Educate yourself on the philosophy of the Fallout series via an entertaining video
Life can be pretty complicated in a post-apocalyptic wasteland governed by various mutants, raiders, ghouls, and weaponized police factions. There’s new systems of government, the abundance of radiation and small arms fire, plus keeping track of loyal canine companions and avoiding synthetic humanoids. But what is it all really about? To answer that, Wisecrack’s YouTube series 8-Bit Philosophy takes a look at the underlying philosophical questions posed by the Fallout series of games.
Spurned on by the popularity and overwhelmingly positive reception of Fallout 4, the series takes a look at Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas and finds a multi-layered thematic approach to subjects that goes beyond simply blasting radroaches and riding around in a mech suit (though that remains pretty fun, too).
8-Bit Philosophy looks at how the game comments on technology, the cognitive dissonance in capitalist marketing, and also hegemonic stability theory (the idea that a superpower is in control and everything else will just fall in line as need be). It’s an interesting peeling back of a game that many people probably deride as a shooter where players collect bottle caps and can build their own shantytowns if so desired.