Forum:Mr. Director, what's my motivation?

I'm working on my 3rd playthrough, but I'm having a lot of trouble continuing to care. I know what a letdown the "climax" is, so I've lost that as a possible motivator. Without that pulling me through, I'm looking for something to push me. Unfortunately, unless I've missed something, this game is severely short of motivating factors.

First, personal motivators. We know practically nothing about the Courier. We don't know about their birth, so we don't know if they're a native of the NCR, the Mojave Wasteland, New Vegas... We know nothing of a family, so no "push" motivators like Fallout 3 had. Being a courier also means nothing because it seems your company is kaput. You're the only living courier left in the Mojave and your former employer seems out of business since every one of their mailboxes is empty and the only office in the game has no work for you. So you're a blank slate. That's great for providing the freedom to pretend you're whoever you want to be, but it's useless as far as motivation goes.

The main factions are also not very motivating. Mr. House is a power-hungry old man, and you were nothing but a pawn to him. Not very inspiring one way or the other. The NCR has pitiful grunts and incompetent leaders. The pity for the grunts can motivate you to help the little guys out, but the stupidity of the leaders makes the faction as a whole unsympathetic. The Legion could only be loved by psychopaths. They're slavers, misogynists, and try to impose their beliefs/social structures on everyone they encounter, not out of a need to survive, but just because they think they're better than everyone else.

And what do you care about the Hoover Dam? In Fallout 3, a main driving force was clean water. That's something everyone can see as a good goal, especially because it directly meets a core requirement of all life. The dam means electricity, which COULD be a good goal, but the Mojave does not seem in short supply of electricty, nor does the NCR, The Strip, nor the Legion. If you repair Helios One, there is no noticable improvement to any of the areas you direct its power to. Obsidian failed to explain why the dam is important at all, except as more than a choke point between the NCR and the Legion.

How about the minor factions? The BoS are a meagre force, hiding out. Even if you free them from their current disposition, and give them everything they ask for, the still won't become any kind of meaningful force or player in the Mojave. The same is true of the Great Khans and the 3 casino families.

The only motivating factor I've been able to find is revenge. All we know is that Chandler shot you and took a chip you were paid a pittance to deliver to the richest man in the region. But vengeance only pushes you to your encounter with Benny, which can be over before you've experience the vast majority of content in the game.

So what's your post-Benny motivation? Servius 15:40, November 20, 2010 (UTC)


 * After beating the game the third time, I generally avoid entering the strip until I have to; sure, if I'm in the area and have a couple grand, I'll do the credit check so I can enter whenever I want, but aside from that I've just been wandering around, exploring, doing side quests, and generally ignoring revenge itself. Motivation is what you make of it. -- 16:35, November 20, 2010 (UTC)


 * I guess I was hoping there were compelling parts of the story I hadn't found yet, but I guess not. Maybe I'll try the Wildcard route this time.  Servius 18:32, November 20, 2010 (UTC)


 * Did you read your contract? The contract to deliver the Chip?  It states that if the chip is not delivered, the Mojave express may seek criminal charges and/or place a contract out on you with an assasin.  So you either retrieve the chip, or run somewhere where the NCR will never find you.  Agent c 18:27, November 20, 2010 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I read it, but it's meaningless. There's no clock, so you can run around for infinity and never get the chip from Benny, or get the chip but never give it to House, and nothing happens.  Not even the bounty hunters/Talon Company Mercs from Fallout 3.  No one hunts you, so that part of the contract doesn't carry any weight at all.  Servius 18:32, November 20, 2010 (UTC)
 * LIke getting the GECK for Arroyo is meaningless because there's no clock, or getting the GECK for your dad is meaningless as there's no clock, or killing the master is meaningless as there's no clock?
 * There may not be an in game clock as a gameplay mechanic, but I'm sure your character is awfuly concerned that someone might be offering some would be Bobba Fett a small fortune when you don't show up on the strip. Agent c 18:54, November 20, 2010 (UTC)

Uh, I wonder if the original poster actually understands the term roleplaying game. So, roleplaying 101: in a game like Fallout 1/2/NV you create the main character's motivation, as part of creating the background for your character. Servius, you shouldn't expect an RPG game to hold your hand in everything, including telling you why your own character should care. Part of the essence of Fallout is the freedom to create a character's backstory and personality. You're expecting it to act like Mass Effect, when it does not want to, nor should it want to. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/0/08/Personal_Sig_Image.gif Tagaziel (call!) 19:05, November 20, 2010 (UTC)

yes but that dont mean the writers can make the story about as motivating as punching your self in the face. i mean hes not asking them to hold his hand hes asking them to give him a reson to even tuch the story. hell the only reson i beat the game was because of a promise that the end fight would be really cool (wich it really was a let down). hell i even did what u said, made up my back story and my own motivatin of seting the strip free from the people that would just use it, but it still did not work that well. the funest part was when i set off and started roleplaying as if there was no main story. One more thing but i feel that the game holds your hand you just pick wich way you got pulled. --174.49.247.165 03:40, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

You could always work towards achievements (do they have them on PC?). Right now I started a new save completely devoted to getting the Melee and Unarmed achievements, and I'm thoroughly enjoying my 1-hit kills with Love and Hate. Anyway, My main motivation is to build up a stockpile of explosives high enough to take out a nice chunk of something in a massive chain reaction. That, and hording guns to be upgraded.... --Viper720666 23:15, November 20, 2010 (UTC)


 * We're talking Character motivation, not Player motivation. What is your character planning to do with all those boom-sticks? Agent c 03:40, November 21, 2010 (UTC)

Oh. Then in that case, my character is pissed because he lost half his money gambling at The Strip, then got piss drunk,, and awoke to find his stripped body in the gutter with the other half of his money gone. He stumbles back to Goodsprings where he convinces Easy Pete to hand over all the dynamite, then returns to The Strip with hopes of blowing up all the casinos and taking revenge on anything breathing or otherwise....buzzing....or whatever respiratory function Securitrons carry out. And uh...there's plenty of hand-grenades and time-bombs involved.... --Viper720666 01:42, November 23, 2010 (UTC)

I avoided the strip for quite a while - most of the surrounding areas were explored first. This was good fun. When I went to the strip and started the main mission for real I soon became bored (much like the original poster). However I gave up on trying to navigate this bizarre maze of plotline and have concentrated on wiping out the legion and doing the side quests. I have since found my "motivation" - rid the Mojave of slaver scum!!! Gunner Bill 10:22, November 21, 2010 (UTC)

Yeah this Game was released far too fast with too little focus on the Main story or Main charecter, Now dont think i hate the game or anything , its pretty fun i guess and the sidequests are cool and the map is good to explore , But Really the main story Should be A side quest , Its Made out to be more important than it actually is , i mean Vegas Had a perfectly Good Exsistance without anybody bothering them and also making a Very good income , But House still wants his chip so he can get rid of the NCR , But the NCR are Supposed to be a Lovely group of Peacefull guys trying to rebuild the country , But for some reason they pop up and start causing trouble , Why ? from what ive seen The NCR are Against this sort of thing, did they come to kill the leigon or to take over Vegas or what ? what are they doing causing trouble to Vegas ? i mean i understand why they would fight Ceasars Leigon, they have been fighting Bad guys the whole Time , But why bother Vegas like this ? .. And now the Courier, shot in the head and left for dead , A random guy We Know nothing about , now i know that we the players are meant to fill in the Blanks in RPG games , But an RPG game is Kinda the same as a Multiple choice book , you are given a charecter who has a Past and story and told to choose how his future goes , but they also leave out the Karmic choices of his Past so you can fill those in , But if this game were a Multiple choice Book , the begining would be like 3 pages long Giving you no information and basiclly Making you do all the work of actually thinking about the Book , Now take the Lone wanderer for Instance , you were told that he is a Vault Immigrant with a Scientist for a father who is trying to cure Radiation from water , you were raised only By your father so he is the most important figure in you life , and you were Raised in a Vault so you also Learnt of their Thoughts of the old world , BUT the game never told you if you were a snotnosed punk who bullied people or a Good kid who didnt cause trouble , they Left what you did in your life to you the player , the courier is just Mister Blankface Mcblank son of NoBackstory , you are told to do All the work for Coming up with your charecters Personality and Past , and then thrown into a quest about Getting Revenge on a guy , i mean really , Revenge? that idea has been used so many times it Cannot be Counted as good story Material anymore, Plus another thing , seeing as this guy shot you in the Face with a group of armed thugs almost killing you and also Has a large group of tough security Guards , woudnlt the Ideal choice be to Not go after this guy , i mean sure revenge , but getting into the Casino and Killing him is a Ridiculously Easy endeavor , i mean it would have been more fun if you grouped up with a bunch od other guys and actually Planned an Assasination Attempt either Stealthy or some big huge Shootout with some allies in the casino , i mean that would have been Really cool and loads of fun , but they just let you walk in after doing A few Speech checks with some stupid guy , and then you walk in and shoot him or do some stupid Lure to bed then kill thing , i mean Reeaaally , Nobody falls for that no matter how stupid .... in closing FNV's story was incredibly Dissapointing , i was expecting something more .. Obsidian Please let Bethesda handle the next Fallout, sometimes youve just got to Put em down .. :(

I am pretty demotivated by NV, to tell the truth. Fallout 3 had a pretty pathetic motivation, Water?, but it still got me going. NV has a whole war going on, but I'm still just zoned out the entire time. How is it that Nv can be so much better than Fallout 3 and yet so much worse? They missed the punch, slipped out on obvious shit, and decided realism was better than fun. i mean, everyone at my school were pissing their pants in excitement over NV, and now that its out, we all prefer Fallout 3. Look at all the exciting things that will be remembered: Megaton, the Vaults (all the vaults in NV are so boring and pointless and drag on and on), Rivet City, Three Dog (Mr. New Vegas just sucks, he has no feeling or heart, he just says random crap over and over, while Three Dog was funny, fierce, and I got a feeling that he actually cared about the people and my actions in the game), the Citadel, downtown DC, Tenpenny Tower, the list goes on and on. And in a city you never think of as interesting like DC. Now, Vegas is cool and interesting, surrounded by a desert, which means brilliance, and all I see here is non-rememberable shit and boring ghost towns. What will I remember of this game? The dinosaur gift shop. The casinos bite, the radio shows are shitty, and all of the towns are so repetitive and boring its sad. There are hardly any supplies, and yet it seems less desperate than Fallout 3. I mean, Fallout 3 was so critisized, and only now when a successor comes out many see how truly brilliant it was. I mean, I still love NV, but I will forget it when the next Fallout comes out (which I heard will be this year, can anyone confirm?). Oh, and the person who wrote before me, your grammar and capitalization are terrible. Sombar1

to the guy who wrote about my grammar, Im sorry i was typing fast on Laptop , im not used to laptops so i type weird , but as long as its read able , But i would also like to say : Water is one of the most Important things in human life , your body mostly Consists of water , and water Makes Plants grow , So it makes much more sense to fight over Pure water than to fight over Vegas , But a lot of people Dont appreciate Having pure Water in large amounts , but its Actually getting much harder to do now that the population is growing Larger , But i mean no offence to you i was simply stating a few Facts and stuff , No hard feeling eh ? :)

Wat? No dude, I was agreeing with you (except when I mentioned your grammar, I'm a writer and things like that bug me, so sorry). Fallout 3 is much more motivating than NV, I'm just saying that it wasn't a major story problem: "Water". I thought it would fall short, but it didn't. But, I would have preferred something like "The Super Mutants are growing stronger and stronger each day, we need to kill them." That would have been sweet. Oh,and on another note, Don't you like it how NV is in the middle of a desert and yet they don't have any problems with water? Sombar1
 * Pay attention while you play and maybe you'd learn that New Vegas and NCR territories around it pump water from Lake Mead. Also, memorability varies from person to person. I certainly find the variety of New Vegas to be refresning and quite memorable compared to the utterly monotonous, uninspired Fallout 3. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/0/08/Personal_Sig_Image.gif Tagaziel (call!) 13:35, November 22, 2010 (UTC)

For some reason, I really lost interest when I got the Combat Armor Reinforced Mk II with the helmet... What the... 16:30, November 22, 2010 (UTC)

FO ,Fo2, and FO3 were all excellent games , With excellent storys , But new vegas has little focus on Story , they just threw together Random stuff to Make a reason for a war , But it was all just pointless really , The gameplay changes arent even Noticeable , Hardcore Mode is just Made for Idiots who like realism , And its not even that realistic , But i actually dont mind if theres no Gameplay changes , If it isnt Broke Don't fix it , there are loads of Bugs , and really if your gonna use that stupid [FO3 had loads of bugs too] Excuse then its wrong , i Encountered Perhaps 1 or 2 Bugs My whole playtime , and im Playing on a Weak computer , ... FO:NV is not a good game , it is a shit game , An overhyped Mass of bollocks which Diehard FO3 Haters Flocked to pick up and Now defend Its Many,many,many Flaws ..

i cant help but agree in some of what you side. ya the FONV was way over hiped, and its sad when the people that hyped it the most were the people making it and yet thay sit let us get a game thats so buged out that i cant have to much fun befor it stops. yes FO3 was bugy as shit but NV's bugs are just over the top. its like thay gave use bata but what can you expect from obsidian. FONV is not a bad game its just more of a add-on that was not tested right, but its still fun and its a good game to play untell the real good game makers (Beth) gets us a FO4. one more thing why dose NV not feel like it is a post apocalyptic it just feels like ur playing in cowboy days with robots and rockets --174.49.247.165 03:40, November 24, 2010 (UTC)


 * Take off those rose coloured glasses. FO3 was just as buggy, if not moreso on launch.  Also, you really should keep on topic, we're tallking about character motivation, not moaning about bugs.  Agent c 04:06, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

You may have encountered bugs, But i did not encounter Many , perhaps 1 , Please dont force your opinion on people .. and about motivation i was talking about that, Ok then hows this , the game is not Motivating at all , the story is too boring to Notice , Quests are just as Boring , Places are Boring and Unimaginative , so i really dont see anything Motivating to fight for , the story is pointless , After i got the ending i came up with a much better story in like 3 Hours , they had 2 years , what were they doing ? Picking their Noses ?


 * Firstly, Physician heal thyself (about the not forcing opinions thing), my FO3 experience was rather smooth' however if you look at the Bethesda Forums for about this period after launch it was full of exactly the same complaints that are on the boards today, and there's probably less of them this time around. Places boring an unimiaginatve? Again, Physician heal thyself on the forcing opinions thing  but I found them interesting - From the non-falloutesque colour of places like Red Rock Canyon and the bottom of Lake Mead, to the Strip in all its glory and the majesty of looking over the Colorado river from Fort Guardian.  Story pointless? Again, Physician heal thyself on the not forcing opinions thing, but the story is the turningstone for the future of the of the American Southwest, if Caesar wins, New Rome will rule the Southwest; If the House wins, its may cause a political realignment in the NCR in regards to its expansionist tendancies.  If the NCR wins, Their control over Nevada could eiither cause new strength, or add to the already straining load they bear and bring forward its collapse.  The Effects of the courier are the axis on which future history is going to turn.  I'd really like to know what this better story of yours is, however if you have one I'd recommend starting a new topic where your story can be discussed, rather than hijacking a discussion on in character motivation.  Agent c 16:41, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

Ah but see i was not Forcing my opinion, i was only Stating My own, you are calling people foolish for having opinions ... that is my oinion on forcing opinions ok ? second : i am not Hijacking anyones topic, i am Agreeing on how i also am not Motivated , One of the things that Demotivated me was the fact that the story was , of all things , Political .. Fallout 1, 2 , and 3 , were about survival , New vegas was boring (In my opinion ) Because Vegas was Unhit ... So it wasnt like Playing Fallout any more , If NCR wanted control they could have shut off Houses Lovely little operation Cause they had power over Electricity , people would leave New vegas and it would go out of buissness and become just another Large settlement , then they could have focused on the leigon (sorry if thats spelled wrong :) ) who were a very small group compared to NCR , and could probably be beaten Easily then , and Afterwords NCR could Ultimatly Control Vegas by Reactivating the power and Making their own , My second problem , Vegas is not really that usefull in itself , But the Army of Securitrons sure are , so after Shutting vegas down that would also Shut down houses Control over them and Ultimatley Make them As good as they ever were ( or simply Uncontrolled if the chip was inserted ) and Vegas is once Again Defenceless and weak , and easily controlled , But even if the leigon took this chance to take it , it has no power , so no Point still , This is all really only My thoughts on what they would be Capable of , If you know a reason why its not Possible Please tell , I would be glad to know and i would be wrong and the arguement settled , But My final opinion is that No matter what the courier does , the NCR always had the power to Win ..... But please Dont get me wrong i like Good political stories, but if it doesnt make sense then i dont like them , But im sorry if i insulted you or anything , No hard feelings , Just a fun and Interesting Arguement :)


 * Now you're putting words in my mouth: exactly where did I say that you were foolish for having an opinion? You can be percieved as forocing your opinions by stating your opinions as if they are facts "The game is not motivating at all", "The story is too boring", "Places are boring an unimaginative" - if you are merely expressing an opinion and not "Forcing it upon another" then you should use appropriate framing language "I don't feel motivated by the game", "I feel the story is boring".  NCR can't shut down Houses' operation without risking their position on the dam - killing Houses' armed securitrons is going to end up with  lot of casualties and is just inviting Ceasar to wipe out the survivors and continue their march west - The NCR can't even scrape up enough forces to clear out the fiends, much less the heavily armed and fortified strip. Agent c 17:35, November 24, 2010 (UTC)

Im not putting words in your mouth, Did you not Make a comment about Sunglasses or something about how we were Wrong about Bugs on fallout 3 ? See i myself said i Encountered no Bugs On fallout 3, so you cant say that you did and Immediatly say that i must have aswell , cause i didnt .. Second, i Believe the fact that I am the one saying things like :its story is boring : would let you know that its my opinion , i would be forcing my opinion on you if i had said something like : You are an idiot and are wrong : But i didnt say that , i shoudlnt have to say :I: think this , and :I: think that , Because I said it so that means its MY opinion , .. Now Shutting down the Operation of house would easily Destroy his power over Vegas, And i never stated that NCR take on his Army , Leave them and focus on Gathering troops , And the leigon would be busy Killing the securitron army Aswell , while the NCR would sit Back at their Dam and Gather forces from their Nation , With a larger amount of troops and the leigon Having Most likeley stuck in Place Trying to fend off Securitrons , they would Have a much easier way of Beating everyone then Taking over , Basicly they crush everyone using those Peoples own equipment , then Mop up the rest ... And i would like to State again, i am not trying to offend you in any way , i am just giving my opinion :)


 * I still did not call you foolish. I said "Take off those rose tinted glasses"; This is a saying basically indicating that it appears that you're looking at the past in a nostaligic/positive light as many people do, when we look at the forums, complaints and reviews, FO3 was notoriously buggy on launch (This I'm claiming as a fact, despite the limited bugs I experienced) and as such any opinion to FO3's superiority over NV over bugs is a misinformed one.  I'm not disuputing those things are your opinion, but you've presented them in a way that indicates you're claiming them as a fact - "The Sky is blue" is claiming that this is a fact (I'm not expressing an opinion as to the colour of the sky, I'm saying that it *is* blue) whereas "I believe the sky is blue" is expressing an opinion as to how I perceive the colour of the sky; To claim an opinion as "Fact" is to force ones opinion on another.  If you're not sending the NCR after house, how are you shutting down his operation? Those securitrons have independent power supplies, so turning off the power at the dam won't do it.  The With the legion on the East, and securitrons on the west, the NCR would soon be starved out of the dam.  Securitrons don't have to eat, people do.

On paper, NV sounded amazing, it could have been the greatest game and easily the greatest RPG, but i agree that it was way overhiped and overrated and they greatly exaggerated things and parts of the game that many have problems with or thought would be wonderful. Such as modding. I thought modding would be much like "You have a scope and duct tape. Duct tape + scope + hunting rifle = scoped hunting rifle." Which would have been simple and easy, yet they didn't do this. The factions are overrated, and the strip is outrageously overrated. In scope, Fallout 3 is superior, yet for now, NV is superior. I just want to play it and the DLCs until the next game. Sombar1

While I do still like NV I must say that I enjoyed F3 far more. While there are a lot of things in NV that are a clear improvement over what happened in F3 I must agree that (in my opinion) it is just not quite as fun, and as a result I find myself actually wanting to play it less often. Too many of the quests are similar, and quest rewards are less rewarding as they are more or less all the same (99% of the time it's caps/exp/reputation or some combination thereof and nothing else). Some cool items and/or perks would be nice once in a while, F3 had something like this from most quests (I'm not saying this should be in every quest but even 1 in 10 would be nice). Exploring is also less fun as you constantly come across a map marker with nothing interesting there (eg. Searchlight Airport). It has got to the point where I am losing motivation as a player to play at times. When I first played F3 that was more or less all I did for 2 weeks solid, I had so much fun I'd forget to go to sleep until the light began to creep into my window the following morning. In fact I enjoyed F3 so much that I easily had over 1000hrs playtime (and completed more than 20 playthroughs... with all sidequests). With NV I played for maybe one full day before I started slowing down. My motivation more or less crashed when I successfully completed all achievements 4 weeks ago. I still play NV occasionally, but only when I'm bored and have nothing else to do.--Ninjipples 13:58, December 2, 2010 (UTC)