“Never the point of Fallout”: OG Tim Cain Proves We Never Really Understood the Wasteland All These Years
Fallout's co-developer Tim Cain clarified the actual themes of the games, proving all the interpretations that fans made over the years entirely wrong.
- Fallout has been one of the most popular RPG series since 1997.
- From the beginning, fans found anti-capitalism as one of the major themes of the game, which Tim Cain proved completely wrong.
- Cain appreciated the interpretations that fans have made but clearly stated he didn't agree with them.
Fallout is one of those complicated gaming series that players have understood differently throughout decades. Despite its post-apocalyptic world, intense gameplay, and confusing choices, it has won the hearts of fans since it began in 1997. Recently, the co-creator of the series revealed that fans have assumed the concept of the game entirely wrong over the years.
Pick any Fallout game, and some of the prevalent themes that gamers confirmed as the main ones of these games include capitalism, war, the military, etc. But a few months ago, when the same thing was asked from Tim Cain, he proved that we never understood this series.
Tim Cain Claimed Capitalism Has Never Been a Fallout Theme
Fallout themes always invited arguments about what these games are actually about, but most gamers agreed on the point that these games critique humanity’s basic greed for power through consumerism and imperialism. The series seems to establish the fact that war is inevitable because the striving for economic power is endless.
Players were so convinced by these assumptions that not only the games but also the Prime Video TV show based on the series received huge popularity, while Halo fell flat in comparison. However, the cord was cut in August 2024. Tim Cain, the co-developer of the first two Fallout games, appeared to discuss his views on the series in one of his YouTube videos, titled “Capitalism.”
In this video, he proved all these assumptions wrong and straightforwardly stated, “Critique of capitalism was never the point of Fallout.” According to him, these games were more about how human nature made war inevitable and not the economic system.
In the Fallout games, the USA is mostly portrayed as a corrupt, power-hungry nation, but Cain pointed out, “the game went out of its way to mention that other countries like China were also behaving terribly.”
So, per him, no single country or system should be blamed for creating the world that Fallout presented players with.
Cain Offered His Views on Fans’ Interpretation About Fallout
Interpretation is generally based on how one is looking at an event. Therefore, Fallout’s multiple interpretations make sense as players stress on different sides of the game. The co-developer of the series stated that there’s not a single theme that “runs in common” through all his games.
Even though Tim Cain said he didn’t agree with these interpretations that fans had made, especially the anti-capitalism one, he still appreciated the perspectives of fans, saying,
“People will interpret my games in all kinds of ways. And that’s ok. Everyone brings their own perspective, and a story can mean different things to different people.”
Well, Cain never made any anti-capitalistic statement. To emphasize this point, players can consider his approach toward the toxicity of corporate life in another RPG, The Outer Worlds, without any prevalent theme of capitalism. So, his interpretation of the Fallout series makes sense.
Well, whatever the real interpretation or themes of the Fallout games may be, one thing is for sure: all these games offered players adequate content to discuss and ponder over.
