There are a few ways to join the Enclave in Fallout 76. On the way to Bethesda, you go through the game search to find notes and key cards and eventually stumble over the government base and its malevolent AI. The form of RPG, as planned by the fans, is something completely different. You can find some propaganda from the Armed Forces of the Enclave, which takes you to Discord and its internal channels. From there, players can join the famous Fallout faction and receive personalized missions with in-game videos, voice messages and personalized content.
Making this content requires specific editing and film skills. Sometimes it means producing propaganda for a specific faction to try to influence a long-running war between hundreds of players. Other times, it is to create a mission scene that only a dozen people can see. Some players are so inspired by the original mission content that they try to reinterpret, retell, or share with a wider audience.
There is a rich heritage of fan films that goes far beyond Fallout 76, thanks to the popularity of the franchise and the unique retro-futuristic visual touch. Players and artists have used the series as a starting point for creative endeavors before, including films by live action fans and detailed animated shorts.
Bethesda has also been continuously adding new quest content for Fallout 76, but the company’s efforts are limited by the engine. Before the Wastelanders update, the game stories were limited to audio logs and skeletons in the world. Even with the new quest content, NPCs are often limited or blocked and stories are kept in small instantiated zones. Players do not have these limitations.
Into the Mystery, for example, is a series of films made by fans that retells the story of a faction of the game that died tragically before the events of the game began. Within the real game, the storyline is easy to miss, making it a breeding ground for players looking to write more narratives.
Vaultist Films, a collaboration between two fans known as RifleGaming and Bloodied Mess, is retelling the story, with a longtime character taking the lead role. The series recounts the story of Mistress of Mystery and her rebellious daughter. Despite collaborating with other creators, Bloodied Mess has no filming or creative experience. Instead, he learned that he could use Fallout 76 as a set, while experimenting with your CAMP.
CAMPs are customizable player bases, like a post-apocalyptic version of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Players’ CAMPs determine where they can build in the world, although the game gives the player a budget that limits how many buildings or items can be placed in the upper world. These areas will appear to other players on the same server. Players who want more elaborate houses quickly learn to explore the game so they can build more impressive CAMPs.
“I learned that you could come under the [environment’s 3D] relatively simple mesh, and that changed the way I played, ”Bloodied Mess told Polygon in a call by Discord. Players love tricks, like carefully turning the walls backwards so they can apply wallpaper on each side. Using these types of workarounds, Bloodied Mess was able to start building elaborate props and scenarios. “For about six months, I started releasing small vignettes or construction videos – math-based approaches to building [CAMPs.]”
His experience working with CAMP builds and shares tricks like overlapping stairs and layered walls that allowed him to create a giant Chinese Liberator bot, the communist equivalent of Liberty Prime. Other projects included huge nuclear reactors created with “the clip trick” or CAMPs floating in the sky.
These CAMPs earned him fan credit, which he used to connect with other content creators. O Fallout 76 The community exists outside of the game itself, on platforms like Discord, and fans come together for creative ventures on a larger scale.
Players are generally the most avid filmmakers among the Fallout community. For example, when Bethesda added a clean bathroom to the game, the Enclave Armed Forces snapped up the item. From there, they started an advertising campaign, promising clean indoor plumbing for the citizens of Wasteland, with pictures of their own in-game bases adorned with sparkling bathrooms.
Officer Barnett, a former Fallout 76 a member of the community, he works with drama groups to help create videos, but he collaborates mainly with the Armed Forces of the Enclave. She and Jesse Jewell, the EAF leader, work together on public-facing, pro-Enclave videos aimed at the wider community. But they also work on things that are only for EAF members as they go through individual stories and missions in the game. Sometimes leaders sound the alarm at Discord, and a dozen players connect to become improvised cameras, lighting equipment mounted on energy armor and props.
These stories are not intended for the public. They are like scenes in a single-player game, except tailored for a specific person. It’s an amount of personal attention that is almost impossible for developers to get, especially in a game as big as Fallout 76. For example, a young and inexperienced recruit who has expressed an interest in the Enclave will eventually obtain their own recruiting video, something that should start their arc in this new faction in Wasteland. This is an experience that requires a lot of community work, but it creates a gaming experience that is difficult to find anywhere else.
It is a reminder that Fallout 76 it has come a long way after two years of development. This growth is not only due to Bethesda’s efforts, but also to the thriving fan community that uses the world as a screen and film backdrop for their own ideas.