Fallout 3 is one of the top grossing games in history. This means that it has made a great deal of money since the time is has come out. Role Playing Games or RPG’s are always a popular category of games that generate revenue for the studios that make the game. Bethesda Studios has made games before, like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but none as successful as Fallout 3. In the article “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter,” Tom Bissell, a professor at Portland State University and an editor for The New Republic and the Virginia Quarterly Review, effectively explains why video games can get away with crudites, adequately describes Fallout 3’s tutorial and how well it was made, and feebly describes the amount of choices available to be made in beginning of Fallout 3. Video games often contain crudities, like shortcomings in the story or bad dialogue. Video games are fun to play and can get away with criticism that would come if the game was a movie or a book. Bissell argues that, “I routinely tolerate in games crudities I would never tolerate in any other form of art or entertainment” (358). I agree that gamers tolerate crudities in games because my experience playing games and watching movies or reading books shows the same toleration for crudities. When playing games, I do not pay attention to the dialogue or the story of the game but focus instead on the graphics of the game and the fluency of the controls. While video games can “get away” with crudities a video game cannot get away with a bad tutorial. Video games rarely have a tutorial that actually fits into the game and has a natural feel. Tutorials are an essential part of a game's design, if there is not a proper tutorial gamers will not know how to play the game. Fallout 3’s tutorial starts off with the main character being born and teaches the game what is essential to know about the game’s controls as the player grows up. Bissell explains the tutorial as brilliant: “Now, aspects of Fallout 3’s tutorial are brilliant: when you learn to walk as a baby, you are actually learning how to move within the game… What is interesting about this is that it allows you to customize your character indirectly rather than directly” (356-357). I agree that Fallout 3’s tutorial plays out naturally and fits in the game well, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people still believe that a game cannot have a tutorial that flows well into the story of the game. In the tutorial of Fallout 3, there are many choices to be made, like gender, race, and looks. This is an example of the amount of choices the video game offers. In Fallout 3, many choices can be made in the story or the tutorial that will make an impact on the game and change the outcome of events. For example, in the first mission on Fallout 3 the gamer has the choice to make a settlement his home or to blow the town up and move to a hotel that is ran by bad people. Bissell explains these choices: “What also impressed me about Fallout 3 was the buffet of choices set out by its early stages” (355). Though I concede that Fallout 3 does offer a multitude of choices at the start of the game, I still insist that there are more choices to be made later on in the game. While the choices made early in the game do set a tone for the rest of the game, they are not as nearly as important as the choices that can be made later when there is more on the line, like finding your father. Overall, Fallout 3 has choices that affect the outcome of the game. When evaluating one of the top grossing games in history, Bethesda Studios did well. They implemented a natural tutorial that flows well into the story of the game. Bethesda also provides a multitude of choices to be made at the beginning of the game. Bethesda does have some crudities in the game that are hardly noticeable. In the article “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter,” Tom Bissell effectively explains why video games can get away with crudites, adequately describes Fallout 3’s tutorial and how well it was made, and feebly describes the amount of choices available to be made in Fallout 3. Works Cited
Bissell, Tom. "Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter." They Say I Say With Readings. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Ed. Russel Durst. 2E ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 349-362. Print