jdinatale
Cipher
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2013
- Messages
- 422
The supposedly "wild west" mostly existed as series of loose cities and territories that tried to impose local business owned government in lieu of the real thing due to historical circumstance and a young democracies lack of interest in the west until later in the century. You might say that the territory between the NCR's reverse manifest destiny eastward and the Legion's burgeoning Pax Romana reflects the same historical circumstance in an entirely different setting but with the people between the two states serving a similar function and having the same attitude of those in the wild west.
The denizens of New Vegas in the smaller towns and areas are weary of both of the bigger super powers encroaching on their territory and want to be left alone. Much like the the romantic west they want to hold on to a fleeting lifestyle between the wars that they know will end but they're too attached to anyway to not want to keep.
If you can take a hint and see past a few jokes you may have noticed earlier that I stated the circumstances of the game reflect the current circumstances of modern day times. Corrupt Democracies in the west face fanatical regimes in the Mideast in wars over resources while speculators and opportunists like Mr. House Reap all the benefits.
Well while I do think that allegorical situation is their intended one, one can also say the circumstance between the warring factions reflect those of other conflicts like seeing things through the western setting, Cowboys and Indians. Obviously I don't mean that interpretation to be taken literally or even as the correct one, but merely to be seen as a possibility given the dense nature of the themes and the setting. This possible interpretation is reinforced slightly by an expansion Honest Hearts, but more on that later.
Many of the quests and characters outside Vegas and one of the expansions I will talk about later are dedicated to the western themes and flavor the game tries to convey. That is to say it not merely tacked on to make you feel like a Clint-Eastwood style action star in the west. They thought about these themes what similarities they might have to the world they were creating and tried to lay them out accordingly.
You may have asked yourself while playing this game why are there Roman cosplayers in my post-apocalyptic nuclear role playing game? The answer is easy when you consider the allegory above as New Vegas being a stand in for among other things middle eastern foibles. It was called the "Near East" in Roman times, but it ended their eastward expansion and caused problems that reverberated throughout the rest of the empire. Rome was a plunder and intimidate empire, their economy relied on plunder and constant expansion to keep the cash flow and resources needed to maintain its large size and relative prestige. This means that when they lost the various skirmishes in the mid east their options for plundering other states and empires large enough to be useful to them in terms of resource gain and wealth became rather short dooming the the economy to implode inward among a sea of other problems.
What this all means in terms of the game is that NCR and Legion may seem different on the surface but their problems and faults mirror each other in certain historical lights and circumstances. The NCR's corrupt democracy is reminiscent of our own and the US's economy built on constant expansion is not just modeled on the Roman one of plundering resources at home and abroad but we also force countries to buy our products and use our currency. The US's empire also feels compelled to secure the middle east for resource gain and as a tactical fortress to further military excursions throughout other parts of the world. The point is the two factions are mirrored opposition empires who might fall due to a desert quagmire over resource distribution.
All of this historical context is again used not just to make the game seem more "heady" but was actively used in constructing the world and characters the games constituent parts rely on.
The denizens of New Vegas in the smaller towns and areas are weary of both of the bigger super powers encroaching on their territory and want to be left alone. Much like the the romantic west they want to hold on to a fleeting lifestyle between the wars that they know will end but they're too attached to anyway to not want to keep.
If you can take a hint and see past a few jokes you may have noticed earlier that I stated the circumstances of the game reflect the current circumstances of modern day times. Corrupt Democracies in the west face fanatical regimes in the Mideast in wars over resources while speculators and opportunists like Mr. House Reap all the benefits.
Well while I do think that allegorical situation is their intended one, one can also say the circumstance between the warring factions reflect those of other conflicts like seeing things through the western setting, Cowboys and Indians. Obviously I don't mean that interpretation to be taken literally or even as the correct one, but merely to be seen as a possibility given the dense nature of the themes and the setting. This possible interpretation is reinforced slightly by an expansion Honest Hearts, but more on that later.
Many of the quests and characters outside Vegas and one of the expansions I will talk about later are dedicated to the western themes and flavor the game tries to convey. That is to say it not merely tacked on to make you feel like a Clint-Eastwood style action star in the west. They thought about these themes what similarities they might have to the world they were creating and tried to lay them out accordingly.
You may have asked yourself while playing this game why are there Roman cosplayers in my post-apocalyptic nuclear role playing game? The answer is easy when you consider the allegory above as New Vegas being a stand in for among other things middle eastern foibles. It was called the "Near East" in Roman times, but it ended their eastward expansion and caused problems that reverberated throughout the rest of the empire. Rome was a plunder and intimidate empire, their economy relied on plunder and constant expansion to keep the cash flow and resources needed to maintain its large size and relative prestige. This means that when they lost the various skirmishes in the mid east their options for plundering other states and empires large enough to be useful to them in terms of resource gain and wealth became rather short dooming the the economy to implode inward among a sea of other problems.
What this all means in terms of the game is that NCR and Legion may seem different on the surface but their problems and faults mirror each other in certain historical lights and circumstances. The NCR's corrupt democracy is reminiscent of our own and the US's economy built on constant expansion is not just modeled on the Roman one of plundering resources at home and abroad but we also force countries to buy our products and use our currency. The US's empire also feels compelled to secure the middle east for resource gain and as a tactical fortress to further military excursions throughout other parts of the world. The point is the two factions are mirrored opposition empires who might fall due to a desert quagmire over resource distribution.
All of this historical context is again used not just to make the game seem more "heady" but was actively used in constructing the world and characters the games constituent parts rely on.