Last issue's results[]
Nukapedia played host to a stunning Divide last issue. The topic was Ulysses, and the voting was very surprising to me. I didn't expect these results at all! This just shows me the talent of our debaters!
- Coming in first place is the undecided option with 31 votes. You all chose this because both of our debaters put up great arguments and you just couldn't decide!
- Coming in second place is the pro-Ulysses option with 24 votes. You all chose this because The Old World Relics conjured up a beautiful defense for Ulysses. Well done, OWR!
- Coming in third place is the anti-Ulysses option with 18 votes. You all chose this because Yes-Man dealt a powerful blow to Ulysses' reputation with his debate. I congratulate you for that, Yessie!
I would like to apologize for this issue being so late. I was taking a college class this summer, which occupied a great deal of my time and did not allow me to keep up with the Divide. I'm back in action now, and it's going to stay that way!
What is going to be tested in the Divide this week?[]
This week's poll idea was thought up by Zman130. The topic is Robert Edwin House, since many players think he is the solution to all your problems, while others think that he is nothing more than a dictator. Mr. House is a pretty controversial figure and I think we're all going to enjoy debating over him. The questions to be answered are as follows:
- What do you think of the way Mr. House keeps New Vegas under control?
- Did you support Mr. House? Why or why not?
- Is Mr. House the savior of New Vegas, or just another post-war tyrant?
Who will be Dividing this subject?[]
Well, you can't have the Divide without debaters, and here they are:
- In the pro-House corner, we have Denis517.
- In the anti-HCM corner, we have The Ever Ruler.
First user's side[]
House is seen by many as nothing but what America is all about: a dictator obsessed with making money. In my opinion, House is more than that. While he does focus a lot on the money he makes off of the Strip, he is a lot better than the alternatives in the Mojave. Who opposes him? A psychopath bent on re-creating a nation that fell? A nation modeled after the country that fucked its land up bit by bit, until the hate between other nations made the bombs fall? And these leaders expect to be successful? This is the definition of insanity! House has a lot going for him. He has experience making something very successful (i.e. his company, RobCo). He has also been able to let the NCR think he won't fight against them, making it easy to take the Strip back during the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. He has a stockpile of robots only bested by the scientists at Big Mountain, and they don't even have control over them. House also has a well-thought-out plan on what to do after Hoover Dam. House has presented himself as the best person available to help the human race survive. Because who better to do that than a man who should have died years and years ago?
House also seems to be very good at getting to the point since he has a very good plan on what to do in the war. He has no intentions in being "flashy" during the second battle for Hoover Dam. House knows exactly what to do and how to do it. Having his securitrons attack the Fort during the battle is genius because Caesar would send almost all of his men to save his Rome, which means that he would be vulnerable.
House also seems to be able to get people to do what he says. Getting the three tribes to change into what they are during the events of Fallout: New Vegas is definitely an achievement that deserves merit. House's idea to get humans in space to populate other planets is also a plan he is more than able to carry out, considering he can stay alive as long as he is in his chamber.
To answer the questions on here: 1: I think House keeps New Vegas under control pretty well. He has his securitrons protecting the Strip, and the NCR protecting the rest. Even thought the Fiends are a small problem, House's reason is probably to slowly weaken the NCR. Then, he will wipe out the fiends when the NCR leaves like the ending states. The Strip may take away most people's riches, but it's the way House gets his money to keep everything running smoothly.
2: I fully support House. He keeps everything under control in New Vegas, and shows his gratitude kindly.
3: House is definitely the savior of New Vegas. Because what would New Vegas be without him? A bunch of tribals in a land most people fear? If it wasn't for House, then New Vegas wouldn't exist. Maybe Caesar would have gotten to these tribals himself, which would have meant that he could have won the First Battle of Hoover Dam.
These are the reasons why I think Robert House is the best option for the Mojave Wasteland. I hope you all agree with me, and that my opposition will have a lot of facts to back up his opinions. -Denis517
Second user's side[]
Mr. House: Visionary? Savior? Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist?
I'd contest, no. But to all of it? Hardly. To do that would be foolish and unsporting. House is indeed a genius in my eyes as well as a billionaire playboy philanthropist in his and many others. But to think that's all he is is a fundamental attribution error, to judge as he is perceived the first time as some kind of wealthy powerful despot prevents seeing past his flashy appearance and even flashier property. House is nothing more than a pre-war CEO with a plan on how best to meet the demands of humanity in which he refuses to deviate from.
House had it all figured out, he determined atomic war would occur within 15 passed 2065 by running numbers and statistics in machinery in his many projections. But in the end it all boiled down to one thing, the Platinum Chip. Without it, House's defense systems nearly failed and he almost died, systems that he and his company designed and programmed themselves. In the end, he put many but not all of his eggs in one basket and nearly died as a result, he went into a coma for 56 years after battling system crashes and power outages resorting to falling back on an older operating system...
So what does he do when he wakes up in 2138? Does he learn that just because something is old doesn't mean it doesn't work? Does he learn that relying solely on something he considers certain that turns out otherwise is foolish? No. He then spends 136 years doing absolutely nothing. Nothing. Not making an empire for his own, not reforming Vegas into what he imagined, not trying to form and eventually run a simple free market economy from his surroundings. Nothing. He waits, biding his time waiting for what, for something like the NCR to show up? Putting all his eggs this time into something that he's oh so certain about? Why not just take the situation at hand and make something out of it? Why not make lemons into lemonade?
Why? Because House is nothing more than a stubborn old man who refuses to deviate from HIS plan and only takes external conditions into account if they disrupt or facilitate them. To him, the wasteland is nothing, a land where people like the Courier are, in his word, "wasted." It is this mentality as to why House spent more time waiting than he did in a coma, it's this mentality that he didn't lift a single finger while entities like the NCR and Caesar's Legion actually tried to rebuild humanity from nothing but the wastes themselves.
Adressing #3: House is not the savior of Vegas, he's the savior of his own plans. He didn't do what he did because he loved humanity, he did it because the time and conditions were lined up perfectly to meet his unwavering expectations and ambitions. He would argue it was for the best, that only he knew what was best for humanity, that giving humanity everything they wanted based on the principles of supply and demand was the best course of action for humanity.
Nevermind that the world ended itself due to tensions that arouse out of the supply running out... nevermind that something aptly named "The Resource Wars" happened. Nevermind that an extreme enough demand for something constitutes a need in which the price cannot be calculated. No, give humanity everything it wants, pretend the supply is infinite because, after all, you can just go out into space and get some more... and when that runs out, just keep looking. You will eventually find more, forget about humanity though, let them wait, let them fight when food and water run out or low in the mean time. Let them thin out demand again with another war of some sort. Let humanity resort to ending itself all over again to sieze whatever's left of the FINITE supply. What will House do? The same thing. He said it himself, "I knew I couldn't "save the world," nor did I care to." To him, humanity and you, The Courier, are nothing but his customers or his employees.
Adressing #1: He thinks the House always wins, but under the assumption that they play by his rules. A game of poker is never even played if a group of armed individuals storms the casino and guns down everyone. So what is House's deterrant for that? Why to post robots in the streets and rehabilitated tribals in the casinos. What would happen if someone were to take control of the malleable minds of the robots? Why they'd have to go through House's defenses, through his terminals and into his stasis chamber to remove his influence. Something that someone with a Stealth Boy and a knowledge of terminals, both of which are his company's inventions, could accomplish quite easily with the right mindset and/or ample muscle. So, House's "deterrant" becomes whomever's means for self-promotion. And does House have state of the art turrets set up in his stasis chamber to prevent this? Does he even have a heavily encrypted terminal controlling his stasis to deter would be hackers? No. To him, that happening is an impossibility, much like how controlling Vegas without the Platinum Chip is an impossiblity, or how reviving the wastes from simple subsistence agriculture is an impossiblity, as well as programming a new OS in his 136 years of spare time was an impossibility.
What if someone were to stir things up with the families on the strip? He can't send robots in, that's "Hardly good for business." No, instead, trust in another third-party employee. Not employees mind you, just a single employee, giving him/her every incentive they need to work for him and trust that they will do what's best. What does he do when his first "employee" betrays him? Why he just goes and hires a new one, forget why he betrayed House in the first place... forget possible reconciliation... forget doing things himself. No no... there's always someone looking for a job, even in the midst of an opportunity to rebuild civilization that would love to give that all up in favor of his adamant mindset. If House could, he would never rely on a single person ever again, but since he does, he thinks it best not to hire others to keep him/her in check and instill a sense of groupthink to foil any ideas of mutiny. It's a wonder he hasn't invented an android in his spare time and with his spare resources like his past collegues over at the university he attended all the way over in Massachusetts did.
House is pathetic, he is a boss that thinks all he has to do is shine rewards and utter threats to keep people in line, as if humans were completely conditionable, seeing their rising beyond it as another impossibility. Whether or not he actual foolishly believes that they are impossible is irrelevant in face if his lack of any actions or opinions to the contrary. He does not display adaptation to undesireable circumstances, he does not waver in company of other ideas and finally, he simply does not care. To House, there is himself, the supplier, and humanity, the demand.
I hope all of that addresses #2. -The Ever Ruler
Conclusion[]
So...you've heard it, Nukapedians. With whom do you agree?
- Also, let me just add that the purpose of this blog is for you, the reader, to suspend all knowledge of the topic at hand. Think of it this way: if you knew nothing of House before coming in here, what would you think after reading these debates? That's what your vote should be based on.
Remember that if you have any poll ideas or suggestions to improve this blog and/or make it more user-friendly, please feel free to leave a message on my talk page.