(mashedmarket)

Over the past two weeks on mashedmarket, I’ve been scrutinizing Fallout 3’s sometimes counter-intuitive and quirky Pip-Boy 3000. This will be the final post in that little series. It won’t, however, mark the end of my writing about design, which has been weirdly inspiring. Expect to see more such work here in the future. As always, thanks for stopping by, and feel free to share your thoughts or otherwise drop a line.

When building Fallout 3, Bethesda set out to “create an interface…that was functional, unique and entertaining” by melding its menu system to “an important object in-game.” The series’ classic Pip-Boy (now a Model 3000) is worn on your avatar’s left wrist and manages everything from radiation levels to radio stations. Want more protection from that Radroach charging toward you? Just pull up your 3000 and change clothes. Too much stuff in your backpack? Only check on your Pip-Boy and toss some out. Need a snack? Simply glance to your P-B3 and eat some Fancy Lads. But while marrying object and interface in this way is exciting, it’s also quite a challenge.

For starters, the Pip-Boy’s very shape  is troublesome: when you get to thinking about the device’s actual knobs and switches being operated by hand, it becomes difficult to concede the abstractions necessitated by controller operation. What’s more, you might start wondering why the 3000 isn’t worn on one’s other wrist, since, given the way that the dial and scroll wheel are oriented, it’d be hard to operate at left without your right hand obscuring the tiny television. Of course, these are pretty trivial details. Much more important are Bethesda’s own criteria for success. Their design diary was written during development, but notes that

The hopeful end result is that when the player activates the Pip-Boy, immersion isn’t disrupted. He hasn’t stopped playing the game in order to check something in a menu. But rather, his character has simply paused and looked down to fidget with his personal analog assistant for a moment, still in the wasteland.

Unfortunately, this isn’t quite how it feels with the final product. In fact, your 3000 is practically a pause screen. So what could change that might help create a sense of uninterrupted play?

Personally, I find myself using Pip-Boy as a means of creating some space to think in combat situations. For instance, when I’m caught by surprise and don’t have a proper weapon, it’s the most efficient way of changing equipment — hotkeys take an infinity by comparison. But while I’ve spent time selecting my loadout, the ambush ought to have been bearing down. Instead, any enemies are inexplicably frozen. When using V.A.T.S. this makes perfect sense, but it shouldn’t be the case with the 3000.

The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System is basically a means of enriching melee fights and shootouts by enabling precision aiming in turn-based fashion. Now, V.A.T.S. doesn’t handle anything other than battle…it can’t help with the kind of item management I just mentioned. Your Pip-Boy, on the other hand, pauses the action AND allows for these sorts of changes; why not use it? Sure the 3000 blocks one’s view of a hostile situation, but it certainly offers players more options. Besides, they can always just engage Vault-Tec targeting immediately after putting the Pip-Boy away.

Sadly, while making such complex decisions has always been a staple of the Fallout series, casually doing so in a high pressure scenario decreases the level of immersion gamers experience. When you open the 3000, it’s as if the whole world melts away. Fortunately, Dead Space‘s character management system did a great job of solving this problem, and I think Fallout 3 could take a page from its design document. As Mitch Krpata of Insult Swordfighting explains:

What’s unique to Dead Space is that when Isaac pulls up a map, his inventory screen, or his mission objectives, these elements are actually projected holographically in the game space. We’re not looking at them so much as we’re looking at Isaac looking at them. They don’t live in their own meta-space, apart from game events.

Dead Space‘s greatest success might have been this unique approach to presenting information while all the characters are still at large in the environment. And, though a hologram wouldn’t fit with the Fallout universe, there are other ways of allowing players to see (and perhaps even manipulate) pertinent data during an engagement.

In Fallout 3, if danger is present, V.A.T.S. detects it…so why can’t your character? When enemies are near and s/he is aware of them, perhaps Pip-Boy, if called upon, could be held at a much shallower angle so that the world wouldn’t have to stop while you fiddle. The contraption itself might take up slightly less than half the screen, giving one plenty of room to see one’s adversaries. Your 3000 would probably default to displaying the items mode and submenus, as the stats and data modes would be less useful given a current or pending conflict. Avoiding button overlap would mean that players wouldn’t be able to shoot while changing gear or otherwise shuffling items, but could at least hide, backpedal, or simply turn tail and flee. These alterations would encourage folks to be more of aware of when they’re entering dangerous situations, and might also do more to reward tactical play. Additionally, the non-stop motion would ensure that gamers stay immersed in a world that’s anything but waiting around for them.

So that’s all I’ve got for the Pip-Boy 3000! Hope you’ve enjoyed my comments. They’re not meant to be criticisms so much as a way of expending some creative energy. It’s been a blast trying to decipher Fallout 3‘s underlying complexity, and I hope to do something similar again soon. Thanks for reading!