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Welcome to the Nukapedia News Digest, Brought to you by Beth's Gun shop in the Hub. Rumour has it she has a great selection, at great prices, and you can trust that rumour cos I heard it at Beth's.

In Your Digest this week

From the Administrative Enclave[]

The Chat Rules Review has moved onto a a series of votes, including the rules on Profanity, off site trolling, as well as the infamous "Dont be a dick" and "Unanimous Consent to Real world politics/religion" rules. Make sure you have your say by September 19.

TwoBearsHigh-Fiving and The Gunny are still running for Bureaucrat. You can have your say by 23 September.

We're still looking at some graphical changes you can keep up the discussion here.

A New policy is up for discussion on dealing with user conflicts that involve administrators.

Should you be required to give a reason when you vote? Have your say here.

And lastly, should anonymous users be blocked from creating new pages Here is that discussion.

Phew. That's a big load for the week.

From Wikia[]

Wikia have a "Fantasy Fellowship" game going to celebrate Hobbit day. You can create your own intrepid group of adventurers here.

Because its taking an Eternity for Fallout 4 News....[]

Many will have spotted this already, but Obsidian have created a kickstarter to fund their new game "Project Eternity" made by the RPG dream team - Avellone, Sawyer, Fergus and Cain. This promises a return to what made Black Isle, and later Obsidian's name in gaming. The best part? In the past few minutes it just passed fully funded after about a day or so - 1,105,655 of their 1,100,000 goal. But its not too late, you can still buy a copy of the game (when its released) for $20 if you're one of the next 5000 backers.

The California Literary Review talks about Fallout[]

Well, there's a phrase I'd never thought I'd get to say... Adam Thomas at the aforementioned publication has written a blog comparing Fallout to the Western Genre, and has a few things to say about expecting Fallout 4 to be in Boston.

It’s a happy disillusionment to see that these places are real and alive and beautiful, instead of being the bombed out shells of a desolate post-nuclear ruin that was my only prior envisioning. A silly thought, I know. But my initial impressions of these places was so linked to the game and the truth so disparate it was something of a shock.
I’ve been through most of the Southwestern states and seen most of the major sites – the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Four Corners – and having crisscrossed the Mojave more than a few times, I’m more accustomed to the vast expanses of the desert with their scattered brush than looming mountains and lush green trees. Wide ranges of near lifelessness baked and bleached by the sun, this was my backyard. On some level, that’s what I must have thought this place would resemble as well.
Isn’t that truly what the wastes of Fallout are? Desert rampant? Desert overgrown? Desert unleashed by nuclear fire upon all the green we take for granted?

...

Sure, on the surface Fallout seems like sci-fi and is thus defined by its unique technology. Technology derived from the McCarthy-era fifties, a time of atomic science that barely understood the effects of radiation. Of computer science that couldn’t fathom miniaturization. Of the unchecked optimism of The Jetsons dashed against the Cold War thermonuclear horror of The Day After and Them!
If taken at face value, the physical setting of any particular game wouldn’t seem to matter so much as the retro robots, archaically advanced laser pistols, or giant fire-breathing mutant ants. You could theoretically put a Fallout game in England, Tokyo, or Brazil if that’s all that mattered. I’ve heard such arguments before.
But to do so would be to miss the point more than your Facebook friend who thinks articles by The Onion are real.
All the hallmarks of the Western are there. Thirstily wandering along at a calculated pace in the waste, sleeping under the stars in the wilderness, taking the role of the unknown gunman who wanders into town to solves everyone’s problems with a hail of gunfire before drifting out like a tumbleweed, the reintroduction of tribal culture set apart from homesteaders on the fringes of societies where law is thin and it’s best to travel with a gun on your belt even if you’d prefer never to use it. Arguably (and that’s exactly what I’m doing) this gameplay is as important, if not more important than the tools used or enemies fought.
More than most games, Fallout captures the nature of rugged individualism idolized in the Westerns of old. It’s a tale of the frontier. Only it’s a new frontier built atop a forgotten history.
American history.

...

Because the wild west isn’t just about big open spaces and lawlessness. You can do that anywhere thanks to the atomic fire provided by Fallout‘s backstory. No, it’s also about the culture of unique spirituality and quirky insanity that thrives in the Southwest of the U.S. like nowhere else.
The type of insanity that makes bringing a golf club to a gunfight seem like a good idea.
The desert is a hard place, and it breeds hardy people. For the folks who live in the Southwest, a place already closer to the end of the world out there than most of America, what would the nuclear war that kicks off the Fallout series truly change, culturally?
Moreover, deserts (in general) create an understanding of existential emptiness not found elsewhere down the other back roads and dirt trails of the United States. Separating yourself from society in the woods or the swamps and you’re still surrounded by life and nature and all the noise they bring. Do so in Sonora and, well, there’s simply less. You connect to the stars in the sky and to the immense enveloping darkness without end upon nightfall, and little else (hope you brought a blanket by the way, it gets cold fast).
There’s an ineffable quality to this region where Native traditions still have sway. A sense of the mystic, of being closer to earth. It often attracts a type that’s a breed apart.

...

It’s not that the Eastern Fallouts weren’t funny or that they were bad, it’s just that they were missing this certain extra . . . something. In the case of Tactics, it was probably because most of the RPG was stripped out of it. But for Fallout 3, it really truly comes down to location, location, location.
Climbing through the ruins of Los Angeles in Fallout 1, it’s difficult to feel too bad. L.A.’s a city of impermanence that centers around vacuous cults of personality and vanity, and The Boneyard, a settlement replacing it, features a religious order that worships an unseen “Master” who attempts to create “physical perfection” with the Super Mutants while having no singular identity of his own. The joke is obvious – nothing has really changed.
Climbing through the ruins of Washington D.C. in Fallout 3 on the other hand, it’s difficult not get depressed. As you sift through a sacked Smithsonian and notice that the Lincoln Memorial’s head has been decapitated by slave traders? Seeing the loss of all this American History, the loss of our cultural identity – it hurts.

...

But of course, Bethesda Game Studios is based in well, Bethesda, Maryland. With their East Coast perspective there’s a good chance they’ll do something dumb like set the next Fallout in Boston or something.
Westerns don’t work in Beantown Bethesda! Who ever heard of such a thing? (Ok, there’s Copper I guess, but that’s it, right?)
*sigh*
In the off chance there is justice in the universe, they’ll realize that aside from diction coaches and anyone who hates the New England Patriots, few would really want to see a decimated downtown Boston. As with Washington D.C., it’s one of the centers of American history. Watching that get wiped out isn’t particularly conducive to having a good time.
If that happens, they’re going to need alternates. Which I’ll be more than happy to provide. Maybe.
Until then, this is Mr. New Vegas, and each and every one of you is wonderful in your own special way.

Poll:Do_you_agree_with_the_above

Everybody hates/loves Josh[]

Most of Josh Sawyers' Formspring seems to be given over to Eternity, so this section may be going on hiatus. In the meantime...

Steam stats say that to date 14.3% of PC players have completed the Independent ending, 8.7% the NCR, 6.3% Mr. House, and 3.6% Legion. Does that distribution surprise you at all?
No. That's more or less how I figured I'd would break down.
So it doesn't bother you that only about 33% of PC players finished the game?
Only if finishing the game directly correlates to enjoyment of the game.
Does the percentage of players who choose and ending speak towards its 'quality' as in reinforcement via design & writing? Would it be preferable if endings were split 8.25% each or is that unimportant?
I don't think that's necessarily important. For Honest Hearts, I knew that the large majority of people would side with Joshua rather than Daniel, but I thought it was important for Daniel's option to be in the game as it was.
Are you ever going to update JSawyer mod and release v5? Or is it "finished"?
Yeah, I'm still updating it. A new version will be out this month.
So Legion territory is full of able-bodied non-slave, non-fighting males who are just allowed to do whatever they want, pursue their own interests, etc.?
I've already covered this before on Formspring, but the short answer is: no.

Project Spotlight[]

Over to you Vic...

That New Vegas chart project sure was a quick one, wasn't it? A lot done in a little time to say the least! But that isn't the end of the chart project. Far from it! It was but a single step in a progressive series. So that's why we at Nukapedia labs have come to you today to introduce our brand new project, the Fallout 3 Walkthrough Chart Project! We hope you'll really like this one. With new and only partially improved assignment tables, all new scope, and brand-spanking-new name, its a new project for a new week! So get out there and get editing!

Wrap[]

JunkFm/NukaRadio/Whatever we decide to call it[]

Thanks for your support so far on the Fallout style radio station Idea. Not too sure if we've got quite enough willing people to pledge their support, but we'll give it a bash. Next week I hope to be able to discuss a budget with you, but for the most basic licensing we're looking at somewhere around £300 (thats British pounds) to make the local performing rights societies happy. After that there's the cost of actually buying the music (around 50p per track) and what to do if we get too popular (next licensing level is looking at £800-ish). Once thats sorted I'll be posting an IndieGogo (Which is like Kickstarter but less restrictive - as we're not making a product Kickstarter doesn't seem to be the right option, but IndieGoGo is so similar, I can't even tell the websites apart).

Plan B is to do a podcast, and see how things go.

Like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo does reward tiers so if there's something you can contribute to the project that would be awesome... Do you have a band that makes retro-style music? Got an idea for a 50's style radio Drama? Can you do a "Fireside Chat" like president Eden? Get in touch and we'll feature you on the station, and hopefully be able to offer a "Demo" of your work as a reward.

Relic of the War that Wasn't[]

I've been at the UK's National Archives this week looking for declassified information on Top Secret Shelters in the UK, and in my travels I uncovered this from the 1962 "War Book" - basically the governments play book if war looked likely it detailed the steps the government was likely to take, and who was responsible for doing those.

These are from an appendix, to that... if you got these forms it meant two things. 1) Nuclear war seemed imminent, and 2) You were probably going to survive it. You had been designated to move to Burlington, the Government's secret Headquarters.

The first form is basically a note telling you to put your affairs in order, pack your bags and don't expect to return home. The second one starts to give away a little of the plan. Civil Servants based on London would muster at Kensington (Olympia) station, a station within London that was at the time underused and underserved; yet on the main railway line for the South West of England, allowing easy transit to the Facility. Even though these people are trusted enough to be taken to the facility, note the lack of detail given at each stage. Almost none of the recipients of these notes would have been aware of an emergency government plan, much less their place in it, until they got the first note, and even in the second note it doesn't tell them exactly where they are going.

Can you get to West Virginia? Do you live in a Capital City, or near an office for the National Archives in your country? Do you have a bomb shelter in your building or nearby? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, I want to hear from you. Please message me in the comments, or on my talk page.

Your Next Nukapedia News Digest[]

Will be on the 22nd of September. Stay Safe. Agent c (talk) 22:07, September 15, 2012 (UTC)

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