I didn't like Fallout 4 and like actually anything after about Fallout: New Vegas. Especially the TV show. And like... I suppose I find this split interesting.
I mean, what other francise has a massive split between two halfs of the fandom. With one side being very attached to the Old school stuff and the others loving the New wave media to like the point of conflict.
Which is funny, honestly. And while I am a old school stuff fan, having finished Fallout New Vegas about five times by now, I still get that the new fans like what they like. My only really complaints against them is when they say the old school games are the exact same as the new stuff. That's just factually incorrect.
Usually, I prefer the new fans which do understand the new stuff isn't like old stuff. And honestly, I don't care if they dislike the old school fallout stuff. They physically can't do anything to the old school fallout games. You know? So what if they don't like Vegas or two or the og? That's they're right. Just don't expect people to not try to correct you on mistakes or misunderstandings.
As for the new fallout games, I don't like them but the fans have no point in that. If that makes sense? The companies, Amazon and Bethesda, are at fault of the changes. The fans aren't. They don't really have much control over what the companies do with the IP. Honestly, if the company decides to just go back to the old school stuff, I don't think I'd 180 and suddenly like them. It's just how it is. I don't like corpos and they're the ones who own Fallout.
Personally, my only lament is that I wish I could like the new stuff as much as the fans of it does. They sound like they are having fun but I just can't. Vegas starts calling my name everytime I try with Fallout 4 or I look at the TV show and I'd rather just go play that again or try the older stuff again or help my bro finsish Fallout one. I see some of the praises for the new stuff. And they make sense, in the same way better graphics and gameplay draw in newer fan however, I just can overlook the shitty parts of the old stuff. I've played worse looking games you know? I've played worse feeling shooters or more limited melee combat. I can take what Vegas gives me, and I don't think I can do the same for 4.
Also, 3 is the same as 4 for me there. I don't really like Fallout 3. My brother loves it, but I don't get it. I did finish the whole game but it felt like Vegas did everything I like better than three did. Including gunplay I am afraid. Although, I doubt literally anyone would jump to the defense of 3's gunplay. That stuff is just kinda known as bad. It feels like I'm shooting everyone with a BB gun that also can only be hip-shot. I just like having true iron sights. I've played way too many COD games to settle for, false iron sights. Hell, it's one of the things I 100% agree with new fans that Fallout 4 is a outstanding jump in quality between all prior fallout and itself.
I don't think Vegas is perfect, just that the good stuff was good enough for me to overlook the bugginess, the kinda shoddy animation and models, the rough-ish graphics and such. I've played the sorts of VTM Bloodlines, clearly I'm fine with being punched in the face with some shit as long as the game has some good rpg mechanics. That might be a me problem, but alas.
I do think the conflict between both sides of the fandom is kinda funny though. It has just devauled into a state of bad faith arugements and nitpicking and "he said" "she said" bullshit. Which is, hey, mildly thematic to fallout, eh? War never changes. And idealogically both sides can be considered slightly overreacting.
The major problem seems to be that one party critics the other, a mild fight breaks outs, evidence is dragged out and well, opinions mix with facts and it turns into a mild slug feast. Fun!
Of course, I am slightly biased to the old school stuff. But I do just kinda feel like the newer stuff fans are fighting a pointless conflict. Like, you don't need to worry about Fallout changing to fit our tastes. Clearly, what Bethesda has been doing has gotten them a lotta caps. Like, a lotta lotta money. Enough to make a TV show, you know? So, they're not going to change what they're doing.
So, aside from defending the game you like, from people which likely won't change their mind, you're not really loosing anything. I mean, fair, same the other way around. The Old School Fans are out-of-date to the newer Fallout media as the francise has moved on. More or less, the full conflict makes little to no sense to me. The new fans are funding the new media and thus since the more or less out-number the old fans are not in risk of loosing the new stuff, and the old school fans are already irrelevent to Bethesda and likely will never be important to Betheda again.
It's a fight of no fight or logic. The old school fans won't gain anything from the corp and the new fans are the life blood of the corp and therefore don't have to worry about the new stuff changing at all. It kinda just how it is.
Honestly, I do midly blame Bethesda and Amazon for this. They must have known that the fandom has been split like this right? It's kinda a running gag that the Vegas fans are rabid manics, I would know I am one, who just love Vegas, so why make a half half product to appeal to both the New fans and the Old fans. It wouldn't really work as they like different things. It's like trying to make a game that fans of Dark Souls and Red Dead like. You could, but it's risky and I'd suggest against it. I personally think Bethedsa should have just forgotten about the Vegas games, as it's not entirely something that appeals to the new fans and rather focus on making more stuff for the new fans. Instead of the TV show going to Vegas.
All they did was alienate old fans and spurr them on to attack the TV which lead to new fans defeading it and everything spiralled. Fucking lovely, mate. Besides, it's again, not logical to have Vegas in the TV show because of Fallout 4. Fallout 4 was more popular statistically than Vegas, so why not let the TV show go to the Common Wealth instead of the Mojave?
Like, if you are a new fan wouldn't it have been cooler to see the Capital Wasteland or the Commonwealth instead of some desert? I mean, you've got better set pieces there, like the white house, or Far Harbour or maybe even the Nuka World theme park. Plus factions the New fans are aware of would be more prominent instead of needing to retcon Vegas, like the Brotherhood of Steel or Enclave which weren't entirely in Vegas. I think it would have also left the old dynamics of both fan bases instead of spurring on this war, you know?
I mean this honestly. I don't think there's anything wrong with liking the new stuff from Fallout. I do however think it would be best if the fandom just fully split. The New fans and the old fans rarely see either eye, so it would be better to just completely split them. Like how the Marvel comic fans are clearly different to MCU fans and so on.
Well, in the end I doubt that the conflict would die down. Too many bad actors on both sides, you know? Honestly the grand majority of fans don't even interact on this level and just stick to their halves of the internet, but when conflict arises it really burns up into a full slug-fest. Oh, well. Maybe fandom was better when everyone just enjoyed media in quiet instead of interent arguments.