Fallout 76: An Appalachia Perspective
I decided to work with the topic of video games. I’ve always enjoyed them since I was a child (and could get my hands on my Nintendo Gamecube). I literally thought every package that came in the door would be a “computer to play games on”. Thus, I wanted to answer the question: How is Appalachia portrayed through video games? I chose to focus on Fallout 76. Honestly the game portrays what Americans remembered which were: dirty children, moonshine bottles on the porch, collapsing shacks and a place to escape from. I explored the stereotypes of Appalachia as well as overused clichés in media. I conducted research by looking at articles, game reviews and my own personal gaming experience. Ironically upon looking up research for my proposal, the map in Fallout 76 is literally called “Appalachia”. It also seems to have a horror aspect to the game as seen in recent screenshots. This could potentially tie in to the “Appalachian horror” cliché used in media. The podcast explained the empty spot in media and video games where Appalachia isn’t represented. It was be interesting to see how people who played Fallout 76 were be exposed to the “real Appalachia” and the “fabricated Appalachia” that was molded by stereotypes, false history, and clichés. I will started with listening to podcasts and watching people’s reviews of the beta that’s out now. I also took notes while playing when I saw or thought of something that related to Appalachia. I also recorded my own gameplay and made a lighthearted commentary video that’s entertaining and educational in the form of a game review based on views of Appalachia for the media based aspect of this project. The movie Mine Wars also ran through my mind while playing the game. The mine has protest signs all around the mines just like in the movie. You would tell they were really putting up a fight just like the PBS film Mine Wars. I think this game could have received major backlash from the Appalachian community as other media forms such as The Real Beverly Hillbillies did on CBS if it was not executed correctly. The identities in this game were not portrayed poorly either, there were no “hillbillies” or stereotypical characters, only interesting West Virginian and Appalachian folklore that the community loves. Overall, I think Bethesda did a wonderful job portraying Appalachia in this small sliver of what it truly is. They respected the community and didn’t play off of popular tropes like other media has done in the past.
Works Cited
Development, PodBean. “Gaming Broadcast.”Ep. 18: What Games Are Getting Right About Appalachia (Playing Appalachia Part 1), gamingbroadcast.podbean.com/e/episode-18-what-we%E2%80%99re-getting-right-about-appalachian-video-games/.
Radulovic, Petrana. “West Virginians Are the Most Excited about Fallout 76.” Polygon, Polygon, 12 June 2018, www.polygon.com/2018/6/12/17453500/fallout-76-west-virginia.
Tammy L. Werner. (2015) The War on Poverty and the Racialization of “Hillbilly” Poverty: Implications for Poverty Research. Journal of Poverty 19:3, pages 305–323.
“How Fallout 76 Can Help Us Rebuild West Virginia.” In These Times, inthesetimes.com/article/21368/fallout-76-west-virginia-appalachia-post-apocalyptic-video-game.
“Mine Wars.”
Algeo, Katie. “Locals on Local Color: Imagining Identity in Appalachia.” Southern Cultures, vol. 9 no. 4, 2003, pp. 27–54. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/scu.2003.0041
Angela Cooke-Jackson & Elizabeth K. Hansen (2008) “Appalachian Culture and Reality TV: The Ethical Dilemma of Stereotyping Others”, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 23:3, 183–200, DOI: 10.1080/08900520802221946
