The wasteland in Fallout 76 is not a pleasant place. Everywhere there are dangers that threaten the lives of the players. But it is precisely the other players who seem to pose no problem in the post-apocalypse, as the Director explains.
The Fallout series is one of the most successful RPGs by Bethesda. With Fallout 76, the series received an online installment in 2018, which can be described as MMO-lite, as it continues to be filled with new content to this day.
In the game, you are not alone this time; other players wander through the wasteland and complete quests. The really nasty ones attack other former Vault dwellers and deal with the consequences.
However, the latter is a smaller problem than one might think. Even the developers behind the RPG are surprised at how peacefully the players act in the post-apocalypse.
It is the exact opposite
What do the developers say about player behavior? In an interview with The Game Business, Lead Producer Bill LaCoste and Creative Director Jon Rush discussed the community of Fallout 76 in light of the 2nd season of the Fallout series.
Before the release, the developers expected that players would kill each other, after all, it is the world of Fallout. But the community acted quite differently:
Before we released the game, we were like… it’s post-apocalyptic, it’s Fallout, they’re going to all want to kill one another. It’s the complete opposite. It’s been great to see that. I’ve never experienced a community as great as the Bethesda Game Studios community.
Jon Rush on the community of Fallout 76
The community creates a good onboarding experience for newcomers, who might be tempted to start playing due to the series. According to Rush, they build camps, explain things to them, and even give them freebies.
As developers, they regularly make smaller adjustments in the game to make it easier for new and returning players to start with Fallout 76. Especially the series seems to ensure that players venture into the wasteland. Shortly before the release of the 2nd season, they released an update with the legendary ghoul, which attracted 20,000 players.
Although Fallout 76 takes place in a nasty post-apocalypse, there are many mechanics that promote a more relaxed gameplay style. You can build bases, fish, or complete missions in co-op. If you attack other players as a nasty type, you will be punished with a bounty and become the hunted.
The world of Fallout contains many secrets and crude experiments of the Vault Tec company, which make the monsters in the wasteland seem harmless. They also did not spare children in their quest to create perfect humans
: One of the most insidious vaults in Fallout is located under a school, separating children from their parents
