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What is Fallout New Vegas?

Introduction:

Commented [BO1]: A good title could be "Fallout New

Vegas: Breaking the Boundaries". This would
incorporate well with what you are adding to the
conversation. Also, its catchy enough so it will bring in
the audience right from the start.
-Zachary Esposito

A man opens his home and walks outside for the first time in his life. The landscape that
he sees is destroyed, forever burning and filled with radiation pouring out from every crack in
the ground. The man keeps walking forward knowing that he can never return to his once
peaceful home. He traverses the wasteland, climbing rock and searching burned down homes

Commented [BO2]: Good way to start off the paper. It

draws me in as a reader with good mental images and
feel for the landscape. I never played Fallout so this
really helps me understand the game and it's setting.
-Xzavier Smith

that once stood tall gleaming with technology. He finds a huge metal wall that spans the
horizon, in front is rusty robot that says Welcome to Megaton. The man ventures into the
metal wall, and once inside he finds that this is a small town, and the wall is there to protect the
citizens from the harsh wilderness that is the wasteland. The sheriff of the town approaches and
asks the man if he can disable the bomb in the middle of the city, the man reply I do not know if

Commented [BO3]: You do a good job at using visuals

to draw in the readers. It is easy to get sucked into the
paper. This allows the reader to get a better
understanding of what you are going to be discussing.
-Jackson Stone

I can, but I will try. This is the beginning of one of the best RPGs of all time Fallout 3.
An RPG or Role Playing Game is a game where the player takes control of a character
and is allowed to roam and the open world of the game. The player can choose to do anything
they want in the game, from exploring the world to settling down in an area and living life.
Throughout the game, the player character can earn perks and find weapons that have special
properties. The most important parts of an RPG are the decisions. For a game to be considered
an RPG, the player must be able to make choices that will affect how the game is played in the
future. The decisions can be anything from accepting a quest, to choosing between the evil or
good side in the final battle of a game. Any game that has these properties is an RPG.
There is a huge debate that Fallout New Vegas is not an RPG because the style that the
game plays is from the first person, and because the start and ending of the game does not have

Commented [BO4]: You did a good job explaining

what an RPG was. If the reader wasn't a person who
plays video games then this would have been very
helpful. It's good that you explain this to avoid any
confusion later in the paper.
-Jackson Stone
Commented [BO5]: I know you say "any game", but I
would give examples of RPG's. As it is now the
sentence is too vague. Black Ops 2 for example has
many decisions that bring different endings and that
game isn't an RPG.
-Xzavier Smith

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enough variety. I believe that Fallout New Vegas is a hybrid of both RPG storyline, and the fast
action pace of an FPS. The First Person Shooter style of game is much more action pact and
often does not last any more than 15 minutes. Nevertheless, Fallout takes all the action of an
FPS and jams it into an extremely complex and never-ending storyline that is an RPG.

Commented [BO6]: Does the game really only last 15

min? If this is an exaggeration I would take it out
because it might confuse the reader. If it isn't than I
would go into more detail about how short the games
are.
-Jackson Stone

Literature Review
The sources required for this assignment were eight to ten credible sources. The sources
had to help establish and support my argument for how video games should not be defined by a
single genre and how Fallout New Vegas is a hybrid game that combines multiple game genres.

Commented [BO7]: I don't think it is a good idea to

discuss the guidelines of the assignment in the
assignment. This tells the reader you are writing this
because you are being made to. It might be better
reword this to make it sound like it is less of a
requirement and something that you did on your own.
-Jackson Stone

While collecting my sources I had three themes in mind, video game genres, what is an RPG,
and Fallout New Vegas. Accordingly, all of my sources fell into one of these categories.
What is a video game genre? Video game genres are a way to categorize video games
based on what that game includes in it. An action packed game will most likely be under the
Action video game genre. Genres are just for organizing video games, the system also helps
gamers discover new games that are similar to the ones that they like. For example, a gamer who
enjoys platform games such as Mario would most likely search for other games in the Platform
game genre. My sources in this theme both list out most of the various genres of video games.
However, one source implements my argument that most games cannot possibly be defined by
one single genre; this is where categorizing games based upon all of their genres, instead of one
major genre works out.
The next theme in my sources is What is an RPG? Because Fallout New Vegas is
defined by the genre RPG, it was necessary to first discern the definition of an RPG. Then we
can compare other RPGs to Fallout. An RPG or Role Playing Game is any game where the

Commented [BO8]: Maybe include the most popular

genres. This would help paint a picture of what many
games are now a days. Furthermore, if the reader
doesn't know what makes a genre different from others
then they can use the most popular ones to make an
opinion on what makes a genre.
-Zachary Esposito

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player assumes the role of a character in the game. In Fallout New Vegas, the player assumes
the role of a Mojave Express Courier who is destined to change the Mojave Wasteland. Most of
my sources fall under this theme. They each have a list of RPGs that they find to express what
an RPG should be. A recurring theme in this sources definition of an RPG is the allocation of
weapons and items that have many variations, and the completion of quests to fulfil the role of
the player. In other words, the player must be able to collect any assortment of items in the
game. In addition, the game must give a form of Quests to the player. The most defining
aspect of an RPG is the decision making. All RPGs must have a decision system. If the player
chooses, an option the game should then change based upon that option. An example is choosing

Commented [BO9]: Maybe give a little explanation

here. You say that the character needs to collect items,
but what are they? For us as readers it will help
understand what the main character collects in order to
paint a better mental image.
-Xzavier Smith

sides; In an RPG the player can often choose between sides based upon their interests.
Depending on what side the player choose the game can completely change as old friends can
become new enemies and the other is true also.
The sources that relate to this theme are two, top-one-hundred RPGs of all time lists and
a definition of RPG related to Fallout New Vegas. The top one-hundred lists have both ranked
Fallout New Vegas in the low 80s. This means there are many other RPGs that they found to be
better than Fallout. These lists are purely subjective, but they still help compare Fallout to other
top notch RPGs. These sources helped me discover that games are not one single genre, but a
combination of multiple game styles that all come together to form the games itself.

Commented [BO10]: I would give examples of the top

RPG's. It will help in seeing how Fallout and top RPG's
are different. These examples would also serve as a
basis for what the better RPG's are like in general to
those who have no prior knowledge.
-Xzavier Smith

The last theme that my sources split into was Fallout New Vegas. This set of creditable
sources had something to do with Fallout. Either a review on the game or what kind of genre it
is, these sources help decipher the type of game that Fallout is. This ground of sources includes
my assignment one paper. Assignment one is a huge document that is all about my figured
world Fallout New Vegas. In the document, I discuss many topics including, literary practices,

Commented [BO11]: I would try to reword these two

sentences. the flow of these sentences is not very
good. It is confusing what you are going to be talking
about in this paragraph.
-Jackson Stone

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domain, actors, and artifacts about Fallout. I also discuss how Fallout is played and give three
examples that perfectly describe Fallout. The end of my assignment one resource is I talking
about how I perceive Fallout. I believe that a person cannot say that Fallout is only one single
genre. Fallout is a huge combination of many different types of games. The other sources share
their viewpoints about the game and rank them accordingly. One of the sources lists Fallout as a
must buy game for all people who like RPGs style games. While another says it is a decent
game that is not an in-depth as most other RPG type games. Most of the reviews for Fallout
New Vegas are similar to these just listed. Some people love the game while other does not.
These eight to ten credible sources required for this assignment, help establish and
support my argument for how video games should not be defined by a single genre and how
Fallout New Vegas is a hybrid game that combines multiple game genres. While collecting my
sources I had three themes in mind, video game genres, what is an RPG, and Fallout New Vegas.
Although the sources are extremely subjective, they can still be used to achieve basic
understandings.
Entering the Conversation
The gaming community is hammered with new gaming genres and games that twist the
old one. The idea that a game can be specifically defined as one genre has been the standard for
most games up until now. Any game that had wizards or gremlins with magical powers would
be considered a Fantasy game without out any hesitation. This kind of judgment has taken place
since the very first game Pong. Pong was considered to be in the Ball and Paddle category of
games. Pong was first released in 1972 and with it were video game genres. Here is where the
problem originates. Back then, games that were released only had a few options in preset
playable characters or storyline development. I would say that any game developed before the

Commented [BO12]: I don't think this paragraph is

needed in the lit review. However it could be used in
the "Entering the Conversation" part as a transition
from the lit review. The only reason I say this is
because you kind of jump right into the conversation
without stopping the lit review.
-Zachary Esposito

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year 2005 could be easily defined by using this old genre system. However, with the creation of
games that can take months to fully complete by yourself or even longer if you decide to play
with friends, this old system does not hold up as well. This is where Fallout New Vegas is; some
people consider it a First Person Shooter, while others believe it to be a Role Playing Game.
This is because it contains elements that represent both genres. With the development of games
that can easily transverse multiple genres, the need of redefining games has drastically risen.
Fallout New Vegas is an RPG or is Fallout and FPS? Millions of players have been
debating this question online since the games release back in October of 2010. They claim that
because the game has decision making that can completely change the shape of the game, Fallout
is a Role Playing Game. On the other hand, Fallout New Vegas has fast action pact fighting
scenes, that only last a few minutes but are filled with various weapons shooting and huge
explosions everywhere. The people who see this consider Fallout to be a First Person Shooter
and nothing else. These two description of games were created with the old genre system back
in the 1970s and even in the 1600s when the first RPGs were created on stage in the form of
unscripted plays. What I am saying is that Fallout New Vegas and many other games in a
similar position can no longer be defined by one genre, but can only be defined by combining
and forming a hybrid of all the genres that the game is thought to be.
I am saying that Fallout is both an RPG and an FPS at the same time. While the action
pact explosions and bullets are ripping through the air, there is a back-story as to why this is
happening and that backstory will shape how this fight is waged on both sides. This is my
concept of combining genres. That was the combination of the massive storyline that is an RPG
with the action and fighting of an FPS. All of this was happening at the same time, so to define
this game, as one genre would greatly limit on what it actually is. This game fully entangles

Commented [BO13]: You could use how Bethesda

Softworks makes there Elder Scrolls games. I know for
a fact that when they make the Elder Scrolls series it
takes them mainly 4-5 years to complete the games.
This could further show that games that are made over
time are so detailed that one category can't fit them all.
-Zachary Esposito

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many different genres and creates an inseparable new experience that cannot possibly be wholly
defined by a single gaming category.
A hybrid game combines two or more genres and forms a new playable experience that
cannot be defined by a single genre. For example, Mario is a platform game that follows the
adventure of Mario saving Princes Peach from the dangerous Bowser. Mario is a perfect
example of a game that has two or more main genres. Fallout New Vegas is a game much like
Mario in that it to contains multiple genres. Fallout New Vegas contains more than just FPS and
RPG elements, it contains various other genre, but those are its most debated two. Fallout is also
an adventure game; because the player travels through various towns and landscapes this game
can be seen as one massive adventure. Since most games follow a story line or have some kind
of exploration in them, they can be considered an Adventure game. With such broad categories
such as Shooter and Adventure, it is impossible for a game to only be considered a single genre.
Conclusion
The purpose of this paper is to enter in the conversation of whether games can be entirely
denoted by a single game genre. A sub goal of this paper is to compare and contrast the different
genres in Fallout New Vegas and that it is a game that has multiple genres in it. This paper also
discussed issues with hybrid games and the origination of the gaming genres. The conversation
so far is heavily one sided with calling video games by one genre instead of multiple. It is easier
for companies and stores to sell a game to certain people if it has a single genre in it instead of
multiple. The multiple genre games could have sections that some people dislike and other areas
that other people like. Therefore, by designating a single genre to a game that is being released
in a certain area, the company can better sell their product.

Commented [BO14]: What are these genres? You

should state these genres for people who didn't play
Mario. As it is now it leaves the sentence a vague
feeling.
-Xzavier Smith

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My contribution to this debate was that games should be advertised based on what they
contain as a whole not just by a single event in the game. If companies sold their products as a
whole instead of selling it by part, they would attract a broader array of customers looking for
similar experiences to previous games. This would also make it easier to find games that are of
the same style as ones that people already enjoy. The reason I am stressing this hybrid gaming
genre so much is that if this can become mainstream, then the entire way that people perceive
games will change. We will begin to see what a game actually contains instead of seeing a
shadow of the game that a company wants us to see. The real question in this topic is whether
companies that are trying to sell us unfinished products in order to make money instead of
provided full content are deceiving us.

Commented [BO15]: Great conclusion. This sums up

the whole paper without being too brief or wordy.
Finally, I feel like I can leave your paper with the feeling
that you knew your information and that I know what
you added on the topic.
-Zachary Esposito