Media Centered Perspective Def: “uses social science methods to examine audience responses to media messages. Popular culture critics, however, may also draw upon many of these theories to examine the rhetorical arguments proposed to them. ” (Sellnow 267)
Effects on Critical Essay 2:
For Critical Essay 2, I am selecting this topic due to my interest and understanding of the artifact. Another reason I am selecting this is also it has a large media popularity and cult following. For example, the smiling Pip-Boy is very iconic and it is the first character when you think of Fallout. It appears on all of the promotional art and is in the game menus. It also has a dark double meaning. The character is not smiling at you but it goes back to 
the Cold War belief that if you see a mushroom cloud, put your thumb up and point toward the cloud. If your thumb covers the cloud you are at a safe distance if the explosion is bigger your thumb you better run for some cover. However, if you did not know the meaning behind the thumb or have not played the games, you would assume that he is just smiling with a friendly thumbs up. This image demonstrates the tone of the Fallout franchise. It is mostly dark humor and sci-fi inspired.
Rhetorical Situation
Style Breakdown
This video game franchise is highly popular with gamers and non-gamers alike. The selected video comes from the first Fallout released in 1997. In this first game, the particular style is a combination of 1950’s sci-fi futuristic with a slight Mad Max combination. However, starting with Fallout 3 it followed the 1950’s futurism style completely.
Fallout’s Main Story
As mentioned in the intro the story of Fallout takes place decades after a nuclear war. In this universe, the timeline diverged from our own. According to the Fallout Bible, which is written by the creator of the game Chris Avellone. The divergence happened after World War II, in our timeline the United States and most of the world conducted research into miniaturizing computer technology.
However, in Fallout, the United States pursued the miniaturization of nuclear and atomic technology. Which allowed the miniaturization of nuclear fission cores. Despite this marvel of technology, the war still had problems with resources. Ironically, since the United States developed a near limitless supply of energy, its basic technology such as cars and other fossil fuel still relied on those sources of energy up until the 2050s. Since most of the world did not have that kind of technology the rest of the world had to fight in the Resource Wars. This caused America to go to war with China over the last oil well in Anchorage, Alaska. Which you can play in Fallout 3 in the dlc Operation Anchorage. In 2077, the Great War happened which was a brief nuclear war that wipes out most of humanity, leaving the world in a charred wasteland. It is still debated in the Fallout community on who dropped the bombs first. Even the creator of Fallout leaves it a mystery on purpose.
In the intro, it mentions, “A few were able to reach the relative safety of the large underground vaults.” (FalloutWiki 2) In the video, it discusses the many shelters called “vaults” that protected people from nuclear annihilation. Your main character is a vault dweller. Like other role-playing games (RPG’s), you select your character’s gender, age, stats, perks, and karma. Once you finish your character and begin the game. In the later part of the video the Overseer, who acts as both the main quest giver tells you that the vault needs a water chip that purifies the water in the vault. As he mentions, “No water, not vault”. In the game you have a certain amount of time to find the water chip, if you do not do this and not find the chip by the end of the given timer, you lose the game.
How does this apply Media Ecology Theory?
This applies the media ecology theory because of its success as a game and a following in media. When it first came out, it brought the player a free-roaming map, which was new at the time. It gave the people freedom to explore and with the role-playing elements they could be any character they wanted. If you wanted to be a thief and steal, you can, you wanted to be a good person and restore order to the wasteland that was an option.
What made it a huge success was the bleak and dark atmosphere. The music created by Mark Morgan channeled the post-apocalyptic emptiness. The best piece of music from the soundtrack that creates the tone is entitled “City of Lost Angels”. This is a play on words is referencing where it plays. It plays in the section of the game in the ruins of Los Angelos, called the Boneyard in-game.
Another aspect of the game is the simple, yet complex story which you choose the ending. There are multiple ending depending on your game choices. This allows players to have replayability to reflect on their moral choices in the game. What makes it interesting aspect is the moral greyness of the series. There are many factions you can join in all of the games with their own backstories that do affect the game world.
Outside the Game World
Outside the game world, it is well-known thanks to the internet and there are Youtube channels dedicated to this game series. An excellent example of a popular Fallout YouTuber by the name of Oxhorn who covers in-depth of almost all of the Fallout games. There are a total of 9 games in total. However, one is more of a mobile game exclusive that was released later on all gaming systems. That game is Fallout Shelter released in 2015, along with Fallout 4.
There are big divisions in the Fallout fans, the Fallout purists and the regular gamers. The Fallout purists are the ones who only prefer the original 3 games as cannon. Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout: Tactics. The reason why is due to Bethesda buying the franchise from the original company Interplay. They argue that Bethesda has changed the cannon and added poorly written stories and characters in the later games. The games that were developed by Bethesda are Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout Shelter, and Fallout 76. The only game that both fans ignore is the game Fallout Brotherhood of Steel which was developed by Interplay in 2005 for the original Xbox. However, both fan groups do love Fallout New Vegas which was developed by Chris Avellone.
With a huge fanbase comes a large market for merchandise. Bethesda loves to make merchandise. They made a lot of merchandising either to promote or to encourage people to buy the games.
Fallout Merchandise
The three most successful merchandising was the officially licensed action figures that are primarily sold in Gamestop and Amazon. 
The other one was a soda-based off an in-universe soda called Nuka Cola Quantum back in 2015 during the release of Fallout 4. This was successful that the soda company could not keep up with the demand for soda.
They also have a monopoly game released in the theme of the Fallout universe as well.
Effects in Popular Media
Fallout has also gotten the attention of late talk shows. One of the popular late-night talk show hosts, Conan Obrien also did a skit to promote the release of Fallout 4.
Here we see Conan wearing the blue vault suit and the other merchandise from the game. The blue vault suit is what your created character wears in most of the games as a starter outfit, with the exception of Fallout Tactics, Fallout NV, and Fallout Brotherhood of Steel.
Like any popular media cosplaying in common in large Comic Con centers and also other conventions. Here is an example of a fan dressed as a New California Republic ranger. This is one of the factions in both the first two Fallouts and New Vegas. However, the ranger is first scene in New Vegas.
Concluding Thoughts
Fallout is a simple yet complex series that brings people together to play in a post-apocalyptic world. Each game has its own story and particular fanbase. Fans have also united into the official Fallout wiki which is where I got the intro quote piece, narrated by Ron Pearlman. This wiki is always updated with each new release of a Fallout title.
Fallout also has brought some philosophical and moral questions in each of the games such as what lengths would a person do to survive and how would you survive the apocalypse? Another aspect is how would you rebuild society, from scratch? These questions are up to the player’s choice.
Works Cited:
“Fallout Intro.” Fallout Wiki, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License , fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_intro.
Sellnow, Deanna D. The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts. SAGE, 2018.
Links to Websites:
Oxhorn- https://www.youtube.com/user/ClassyManIAm
Fallout Wiki-https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki