To live and die on Tranquility Lane : the participatory narrative and satire of Fallout 3

Abstract

This article focuses on 1950’s American iconography and the player’s participation in Fallout 3’s central storyline to explore the satire of Fallout 3. My approach goes beyond Marcus Schulzke’s argument that Fallout 3 is a morality simulator, which falls into a tradition of non-narrative approaches to studying videogames. Rather than concede that all videogames are a pariah to a traditional media narrative ecology, consisting of novels, movies, and theatre, I claim that Fallout 3 is both simulation and narrative. Under this framework, I investigate a critique on war, in relation to the game’s ridicule of the idea of a 1950’s American golden age. The central story episode, “Tranquility Lane,” where the player is trapped in a simulation of a 1950’s suburbia is the primary focus, and its Rockwellian imagery is explored in relation to the “Fallout universe’s” post-apocalyptic setting to provide a commentary that works in opposition to the radio propaganda of the artificial intelligence John Henry Eden. In relation to this analysis, I consider Jean Baudrillard’s notion of simulacra, Mary Caputi’s analysis of neo-conservatism in America, and the idea of free will for the inhabitants of Tranquility Lane and the player. I show that the narrative requirements constrain the player’s free will in the simulated open world environment and that the player is essentially in the same position as the inhabitants of Tranquility Lane. As such, I argue that behind the simulation of the “Fallout universe” is a critique of war in “our universe.”