Was there ever an official explanation for why the player is the only one who can't smoke in Fallout 3/New Vegas?

[deuxhero]

It always seemed odd to me you could collect loads of cigarettes in these games, but could never use them besides vendor trash, but loads of NPCs smoked constantly. Even stranger is that New Vegas lets you harvest and use chewing tobacco to nearly strictly beneficial effect (small addiction chance the only negative). It would be less weird if the effect of a cigarette was purely negative (e.g., -1 HP and -5 AP) like in Deus Ex. Has some developer interview ever explained this? I can only assume it was some foreign rating board saying "It's OK if NPCs smoke, but the adult PC can't" (see "Med-X"), or some moralist foot down from some senior Bethesda person.

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

It always seemed odd to me you could collect loads of cigarettes in these games, but could never use them besides vendor trash, but loads of NPCs smoked constantly. Even stranger is that New Vegas lets you harvest and use chewing tobacco to nearly strictly beneficial effect (small addiction chance the only negative). It would be less weird if the effect of a cigarette was purely negative (e.g., -1 HP and -5 AP) like in Deus Ex. Has some developer interview ever explained this? I can only assume it was some foreign rating board saying "It's OK if NPCs smoke, but the adult PC can't" (see "Med-X"), or some moralist foot down from some senior Bethesda person.

Considering this is Bethesda, they didn't implement it because they would find a way to cram more bugs into it.

 

[Lemming42]

You're 19 in Fo3 and don't want to fuck your lungs up that early, and your head injury in NV damaged your mouth and lip muscles so that the cig would just slide right out.

 

[lukaszek]

deuxhero wait until you notice in elex all that toilet paper

 

[Impressive Organ]

Todd needs to stop forcing his anti-smoker politics into his games.

 

[huskarls]

same reason they renamed morphine to med-x. in fact I can name more games where you can kill children than do drugs (not counting alcohol)

 

[just]

what about killing children while on drugs

 

[Bester]

You can smoke metaphorically. You're smoking a dick the entire time by playing an inferior version of Fallout 1 & 2.

 

[BruceVC]

It always seemed odd to me you could collect loads of cigarettes in these games, but could never use them besides vendor trash, but loads of NPCs smoked constantly. Even stranger is that New Vegas lets you harvest and use chewing tobacco to nearly strictly beneficial effect (small addiction chance the only negative). It would be less weird if the effect of a cigarette was purely negative (e.g., -1 HP and -5 AP) like in Deus Ex. Has some developer interview ever explained this? I can only assume it was some foreign rating board saying "It's OK if NPCs smoke, but the adult PC can't" (see "Med-X"), or some moralist foot down from some senior Bethesda person.

It is strange but fortunately there is a mod that allows you to smoke and even a chance of nicotine addiction

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/18947/

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It always seemed odd to me you could collect loads of cigarettes in these games, but could never use them besides vendor trash, but loads of NPCs smoked constantly. Even stranger is that New Vegas lets you harvest and use chewing tobacco to nearly strictly beneficial effect (small addiction chance the only negative). It would be less weird if the effect of a cigarette was purely negative (e.g., -1 HP and -5 AP) like in Deus Ex. Has some developer interview ever explained this? I can only assume it was some foreign rating board saying "It's OK if NPCs smoke, but the adult PC can't" (see "Med-X"), or some moralist foot down from some senior Bethesda person.

Dude don't smoke because he chews tobacco direct

 

[Fargus]

It always seemed odd to me you could collect loads of cigarettes in these games, but could never use them besides vendor trash, but loads of NPCs smoked constantly. Even stranger is that New Vegas lets you harvest and use chewing tobacco to nearly strictly beneficial effect (small addiction chance the only negative). It would be less weird if the effect of a cigarette was purely negative (e.g., -1 HP and -5 AP) like in Deus Ex. Has some developer interview ever explained this? I can only assume it was some foreign rating board saying "It's OK if NPCs smoke, but the adult PC can't" (see "Med-X"), or some moralist foot down from some senior Bethesda person.

It is strange but fortunately there is a mod that allows you to smoke and even a chance of nicotine addiction

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/18947/

This one for NV is better
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/67205

 

[BrainMuncher]

same reason they renamed morphine to med-x. in fact I can name more games where you can kill children than do drugs (not counting alcohol)

Yes the game was denied ratings classification (essentially banned) in australia for incentivising drug use. So they changed it but for everyone not just australia.

 

[Funposter]

They're just trash items that you can pick up off the ground. It's not that deep, man.

 

[Semiurge]

The only game I know of that let's the player smoke is System Shock 2. The enhanced edition changes the effects slightly, you get a boost in PSI and an equal reduction to your health.

 

[taxalot]

Metal Gear Solid has a mechanic where you can smoke to spot detection lasers. However, it reduces your health.

 

[Harthwain]

I can only assume it was some foreign rating board saying "It's OK if NPCs smoke, but the adult PC can't" (see "Med-X"), or some moralist foot down from some senior Bethesda person.

Out of 141 games that involved tabacco the ESRB only gave 3 games an M rating, so I don't think that rating is the reason behind this. My guess is they didn't want the players to burn away their money via smoking while at the same time giving them a debuff as that'd make the whole activity downright pointless.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

You can smoke in the Yakuza games. And use it to good effect.

 

[Abu Antar]

Smoking bad, drugs okay in Fallout 3.

 

[ds]

deuxhero wait until you notice in elex all that toilet paper

Fallout 3 also has tons of toilets but Todd has a very peculiar idea about how you use them.

 

[0sacred]

smoking have negative short term effects is so Jewish

 

[ind33d]

smoking increases test, if you have high test you won't cut off your benis. america is a ponzi scheme based on cutting off your benis

 

[Stella Brando]

same reason they renamed morphine to med-x. in fact I can name more games where you can kill children than do drugs (not counting alcohol)

Yes the game was denied ratings classification (essentially banned) in australia for incentivising drug use. So they changed it but for everyone not just australia.

Not to mention that it was an American rip off of Mad Max.

 

[blessedCoffee]

Todd needs to stop forcing his anti-smoker politics into his games.

Create a “Todd” in classic Fallout and smoke weed, tobacco, get the Expert Excrement Expeditor perk, keep the Virgin of the Wastes title, and lastly dive into the toilet in Modoc BLOW the damn thing up like in a Michael Bay movie and break all your limbs at once.