Video games have become a powerful tool of capitalist propaganda, aimed largely at youth, especially working class youth. Call of Duty in its various editions may well be the best known and most vicious form of supporting U.S. imperialist aggression while desensitizing players to the true cost of war. But there are other, subtler forms of propaganda in other video games that steer players away from real-life class struggle, as in the popular Fallout Series (FS).
Teaching players capitalism is permanent
FS is a well-designed video game series that unfortunately teaches the players that mass struggle for communism is impossible and that only exploitative regimes can triumph. Unlike games like Call of Duty, Fallout’s anti-communism is more subtle and insidious. It critiques Red Scare McCarthyism as stupid, nationalist, and lacking substance. But the series promotes, instead, capitalist realism (the notion that it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism), pacifism, nationalism, and the “big-man” theory of history, rejecting the role of the working class in making and changing history.
The Fallout series is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the Cold War didn’t end, energy scarcity leads to resource wars, and a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and China devastates the planet. Fallout New Vegas (FNV) lets the player choose among factions vying for control of the city of New Vegas, the Hoover Dam, and the Mojave Desert. The main factions are Caesar’s Legion, a Roman-style slave empire; Mr. House, a billionaire modeled after Howard Hughes currently in control of the region; the NCR, a liberal capitalist nation expanding from the West Coast; and an “independent” New Vegas.
All of these options are simply different flavors of capitalism. All options involve keeping class relations, money, and markets, because the publishers and developers think there are no alternatives.
Workers divided, virtually
There are other groups in the game including the Followers of the Apocalypse (FA), a liberal group trying to do good works like medical care and education. But FA lacks political goals for the larger region and does not intend to take up arms to defend their community. They are the non-violent alternative that the bosses offer us as an alternative to mass communist rebellion. Another group is the Bright Brotherhood, a ghoul separatist cult. Led by a “prophet” named Jason Bright, the Bright Brotherhood seeks a “promised land” for Ghouls. In this world, human workers are bigoted against Ghouls and Super Mutants (in an echo of white prejudice against Black and Latin workers in the real world). Ghouls are slowly rotting but still walking, talking, and thinking, but they sometimes go “feral” and start indiscriminately attacking others. Super Mutants are humans who were genetically altered to be super soldiers like the Incredible Hulk. Many Supermutants attack humans on sight and have severe brain damage from the transformation. As a result, humans treat both Super Mutants and Ghouls as threats to survival.
Within this fictional world, ghoul separatism makes sense. Nothing can be done about their violent medical condition, making widespread acceptance by humans impossible. In the real world, however, all workers are human and the oppression of Black and Latin workers, women workers, disabled workers, and LGBTQ workers is something we need to fight as a united revolutionary working class. If we divide ourselves into small groups based on our identities and try to solve each problem individually, the bosses will destroy us one at a time. Once again, FNV misleads us.
No faction or organization advances international solidarity or complete victory over exploitation. There’s no vision of defeating the NCR, the Legion, or Mr. House completely. The slave empire to the east continues to grow and enslave more workers. The rotten liberal democracy to the west continues to exploit workers through wage-labor and by allowing outright slavery within its borders. If either one grows powerful enough, it will seize control of New Vegas. The writers of FNV sell us strategies doomed to fail.
Bosses’ individualism on your gaming system
FNV’s central premise is hyper individualism that promotes the big man theory of history. The player vies with other faction leaders as the primary movers of history. You as the protagonist are a one-person army who decides if people get water and power and who wins the war for control of New Vegas. You start out as a lowly courier and through hard-work and determination become unstoppable. Similarly, Mr. House and Caesar are supposed to be individuals who created their own fates because of their sheer intellect and skill. In the real world, however, societies are driven by material conditions and class struggle rather than individual heroes.
Exceptional individuals exist in history, but they impact society history only when material conditions allow it. Adolf Hitler was a skilled propagandist, but his Nazis only ruled Germany because German capitalists faced insurmountable crises. Bronze Age despots like the Pharaohs were ruthless and cunning, but they only came to power because the emerging priest class needed a state to help exploit workers. FNV advances the bosses’ notion of individualism and cults of personality instead of worker solidarity.
One can legitimately praise FNV for its writing, immersive story-telling, and game-play, but its political message is poison. Even though the Fallout series is sold as being more nuanced, with diverse political representation, its message is anti-communist and counterrevolutionary. Put down the game controller, grab your best friends, and head out to share CHALLENGE with others and engage in antiracist battles against the real enemies, the capitalist class!