Lone Wanderer

[CryptsOfTheDead]

Despite the fact that the Lone Wanderer is named "Albert" in Fallout 3 previews, and is shown in promotional images as being a Caucasian male with brown hair, there has never been any mention or statement (not even in Fallout New Vegas) that this hero is a male, thank God. I for one do like playing a female character in Fallout 3. Bethesda has a habit of revealing their game heroes race/gender, and they really need to stop doing this. Why? For one, I think it's a bit racist, and secondly, the hero of an RPG is suppose to be player choice. Setting a hero's gender and even their race in stone is taking away the freedom of the game, not to mention there's not much replay value there. Hence Morrowind; the hero is a Male Dunmer. When I found that out, it pretty much ruined the game for me. Then I find out that the heroes of the first two Fallout games are male! Knock it off Bethesda! I swear, if the Lone Wanderer is ever revealed as a male by canon, I will never play another Bethesda title as long as I live. Cheers!

 

COTD

 

[7thsealord]

Given that FO3's dialogue changes depending on the LW's gender, I don't see the problem.

[CryptsOfTheDead]

Given that FO3's dialogue changes depending on the LW's gender, I don't see the problem.

 

Actually, there are a few instances where a female LW is referred to as a male. One is from Bryan Wilks of Greyditch when you are speaking to him. One of his lines he will say, "Please, mister..."

 

I can't recall the others offhand, but when I do, I'll list them.

 

Thanks for the post.

 

COTD

[charwo]

They need some kind of stand in for the previews and trailers. This is a necessary tropes and it has a name:

 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SchrodingersPlayerCharacter

 

You as the player have to craft your Lone Wanderer. Because the dialogue is so generic, only you can make a back story that explains your character's motives and such. And most gamers are male, and at least a plurality are white, it makes since for the player character to be white male. Most of those white males will play a white male because they know how to be a white male.

 

I've never played a non-white character in Fallout. Part of the reason is that I fear not getting the character's background correct. And two, Fallout is very cagey about inter-human race relations before and after the war and in the Vaults. If you're playing an Asian, specifically Chinese American character, it makes a hell of a lot of difference if those death camps for 'Chinese dissenters' were a general pogrom against Asian Americans, a distrust of all people of Chinese ancestry alone, or as the in game documents seem to suggest, these camps were only for very recent immigrants and refugees (in most of the documents, most of the camp prisoners don't speak English, which suggests that long standing Chinese Americans were not swept up in this). With a white character, and a 50s retro look, you can assume a thorough white privilege of not having to think about race. It's very different for mutants, ghouls and people of color.

[vforvic]

You are correct, there are a few instances where the LW's gender is referred to incorrectly. Those are mistakes in the GECK. In the GECK you can see where they intended to have the 2 gender options, but the Dialogue was written incorrectly. They have the 2 separate Response Options depending on the Gender of the LW, but they put the same Gender designation in both options. I am surprised these instances have never been corrected with a mod or maybe they have and I am just not aware of it. Heck if I knew what they all were I could fix it easy enough myself.

[disastrox3]

What we must remember in these instances is that this isn't a matter of being sexist or racist. Bethesda didn't make the promotional material of the Lone Wanderer a white male because they are discriminating against any one gender or race -- it very much also has to do with marketing and economics. Video games are a business -- you have to appeal to your target audience, and in terms of gaming, that is a predominantly white male audience. Should it be this way? No, but people tend to prefer things that appeal to who they are. It's just about selling the game to the most amount of people.

 

Additionally, it might be difficult to even market a game in which the protagonist appears to be this vague, genderless, faceless, colorless person.

 

In my opinion, I do not even consider the promotional material regarding the PC to be canon at all. Seeing as you're able to create the main character for FO3 & NV and tailor it as you like, I don't really care who appears on the box art or promo shots. My LW, a small, mixed-race female is no less canon than "Albert" or your LW.

 

P.s., Bethesda didn't make FO1 & FO2; that was Black Isle Studios and Interplay Entertainment. :blush:

Edited June 14, 2014 by disastrox3

[modder3434]

Despite the fact that the Lone Wanderer is named "Albert" in Fallout 3 previews, and is shown in promotional images as being a Caucasian male with brown hair, there has never been any mention or statement (not even in Fallout New Vegas) that this hero is a male, thank God. I for one do like playing a female character in Fallout 3. Bethesda has a habit of revealing their game heroes race/gender, and they really need to stop doing this. Why? For one, I think it's a bit racist, and secondly, the hero of an RPG is suppose to be player choice. Setting a hero's gender and even their race in stone is taking away the freedom of the game, not to mention there's not much replay value there. Hence Morrowind; the hero is a Male Dunmer. When I found that out, it pretty much ruined the game for me. Then I find out that the heroes of the first two Fallout games are male! Knock it off Bethesda! I swear, if the Lone Wanderer is ever revealed as a male by canon, I will never play another Bethesda title as long as I live. Cheers!

 

COTD

 

ok, this is kind of ridiculous. In general when the lore/canon is written they they to stay with the name of the player character, or rather what made that character special, (Neverine, Champion of Cyrodil, Dragonborn, Lone Wanderer, Courier Six etc) which tends to be gender neutral, however when writing, it becomes almost impossiable not to use pronouns. "He" just tends to be the default when writing rather then "She".

 

As for the canon coming out and saying what race and gender....who cares, but think of it this way. Take into account the time period and the location of the game.

 

-- In Morrowind, they aren't going to retell the story of the Argonion Neverine who caled herself, Lizzie, rather they will picture a strong, male, anoymous Dunmer who was the one who was promised and he who delievered them fromt the snares of Red Mountain when the story is retold

 

- In Cyrodil, they aren't going to tell of the the tale of the Orc Coc whose name is Smashing gro-Smash, rather they will picture the majestic Imperial in his shining steel plate armor who aided the last Septim Emperor in closing the Oblivion Gates forever.

 

Bottom line it depends on the time, in Elder Scrolls its a medevil /fantasy game, males tended to dominate those areas of society. As for Fallout, its the 1950's with advanced tech, there was plenty seperation of the races in the 50's, though granted in a wasteland raveged by nucler bombs...yor color of skin matters very little...so in this case its probably just to appeal to the greatest base of people who play the game.