Old World Blues : »Fallout« und das Spiel mit der Postapokalypse

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, the US digital role-playing game series »Fallout« has not only been characterized by the popularity and economic success of its five-part main series and its five series spin-offs. It also features profound and complex narratives, depicts moral dilemmas, presents alternative histories and allows players to explore extensive post-apocalyptic scenarios. This research anthology offers the opportunity to comprehensively analyze these narratives as well as their game mechanics and aesthetics and – more broadly – to understand their impact on the gaming experience. The contributions take a deliberately broad thematic approach to the »Fallout« series and can be assigned to established analytical approaches from media studies: production, product and reception analysis. The 22 authors are proven digital game and »Fallout« experts and, with their different perspectives, penetrate the complex, transmedia material that has given rise to this franchise over the years. This volume is the first German-language digital game studies classification of the Fallout series and represents the overdue and promising prelude to a specialist study.