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The Mortuary Assistant Ethical Critique

I have a very specific and sort of ethical thing that I strongly dislike about the game The Mortuary Assistant that I've had in my head for a while now, and I am going to explain it poorly to you. (And no, it's not an issue with the game having dead bodies or demons or whatever - I don't give a shit about that, its horror, the genre is practically built on dead bodies and demons.)

The game itself is mostly fine - the gameplay loop is alright if repetitive, and while I really like the scares that are subtly integrated into the environment, the game does rely very heavily on scripted sequences that can get very repetitive as you play through the game.

But my issue isn't with the game itself, rather, it's with how the game starts. Specifically, this screen:

This is a loading screen that shows when you start up the game. I find this "warning" to be, for a lack of a better word, highly unethical. Sure, horror is meant to be scary and is often designed to stick with you after experiencing it, but this specific warning feels like it preys on the vulnerable people who may see it and take it as actual truth.

While most players will see it and pass it off as the same as the "based on a true story" trope that horror movies liked to lie about for ages, I feel that specifically the more vulnerable players or viewers may take it too seriously. Those more prone to superstition and paranoia, and those with mental health issues that make it difficult to determine what's real and what's not.

This "warning" actively encourages these vulnerable people to believe that incidents like fear-based hallucinations as a result of *playing their game* are actually real and pose a significant threat. Not only that, but they directly tell the players to seek out those who will exploit their paranoia - "paranormal investigators" and "exorcists" who are more than happy to capitalize on someone else's irrational fear.

Now, the obvious retort is that it's just the game trying to create a scary atmosphere, and I can understand that in most cases - except this isn't what this warning does. This is taking the fear out of the controlled space of the video game and projecting it onto the real world, potentially causing genuine, harmful distress in those who are vulnerable to it. Horror as a genre is all about creating a safe environment to experience fear and thrills in - once you intentionally try to make the viewer/player believe that the horror can follow them out of that controlled space, I think it becomes unethical.

All this is to say - I love horror media, of all kinds but especially video games. I love making horror, but I consider it to be essential to make the experience contained within the media, within reason. Obviously, going home after watching a scary movie and jumping at the shadows isn't something that is controllable by the director, but if the director looked at the audience and said, "This is real and *will* happen to you, so you need to look out for it or else you'll be in danger", that's when it becomes unethical. And that is what I believe the Mortuary Assistant does with this screen.

Anyways back to my regularly scheduled content of nothing because I don't post here often. Who knows maybe I'll do more analytical rants about horror games in the future.

[agentfuse]

[agentfuse]

it really is crazy how quickly people were willing to just let chatgpt do everything for them. i have never even tried it. brother i don't even know if it's just a website you go to or what. i do not know where chatgpt actually lives, because i can decide my own grocery list.

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"youd do numbers on tumblr" girl i am on tumblr and the numbers? 4

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Mojave Wasteland Employment Census

Welcome to the Bureau of Labor Statistics! You may recognize us from videos by YouTuber Any Austin, but we're here too!

Today, we will be doing an employment census of the Mojave Wasteland, or more precisely, the region around Las Vegas, Nevada.

To begin with, let's establish some rules and conditions for the census going forward.

With the rules established, now we will move on to the settlements we are going to be taking a census of today.

Let's begin!

Goodsprings

A quiet, peaceful desert town. Formerly a mining settlement, now it is largely an agricultural one, with a heavy focus on farming and a local bighorner trade. It's a good place if you're looking to settle down and start a farm or ranch.

Novac

A very promising town built along a major trade route and nearby to many sources of high value salvage. Though the area is somewhat dangerous, with Caesar's Legion, Viper Highwaymen, and Feral Ghouls causing the town some troubles, the snipers protecting the town keep it safe enough.

Freeside

A bustling city just outside the New Vegas Strip, built around accommodating travelers going to the Strip. However, with that comes danger to those very same travelers, with desperate and predatory individuals seeking to take the money of those wealthy enough to enter the Strip. With some better community infrastructure, which is being worked on by the local Followers of the Apocalypse, Freeside could have a very promising future.

Westside

A fiercely independent and self-sufficient settlement. Though the architecture is makeshift and rundown, the people living here make do, with organizations like the Co-Op ensuring that everyone who puts in some work gets fed at the end of the day. The local Militia keeps the community safe from threats like the Fiends.

North Vegas Square

A destitute community made up of people with nowhere else to go, there are individuals working to make this place better. Despite their efforts, the majority of people living here have no way to support themselves, and as such often turn to crime. If you're willing to deal with the violence and danger, North Vegas Square could be grown into a real settlement with a good amount of work.

New Vegas Sewers

Though this could hardly be considered a unified settlement, the Bureau made the decision to group all the disparate communities living in the sewers together for this census. This data shows that the Sewers is where those with no other option go, and has the highest unemployment of the entire Mojave Wasteland. The only employer in this region is the Thorn, a fighting arena that provides some entertainment and distraction for residents.

Jacobstown

Finally, we have a quiet mountain resort that's largely isolated from the outside world. The vast majority of the population here is made of Super Mutants, who are often distrusting or even hostile to humans trying to settle down here. If you're able to gain their trust, however, you could find a nice spot as a bighorner rancher, town guard, or even potentially an assistant to the Nightkin relief effort.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the three best economies in the Mojave Wasteland are Freeside, Novac, and Goodsprings, and anyone seeking to settle down in the Mojave should choose one of these as an option. Of course, all settlements and towns mentioned here are viable options, but understand that these three have the highest opportunity available with the least accompanying risk.

And that concludes this presentation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you want to see more, go watch Any Austin's videos. Seriously, do that, they're great.

[agentfuse]

Fallout's Electrical Grids

Inspired by Any Austin's videos on GTA IV & V (go watch them), I decided to map the path of every electrical pylon in Fallout 3, New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76. It was an interesting experience that was sometimes fun and sometimes really dull and boring.

Now, these maps aren't full depictions of the electrical grid - I don't include utility poles for the most part (because there's too many and when I tried it was incredibly boring and dull) or underground cables (because I don't know whether or not they exist). But it does include the electrical pylons, which should give some interesting information about where power is coming from and how it's routed throughout the world.

The Capital Wasteland's Electrical Grid:

The pylons in FO3 are interesting - they're a lot more sporadic in their placement, but they're also pretty fun to follow. Also, almost every line was connected to a substation, which is neat. Fallout 3 also explicitly states that most of the power lines for DC are underground, so it's plausible that some of these lines could just go underground when they end, rather than just stopping.

The Mojave Wasteland's Electrical Grid:

New Vegas was honestly a little bit boring to do an electrical survey for. It was mostly just one long line of pylons going across a flat desert, so I found myself very bored while mapping this one. But regardless, it was interesting to see that the pylons form an *almost* complete line, with the exception of a few spots that don't connect.

Also, for New Vegas, I mapped out the utility poles of the world as well, mainly because the pylons didn't give much interesting information. Interestingly, the only utility pole that got anywhere near a substation (where they'd normally hook up to) was a short line nearby the Nevada Winds Solar Farm.

Fun fact, New Vegas also has the only clear indication of underground cables that I was able to find in any of the games. The El Dorado Substation has wires leading directly into the ground facing Helios One, and the substation attached to Helios One's power plant also has lines leading into the ground, facing the El Dorado. It's a neat detail! That's what the squiggly line between Helios One and the El Dorado Substation is meant to portray.

The Commonwealth's Electrical Grid

Fallout 4 was a bit disappointing - there were only 2 pylon lines in the whole Commonwealth, I expected there to be more. The main line at the top starts outside of the map near Sanctuary Hills and goes all the way to an unmarked destroyed power plant nearby County Crossing, where it just kinda... stops.

The other line at the bottom starts at an unmarked substation (which also has a Deathclaw v Behemoth fight) and goes into the Glowing Sea before unceremoniously ending in a single destroyed pylon, with no visible continuation of the line.

I did also start mapping out the utility poles for the Commonwealth like I did for the Mojave, but I got bored because there's a lot more and the Commonwealth is a lot bigger.

Appalachia's Electrical Grid

(You'll have to zoom in to see any detail, since 76's map is very big.)

This one was my favorite electrical grid survey to do, because 76's world is just so damn cool and well made. It's also very cool to see that 76 has the most accurate electrical infrastructure in the entire series! There are 3 pylon lines in Appalachia, each connecting to 3 different power plants across the regions, as well as multiple substations along the routes. Doubly interesting, the utility poles also actually connect to the substations, which is a first!

I was very impressed with the level of detail in 76's world, there's so many little details, like how in the forested regions, the area beneath the pylon wires is actually cleared out, like they are in real life. It was just cool to see the developers actually pay attention to that kind of thing, along with the aforementioned utility poles connecting to the substations.

Conclusion

Now, you may ask, "Why did you do this?" And my answer is, because I thought it'd be neat and I didn't have anything better to do. You might also ask, "What did we learn from this?", to which my answer is basically nothing but hey, at least we reaffirmed that Fallout 76 still has the best world map of the games.

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Spooky Month Begins

It is officially Spooky Month.

Unfortunately I don't have any new spooky mod projects this year, I've been preoccupied with other mod projects & real life Halloween projects.

I do still have my two existing spooky mods though, Haunted Casino and Uncanny Valley Research Center! If you're looking for New Vegas horror mods to play during Spooktober, give them a try! If you like 'em, give me a shout!

The Haunted Casino at Fallout New Vegas - mods and community (nexusmods.com)

The Uncanny Valley Research Center at Fallout New Vegas - mods and community (nexusmods.com)

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Gonna be refurbishing and redesign this old Fallout oc of mine:

'Once a high confessor for a New York Children of Atom faction, now a lost shepherd without his flock, Mortas wanders the wastes in search for new followers to form and control. He never goes into large settlements due to his concerning attire making settlers nervous and sometimes can be seen hovering outside a few just to trade with the caravans'

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Alien Romulus Good

We take an unscheduled break from modding discussion to talk about how Alien Romulus is a fucking fantastic film

I won't spoil anything, but it has so many new and creative ideas for the franchise and it executes them so damn well. Genuinely had me shaking with excitement at how cool and creative the ideas they had were.

It also helps that I love the creation of horror, so seeing the utter brilliance behind so many of the set-up, set pieces, sequences, etc. was fantastic to see.

I hope this and Prey spawn a new era of making Alien and Predator films actually good again instead of "ehhhhh" to "god awful", like Prometheus, Covenant, Predators, and The Predator were.

[agentfuse]

yes good rant about the mod I made you watch me play, we must feed each other's anger about bad game design

this is another Fallout London post. more of a rant but still:

because GOD this is really not good. maybe im just like really critical of stuff but so much of the mod just doesnt add up to...anything? most of the quests are uninteresting or outright present you with dialogue options that outright contradict themselves or basic established lore of the world they've set up, so many locations are near empty and boring as hell to try and explore, with a SIGNIFICANT number of the marked locations having literally nothing to find in them, some of them actually having nothing in them at all, there's tons of NPCs, both generic and some named that have, and i dont mean this hyperbolically, literally no dialogue at all, the mods full of things that are just wrong about britian, like posters calling the tower bridge london bridge, the combat encounters are regularly boring because all the factions are functionally the same in terms of equipment, lots of the weapons you can use have blatantly anachronistic modifications like actual real modern day attachments, all of the "new enemies" are just model swaps that use the same skeleton and movesets and often the same exact sounds as base fallout 4 enemies and often aren't even properly rigged for the skeletons they used (like the fucking assaultron replacement that just constantly clips thru its own model anytime it moves at all because they gave it a skirt it was never built to have), and on top of all of it, the mod itself just breaks all the time. there were multiple times quests couldn't progress because NPCs just didn't say the line of dialogue they were suppose to, completely softlocking their quests (this happened with every single main faction at least once), and to top it off most of the assets actually used in this mod weren't even made for it, most come from the Capital Wasteland Project, but even things like the terminals and most of the guns are just straight up from other mods. also, multiple terminal entries were just outright written by AI. and im not saying that like "oh theyre just poorly written so i assume its AI" i mean the lead dev in their discord fucking confirmed it and said he had no clue it happened. like i get a lot of people worked really hard on this, and i dont want to shit on them, but to call this mod "one of the best things fallout has seen in years" i think is a massive disservice to everything else fallout related weve seen since even 76 came out. this mod is a mess of ideas that rarely add up to anything interesting, with a story that gives you no real reason to care or engage with it, that leads to a fight that fucking sucks so much the final battle is terrible (you're forced into a melee fight with a weapon that isn't any of yours on a tiny catwalk where you have to beat the same guy TWICE in a row, and then he gets great mouse detectived), and ultimately never feels fulfilling. it does so little actually interesting with the factions it made or the area its set in and the fact people absolutely adore this mod fucking baffles me. this mod is not good. i genuinely want to know what people like about this because i cannot understand a single aspect of it, ESPECIALLY the people saying this is better than like, base Fallout 4 itself.

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Tshirt idea I had

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remade @agentfuse 's old ref sheet!

the old ref looks like ASS

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I'm in your walls

well get out of there, it's full of asbestos

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FOUND YOU

uh oh

[agentfuse]

Hello

Still figuring out Tumblr, but I've created a separate blog for all of my mod project updates & teasers, which you can find HERE.

You can find my New Vegas mods on the New Vegas Nexus.

You can also find my YouTube channel HERE, where I will typically post mod teaser videos. While I will still post the videos here when I release them, it would be nice if you'd subscribe!

And even though I might not be using it much in the future, I will also drop the link to my Twitter HERE. since it does have a big stockpile of mod updates there.