Economy of Fallout: How Bethesda messed it up.

You've got to learn to haggle!

Money. It makes the world go around, as the popular adage goes, and such still very much applies with digital worlds. Oftentimes you'll find that certain video games, particularly RPG's, feature their very own realized economy. (Although it is almost always an economy propagated entirely on the sole efforts of the player. Implementing autonomy would be a bit too fancy.) These mechanics serve game systems by acting as a regulatory tool directed to players. By tying essential items to shops, Devs can naturally slow down a player's progression and taper off some of the more powerful items for later. (Disclaimer: This entire blog focuses purely on in-game stores and spending. No Microtransactions to speak of here, I'm talking pure in-game mechanics.)

Practical applications for video game economies stretch back as far as the first Zelda games, as well as Super Mario World. 'Ocarina of Time' gated some helpful tools behind Rupee requirements, encouraging players to explore around and break some vases. Super Mario World, on the otherhand, had some shop sections that felt more like a justification for the existence of coins. (Which had, of course, already been prevalent in the series.) But it did still encourage players to save up for useful power ups, so it achieved the desired effect.

Of course, as video games have become more advanced so too has the way that they've handled economy. (Some even do have autonomy.) The games that most commonly feature such systems, however, are still RPGs. With that in mind, I want to bring one the most popular western RPG franchises in the world under the spotlight; Fallout. You see, despite taking place in a post apocalyptic America 200-odd years in the future, the remnants of the civilized world are still supported on the back of capitalism. (All hail the mighty dollar bill!) However, I've always taken issue with the way the economy systems were implemented in Fallout and therefore I intend to analysis what it is about them that I think fundamentally doesn't work.

First I should establish, Fallout is an RPG series that presents itself as a life simulator. That doesn't mean that you'll spend every waking moment of gameplay worrying about filling up resource bars, unless you're the kind of sadist to opt into that experience, (like me) but rather that you accompany your avatar through the entirety of their daily life. This isn't the kind of RPG where you guide your character through dungeons and spend your free time sorting through loot, Fallout very much wants to immerse the player in their world in a very visceral manner. That means going through the process of manually scavenging areas, buying your own house, talking with fellow survivors and enjoying the little moments as much as the action packed ones. Incidentally, that also means that the player will spend considerable time buying things at the local shops.

Now there are a few services that shopping can provide the player, but I want to focus on the idea of equipment, which is typically the main draw of spending money (or Caps) in a Fallout game. In Bethesda's Fallout title; Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, you will find specialist shops that cater to different whims. Some shops sell food (in order to simulate the atmosphere of a restaurant), some shops sell medical supplies (In the same vein that Hospitals absolutely don't), and some are sole distributors of alcohol. (Offering you the bar room experience.) Of course, given that you live in a very dangerous world, the establishments that you most often frequent in these games are those that offer ammo, guns and armour, but most veteran Fallout players will likely end up avoiding these shops altogether.

This is partially due to the freedom that the Fallout games provide. You see, in Fallout the player is given a certain amount of interactivity with the world in order to establish the feeling of being a scavenger, a key role to play for surviving a post-apocalyptic world as well as a handy immersion building device. This means that you'll often be raiding super markets, dustbins, ammunition boxes, wardrobes and the bodies of the fallen. Naturally, the player will start to accumulate items and gear that begin to render the stores obsolete. Why should you spend your hard-earned caps in the store in order to buy some stimpaks when you can scavenge and get them for free? Of course, the hook comes in ensuring that there is some scarcity in the loot that you pick up, encouraging player to top up their supplies in the shops. However, this doesn't work with every type of item in the shops.

Many RPG series, such as Final Fantasy and the Tales games, allow you to loot a certain amount of items from the environment and/or battles that you fight. In Fallout, you can loot everything. All the items that your opponent had access to, all of their armour and all of their weaponry. (Although they do tend to have some magic bullets in their inventory which the player never seems able to find.)Again, this is great for the idea of immersion but pretty pants when it comes to balance. Who, honestly, plays a Fallout game and buys their weapons and armour? You can pick them off of literally anyone you come into contact with, so why wouldn't you? Need a hunting rifle, go pick off some Raiders. Assault rifles running dry, hunt down some Super Mutants. Energy weapons looking shoddy, the Enclave always have an excess. There is no need to spend a single cap.

A problem is presented from this system because items, weaponry and tools are the single most expensive things that a player can spend on in that game. (And they aren't that expensive anyway.) Remember when I mentioned how economy works as a regulatory tool in games? Well it also doubles as a measure of progression for the player as your spending power expands. In games like Grand Theft Auto V, you are presented with luxury vehicles, businesses, and clothing that are far outside of your spending range in the first few hours. As you start passing some missions, and robbing some banks, you'll start being able to drop your money on more cool looking items which showcase how far you've come in that gameworld in a very capitalistic way.

There is none of that sense of progression in the way that Fallout 3 and 4 operate. Weapons and armour are a fairly inexpensive investment that isn't even necessary to make. In Fallout 3, there was an attempt to establish some sort of balance through the implementation of a durability system. Weapon's would start to deteriorate causing to them malfunctioning, although store bought weapons tended to function better. This was offset, however, by the fact that guns could be repaired rathereasily by using parts from a similar class of weapon. (Remember, guns are everywhere in the Fallout universe.) In Fallout 4 Bethesda introduced legendary weapons in an attempt to provide more unique attributes to guns. This allowed for them to have exclusive weaponry existing in the game's shops, but was made moot by the fact that one could find their own weapons, sometimes with better stat rolls, just by grinding through the game. The result of this lack of store incentives meant that there was nothing to buy in the shops.

This was coupled by the fact that players often found themselves getting loaded with an absolutely excessive amount of ingame currency. You found it on enemies, in crates, were awarded it for doing quests, could obtain it by selling anything, at any point of time a player could be absolutely swimming in caps. First time players may be fooled into thinking this money is valuable, but it isn't long before they'll realize that they are living in a world with an overly excessive amount of currency (caps) and no hyperinflation. So, with nothing worth buying and too much money on your hands, Fallout's economy seems to be fundamentally broken at a core level. (Funnily enough, Bethesda don't seem to have this problem in their Elder Scrolls games for reasons that I may discuss at a later date.)

At the end of the day, you may wonder why any of this matters and why I care. Well firstly, I suppose it doesn't to Bethesda as they made the same mistake twice and seemed eager to ignore it. Secondly, I care because I'm a neurotic individual who bristles everytime systems don't run like clockwork or benefit each other in a mutual relationship. (This should be obvious by now.) This particularly bothers me because there is a way to do economy correctly in a Fallout game, and I'll be covering that myself when I look into how Obsidian's 'Fallout: New Vegas' handle their shop fronts.