Meet the Fallout 3 devs - Todd Howard Todd Howard is the Executive Producer of " Fallout 3 " . On Bethesda Game Studios Forums he uses the nickname " todd @ bethesda " . The following are Todd Howard ' s posts from the Meet the Devs threads on Bethesda forums : Todd Howard ' s posts . Introduction . First , I just want to say that I think this thread is amazing , really one of the best we ’ ve ever had on our forums . And , in general , I ’ m pretty amazed at the sheer amount of discussion going on in these forums . We ’ ve only had the Fallout stuff open for a little while and it ’ s almost at what , 60k posts ? So , I figured , that level of activity certainly warranted a post from me . I thought to myself , yeh , I post on the forums , but then I checked and realized my last post was in … 2004 . Jesus . That ’ s pretty crappy on my part . I guess there ’ s two reasons for that , one , I ’ m pretty frickin busy all the time , and two , I get quoted and heard from enough that I don ’ t know that hearing more from me is really helpful . I think it ’ s more important that you hear from other people on the team who don ’ t get microphones shoved in their faces by the press . The bad news is , when it ’ s the press regurgitating what you say , it often comes out wrong , so I guess it ’ s better if I just post and say it myself . Ok , so here goes the rapid typing and rambling from me , I bet this ends up too long , but what the hell , it ’ s been 3 years : Who are you and what do you do ? Todd Howard , “ person - in - charge ” of Fallout 3 ’ s development . I ’ ve worked on most of our stuff , but the one ’ s that I “ created / was in - charge - of ” would be Future Shock , SkyNET , Redguard , Morrowind , and Oblivion . What are your inspirations ? Oh , whatever . You guys just ask these questions because you ’ re subversively trying to get a better understanding of who we are and what makes us tick , because that will give you insight into what Fallout 3 is and what ’ s going to make it tick , so I ’ m not going to answer the questions , since I think you guys have proven you deserve something more , straight from “ the horse ’ s mouth ” . Obviously I can ’ t talk about the game itself yet , but I can give you a look into how I / we approached it . When we first got the license in 2004 , I was pretty ecstatic , I pushed pretty hard for us to get it , because I really liked the first game and thought Fallout would be a great fit for us , it has all the big things I love about RPGs – player freedom , big world , go do what you want type of stuff . But once you have it – you obviously get to work on how to approach an icon like Fallout . And it ’ s much harder then you think , because it ’ s certainly a game that has grown in its legacy as time goes on , it ’ s hard to sift through what its “ essence ” or “ soul ” is , because it ’ s aged , and people often discuss it in nostalgic tones . I obviously replayed the games , and Fallout 1 remains the truest inspiration for what we ’ re doing , but again , it can be hard to get at the “ soul ” of it , because of its aging . So I look to things like the first game ’ s manual . The fiction and tone of it . There is also a great , great section in the Fallout 1 hintbook , “ One Woman ’ s Path through the Desert ” , which is a journal of going through the game , as if it was real . In some ways , that section is a better look into the game then the game itself . I also read old - reviews , because they gave me a better understanding of how those games felt then . Again , removing the aging . I obviously looked at all the PA movies – Boy and his Dog , Mad Max , Strangelove , etc . Though I find the actual PA movies end up fairly generic , and don ’ t capture what is special about the Fallout world , and that ’ s not the world that you end up with , but the world of 2077 that gets destroyed , and then built upon . I became far more interested in the “ pre - war ” world , then the “ post - war ” world . I also looked a lot at my own reactions to other franchises that have had long gaps and were reborn / updated again in another era . Mostly movies , and such , The Lord of the Rings , Superman , Batman , etc , etc . Now , I ’ m a recovering comic book junkie , so I ’ ll probably be throwing around a lot of superhero references , and I hope they make sense . Speaking of which , I ’ d really like to sell a bunch of long - boxes from my basement if anyone wants them , you just can ’ t have my signed Frank Miller Dark Knight . Speaking of Dark Knight , Batman remains my favorite ( one day I ’ m gonna rock the house with an open - ended gotham city Batman game , mark my words ) . The recent Batman and Superman movies , or even their earlier counterparts are pretty good examples of classic iconic franchises that were reborn again . I love … love … Batman Begins . Chris Nolan is a @ # $ * ! ^ & genius . See the Prestige if you haven ’ t . Now , I have problems as a huge Batman fan with it , but the pure “ soul ” of Batman beats in the heart of that movie , and Nolan ’ s current “ I believe in Harvey Dent ” tease from The Dark Knight is further proof of his genius . I also love the first Superman movie , and I think I draw many parallels from Bryan Singer doing Superman Returns , which tries to follow Superman 1 and 2 and ignore 3 and 4 , to our own situation . Reg Richard Donner ’ s Superman , one of my mantras , and it ’ s a word he used for making that movie , is “ verisimilitude ” . Look it up if you don ’ t know what it means . Donner made a sign of it and put it up ( maybe I ’ ll do the same ) . I want to bring that to Fallout , I want to make it real again , and come alive like it ’ s the first time you ’ ve ever seen it . Treat it with respect , and don ’ t cheese it up . I wish I could give you real , true , insight into what we put into our games , and this is not me just trying to sell you , or smooth you over , because I ’ m Ok , really , if you don ’ t love what we do . We ’ re fans , we ’ re passionate about what we do . We go on a crusade to make the best game we can . We make the game we would run to the store and buy , we argue , we debate , we scream , we stay up all night , we clap and cheer the highs and curse the lows . One day we ’ ll find a way to make you a fly on the wall in one of our design meetings – they ’ re pretty damn inspiring . And I wish you knew all the faces of the 80 people busting ass to make this game great . The secret superstars you don ’ t know of like Istvan Pely , Mike Lipari , and Scott Franke . I could go on and on . I ’ m often asked about the fans and our forums , and I think you all want to know if your opinions are heard or it you ’ re shouting into a black hole . And I can assure you that we have these forums so we can hear from you . And yes , we read most of it . It ’ s like a car crash you just have to watch sometimes , lots of violence and parts exploding , but there is something awesome in its power . Your opinions do matter , and we want them . We are influenced by what gets said about us on these forums , in the press , the letters we get and so forth . Speaking of letters , we do get a lot , and the letters are different then the forum posts . One of the popular letters we get is from someone who ’ s had a life - changing experience , or gone through a bad time , and had to write us to tell us how much Morrowind / Oblivion meant to them . That it became a real world to them , that they got to escape and play a stronger / different person then they are in real life , and it helped them . You have to pretty jaded to not have that affect you . And that ’ s why you come to these forums and that ’ s why people outside of RPGs and / or Fallout may think you are crazy . Because they are not just games , they are worlds , and for the time you play them they are as real as anything you have experienced in life , they become part of you and you care . That ’ s why you and I are both here . To say we care about Fallout would be an epic understatement . We are excited / humbled to be the ones to bring it back . I know we don ’ t have all the right answers , or the one ’ s you would make when it comes to how it should be or look . We can only do what we think is right and what makes us the most excited , and that ’ s what we ’ ve done . We ’ ve left no stone unturned in trying to find Fallout ’ s “ soul ” , but those decisions are ours , not yours . I just hope you give the game a look and decide if that soul is there for you . I think I know what it feels like to adopt kids now , because we adopted Fallout and for the last 3 years we have been doing our best to care for it , and now I love it like it had been our child forever ; and soon , very soon , we can show him to the world again . I think he ’ s got something to say , and I think it ’ s important . You may not agree , you may be too cynical to look at it objectively anymore , but I ’ m going to guess that you ’ re reading this forum because Fallout really does matter , and it does mean something far more to you then just “ a game . ” So for my final superhero reference , I leave you with this quote from Christopher Reeve ; insert Fallout : " I ' ve seen first hand how Superman actually transforms people ' s lives . I have seen children dying of brain tumors who wanted as their last request to be able to talk to me , and have gone to their graves with a peace brought on by knowing that their belief in this kind of character is intact . I ' ve seen that Superman really matters . They ' re connecting with something very basic : the ability to overcome obstacles , the ability to persevere , the ability to understand difficulty and to turn your back on it . ”