Fan Reaction to Fallout 76

Fallout 76 has been the subject of fan discussion, much of it negative, since well before its release. The game's controversy has been related to issues through its development and launch, and fans' dissatisfaction with gameplay elements such as merchandise, glitches, and more.
==Development & Release==
In 2007, well before the game was even formally announced, a legal dispute between Interplay and Bethesda Softworks over the rights granted to Interplay for the creation of a Fallout MMORPG was filed. That dispute was settled in 2012, with Bethesda regaining the rights to the creation of any future Fallout MMORPGs.The Great Fallout Legal Battle Ends Without a Fallout MMO. Posted 9 Jan 2012. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. However, many fans wondered if we would ever see a Fallout MMORPG, which resulted in quite a bit of buzz when Fallout 76 was announced in June 2018.
Early announcements at the gaming convention Quakecon in August 2018 looked promising,All of the new details for Fallout 76 Bethesda announced at QuakeCon today. Posted 11 Aug 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. but fans were wary about the game after the announcement that cross platform play wouldn't be supported due to Sony's reluctance.Fallout 76’s Todd Howard: No cross-console play because ‘Sony is not as helpful as everyone would like’. Posted 1 Jul 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Then, ahead of the beta set for October 2018, it was announced that Fallout 76 wouldn't be available on the popular PC platform Steam.Fallout 76 won’t launch on Steam so Bethesda can ‘directly serve’ its players. Posted 13 Aug 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. By that point, fans started losing faith and questioning if a Fallout MMORPG was even viable.
The game was released on 14 November 2018 for the regular price of $59.99USD, but near immediately went on sale during Black Friday for a mere $40USD before being dropped to $34.99USD on Amazon.Fallout 76 drops in price (again) to $35. Posted 24 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. It is now regularly on sale, something almost unheard of for a relatively new game from a major publisher, and is such a flop that German GameStops were giving away the game for free with select purchases regardless of whether customers wanted it or not.GameStop Germany Giving Away Copies of ‘Fallout 76’ With Purchase of Used Controller. Posted 1 Feb 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Despite being fairly universally disappointing and also a glitchy, unplayable mess, Fallout 76 still managed to make it onto Polygon's "The best PC games of 2018".The best PC games of 2018. Posted 26 Dec 2018. Accessed 18 Sept 2019.
==Lack of Human NPCs==
NPCs play a big role in most Fallout games. Given the post-apocalyptic, single-player nature of the rest of the series, there isn't much to do in a Fallout game besides talk to NPCs. The early announcement that the game would feature no human NPCs at all caused a lot of discussion before the game's release, and thoughts about this inclusion seemed to come in two general flavors: those for it and those ready to fix the problem themselves.
There were also those who were surprised that people felt that the Fallout series was defined by NPC interaction, given that the series takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and "because [Fallout] games are suppose to feel lonely."Emil_Zatopek1982 on "I just played the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A for the time, it's probably the most fun I've had in a videogame in a long time." Posted 28 Oct 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. This revealed a split that's always existed between the two different types of players and reveals itself most clearly when discussion of Accessibility in Video Games comes up: there are people who play games purely for the mechanical experience of the game and those that play for the storytelling experience. Those who play games for the mechanical experience and enjoy grinding or item collection often feel frustrated when quests are "repetitive," because to them doing the same things mechanically is where the repetition lies. These people don't see the point in an NPC being dynamic and treat them more like gameplay mechanics rather than characters.
Those who favor story value NPCs as having a function beyond the mechanical. They want to know and NPCs backstory, they want that almost human interaction with them and to those fans something would be lost if Fallout 76 had no human NPCs in a story about surviving after the apocalypse. With the release of the beta, however, it was revealed that Fallout 76 was still surprising lore-heavy and featured well-known staples of the Fallout series such as holotapes,How 'Fallout 76' Tells a New Type of Bethesda Story With No NPCs. Posted 9 Oct 2018. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. but all of the people featured on them are dead.Fallout 76 has NPCs, they’re just all dead. Posted 25 Oct 2018. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. Whether or not a player finds that intriguing is a matter of personal taste, but the overall opinion is that it gets tiresome after the first few quests. The lack of human NPCs doesn't mean that the game lacks NPCs a player can interact with altogether. There are robots in Fallout 76, although they aren't true companions in the vein of previous Fallout Games.Fallout 76: How to get Friendly Robots at your C.A.M.P.. Posted 16 Jan 2019. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. There are also dogsFallout 76 - Dogs FINALLY Found! Dog Armor Located! A Plea To Bethesda From Fans!. Posted 21 Nov 2018. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. and players can unlock the ability to tame creatures by equipping certain charisma cards.Fallout 76 - HOW TO TAME CREATURES AS YOUR PETS! Secret Perk, Friendly Deathclaw, Mega Sloth, & More. Posted 18 Dec 2018. Accessed 17 Sept 2019. In his review of Fallout 76, games journalist Joseph Anderson says of the NPCs:
While Anderson's definition of NPCs may be strictly true in the sense of NPC meaning "non-playable character," even if most gamers wouldn't classify enemies as NPCs, the crux of people's dissatisfaction with Fallout 76 having no human NPCs stems from the deliberate departure from Bethesda's other games. While many fans wouldn't consider Bethesda great storytellers, given the fact that the dialogue and writing in their games is typically thought of as poor,Bethesda doesn't get enough credit for their storytelling. Posted 21 Nov 2015. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. their games generally have many interactable NPCs that have storylines and lives of their own. Skyrim in particular is known for having many NPCs that propel the story and encourage players to explore the open world that the game has set up.
Since Fallout 76 is an MMORPG, it would only make sense for there to be human NPCs to further the story and lore of the game. At E3 2019, Bethesda announced the Wastelanders DLC would be released in the fall to celebrate the game's first birthday. It centers around the so-called "Wastelanders," Fallout 76's first human NPCs,Fallout 76 - Official E3 2019 Wastelanders Gameplay Trailer. Posted 9 Jun 2019. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. and co-studio director Tom Mustane has said that Fallout 76's second year will be about "people coming back to reclaim [the wasteland]."Fallout 76 is getting human NPCs and companions this fall. Posted 10 June 2019. Accessed 18 Sept 2019.
==The Beta==
Fallout 76's beta started on 28 October 2018 and unlike most betas for video games, featured servers that were only playable at specific times of the day.Fallout 76 BETA schedule: All times and dates. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. Bethesda stated that this was because the beta was more about testing server loads than trying to fix bugs, but this proved to be more convenient for some players than others, given the time zone differences. Early reports said Fallout 76 was something of a barren wasteland in addition to being full of bugs.The 'Fallout 76' Beta Is Here and It’s Going to Be Buggy as Hell. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 18 Sept 2019.
While bugs are nothing new for game betas and even games early after launch, Fallout 76's beta suffered from several extremely concerning bugs, including one where pressing any button would delete all the game filesFallout 76 Bug Accidentally Deletes Entire 50GB Beta. Posted 30 Oct 2019. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. and one where the beta couldn't be uninstalled after the end of the beta unless users purchased the game.Fallout 76 Beta Uninstall Issues on PC. Posted 12 Nov 2019. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. There were also numerous reports of other kinds of difficulties in the official beta thread on the Fallout 76 Reddit ranging from damage numbers changing for no discernable reason to not being able to connect to the server at all.Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. Discussion, Feedback and Reports Thread. Posted 23 Oct 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. There was also an issue where microphones were always on by default during gameplayPSA: If you wear a headset, you're automatically in voice chat with a hot mic. Posted 31 Oct 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. and a common complaint was that players felt the guns in the game broke too quickly and they found themselves in a cycle of looting water and food to stay alive so they could loot enough materials to repair their weapons.Comment thread on "Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. Discussion, Feedback and Reports Thread". Posted 23 Oct 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
Still other fans didn't find themselves concerned with the gameplay or even the bugs riddling the beta, but rather the identity of the game itself. Many people who played the beta felt that the game was "a bunch of really cool ideas hodgepodged together but not quite fleshed out."Fallout 76 is confused about its identity. Posted 5 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. While this could perhaps be said of any Bethesda game, Fallout 76 suffers from it on an even greater level because it incorporates other people into your experience and other players are unpredictable. Ethan Gach writing for Kotaku said that Fallout 76 feels like two different games depending on whether or not humans are nearby:
Not all fans were disappointed with the beta however. Many fans were happy with the game presented to them during the beta and couldn't wait to play the game upon release.I just played the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A for the time, it's probably the most fun I've had in a videogame in a long time. Posted 28 Oct 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. These people often felt that playing the game resulted in a different experience from what was communicated to fans prior to the beta.
===Fallout 76 Cannot Be Uninstalled===
While issues with uninstalling Fallout 76 began in the beta, these issues are apparently still present in the released version of the game, with the problem being so prevalent that Bethesda has a FAQ question about it. Users on twitter have expressed a variety of different problems, from the game not uninstalling correctly to being forced to have an internet connection just to uninstall the game.
Even into January 2019, users were reporting that Fallout 76 was uninstalling itself seemingly at random and still leaving all the files on the harddrive.Fallout 76 crashed my PC then deleted itself. Posted 11 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
==Glitches==
Bethesda games are known among fans to be glitchy to the point where Todd Howard once saying "it just works" is a memeTodd Howard Song—It Just Works (BETHESDA the Musical) E3 2019. Posted 10 Jun 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. because Bethesda games often don't work. There's some debate among fans about whether the bugs are helpful or frustrating. Mostly, however, fans have made peace with the fact that Bethesda games have bugs. Some have even come to enjoy the bugs in any given Bethesda game:
Given this history, it's safe to say that nobody's problem with Fallout 76 was the simple fact that the game has bugs. Rather, fans were upset with the amount and scope of bugs present in the gameThe 1001 Glitches of Fallout 76. Posted 13 Feb 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. which ranged from the usual funny glitches and "hacky" glitches to more serious, game-breaking glitches that Bethesda ignored.GAME BREAKING BUG GIVES FALLOUT 76 PLAYERS GOD MODE IMMORTALITY, BETHESDA IGNORES IT Fallout 76 News. Posted 24 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Players have also been glitched into inacessible areas of the gameFallout 76 Players Accidentally Glitch Into An Unopened Vault. Posted 11 Feb 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. and issues with characters getting stuck in permanent loading screens.Actual Game-Breaking Bug. Posted 16 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. These issues persisted for months after the game's release leading many players to feel frustrated with the game. Joseph Anderson had this to say about the subject of glitches in Fallout 76:
Bethesda has fixed a number of bugs since the release of Fallout 76, but there are so many bugs (many of which are game-breaking) that players have brought to Bethesda's attention via the official subreddit or through Bethesda's own community forums that aren't fixed for months. A regular feature on the Reddit Patch Notes threads is a bug list compiled by user ZanthirEAS, which other users often use as a place to share bugs that they've encountered.Comment Thread on Fallout 76: Patch 13 Notes – September 10, 2019. Posted 10 Sept 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019.
==No Physical Discs==
When Fallout 76 shipped, all physical editions came not with a physical disc containing the game but a piece of cardboard containing a download code for the game.Fallout 76 PC Discs are Cardboard in the Physical Editions. Posted 15 Nov 2018. Accessed 18 Sept 2019. Collectors editions only containing what are essentially download codes isn't anything new, this particular incident was merely the last straw for many people, particularly because many fans ordered the physical edition from Amazon because it was discounted when pre-orders were going on.Amazon Pre-Order with Fallout 76. Posted 12 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
Later reports stated that Bethesda was refusing to give refunds for players that "downloaded the game," which would essentially mean anybody was in danger of being refused a refund by Bethesda.Bethesda promised me a refund on FO76 then backs out of it the next day. Posted 24 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. This resulted in Migliaccio & Rathod LLP deciding to investigate Bethesda for deceptive business practices related to refusing to refund Fallout 76 purchases.Bethesda Game Studios Deceptive Trade Practices Investigation. Posted 26 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Due to arbitration clauses designed to prevent class action lawsuits, Migliaccio & Rathod LLP filed hundreds of individual demand letters to Bethesda while filing the case in California.[Updated Law Firm Unleashes Arbageddon Upon Bethesda Over Fallout 76]. Posted 29 Jan 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
==Power Armor Edition Controversy==
Among the many editions of Fallout 76 that were available for purchase was the "Power Armor Edition," which retailed for $200USD and was advertised with the image to the right. As you can see in the image, the bag depicted in the image clearly appears to be made of canvas. It looks exactly like the type of sturdy carrying bag you would expect for a military-style piece of equipment. What fans received, however, was a cheap nylon bag with Bethesda citing an "unavailability of materials" as the reason for the change in merchandise.$200 Fallout 76 Edition Promised Fancy Bag, Delivers Nylon Trash Instead [Update: Bethesda Responds]. Posted 28 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
When fans began complaining about the bait-and-switch nature of being shown a canvas bag and receiving a nylon one, Bethesda responded by altering their description of the Power Armor Edition on their websiteFallout 76 Power Armor Edition on the Bethesda store. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. and offering affected players 500 Atoms.Bethesda offers 500 Atoms to customers affected by Fallout 76 bag-gate. Updated 28 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Atoms are Fallout 76's in-game currency and 500 Atoms can be purchased in the game itself for $4.99 in the US.Buy Fallout 76: 500 Atoms. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Prices are similar across countries and many fans were disappointed with this response from Bethesda as 500 Atoms won't even allow you to buy the in-game skin that features a canvas bag.Tweet from Chris Livingston. Posted 28 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Modders, of course, responded by making a mod of the canvas bag that should have shipped with the Power Armor Edition.West Tek Duffle Bag. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Concerns were also raised over the fact that accepting the 500 Atoms from Bethesda could mean waiving your legal right to a refund later onDO NOT accept the 500 atoms from Bethesda. Posted 29 Nov 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. and overall fans were upset by this development and Bethesda's response to it.
Upon being informed by the fans who contacted them about this, Migliaccio & Rathod LLP also began to look into the Power Armor Edition for deceptive trade practices.
Then it was discovered that Bethesda gave various influencers a different canvas bag at an event in early October, before the beta launched.Bethesda Gave 'Influencers' Nice 'Fallout 76' Canvas Bags Instead Of Fans Who Spent $200. Posted 3 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. The event, held in a West Virginia hotel known as the Greenbrier, provided attendees with canvas backpacks filled with various Fallout 76 merchandise.76 mystery bag unboxing gift from Bethesda. Posted 3 Oct 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. This caused significant outrage from fans, and Bethesda finally caved. They announced that they were finalizing the manufacturing plans for replacement bags and that fans could submit a request to receive these canvas bags up until 31 January 2019.Tweet from Bethesda Support. Posted 3 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. This was then extended to 1 March 2019Tweet from Bethesda Support. Posted 29 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. and then extended again to 3 May 2019.Tweet from Bethesda Support. Posted 15 Feb 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
As people submitted their requests, however, reports started to surface of players receiving emails saying that there would be a 4 to 6 month wait for the production of the canvas bags and that players would be given 500 atoms for the inconvenience.4 to 6 months for the canvas bag!. Posted 17 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. This proved to be true, with the bags finally arriving in June 2019.At Long Last, The Canvas Fallout 76 Bags Have Arrived. Posted 14 Jun 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. While it would be nice to say that the bags were without flaw and exactly what fans expected from a six month wait, that would be a lie and the new canvas bags were just as cheap as the nylon ones.VladimirKal on "My Canvas Bag from Fallout 76 arrived today!". Posted 14 Jun 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Many fans compared the new bags from Bethesda to the similarly valued Destiny 2 collector's edition which also featured a bag of much better quality.Here is everything you get inside the $250 Collector's Edition box set for 'Destiny 2'. Posted 17 Sept 2017. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. It also came with a physical disc.
There were also reports of the Fallout 76: Official Collector's Edition Guide being shipped to consumers with the pages put in backward.Bethesda....WHYYYYYYY. Posted 25 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. In September 2019, reports started surfacing that a collectible Power Armor helmet identical to the one included with the Power Armor Edition, only in Nuka Cola colors, was totally recalled due to a potential mold issue.Fallout 76 wearable helmet recalled because of dangerous mold. Posted 24 Sept 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. While initial reports were unclear on how widespread the problem was, given that 20,000 helmet5s were produced and all of them were recalled, in actuality only 32 helmets that were sold and each of those 32 buyers was directly contacted, with the rest of the product simply being pulled from the shelves.
==Bethesda Support Security Breach==
On 5 December 2018, reports of people being able to see other people's support tickets started surfacing on both RedditI am getting your support tickets on my Bethesda account. Now I know where you live. Posted 5 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. and Bethesda's own community forums.Bethesda is leaking your personnal informations through tickets !! Posted 5 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. The issue was quickly resolved, but the incident led to many people expressing their further disappointment in how far Bethesda has fallen as a company just since the launch of Fallout 76. It also led to a variety of joking responses:
Overall, however, people were upset that Bethesda was silent on the matter aside from a community manager responding to the initial thread on Bethesda's community forums with "Hi guys, we've resolved this issue." Eventually, however, Bethesda confirmed that "no more than 65 customer support tickets contained personal data that may have been exposed" in the approximately 45 minutes the breach was live.@BethesdaSupport Statement. Posted 6 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. This statement, however, doesn't match up with reports from users who were able to view the tickets during the breach and many people speculate the impact of this event might have been much wider than Bethesda is willing to let on.
==Lootbox and Atomic Shop Controversy==
After the December 11th patch, dataminers compiled their own patch notes and several changes related to "Lunchboxes" caught the attention of fans. Lunchboxes are Fallout's version of lootboxes, which originated in Fallout Shelter where they could be purchased for USD$0.99. Lootboxes are the video game community's current hot button issue, so prior to Fallout 76's release Bethesda was careful to tell players that microtranscations would be limited to cosmetic items and that they could be purchased with atoms, which the game will give to players.Bethesda elaborates on Fallout 76's microtransactions and Atoms currency. Posted 31 Oct 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Bethesda's statement made it seems as if Fallout 76 would be F2P rather than P2W, which gamers greatly dislike in a game that already costs you money to play. The discovery that Bethesda might be implementing lootboxes into Fallout 76, when they'd already expressly told players that it would happen, understandably made players wary about the datamined changes.
Soon after this was discovered, Bethesda released holiday items in their atom shop that were widely agreed to be overpriced, with a single skin costing the equivalent of USD$20 in atoms.The ATOM Shops prices are slowly going up. and they are ridiculous! Posted 16 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Many fans also commented on the fact that all the items added were also added with a discount already in place, which could be another illegal practice on top of the ones they're already being investigated for.Comment thread on "The ATOM Shops prices are slowly going up. and they are ridiculous!". Posted 16 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
Hackers eventually uncovered the assets for Lunchboxes in the dev room, and definitive proof that if they were to be implemented that they would be available from the Atomic Shop.Potential Lootboxes Found in Fallout 76 Dev Room. Posted 15 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. The patch notes from December indicated that Lunchboxes would have a "party favor" effect that applied to every player in the area, but currently any hacked Lunchbox items only apply cosmetic effects to weapons. Either way, they have not been implemented into the game proper although a February event introduced a +15 health bonus for every member of a team wearing one of the new Unstoppables skins.The new "Become Unstoppable" event provides gameplay effects to atom shop exclusive items, This may only be temporary but it still goes against what we were told. Posted 29 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. While the effect is no longer currently active, the fact that paid items did have an tangible, non-cosmetic effect in the game had some players worried that Bethesda will, in fact, implement Lunchboxes in a future update. Some players even argued that the event was classically P2W, given that every member of the party needed to be wearing a different skin.The “Unstoppables” event in Fallout 76 has a classic P2W structure. Posted 2 Feb 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
As of September 2019, Fallout 76 has not implemented lunchboxes. In April 2019, however, they implement gear repair kits which caused a similar amount of outrage and upset among fans for making the game trend toward P2W."Repair kits" Megathread / Mod Statement. Posted 5 April 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Bethesda officials, however, view repair kits as a strict convenience:
However many fans don't see it that way. Similar to fan's outrage over Assassin's Creed: Odyssey featuring a "Permanent XP Boost" that costs $9.99USD, thus locking the version of the game some people felt was more in line with the rest of the Assassin's Creed franchise behind a paywall,Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s best feature costs an extra 10 bucks. Posted 5 Oct 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. people felt that repair kits allowed players to skip out on the major gameplay loop of Fallout 76.Fallout 76 Is Getting Dangerously Close To Pay-To-Win With New Repair Kits. Posted 5 April 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. In Patch 13, Bethesda introduced two further Atomic Shop items that players felt were also edging dangerously close to making Fallout 76 P2W: the Collectron Station and a Refrigerator.Fallout 76: Patch 13 Notes – September 10, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. Players felt that these items should have been in-game quest rewards, rather than costing 500 atoms for the Collectron Station,Fallout 76 fans are furious over the newest cash shop items. Posted 11 Sept 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. which collects nearby items automatically, and 700 atoms for the Refrigerator, which slows spoilage rate of food and drink items placed inside by 50%. Several users pointed toward a post in the subreddit which said that a fridge or freezer "would be an awesome QOL add and would provide some sort of perishable food storage. It could even be put in the atomic shop, give me something to spend my atoms on." A fridge/freezer for our C.A.M.P. Posted 26 Feb 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. A Bethesda employee responded to that post, saying that they passed the suggestion onto the team, leading fans to conclude that Bethesda likely didn't care about the whole of the playerbase as much as the continued flow of income Atomic Shop purchases bring.Comment Thread on "Robot gatherers/refrigerators should be quest rewards, not atom store items. Adding a new functionality behind additional payment is completely opposite to cosmetic-only Atomic store promise." Posted 10 Sept 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019.
==Cheaters Get Sent To Detention==
In late December, reports started surfacing of users being unfairly banned for use of 3rd party programs and mods.Are mods class as 3rd party programs?. Posted 21 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Like most things related to Fallout 76, this probably wouldn't be noteworthy if it weren't for the way Bethesda went about banning the players for unclear reasons. Multiple reports were given of the email being sent out to banned players containing the following line:
It's unclear if anybody actually submitted an essay, but the request for essays was confirmed to be genuine by a Bethesda staff member in a thread on Resetera after they said that would not be needing essays in order to appeal a ban.Bethesda banning Fallout 76 cheaters, modders caught in crossfire, appeal system in place. Posted 26 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Gstaff: "No, I'd take him at his word. The essay request happened." Shortly afterward, users started being banned from Fallout 76 for a different reason entirely: they found and accessed an area in the game known as the "developer room."Fallout 76 players are nabbing unreleased items from a secret "dev room". Posted 11 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Essentially, it's an area for developers to test items and typically contains a copy of every item in the game - in this case, including items that hadn't been released yet (including the lunchboxes mentioned above) and Fallout 76's only human NPC, named Wooby. Bethesda sent out a similar email to users found to have accessed this dev room:
Some users applauded Bethesda's stance on cheating, while others merely responded that this was another case of Bethesda fucking up their own game. A common question among people was why Bethesda would ship Fallout 76 with a dev room in the first place, given that they know their community is prone to modding their games and using glitches present in the game to gain access to areas they shouldn't be in.Fallout 76 players are nabbing unreleased items from a secret "developer room". Posted 11 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Another was disbelief that Bethesda were essentially relying on the banned players to tell them how they were accessing the dev room so they could prevent it in the future, rather than trying to solve the problem on their own.Comment thread on "Fallout 76 players are nabbing unreleased items from a secret 'developer room'". Posted 11 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
This controversy continued with the most dedicated players of Fallout 76 being banned for having an excess of 100,000 of specific items over a 30 day period.Bethesda Just Banned a TON of Fallout 76 Players. Posted 18 Feb 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. There was a lot of confusion and conflicting information regarding who or what caused this wave of banned users, and one of the major issues was that Bethesda did not send out emails informing people of the bans or address the issue in an easily accessible way. One of the banned users posted on Reddit, saying that he just plays a lot and therefore has accumulated a lot of ammo and is being unfairly targeted by whatever method Bethesda is using to ferret out these supposed cheaters.
Much was made of these claims, and a lot of math was done to try and figure out if the claims were even possible or feasible. Seriously, so much math. Bethesda responded to the issue with more clarification on why players were banned and assuring that the ban would be lifted later when a patch was put into place, but did so on their community forums rather than on somewhere more visible like their support twitter or their subreddit.
By March, there were unconfirmed reports that the dev room had been removed from the game.Dev room no longer exists in the world. Posted 23 March 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
==Nuka Dark Rum Controversy==
Long before the game was released, during the influencer event with the canvas bags, Bethesda announced Nuka Dark Rum (website now non-functional), a tie-in product that would be bottled by Silver Screen Bottling Company. The pre-order price for this product was $79.99 on Liquorama,Nuka Dark Rum 750ml. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. which some noted to be a steep price since a 750ml bottle of Bacardi is far less expensive.Bacardi Superior White Rum 750ml. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Still, Nuka Dark Rum was considered to be a premium collector's item for fans, rather than something every Fallout fan would need, and the price tag didn't discourage many fans from pre-ordering Nuka Dark Rum under the assumption that the bottle could be displayed on a bar as a collector's item even after it was empty.
Early promo photos of the product, like the one shown to the left, showed what many believed to be a mock-up of nice matte glass bottle since it was clear the photos weren't of the final product. Very late into the production of Nuka Dark Rum, however, fans were informed by Silver Screen Bottling Company's video that the rum would ship in a regular glass bottle with a plastic outer shell.Nuka Dark Rum Bottling - December 2018. Posted 5 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Many fans felt misled by this development, particularly in light of every other problem Fallout 76 has encountered,Nuka Dark Rum Unboxing & Thoughts - Were we Misled?. Posted 27 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. and while some people found the outrage to be the product of people looking for further reasons to criticize Bethesda, most people took it to be a reasonable complaint.'Fallout 76' Fans Have Every Right To Be Upset Over $80 Plastic 'Nuka Rum' Bottles. Posted 31 Dec 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Much like with the canvas bag, modders responded by immediately creating a Nuka-Dark Rum mod to be used withing the game itself.
In response to heavy criticism from fans, the owner of Silver Screen Bottling, Ryan McElveen, released a statement on their website about the amount of effort that was put into creating a premium product that fans could feel proud to display:
Fans were not overly impressed with this statement, with responses ranging from disbelief that a plastic bottle was more expensive to produce than glass to seriously questioning if it could ever take 100 hours to program a 3D printing program of laughably bad quality, given that the seams on the bottle are blatantly visible.
Taste tests ranged from people saying it was decent to not particularly positive, with most people agreeing that the rum was incredibly overpriced for the $80USD price tag and 35% alcohol content.Review of Fallout Nuka Dark Rum. Posted 29 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. There were also reports of people receiving multiple bottles they didn't order.@winnersusedrugs on Twitter. Posted 24 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
==Update Problems==
===December Patches===
December brought an update to Fallout 76 that was meant to increase the stability of the servers as well as several assorted bugs.Fallout 76 Patch Notes – December 4, 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Players soon discovered that there were several unannounced game balance changes were also in the patch, chief among a handful of changes that made game progression harder.Fallout 76 - Update Brings New "Secret" Changes. Posted 5 Dec 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Some of these changes were ones players noticed immediately but some were debatable until Bethesda updated the patch notes several days later. This resulted in Bethesda representatives responding to the initial Reddit post about the issues saying that they were going to work on better patch notes and would "have more information for you all ASAP."BethesdaGameStudios official community account apologizes for lack of communication and says they'll let us know what the studio is working on, then releases unannounced stealth Nerfs across the board. Community no longer trusts a word that comes out of community manager's mouth. Posted 5 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
Response to Bethesda's platitudes was lukewarm at best, with many feeling that Bethesda was quickly running out of goodwill from everybody. Players also felt that Bethesda was focusing on the wrong issues, given that there's still several game-breaking bugs that hadn't been addressed yet and the December 4th patch was supposed to be primarily focused on game balances.
The December 4th patch also brought widespread reports of players being unable to log in to the game at all.Uanble to start game after dec 4 patch. Posted 4 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Another patch was released on December 11 which touted "ultrawide" resolution support for 21:9 aspect ratios.Fallout 76 Patch Notes - December 11, 2011. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Players soon found, however, that Bethesda's official ultrawide mode was merely an official version of a hacky trick people were using to get 21:9 resolution in the game already that results in oddly stretched UI and wonky animations.The "21:9 fix" is basically just an .ini edit! Posted 11 Dec 2018. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. Worse yet, the particular trick that Bethesda implemented has been used since Fallout 4 and was fixed by the modding community. Of course, the modding community also took to fixing Fallout 76's crappy ultrawide mode, resulting in the Imperfect 21x9 mod.
===January Patches===
Fallout 76 rang in the new year by immediately needing to be patched because the weekly reset of the game glitched out the nuke silos and set their timers to 9,999 hours and stopped spawning the NPCs who give out the codes to access the silos.Fallout 76 Starts Off 2019 With Glitched Nukes. Posted 2 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. To their credit, Bethesda did fix the issue within a day but it left many people wondering why the issue happened in the first place.
That turned into calling for a change in the entire Fallout 76 dev team,Time for a Change of Leadership in Fallout 76 Development. Posted 29 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. as a game patch released later in January reintroduced old bugs back into the game, forcing Bethesda to temporarily take Fallout 76 offline to fix the issue.Fallout 76 Temporarily Taken Offline After Patch Reintroduces Old Bugs. Posted 31 Jan 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. The path essentially rolled back the game to an earlier version where items were heavier and there were issues with loading because development teams weren't working with the same version of the game. Fans were angry that a supposedly triple-A game would even allow bugs to be reintroduced to the game while still not fixing their legitimate concerns with aspects of the game such as inventory management.
===February Patch===
The February 19 patchFallout 76: Patch Notes – February 19, 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. was a welcome change for fans, given that it introduced several fixes and improvements that the playerbase has been asking for since day 1. These included storage of the stash being expanded from 600 to 800 pounds and power armor no longer selecting a fusion core to use at random, which many players were happy about, and overall response to the patch was not as negative as the response to previous patches. However, players were still experiencing frustrating bugs and glitches such as legendary enemies not dropping the correct loot,Comment Thread on "Fallout 76: Patch Notes – February 19, 2019". Posted 19 Feb 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. issues with sneaking behavior,Comment Thread on "Fallout 76: Patch Notes – February 19, 2019". Posted 19 Feb 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. and issues with the targeting HUD.Comment Thread on "Fallout 76: Patch Notes – February 19, 2019". Posted 19 Feb 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019.
===Wild Appalachia Patches===
March 13 brought the beginning of first major expansion to Fallout 76 with patch 7,Fallout 76: Wild Appalachia Patch Notes – March 13, 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. which introduced a new questline and a seasonal event quest. Response to the patch was overwhelming positive, with many players excited about smaller changes to the game such as the re-introduction of radios for a player's base camp and the ability to brew and distill as a part of the crafting system.Fallout 76: Wild Appalachia Patch Notes – March 13, 2019. Posted 13 March 2019. Accessed 10 Sept 2019. Patch 7.5, released March 26, continued the improvements that 7 introduced, giving players a brand new game mode and fixing the issue many players had where Fallout 76 felt like two different games. Players could now choose from "Adventure Mode," where damage is reduced unless a player is marked as hostile, or "Survival Mode," which focused more on PVP and competition between players.Fallout 76: Wild Appalachia Patch Notes – March 26, 2019. Accessed 19 Sept 2019.
Over the next two months, the release of Wild Appalachia continued with Patch 8, released on April 9;Fallout 76: Wild Appalachia Patch Notes – April 9, 2019. Accessed 19 September 2019. Patch 8.5, released on April 23;Fallout 76: Wild Appalachia Patch 8.5 Notes – April 23, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. Patch 9, released on May 7;Fallout 76: Wild Appalachia Patch 9 Notes – May 7, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. and Patch 9.5, released May 21.Fallout 76: Wild Appalachia Patch 9.5 Notes – May 21, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. While overall player response to the content of the DLC aspects of Wild Appalachia was positive,Fallout 76 - Wild Appalachia DLC Review. Posted 26 May 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019.So, what's this sub's opinion on Wild Appalachia? Posted 15 March 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. many players still found Fallout 76 to be a somewhat buggy mess and were frustrated by Bethesda's lack of response on many issues. In particular, users were frustrated with a bug that caused 3-star wooden armor to become 1-star wooden armor upon restarting the game.3* wood armor still loosing stars. Posted 25 May 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. Many players were also upset by the "fix" of removing the ability to complete survival mode quests in adventure mode, as adventure mode has no equivalent function and the change left players who primarily or exclusively play adventure mode unable to gain the rewards granted for finishing survival mode's quests.
===Nuclear Winter Patches===
Patch 10, released June 10, marked the introduction of a new game mods to Fallout 76: Nuclear Winter, a battle royale-style free for all mode.Fallout 76: Nuclear Winter Patch Notes – June 10, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. The release was considered a "sneak peek," and response to the new mode was generally positive with several people saying that although they didn't generally enjoy battle royale modes, Nuclear Winter was extremely fun and engaging.Nuclear winter is amazing. Posted 10 Jun 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019.
Nuclear Winter was officially released as in beta during Patch 10.5,Fallout 76: Patch 10.5 Notes – June 25, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. released June 10, and further improvements to Nuclear Winter were added in Patch 11,Fallout 76: Nuclear Winter Patch Notes – June 10, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. released July 16. However, Bethesda's focus on Nuclear Winter left many fans worried that Bethesda would abandon adventure mode.Comment Thread on "Fallout 76: Patch 10.5 Notes – June 25, 2019". Posted 25 Jun 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019.Comment Thread on "Fallout 76: Patch 10.5 Notes – June 25, 2019". Posted 25 Jun 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. While there were many fixes to all three game modes in Patch 11, released July 16,Fallout 76: Patch 11 Notes – July 16, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. many players felt that the overall patch was terrible and addressed none of the issues that had been put forth to Bethesda through the subreddit and their community forums.Patch 11 is Terrible and Bethesda's Incompetence Shines Once More. Posted 16 July 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019.
Still other players expressed that while many players were encountering bugs their experience playing Fallout 76 was much different:
Patch 11.5, released August 1,Fallout 76: Patch 11.5 Notes – August 1, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. had a similar fan reactionPatch 11.5 is the worst yet. Posted 1 Aug 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. with players continuing to be disappointed that game breaking bugs were not being addressed.Comment Thread on "Fallout 76: Patch 11.5 Notes - August 1, 2019". Posted 1 Aug 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. Several bugs were "on Bethesda radar," according to comments made in the subreddit by Bethesda employees, but the ETA on when they would be fixed was something of a moving goalpost and many bugs were brought to Bethesda's attention at or around launch with no fixes in sight almost a year into the game's lifespan and making it clear that anyone who accused Bethesda of releasing an unfinished product was, in fact, probably correct. The disaster of Fallout 76's development, with patches reintroducing bugs that had already been fixed, has left a sour taste in many players mouths given that Bethesda gives the atom shop regular updatesAtomic Shop: Patch 13 Items and Sales (September 17). Accessed 20 Sept 2019. and spend their time making useless fixes like "[replacing] a lightbulb above one of the bathroom stalls in Watoga High School." This has led some users to speculate that Bethesda may be fixing things to inflate their list of fixes, with everyone coming to the conclusion that Bethesda is largely ignoring their own playerbase.Comment Thread on "Bethesda... Bethesda never changes." Posted 17 July 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019.
Patch 12, released August 20,Fallout 76: Patch 12 Notes – August 20, 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. marked the introduction of vault raids. Players felt it was extremely difficult and not worth the resource drain to completeThis new vault raid mission Meltdown is NUTS. Posted 27 Aug 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. while still wondering why Bethesda was refusing to address game breaking bugs.Comment Thread on "Fallout 76: Patch 12 Notes – August 20, 2019". Posted 20 Aug 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019.Comment Thread on "Fallout 76: Patch 12 Notes – August 20, 2019". Posted 20 Aug 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. A streamer by the name of Kevduit was livestreaming the raid on the day of release when one of his teammates was hit by a bug which causes player characters to become trapped in their power armor,Fallout 76 Group’s Raid Attempt Foiled By Notorious Power Armor Glitch. Posted 20 Aug 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. thus illustrating the need for Bethesda to fix bugs that have been present since the beta.Fallout 76 Power Armor glitch turns players into naked monsters. Posted 14 Nov 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. One user on the Fallout 76 subreddit said of Patch 12: "'Fixed bug that caused game to lock up when exiting power armor; should be the only note for Patch 13",Comment Thread on "Fallout 76: Patch 12 Notes – August 20, 2019". Posted 20 Aug 2019. Accessed 20 Sept 2019. but Patch 13, released on September 10, did not contain a fix for the issue. Instead, Bethesda gave players this:
==Fallout 1st==
On 23 Oct 2019 Bethesda announced "Fallout 1st," a premium membership service that would afford players extra benefits for $12.99USD a month or $99.99 dollars a year.Private Worlds, Scrapboxes & More Come to Fallout 76 with Fallout 1st. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. These benefits included private servers and a monthly stipend of 1650 atoms, potentially making the monthly cost of the subscription worthwhile for players who wanted those features, but since the game is still somewhat of a buggy, unplayable mess fans were understandably unhappy with this announcement especially after the news that the Wastelanders DLC was being pushed back to a 2020 release date.Fallout 76's NPC-adding Wastelanders update has been delayed into next year. Posted 17 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. While some players agreed with the assessment that Fallout First wasn't a terrible price point and offered many desirable features for that price point,1st is not a horrible deal. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. others thought it felt like an out of season April Fool's jokeFallout 76 1st subscription -Is this an out-of-season April's Fool joke? Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. and still others found the subscription indefensible since it costs significantly more than the similar monthly service Xbox LiveI can’t even defend it. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. and the private server benefit that Bethesda is touting isn't actually a private server so much as it is a private session.Only thing keeping me from the Fallout 1st sub: server goes away after I log off.. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. Overall, many players felt the move to a subscription-based model was, perhaps, not the best plan.A Subscription Service for a game like this is BOLD! Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019.
The fact that both the survival tent and Ranger armor skin were locked behind a paywall also made people angry, since both were community ideasFallout 76: Update 14 Patch Notes – October 23, 2019 comment thread on Reddit. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. leading to further complaints that Bethesda was merely taking the community's ideas and forcing them to be paid for.Fallout 76: Update 14 Patch Notes – October 23, 2019 comment thread on Reddit. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. Other concerns stemmed from the fact that a major benefit of the Fallout First subscription, an unlimited Scrapbox, could be used in both public and private servers."The Scrapbox is exclusive to Fallout 1st members and can be used in both PUBLIC and private worlds." This is....not good. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. This stemmed from the fact that Bethesda repeatedly denied the playerbase stash limit increases, citing server stability issues, despite the fact that scrap was potentially never supposed to count against the stash weight.REMINDER: Scrap was never supposed to count against your stash weight originally. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019. There was also the fact that the scrapbox would seemingly remain even after a subscription ran out, leading many to say they would pay for a single month and then cancel.Why a 1 month purchase of 1st is 'beneficial'. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 Oct 2019.
Many users found the release date of this latest PR disaster ironic, as October 23 is the in-game date of the nuke that forced people into the vaults being launched.Happy nuke day fellow Appalachians 26 years ago to this day we escaped the bombs by going to vault 76. Posted 23 Oct 2019. Accessed 23 October 2019.
==Further Resources==
* Joseph Anderson Vs Fallout 76 by Joseph Anderson
* The Fall of 76 by Internet Historian
* Fallout 76 - What Happened? by Matt McMuscles
* Fallout 76 still has a fan base that’s committed to the core on Polygon
* The bounty hunters of Fallout 76 will kill anyone you want, for a price on Polygon
==References==
Category:Fallout
Category:2010s Events
Category:2018 Events
Category:2019 Featured Articles