nuance you try to add like conflict over resources or whatever isn't very effective because people will recognize the fundamental political orientations of the factions and base their decision on who's good or not on that, above all else. Sort of like how Star Wars with Andor has departed from being a silly good vs evil kids franchise, making the Empire have the same connotations as the Imperium of Man or even Nazis, rather than Mordor which was how I always viewed them: an 'evil' faction, sure, but one that no one would have had a problem with dressing your kid up as for Halloween.

Years of NV glazing have seriously distorted it. It's true that Caesar does talk about Hegelian dialectics, and it's true that high-level questions about "what sort of societies will rise out of the ashes/who will inherit America" are part of the story, but that's only a part of Fallout's core, not the entire thing. Fallout should definitely not be a wasteland in stasis inhabited only by raiders and the BOS, but it also shouldn't be a setting where the apocalypse is to its inhabitants as the fall of Byzantium is to us. I don't want to read too much into what is essentially just a fun thought experiment by Warlockcracy, but I worry that people in reaction to Bethesda and the godawful Fallout show's version of the setting will also lose sight of the core of Fallout.

There's a reason why NV was set in frontier Nevada, which is more suited for Bethesda open-world gameplay, and not developed California. In my opinion NV should mark the end of the timeline and the Southwestern United States storyline. Past that point the Fallout universe will only farther from the apocalypse as advanced developed states spread. There's so many other regions that are unexplored, and there needs to be something between between a wasteland stasis where the only conflicts are personal, and a post-post apocalypse where the conflicts will naturally converge on liberals vs authoritarians.
 
They did have additional mechanics with the vow of Steel which seemed interesting. I don’t think he went into a ton of specifics in his game and we likely would’ve seen more content with them if the game… you know… existed.

I liked the adjustments to the Legion. Having them be a more subversive factions falls in line with what the frumentarii are supposed to do. It’s very odd in NV how everyone sorta dances around that fact. What is our head of espionage doing all day? Oh just hanging out with hookers got it. I think one of the only others you meet is Carl which… not very good at his job.

How he flushed out the world felt nice. Junktown getting a name change and other advancements felt very natural and “sequel-y” without being unreasonable. The biggest complaint is the character being called “Majestic.” Call him or her “The Author.” Fits with other character naming schemes and ties back to the idea of writing your own story. At the end of the day you’re the one putting the final sentence on the page.

Also someone in the comments said a low int run could be framed as someone else ghost wrote the book and they used you as the face to be a patsy which could be really fun.
 
King Murchad Big Groypers said:
There's a reason why NV was set in frontier Nevada, which is more suited for Bethesda open-world gameplay, and not developed California. In my opinion NV should mark the end of the timeline and the Southwestern United States storyline. Past that point the Fallout universe will only farther from the apocalypse as advanced developed states spread. There's so many other regions that are unexplored, and there needs to be something between between a wasteland stasis where the only conflicts are personal, and a post-post apocalypse where the conflicts will naturally converge on liberals vs authoritarians.
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I think there's tons of places that it could be set without touching any of the pre-established areas or even choosing who was the canon victor. I don't see it ever happening though as Bethesda is about as creatively bankrupt as one can manage to be. I'm certain anything they crap out in the future will just be Cali's ruins set back to more or less the same status.
 
King Murchad Big Groypers said:
In our own industrial society the main political disagreements can be boiled down roughly to liberalism vs illiberalism, so its no wonder that any sort of story set in a society that's at least somewhat similar reproduces that. I remember a ZP vid where he dubbed it "fascists vs nutters", and how any sort of nuance you try to add like conflict over resources or whatever isn't very effective because people will recognize the fundamental political orientations of the factions and base their decision on who's good or not on that, above all else. Sort of like how Star Wars with Andor has departed from being a silly good vs evil kids franchise, making the Empire have the same connotations as the Imperium of Man or even Nazis, rather than Mordor which was how I always viewed them: an 'evil' faction, sure, but one that no one would have had a problem with dressing your kid up as for Halloween.
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The main issue with politics in gaming is that it lacks personal stakes that comprises 99% of irl politics. You can spend as much times crafting multi layered political intrigue, it doesn't mean shit when the main character is just some vagabond that couldn't care less if the population is going to be raped and murdered for a decade if it brings peace afterwards.

Even if the game tries to make a background to make up for it, by being a work of fiction its impact is negligible.
 
Newcomer 42 said:
Kinda sad that even in an imaginary game... It's still F:NV 2.0. Let it rest already, people!
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There really isn't anywhere else we can take the franchise at this point. The Fallout 2 style of game is kind of dead if Black Developer is leaving the fanbase behind, Van Buren fanprojects are cursed to never get finished, nobody remembers Tactics or wants to take a risk with an alternative genre for a new game, which only leaves us with New Vegas or Todd's lore inaccurate theme park ride game. Unless you want to live off of Old World Blues(HoI4 mod) updates forever, you're going to just accept that New Vegas is pretty much what everyone will try to emulate. Nobody is going to try and use something like Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel as a base for their fanproject.
Agarathium1066 said:
I think there's tons of places that it could be set without touching any of the pre-established areas or even choosing who was the canon victor. I don't see it ever happening though as Bethesda is about as creatively bankrupt as one can manage to be. I'm certain anything they crap out in the future will just be Cali's ruins set back to more or less the same status.
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There was a point in time I wanted the MidWest from Tactics to be properly represented in a 3D title. Once I saw what Bethesda has done with Fallout 4, and what modders did with The Frontier, I resigned myself to simply being glad the game is extremely obscure. The game is virtually unknown to everyone aside from a Mr. House fanboy, a team of chink modders who made two Enclave related total overhaul mods and some cucknadian "artist" who made an anarchist mod using state funded gibs.
BTW Warlockracy made a video about that last one
 
30+GameOvers said:
There really isn't anywhere else we can take the franchise at this point. The Fallout 2 style of game is kind of dead if Black Developer is leaving the fanbase behind, Van Buren fanprojects are cursed to never get finished, nobody remembers Tactics or wants to take a risk with an alternative genre for a new game, which only leaves us with New Vegas or Todd's lore inaccurate theme park ride game. Unless you want to live off of Old World Blues(HoI4 mod) updates forever, you're going to just accept that New Vegas is pretty much what everyone will try to emulate. Nobody is going to try and use something like Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel as a base for their fanproject.
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You could move the action far away from the West Coast, or even outside of America, so you don't have to worry about "lore accuracy" and so on. Or move the timeline forward and havea proper civilized setting instead of a post-apocalyptic stasis.
It reminds me of how nu-Star Wars always goes back to the same desert planet and occasionally Coruscant.
 
Newcomer 42 said:
You could move the action far away from the West Coast, or even outside of America, so you don't have to worry about "lore accuracy" and so on. Or move the timeline forward and havea proper civilized setting instead of a post-apocalyptic stasis.
It reminds me of how nu-Star Wars always goes back to the same desert planet and occasionally Coruscant.
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If you want to take action away from the West Coast, you have Todd's Fallout. If you want to move it away from America, you have Fallout London(and Nuevo Mexico before that got cancelled). If you want a "proper civilized setting" you have New Vegas, which is a post-post apocalyptic game(as is Fallout 2 for that matter). If you want to move the timeline forward, Old World Blues mod pretty much lets you enact the dream scenario of your choosing, as the faction you like takes over all of post nuclear America. Forget waiting for Fallout 5 if you can make one of your own right now.

Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. There is already plenty of variety on display here.
BiggestKai said:
Trust in that New Blood CRPG that's coming out in two weeks three months five years soon™ that doesn't even have a name yet.
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At this point I just want Van Buren Unity project to be finished so I can at least have some closure. Barring that, maybe ATOM RPG 2. As far as Fallout 2 modding goes, Sonora is probably the swan song here as I don't think there is even anyone left to fill in for BD. Hell, last I checked there was something of a scripter shortage since trying to write scripts for the game is somewhat of a lost art, and the old guard never bothered to pass on their knowledge to younger modders. This means that there is almost nobody left to even make a total overhaul mod like this anymore and a real possibility that this skill dies with the last Fallout 2 Boomer modder, supposedly trying to write scripts in the engine is very obtuse so the likelihood of someone younger picking up slack without any help is pretty much null.
 
30+GameOvers said:
If you want to take action away from the West Coast, you have Todd's Fallout. If you want to move it away from America, you have Fallout London(and Nuevo Mexico before that got cancelled). If you want a "proper civilized setting" you have New Vegas, which is a post-post apocalyptic game(as is Fallout 2 for that matter). If you want to move the timeline forward, Old World Blues mod pretty much lets you enact the dream scenario of your choosing, as the faction you like takes over all of post nuclear America. Forget waiting for Fallout 5 if you can make one of your own right now.

Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. There is already plenty of variety on display here.
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I think what people want is a middle ground between civilization and anarchy (which is what New Vegas was by being on the frontier of the NCR, you had plenty of untouched ruins and unopened Vaults while still having some complex post-post apocalypse elements). There's still a lot of untapped potential in the setting that hasn't been explored, both from a mechanical and story standpoint.
California-Nevada-Arizona can be for big developed complex bureaucratic societies, and Boston and DC can be the permanently anarchic raider hellholes. Off the top of my head, you could have competing city-states, or tribes that are semi-civilized at around early modern levels of development. Have it be a gradient: the further east you go, the less developed things get. Embrace the Mad Max inspirations with nomads in the Great Plains. We haven't seen a fully urban Fallout where the entire map is the city: have it be that for whatever reason it was inaccessible until recently, and prospectors and settlers are now moving in, akin to NV.

Point is that it's a false dichotomy between a "proper civilized setting" and "Todd's Fallout". New Vegas was not a civilized setting at all, it lay at the boundary between the two, which is where the most gameplay and storytelling potential usually is (and for RPGs in general). Old World Blues's vision of the setting isn't one that I think is the proper direction, and that's because its nature as a wargame incentivizes certain worldbuilding choices that directly conflict with those that are good for RPGs. I'd like to see at least one Fallout game that doesn't feature the BOS, Super Mutants, or Enclave. Leave those things to be California-specific.
 
King Murchad Big Groypers said:
His dream Fallout game (which, to be fair, he admittedly don't rate very highly and said he made in a couple days in a dreamlike state) is just as derivative as Bethesda Fallouts, recycling several old elements and themes.
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Grognard Fallout is just a different flavor of Bethesda Fallout really. It is more nuanced, but they have zero interest in anything outside of NCR / Caesar over and over, and when they add new things, it's usually just a different flavor of raider or Enclave.

My ideal Fallout would probably involve no faction we have seen before, or at least very minor ones.

Regardless, video was okay. I enjoy these sorts of "Ideas guy" videos where someone designs a game or elaborate fanfic of an IP they'll never touch as a guilty pleasure.

I'm surprised he hasn't taken a crack at putting together a fan game or mod. With his audience, it would be bound to get a decent amount of attention.
 
Deus Exica said:
Regardless, video was okay. I enjoy these sorts of "Ideas guy" videos where someone designs a game or elaborate fanfic of an IP they'll never touch as a guilty pleasure.
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I think the making up of stories teaches you a lot about stories in general.

I'd say a lot of his ideas suffered from being a lib.
wtfNeedSignUp said:
The main issue with politics in gaming is that it lacks personal stakes that comprises 99% of irl politics. You can spend as much times crafting multi layered political intrigue, it doesn't mean shit when the main character is just some vagabond that couldn't care less if the population is going to be raped and murdered for a decade if it brings peace afterwards.
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The way to do this is to add moral ambiguity. You make it so no one faction is correct and every faction has some kind of fatal flaw. The NCR is corrupt, The legion is brutal, Mr. House is both cold and calculating, and a remnant of the old world, Wild card has the courier who has no administrative experience whatsoever.

You then add compelling and interesting characters with interesting and creative quests and then you can make good factions.

All any kind of "Fallout game" needs is clever writing, but that cannot exist because the people who write games are not the same people who write games now.
 
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