That isn't to say that Fallout 3 characters are always beacons of hope, distributing freshly baked apple pies to the downtrodden of the Wasteland. You are forced to engage in killing throughout the game, and to obtain the most power possible, you'll have to be willing to acquire wealth belonging to other characters. Thievery is generally looked at as an acceptable act, a minor evil. The temptation is far too great to not take a peek into locked footlockers and safes, knowing that a tangible boost to your attributes may lie within.
Players have no problem with performing acts of theft in videogames, since they are, after all, just fantasy worlds without real-world implications. In Fallout 3, you are encouraged to pick pockets and crack open safes in order to acquire valuable ammunition and goods, with the idea being that your character is in a quest for survival, and these liberated goods will improve your chances more than they'll do any good for the AI who might "own" them.
Games may need to advance significantly in terms of artificial intelligence and world crafting before players consider their actions as having serious repercussions. Gamers know that the shopkeeper won't miss that assault rifle, so there's no reason not to steal it. Fallout 3 does a capable job of presenting a believable world, with NPCs watching your every move and even warning you not to get too light-fingered with their property. But since the ownership rights of NPCs are generally not thought to be of any importance, the game often turns into a self-imposed challenge, with the player trying to find out the best way to steal as much valuable loot as possible without getting caught. Property rights don't hold much weight in Fallout 3, at least not unless it's the player's loot that's concerned.
The logic behind acquiring property in a survival setting carries over to those in desperate situations in the real world. Underprivileged youths are driven to performing petty street crimes because the systems in place don't provide them with a means to get out of their current situations. Another example of this behavior came when a major natural disaster struck the United States. Victims of Hurricane Katrina, left in a dire situation for days without access to food and water, often resorted to looting in order to secure life-giving supplies. In their eyes, one can assume that they felt that property rights were of little value when survival was at stake. When the benefits of being a part of a civilized society are outweighed by need, or if society and government were to break down, lawlessness is often the only recourse.
Theft is a lesser, more acceptable evil in Fallout 3, but interestingly enough, manslaughter is a complete non-issue. Violence is the norm in the Wasteland, and outside the confines of civilization, you have to quickly become comfortable with shooting first, and asking questions later. Without a government-enforced code of laws, the law of the land makes it your duty to kill those who would do you harm without remorse. Life is taken casually, and considering how violent the world is after the bomb, it's a wonder how anyone is still alive at all.
Fallout 3 manages to present many interesting moral dilemmas during gameplay that further complicate the usually black-and-white division between good and evil that we've come to expect from videogames. If you were starving, and the only source of food was human flesh, could you resort to cannibalism? Fallout 3 allows players to pick up the Cannibalism perk, so that they can choose to perform that most distasteful of acts. When food and water are scarce, and all that's left is irradiated to such a degree as to be harmful, should we reconsider this ancient taboo?
Ethics questions like these are explored to a great degree throughout Fallout 3, but approached with a sense of humor and without ever getting too heavy-handed. The game has a great ability to make us think and laugh about our ethics and those of the characters in the game world, and it's this exploration of the manner of good and evil that help make it such an entertaining play experience.
Next: Fallout 3 and the Face of War
