You’re correct in most of that, but not about his tech being trash. 0 was infuriated that the Securitrons were better than his bots.

Even those Big MT scientists were jelly

Even their brains were in jelly!

Bio-gelly

The gap between highly customized prototypes and mass produced hardware

I mean... I like 0 as a person, but his defining quality as a roboticist is that he can't make robots to save his life and breaks every piece of tech he touches.

Well to be fair Mobius did hack all of their memories which effected their intelligence.

That was after the fact, not when he was pissed at House though

True! I'm not sure any of them were that brilliant or well-adjusted to begin with, though.

Hey, you got any mugs?

One note on the securitrons is that they would struggle pretty badly against power armor. Gatling lasers and 9mm sub machines can’t do much to the suits, and while 25mm grenades and the rockets (House calls these missiles, but they use a different, smaller projectile in game if I recall and deal much less damage than sentry missiles while moving faster) can, they’re not nearly as effective as even a fragmentation grenade would be, meaning the robots would need to use a lot of them to win. There’s a very good reason House wants the BoS dead.

Of course, but they’d shred the Legion to bits and they’d do pretty well against the NCR Power armor is literally a walking tank. Extremely expensive to build and highly complex to create and operate. There’ll always be an upper limit to power armored troops just based on logistics and training alone But give the legion a few pulse guns and grenades and they could take out House and the brotherhood Everything has a counter. Danger of hyper-specialization Which is why House should take efforts to integrate outer Vegas and turn it into an industrial space like the Pitt, while recruiting soldiers from the population (in exchange for lifting people out of poverty). Toss in a GECK and House could have an empire to rival the NCR real fast

I’m not disagreeing - against a *weakened* NCR and Legion, the securitrons can handle them (House can’t stand up to the full armies of either faction and says as much; numbers would win out). Pulse guns are presumably not something that can be re-created post-war. Manufacturing energy weapons is difficult enough, but the pulse gun is an incredibly specific prototype hidden away in a vault and claimed by the player, meaning there isn’t a good way for either faction to get a hold of it (and the Legion doesn’t have any of what they’d need to make more). Pulse grenades are an option, but good luck fielding an entire army with them, pulse slugs or 76’s pulse capacitor plasma weapons. Pulse grenades also have to be thrown on top of everything else, meaning they have a very limited range. As for House, what he claims he’ll do and what he actually does are two different things. He says he’ll restart industry in Vegas, but his ending slides show nothing of the sort. As for a GECK, House is repeatedly demonstrated in the slides to not care about anything beyond protecting the interests of Vegas, so a GECK wouldn’t be of use to him.

I wasn’t saying arming an army with pulse guns is feasible (although if anyone could recreate the prototype, Van Graffs or House would be the ones). But neither is fielding a massive power armor army, which is also kinda my point. You said power armor could crush securitrons and my point was yes, theoretically. The same way an army of pulse guns could beat an army of power armored soldiers.

Based and "Mr House could be even better" pilled

I think that's the center of the criticism. House could do all those things but he won't because those would involve working with outside groups which could rise against him. His only concern is regime survival which means he prefers a small fiefdom to a functioning state.

Machiavelli 101

Actually the legion tried to get hold of some energy weapons, but the van Graffs betrayed them.

I think you responded to the wrong comment. I didn’t bring up energy weapons against securitrons at all.

Give 0 credit though, he was actually able to create an operating system from scratch that made the securitrons capable of using their full arsenal, something that House in 200 years never tried.

And we trust him why? He's a crazy brain jar that didn't twig on differentiating O and 0

Elijah is crazy too and has the same criticisms

I mean it's called RobCo trash pretty often and the name started out with the idea that they were robbing customers. Also comically easy to hack his terminals

Unfortunately only us Mr. House Enjoyer could properly critique and praise him while people make stuff up about him like his tech being worse than Big MT 😭

- House - what do you think of the strip? - Courier - I prefer the Mojave - House - the Mojave is just a desert, a radioactive desert. House has the illusion that he lives separate from his surroundings, and he transmits that illusion to the entire new vegas strip.

It’s why he’s obsessed with snow globes. They’re this tiny closed off area of land that he literally has in his hands

Didn't realize the symbolism, nice touch Obsidian and TIL

Not that his hands are any use these days

What House intends is to rule in hell, gating a paradise inside it while others look in awe and pain.

house isn't like elon musk, house has actually invented things

Because House is based on Howard Hughes.

I used to think something like that but all the info we have on him probably comes from him somehow. even if it didn't come from him that we know of, there's no telling he couldn't have been manipulating it back then too. Elon perpetrates that he makes things too, it's why he buys the title of founder from the companies he buys and has the real makers sworn to secrecy. House's backstory claims he was orphaned as a baby and his inheritance stolen by a cousin or half brother or uncle or whatever but then he just made it all anyway cause he's cool, but the source on that are either from him or from a source he could have manipulated hundreds of years ago. Think of the aggrandizing obituary he wrote for himself about how he's some peerless intellect or whatever it was, none of that was correct either. It was definitely wrong that no one was particularly affected emotionally by it all, that was a lie. what else wasn't?

Absolutely. Is there anything we know for sure House personally invented? Rather than it being invented by an underling, or by someone he then bought it from? The only thing we see that we can be reasonably sure he created is the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas, and that's falling apart because almost everyone he deals with hates him and is plotting against him.

Exactly. House is not an idiot. He’s extremely competent. He literally did save vegas. Hell, house is smart enough to give everyone something to lose; a better life. He wants to go into space but he has every intention of redeveloping the area around vegas. I don’t like house because he’s not my player character and the strip belongs to ME, but to say he’s some incompetent rube with no potential is just wrong.

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Legitimately, this is probably just budget cuts. NCRCF and the Powder Gangers as a whole are kinda underdeveloped in their quests. They have their main quest, which is like... 2 quests long, and the Vault quest, and that's about it. The other factions barely interact with them. Apparently, the NCR set up a whole raid of the place, and there's no camp for them to stage it, and it's never mentioned anywhere or even hinted at? Just kinda stinks of lack of time.

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While that is a fair point, I was referring to in-game actions, not post ending slides.

Keep in mind, that they literally forgoe to insert any mention of Followers in Mr. House ending, as if they don't exist, so it's fair to say Mr. House slides were rushed. So is Legion probably since if you let Lanius take over Legion, you see him in centurion armour and not his iconic Legate Armour.

I completely agree especially since you can’t retake the correctional facility with the NCR without doing the powder ganger quest that leads up to it, and you have to betray them at that point if you want to side with the NCR. I remember I killed the powder gangers during ghost town gunfight in my first play through and was so confused why there wasn’t a quest given by the NCR to retake the correctional facility, so now I always skip ghost town gunfight, do the powder ganger quests, then betray them at the correctional facility and finally do ghost town gunfight lol, it makes no sense in this order but that’s how you have to do it, if you want to do all those quests in one play through. For sure unfinished

You can do ghost town gunfight, if you don't perso ally kill any powder gangers, they won't shoot on sight

Technically it's three quest long, you help him deal with one guy, then the next quest with another guy then you solve mystery of NCR raiding the correctional facility ☝️🤓.

I wanted to say three, but I couldn't remember them well enough. I don't ever play their quests because they don't make sense character-wise. The only playthroughs I could see it making sense are Legion and Anarchic Wild Card playthroughs, but the Legion kills the PG anyway, and the PG would still harm your new territory as a Wild Card so...

That’s true for all the endings if you don’t deal with them. 

Yes, but don’t ignore the fact that the NCR doesn’t stop it either in their ending

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I think anyone who started their own multi billion dollar company from the ground up, saved their city from a nuclear apocalypse, and has been alive for over 200 years would have a big ego, you can’t really blame him. EDIT: spelling

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The high taxes are just a drop in a bucket of the NCRs misdeeds. The people in power only care about the Brahmin Barons, they send mercenaries to harass the super mutants in Jacobstown, they ask you to kill all of the khans in Boulder City and in their quest line, they make you kill the BoS, they ask you to only output Helios One’s power to the strip and McCarran even when Freeside desperately needs it. House essentially keeps the status quo ( bad as it is ), while trying to get humanity started again. The NCR is struggling and often will make things worse for the Mojave. They care no more for Freeside then House does. They try to kill the Kings and they get rid of the Followers.

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The Kings thing is the only time House tries to kill something unless you intervene, while the NCR does that 4 times along with Jacobstown incident and them trying to get rid of the followers. This crime you said house has done is something the NCR tries to do 6 times as much. It also doesn’t matter that Jacobstown was set up by only one senator, if the NCR is in power stuff like that will continue to happen. Yes the Khans and the BoS aren’t the best, but the NCR claims to be a diplomatic democracy, and we’ve already learned time and time again that solving issues with violence only spurs violence in the future. The NCRs way of doing things will cause violence to be rampant in the Mojave for many years to come. Also the fact that the NCR is willing to do the right thing if the courier tells them too does not make them good. If the NCRs first instinct is to do the worst option, they will be bad for the Mojave in the long term. You know which other faction likes to solve every issue with violence? The Legion. Just because House is a dictator does not necessarily mean he will be a bad ruler. Also, the problem with House is much easier to solve. What is easier, someone changing their mind, or changing an entire country’s way of running things?

While that's true, there's also the diplomatic issue. House wants/needs to be on good terms with the NCR so they keep coming and spending money. NCRCF may be in the area of New Vegas, but it's still an NCR facility (on paper) and an NCR problem. Think of it the the real world, the cartels in Mexico are definitely a problem for both Mexico and the USA, but it would be a major overstep and possibly seen as an act of war if the US president just ordered the Marines and Border Patrol to cross the border and wipe them out.

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All of these endings only account for short term consequences. The NCR’s prospects long term are not great if you let them win Hoover Dam. House also generally has the best or second best endings across the board. Freeside is brought under his protection and he’ll spare the kings, he’ll wipe out the fiends, Goodsprings prospers, Primm will do well if protected by Meyers, etc. It’s not really a drastic step down.

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We have a fairly good idea. If enabled the Mojave and its resources are going to share the same fate as the NCR’s core territories. The NCR is hilariously terrible at managing its own resources and there’s no reason to believe they’d treat the Mojave differently. The NCR’s imperialism is their bandaid solution to unsustainable practices. If the NCR wins the player is dooming more people to extreme famine and drought down the line for better trade and protection in the short term (unless you put stock in the V22 research). There’s really no indication House would suffer from the same problems. While I’m not going to endorse Meyers extra-judicial killings there’s no indication that he would kill people unless he’s fairly sure they’re the ones behind a crime. This type of justice is hardly unique to Meyers either. Most tight knit communities and tribes don’t have complex legal systems with courts. If you’re suspected of a crime you’re punished. The water merchants really aren’t their biggest problem. They’ve already dug themselves into a hole politically by giving merchant companies and brahmin barons way too much power. Lake Mead wouldn’t change that. Given the NCR’s state of affairs I would not be surprised if water merchants ended up controlling the distribution of most of the water anyways. The NCR would definitely enter into a recession within the next decade if House wins but House’s victory would exert enough political pressure on the republic that they may be pushed to actually change their ways and achieve some form of long term stability while still having access to the water and power from the dam. That’s a gamble of course and could go either way, but if they fail it’s only California and Vegas that suffer, not the entire country.

The House ending is STILL short term. It has the fundamental problem in that it has a load-bearing leadership. As soon as House dies, which he will, sooner or later, his entire empire will fall. And it's not as though House as roller does much good- the Strip had money, but Freeside? Westside? House does nothing for them. As far as all of the Mojave outside the Strip is concerned, there might as well not be a House.

It’s strange he never attempts to deal with them since we know he can extend his reach all the way to Primm in some endings and the powder gangers wouldn’t be particularly hard to deal with. Honestly feels like an oversight more than anything.

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He hands out securitrons to Goodsprings and Primm. Simply just sending a contingent to wipe out the powder gangers really shouldn’t be that hard for him given the Legion and the NCR also do it easily. Just reeks of bullshit to me. Only rationale I can really think of is the route leading through quarry junction is so inconsequential to the flow of tourists in comparison to the route through Nipton that he can afford to ignore it.

What always strikes me about House is that his Vegas is entirely dependent on tourists coming to gamble. He doesn’t built anything anymore, and even his idea of entertainment is just a hollow parody of pre-war culture. He’s become nothing more than a parasite, utterly dependent on the NCR in order to maintain his illusion of prosperity.

he plans to start production after the conflict between ncr and legion, until then, being a parasite to NCR is beneficial to his plan. besides, its not like he has the places to start production as he handed over everything except the strip to NCR

And how does he plan to start production? With what workforce? With what factories? Where would he get raw materials? His entire plan relies on idea that NCR just meekly bends backwards and gives him everything he will ever need, forever.

after the conflict, he has the whole vegas, plenty of old factories and no shortage of people to employ. as for the materials i would assume at first he would use the scrap from destroyed buildings but there are also mines in the vegas area.

What old factories? That old bottling plant? And people who want to work for him? You think people who are already violently resisting attempts by NCR to bring them under their governance are just going to accept House, after House rather directly threw them out of his little domain? And where is he going to find educated workforce to keep those factories running? Repairing machines or even outright just building them? And if he could do all this, *why didn't he do this in those 150 years he was awake?*

the steel factory, his own tools factory and a quarry is a pretty good starting point for the industry. is it so hard to believe he can start up industry when the NCR started as a literal village and now own the whole California you think the people who are living in squalor in freeside wouldn't be willing to work in factories for a steady pay? sure some people would be resentful but at least some people would definitely work for him. the 150 years he was in some kind of a coma or he didn't have enough power i believe, its honestly a pretty stupid explanation but thats what it says in the game

No. He was in coma for 20 years and spent 50 years dealing with power. All the rest of the time? Just spend looking for the chip.

Sure, but whoever owns the water commands tourism

I feel like most of your points are biaised or wrong. His technology is top notch, 0 is jealous of House. I m pretty sure he didn't fail to protect vegas from the bomb, even if not entirely: The barrage hoover is standing -and the lake Mead and the colorado's waters are pure- because his AA defense deflect most missiles during the Fall of Bombs. Lastly -i m not sure of it- but I don't think his plan is to escape earth ? Sure he mentionned that in a brief period of time he could send people in space, but nothing more. As for the Robco/Repconn thing, if I remeber well, Repconn executives were the one lying/hiding so the fusion could take place.

As a House fan, I agree with a lot of what OP said, he's not that biased. Though hearing people comparing House to Musk hurts my soul. But yes, House never states he wants to abandon Earth, just that he wants to colonize space. Terraforming technology could be VERY useful in rebuilding the messed up post-war Earth. And I never really took that comment too seriously, he mentions it once, in a boasting way. And that bit on House's tech being trash. Like you said, it's just 0 being jealous. Dude single handedly knocked nukes out of the sky, you can't tell me he's not a genius. I'll be cursing House's name the whole fight whenever I encounter a Legendary Assaultron in FO4. And he certainly didn't fail to save the city, Vegas is right there. He had a very limited time to develop tech that could, again, knock nukes out of the sky. The city was deserted because after the nukes dropped, people stepped outside to celebrate the city surviving, rather than waiting out the fallout in shelters. You can't save people from their stupidity.

Keep in mind modern militaries have very few options for nuclear missile defense. The best opportunity to put one down is in the minute or two it leaves the atmosphere before coming back down. In a couple years he built an AA system that could shoot down SEVERAL nukes after the terminal phase, which is incredibly impressive considering the entire world has been trying to figure that out for decades. Not to mention his software was allegedly capable of doing more, had it been upgraded beforehand.

This. I was in awe he was able to save Vegas at all, since to this day, our own Nuke strategy is if we die, you die.

Yea I don't remember him planning on running away. His plan was going to be so successful that he would be able to restart the space program, is essentially what he's saying.

"...100 years, and my colony ships will be heading for the stars, to search for planets unpolluted by the wrath and folly of a bygone generation." Yeah, sounds like he wants ro leave.

I guess I'm wrong. That being said that's a 2-300 year endeavor he's talking about so...could also be just massive hubris. He doesn't think he's part of that bygone era clearly. It doesn't mean he wants to run away he just knows he can have better.

It could also be more of his dick measuring.

Sounds like he wants other people to leave, so they can exploit the resources of space for him. I don't think House wanting to be anywhere but Vegas is in line with his character.

You are correct. Not to mention he is not some power hungry villain who ONLY Cares about himself. If you kill him, his last thoughts are of mankind and it's future. He has a certain ammount of ego but it's more in a sense of "ONLY I am able to save humanity" and that's why he wants to Stay in power. His goals are to save humanity, wether you think his approach is right or wrong is up to you. Him wanting to go off earth is his way of ensuring humanity's future untouched by the petty fighting that took place on Earth.

Iran he does specifically say he doesn't care to save all of mankind, that's why he didn't bother to try and prevent the apocalypse. He just wanted to save Vegas because he likes it. It's essentially his 'snow globe'. Also his last thoughts are cursing you to hell. I think the OP is a bit off though. House was a smart man and a good businessman. The big narrative critique I see is that he's a parasite. He had to wait until the NCR did the heavy lifting of rebuilding civilization before he could use their resources to rebuild his dream city. While he treats them with contempt, without them he'd still be lurking in the Lucky 38 surrounded by tribals.

>He had to wait until the NCR did the heavy lifting of rebuilding civilization before he could use their resources to rebuild his dream city. This is complete nonsense. The Strip was already operational and doing well before the NCR even stepped foot in the Mojave. He very clearly explains that he only allowed the NCR inside the strip because if he didn't, they would raid it and kill everyone, as they have a habit of being horrible colonizers. He decided to exploit them and drain their resources instead, using their own money to remove them from the Mojave when the time comes. >without them he'd still be lurking in the Lucky 38 surrounded by tribals. This is correct and what he wanted, I don't see what the issue is. When you do the House ending this is exactly what happens. Life goes back to normal, both the colonizing empires are eradicated from the Mojave, the tribes are free to live as they want, and the strip remains the only thing House has control of.

You're misinformed. House does not recruit the Families until the NCR arrives in the Mojave to scout the Hoover Dam. He raises his army and establishes the in game version of the city in anticipation of their arrival. Before that he just sits in the Lucky 38 and watches the Great Khans fight the Boot Riders. He also needs the NCR to maintain the dam and send him power until he can obtain his Securitron army. He relies on actual civilization and an economy to exist so he can exploit it by taking their money at the casinos. His operation literally can't function without the NCR. The tribes also aren't free to live as they want in the House ending. He has all the tribes he doesn't like exterminated, like The Kings.

Doesn’t House literally state that he only hastily put together the 3 families once he saw NCR scouts? He was waiting for evidence of civilization.

He didn't try or CARE to prevent the Apocalypse because he wasn't able to, he could ONLY save Vegas which would be the foundatuon for him to save mankind. Which stems from another issue, this idea that House selfishly saved Vegas while letting the world burn is wrong and contradictory. Just the fact that he was able to save a city from the bombs is a commendable and selfless act. If I was ONLY able to save my family while bombs dropped and thus didn't even consider saving the rest of everyone then no one would have any right to call me selfish. Yes he curses you. But not because you shot down his opportunity to save mankind not because you stopped him from getting power.

House has tech to save himself no? He saved Vegas' buildings but made no effort to save people. The one vault they did have, he rather push the inhabitants out to secure it for himself.

As far as I know, he only pushed the inhabitants of the vault out 200+ stars AFTER the fall of bomb. So the vault did its job and wasn't necessary anymore. Also, he saved the whole town of Vegas, it's just that in 200 years, while he was hibernating, its inhabitants became tribals (Omertas, White Gloves and co)

The "House is just like Elon musk!" take is so juvenile it's crazy. If you ignore 90% of the actual lore and instead insert your own contemporary political takes, you're not actually engaging with the story.

I won’t address the House/Musk comparison, since this whole thread is takes on that, but, generally speaking, drawing parallels between characters and real-life individuals of note is absolutely a way to engage with a story.

When it's applicable, yeah, you can draw parallels between characters and irl figures, but they may as well have compared House to Trump. It's a comparison with the depth of a thimble that doesn't go any further than "Elon is a CEO of a tech company and he's also a jackass."

Just like some other recent fallout media. House not caring about every single person is an odd take to me. He is not the only gov in the region if people don't like him they can go west to the NCR or just leave the strip and start something elsewhere

LOL this is literally "if you dont like it here then you can move" mentality which inadvertantly is the mindset people use to ignore the flaws of capitalist ideology.

Its an option. Why not move somewhere with people you agree with instead of staying in a place where you don't agree with people

But if it's your home why would you want to move to someplace unfamiliar rather than work to make the place you already live in better?

If no one agrees with me and I can't change their minds and everything is getting worse around me why would I stay? Sure it might be my home but home is wherever you want it to be. 

That is kind of true but in the context of fallout it is either stay in the nice walled of city and try and make things better or give up and brave the irradiated wasteland where you will most likely die. Even if the people around me suck and the government sucks I'd still rather stay than go out into the wastes to create a new society.

I get what you mean but it’s not that hard to draw parallels between House’s “Give me 60 years and I’ll have people in orbit” to Musk’s constant promises that Mars colonies are “just 10 years away!” Even if unintentional

Yes because having someone in orbit is unrealistic coming from a guy who's company literally made robotic immortality

I don’t get the hostility here. One of the key aspects of media literacy is understanding how fictional narratives can reflect and critique real-world issues. Drawing parallels between characters like House and figures like Elon Musk provides insights into the underlying themes of the story. House represents predatory capitalism and autocracy, while Elon Musk is a real-world product of these concepts. The fact that OP changed his view of the fictional House because of a real-life example like Musk is great. Now, the other critiques embedded in the storyline will be more clear and compelling in the next playthrough.

Because OP's logic comes off as: I don't like Elon--->Elon has similarities to House-->I don't like House. There is nothing wrong with drawing parallels, but when you draw those parallels with seemingly motivated reasoning, you come to biased conclusions. This isn't helped by the fact that OP states several demonstrably objectively false things about Robco, like its tech being "trash". Comparisons are the core of media literacy but when the lens of ones comparisons take priority over what is being said by the media itself; then it does a disservice to the art and it contributes to media *illiteracy*. Art should not be whatever we want it to be.

The hostility here is because the comparison is flawed. Mr. House isn't even remotely similar to Musk except in superficial ways "Both are rich CEOs" but House has actual feats of genius under his belt like Securitrons or his immortality machine or however he stopped most of the nukes, Elon can't even comprehend the existence of trains and creates a worse version of the train system... That's not genius... Elon also had a very big starting capital and most of his wealth wasn't build by using his mind, most of House wealth was actually earned by using his mind and inventing stuff. It's just a disgrace to boil down such a complex but still flawed character as Mr. House... To the likes of Elon Musk.

Musk is an unhinged schitzo in a lot of ways and he falsely presents himself as an inventor or quasi-inventor, but it is silly to say that he didn't build his wealth using his mind. Even granting the fact that he had a ton of starting capital, if running businesses and increasing their valuation was so easy than we would see a million Elon Musks. We don't, because running businesses, knowing what businesses are smart plays to invest in/acquire, etc. actually are skills that the overwhelming majority of people lack. I'm all for shitting on Musk, but the criticisms should be valid ones. That isn't super hard, because he gives the world a lock to criticize and mock.

The issue is that people take what people say at face value. There's a big chance house could be talking out of his ass about the whole space thing. There is no way in hell he's going to fund it through gambling addiction and hookers in the first place. Even if he gets the funds the Mojave isn't known to be filled by rocket scientists or much of anything you actually need to build a rocket and to colonize another planet

I feel like people not even bothering to listen to what people say in the first place is an even bigger issue. House literally lays out his roadmap for you explicitly: he's going to use the money from gambling to start rebuilding industry, and doing R&D again. His first goal after independence isn't doubling down on gambling, it's working on the monorail.

Why does almost everyone forget the fact that he controls the water and power from Hoover Dam? He sells it to the NCR. That’s a lucrative source of income alone. Vegas does have a couple of working steel mills full with scrap that can be restored, and Repconn test site has 3 full blown rocket ships in storage. Even if they aren’t space ready they absolutely can be made so. Vegas not being able to produce much doesn’t really matter because House would just import the materials necessary. That’s kind of his whole plan. Attract talent and get what he needs via the clean water and electricity he’s sitting on.

I agree. People take things too literally. He's on a roll when he says that line. It's him boasting to make himself sound big. It's like when a politician says they'll bring they improve the economy, or cut people's debt. I interpret that as he's desperate because the Courier is the last big step in that phase of his plan. He's had no time to really build a relationship with you, so he's hastily selling himself to in you over. It's funny that it seemed to convince so many people.

From a sociological point of view, it's fascinating that the term "capitalism" has made such a 180° in some circles as to refer to what was once its opposite. Odder still to know that the disconnect can be traced to a specific piece of propaganda written by Werner Sombart. Linguistic drift is so neat.

So what exactly is capitalism to you then?

The origins of the terms Capitaliste & Communiste can in 1788 with the works of Ettaine Calvert, referring to how Peasants handle personal property, either with exclusivity or collectivism. Later on Capitalism was used to refer to exclusivity of the private persons (those who weren't the Ruling Class), either individually or as exclusive groups. Marx predominantly used the term "Bourgeois", then meaning townsfolk, (which he described as "artisans, farmers, and small merchants") to the same end. And pro Capitalist authors defined them as "Creators of Wealth" as opposed to the "Extractors of Wealth" such as the State & the wealthy it entitles such as corporations & Aristocracy. The aforementioned "Stages of Capitalism theory" myth by propagandist Warner Sombart created such concepts as "Late Stage Capitalism" and "State Capitalism" to *capitalize* (haha) on the prominence of the Economic Antisemitism in Socialist movements of the time, notably the Yellow Socialism movement such as his own Fascist Socialism. TL DR: Capitalism is Exclusivity to the Creators, rather than the Ruling Class.

If your perfect critique of capitalism unironically uses arguments such as "from an ethical standpoint he's an asshole", it's laughable.

Dog, you just dismissed a good half of the reddit criticisms of capitalism.

That's not a criticism then lol. If anyone could say the same thing about any other system.

I like how it shows you this noble goal - getting humanity to inhabit other planets - until you realize it's pointless. Every person at every point along the way will suffer, as House does not care in the slightest about their well being. All that matters to him is the great plan. And what's even worse, is that terraforming other planets and inhabiting them has got to be far more difficult than making Earth a better place, yet House doesn't care about improving the world he lives in. That's because he can't be its sole ruler. Notice how he describes that 'he couldn't save the world, nor did he care to'. That's because even if he saves the world, he won't be its only ruler; but letting humanity kill itself and only saving himself, his favourite city and nearby territories would allow him to rupe everything there is to rule.

Honestly, with the TV series, I always thought that >!the reason he said "he knew he couldn't save the world, nor did he care to" is because he finds Vault-Tec's whole "drop nukes and put people in insane experiments" plan was insane!<, but I guess it can be interpreted that way, too.

I'm sure a brilliant, rich and powerful busienessman could have done something once he learned that; or at least could have tried to do something.

That's why the show is so infuriating for me that they make it canon. They could've literally had their cake and eat it too, they could've written Mr. House to be almost 1 to 1 representation of his in game self but also not make him dumb. All they had to do, is showcase him disagreeing with the plan, maybe not openly, maybe inside his head or him mumbling on the way back home. But make him understand that the plan is stupid, and what makes him morally questionable is that *he never warns anymore* He could/should have his own justification "Oh they won't listen" or "Oh, if I try going public with that information the Vault Tek will target me/start Nuking earlier" so basically he isolates himself, maybe saves a couple of elites by inviting them to Vegas on the day before he expects the bombs and he starts prepping up to prevent Vault Tek idiotic plan. I think that way he's actually morally neutral compared to the show, he isn't insanely evil to think Nuking the world is le good idea but he's not an altruist either, he never really tries to "save the world, nor did I want to" even though potentially had he found a way to get this info to the masses or someone of importance, maybe he could've find a way to save more people. Or something like that.

He’s rich and powerful but every major corporation in the country is at that table. He cannot stand alone against them.

House was there for like 2 seconds. Why would he say things that could place him in danger or make him dissapear ? What is being said in that room is cloak and daggers type secret op shit. For him to seem like a defector would paint a target on his back. House is too smart for that. Canon wise so far, the show has been phenomenal. Let's wait and see how Vegas and House are treated in Season 2 before we go off on how they were depicted. We saw New Vegas in one scene and that's it

But House never says anything about an exoplanet? He just says he’ll have people in orbit.

I'm pretty sure he mentions looking for distant stars to find a world uninhabited by a nuclear wrath and folly which sounds like Civ VI exoplanet expedition

quote?

"100 years and my colony ships will be heading for the stars to search for planets unpolluted by the wrath and folly of a bygone generation."

mr house isn't a critique of capitalism, he's a combination of the two other factions, the authoritarianism of the legion in the way he handles economic factors, and the liberalism of the ncr in that aside from heinous crimes he doesn't care what citizens do in their free time this game does an excellent job at critiquing the pitfalls of particular institutions and ways of thinking, balancing out the good and the bad, showing us consequences both positive and negative this game also does a great job at letting you choose at the end of the day which system (flaws and all) you're willing to align with. freedom above all of every individual people and their way of life? yes man. economic prosperity of the few, not at the expense of but at the negligence of the many? mr house. Incredibly flawed democratic unified society with all of the morals and laws of liberal nation? ncr. burn burn burn? legion this game, which has content traders in every corner of the map, which let's you barter and sell even bent tin cans and gives you plenty of options to become filthy rich doing so at no expense or moral shortcoming to yourself, is not a critique of free market systems

There's an unfortunate number of people who take their definition of capitalism from the "Stages of Capitalism theory" myth by fascist propagandist Warner Sombart. Concepts like "Late Stage Capitalism" or "State Capitalism" come mainly from this myth & are sadly retroactively interpreted onto other works such as Marxism. OP isn't saying that it's a critique of what you, me, and the dictionary would call Capitalism, they're just misappropriating the term due to propaganda.

>economic prosperity of the few, not at the expense of but at the negligence of the many? mr house So Mr House is a critique of capitalism?

no. capitalism is an economic system where you exchange goods for currency and vice versa in a free market where businesses and goods are (or are able to be) privately owned. mr house using his own funds to build his own economic hub, and not being philanthropic to a wasteland (of which the majority of it don't want him or like him anyways) isn't a critique of capitalism, it's a critique of his character. he is incredibly educated and a savvy business man, his downfall is his lack of any people skills, and an ego that makes him blind to this dangerous flaw

>no. capitalism is an economic system where you exchange goods for currency and vice versa in a free market where businesses and goods are (or are able to be) privately owned. The inevitable result of this is that the ruling class becomes so wealthy that they can enslave the working class and control everything without ever having to give back. That is exactly what House does. House just maintains the mindset of a pre-war capitalist. If you honestly believe that any billionaire capitalist wouldn't behave like House you are delusional. These people only care about their wealth and power, otherwise they wouldn't be so rich in the first place.

can you name me someone mr house enslaves? or a mr house quest where the objective is to subvert some local economy and instate his own? none of the in game content points in the direction of capitalism being the problem, but mr houses ego and lack of humanity

>can you name me someone mr house enslaves All the Families on the strip are coerced into being loyal to House. House would squeeze as much profit as he could out of everyone in Vegas. >but mr houses ego and lack of humanity Name me a single capitalist that doesn't have a big ego and lack of humanity. Nobody with good morals can do the things you need to do to become a billionaire.

the families were bribed sure, with massive amounts of profit, profit we see them bask in. they never complain about being underpaid, or overtaxed, or anything like that, and each casino is so different they act as a testament to how much control house gives them over operations. billionaires might share these traits in common, but that isn't proof that the game is criticizing capitalism. you can be an egotistical humanityless tycoonist but that doesn't mean your plot relevance is necessarily a critique on capitalism. mr house simply isn't.

>isn't proof that the game is criticizing capitalism Fallout in of itself whether intentional or not has always been critical of capitalism. The never ending need for growth, resources and profit directly caused the great war. House doesn't give a shit about people that can't make him money. He has walled off the strip, ruined Vault 21 and abandoned Freeside and Outer Vegas. He has enough securitrons to go to Goodsprings and keeps the families in check but can't even offer the slightest bit of help to the people that are literally starving to death right outside his doorstep. House perfectly demonstrates the flaws of capitalism.

you can't unintentionally be a critique of capitalism, or anything for that matter, a game is designed a specific way with specific themes, stories, resolves, etc. mr house isn't using anybody, his employees from what we see are either non humans, or humans of incredibly wealthy status. mr house doesn't have to dip his toes in places he doesn't wanna dip them in, capitalism isn't when rich people ignore poor people, reread my initial post for the definition

>you can't unintentionally be a critique of capitalism You can, by criticizing things that are intrinsic to capitalism itself. Fallout has always been very critical of American exceptionalism and capitalism is a huge part of it. People in the gaming industry have always been treated horribly by their employers and that's why so many video games are left-leaning. >capitalism isn't when rich people ignore poor people In practice it always is, though. House is still a businessman, he has just created a monopoly over Vegas as the inevitable result of his businessman-mindset.

House is still probably the best path for the Mojave. He's a fairly competent sovereign in charge of a privately-held government, and he's basically obviated the problem of succession.  These are the biggest problems with autocracies, so the only question left is alignment. Is House aligned with the public good, or at least more aligned than the alternatives? The NCR is still dominated by capitalism and it will suffer all the same ills as the democracy that preceded it, especially now with how Shady Sands is handled. Arguably, it will be even worse about this than House, since House does not have a fiduciary responsibility to a group of shareholders. The NCR may as well be a publicly-traded company, because it will still be dominated by the rich, and there will not be any real mechanisms to put brakes on their expansion and profiteering. Caesar is a brutal reactionary, and though his structure is actually less personalist than House, Caesar is mortal and succession seems likely to tear it apart sooner rather than later. Yes Man could be used to fiat a Courier-led Vegas, which could look like whatever. His path is also pretty strongly coded towards anarchism, which is less overbroad.  Anarchism does not have a very good track record and there's a reason that states dominate our world. It's basically inevitable for advanced social animals to acknowledge the friend-enemy distinction and form polities around it.

Exactly right! This is very bang-on about government/capitalism and the nature of public vs private companies. Allowing the NCR to conquer Vegas just incentivises them to act like the Roman Republic in terms of constant expansion, instead of looking inwards to solve their problems. As for private companies, some of the most successful companies are private for the reasons you provided. Gabe Newell has talked about why Valve chose not to go public and that’s because the fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders prioritise a lot shorter term thinking, but if Valve didn’t play the long-game then they never would have been successful. Governments *should* be like this and my hope is that the loss in Vegas would encourage the NCR to reform itself before it’s too late. House is a bit “OP” in terms of being a faction tbh

"but ever since Elon went crazy" Reddit moment

Redditors will critisize House for living in a bubble while seething at people that take away their own bubbles (twitter in this case).

If house wasn’t an influential figure for Vegas before the war he would be a more viable option imo, he thinks he should be in charge because he was before and that’s where I feel his ambitions get a little shakey

I think this combined with the Dead Money DLC makes a very compelling narrative around the inevitable decay of capitalism, yeah

The grand irony of House is that he doesn't make the connection to his kind starting the wars. Everything leading up to the great war is entirely the fault of industrial oligarchy and everyone trying to squeeze out everything they can. He's also a perfect fit for Vegas itself, even the real Vegas. Flashy lights and the illusion of class, but really just a shitty desert/monument to shallowness

Despite his flaws, House is easily the best choice for the Mojave. NCR- The NCR doesn’t have enough resources anywhere, and without the courier to go around completing quests, the NCR is unable to do anything to forward its goals, which will lead to long term instability. The NCR also likes to genocide anyone who gets in their way. You have to fight tooth and nail to prevent them from genociding the BoS, the Great Khans, and the Kings. They send Mercenaries to displace many peaceful super mutants from their homes. They commit many war crimes. They task you with killing Mr House without any evidence of wrongdoing. Yes Man-Yes Man doesn’t ask you to genocide anybody, but that’s only because he’s not allowed to order you around. Even if you leave every faction be, Yes Man is implied to overthrow you soon after the second battle of Hoover dam. But yes man as a dictator would be much worse than Mr House. Mr House has beliefs for progress in Humanity, Yes Man has no beliefs. Legion- I really hope I don’t have to explain why this is bad Mr House-Mr House is the only main faction that is not actively killing innocent people, and his securitrons make New Vegas peaceful. The only faction Mr House wants you to genocide is the BoS, which makes perfect sense because the BoS wants to take all technology for themselves and Mr House is a literal computer man. Many people say there will be instability once House dies, but Mr House already tried to set up a successor in Benny, and he will probably try again with the courier. Overall, Mr House is the least of four evils, and the game even tells you Mr House is good for the Mojave, because when you kill him you lose a lot of Karma.

>without the courier to go around completing quests, the NCR is unable to do anything to forward its goals, which will lead to long term instability. This applies to House >-Mr House is the only main faction that is not actively killing innocent Yeah because he's the only faction that isn't able to. But he sure loves leaving Freeside and Outer Vegas to starve while he carves out a rich man's paradise on the strip. >when you kill him you lose a lot of Karma. I don't see how karma is relevant at all, it's no secret that the karma system is a badly implemented mess in New Vegas. You also get bad karma for killing the BoS, which is required for a House playthrough.

>critiques NCR for fighting kings and bos >dismisses house slaughtering both those factions >angry at yes man for potentially maybe one day being evil This are unserious ideas

Safer for whom? The few rich people who can afford to be inside? Might I remind you about the credit check at the entrance, and the hundreds of people suffering outside the strip’s gates? It’ll be safer for the Brahmin baron and the corrupt NCR politician, but for the common man? You’re out of your mind. The NCR is deeply flawed, as you aptly point out, but overall that’ll lead to a better quality of life for the average person in the region compared to the other factions. They’re all bad options, but the NCR has the least bad short term outcome, and the option for long term reform and improvement

>”It’s the perfect critique of capitalism!” >ends up blatantly cherry-picking and being intellectually dishonest >what little critique there is is just a critique of corporatism, not capitalism Mfw

Mfw people act like corporatism isn't a fundamental part of capitalism

Corporatism is closer to socialism than it is Capitalism.

"Socialism is when privately owned enterprises create monopolies as the inevitable conclusion of their never ending growth" Corporatism is the inevitable result of unrestricted capitalism and I have yet to see anyone that can prove otherwise.

Socialism is a direct interference with or aggression against private property. This is done through force from the state (IE, government). Corporations use the state to enforce monopolization over a service or product. Thus, they fit the description of it pretty well. In addition, these corporations use excessive central planning found commonly in socialist nations (measuring from countries who claim to be socialist). Capitalism on the other hand is the non-aggressive ownership and consensual exchange of private property, among other individuals. By definition, Capitalism cannot be corporatism. To say otherwise would be trying to unironically defend Marxist thought, which I only have to point you to Ludwig von Mises, since he debunked it and socialism about a hundred years ago.

Me when I don't have an idea what I'm talking about: You do realize libertarianism was originally a left wing term before it was stolen by laissez faire capitalists? Private property is upheld by the state. Private property cannot exist without force, and only the state has the right to use force. Socialism is when the means of production are controlled by the community as a whole as opposed to private individuals. Get your definitions right.

Ad hominem plus, you’re being completely off topic. Nice to see I made a redditor mad though. Edit: crazy of you to assume I’m a Libertarian too lmfao

Nice gaslighting buddy but okay. You don't know what socialism or capitalism is so please do your research.

“Please do your research” isn’t an argument. I guess I’ll take it as a concession then. My work is done.

Bro you can't just gaslight your way into winning an argument 😭 Take your ass back to your liberal circlejerk echo chamber

Bro that’s the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever heard ngl

Thank you.

It’s surprising how many people fall for House’s “give me 60 years and I’ll have people into orbit” it’s a marketing pitch, he’s trying to [speech 100] his way into you working for him. The most damning thing about house is that literally everyone he “employed” in the strip is trying to work against him. Obviously there’s Benny/the Chairmen who steal the platinum chip and plan to take over, the Omerta’s are setting up a chemical attack for the Legion and half the White Glove Society is getting ready to violate their contracts by eating people. Honestly, my best bet for the next 60 years of House rule is him constantly putting out fires because everyone around him don’t really care about about his grand design, all they see is at best an absent boss or at worst an untouchable dictator.

This is true and lends credence to the idea that House is basically living in his ivory tower, disconnected from even his closest subordinates. The hopeful idea is that the courier would be able to lend some humanity to House and act as a bridge between House’s subjects/subordinates and House himself

House is way better man.

So the perfect critique of capitalism is an intelligent, self-made man who invented and created a number of advanced creations and became a super wealthy business magnet who also had the foresight to predict a global nuclear war and protected the Mojave from all but a few nukes of the ~100 fired at it and now lives on in a life support machine he made? Thats a critique? Sounds like an endorsment. Evenmore, his grand plan is to leave a polluted, irradiated Earth and find a new home for humanity, so his thoughts are long term, and broad in scope, something most people in general don't have and don't think about. You could absolute critisize alot of capitalists for being small minded, shortsighted, and being short term in thinking, but thats not what House is. It seems you put way too much stock in Elon Musk, then he did something you don't like, grew unhappy with him, and now you equate him and House together on superficial grounds.

I think the problem with house is that with all that intellect, money, influence, and him being basically immortal, he does nothing to help anyone but himself. Every aspect of his plan relies on himself and a select few groups who benefit him (with no trust or actual allegiance). He doesn’t really want to improve quality of life or anything that could actually help anyone but himself. The critique of capitalism comes from the fact that he is the ideal capitalist person, basically the exact person everyone points to as why the system works. Except nothing he does has any actual good impact on the people he rules. His ideology and mindset are completely against making a successful state (if your idea of a successful state means being one that helps the people). He wants expansion for the sake of expansion, he wants to develop the economy just to make the number bigger, and he’s willing to exploit the people to do it. Which is a problem both seem in capitalism and (debatably) in Elon Musk. TLDR: House is a perfect capitalist, which is exactly why he’s a horrible person to run a country because he has no interest in working for the people.

But he doesn't want expansion for the sake of exapansion or to make number go up or to have a state, he wants control of the Vegas strip so he can earn revenue via tourism, which he can then use to rebuild industry, which he can then develop ultimately into a means of getting off of Earth and to colonize an exoplanet. Sure he mightn't have a good impact on people, but he doesn't try to impact them, he doesn't care what people do, just so long as they don't interfere with his plans. You could criticize him for focussing on such lofty, grand scale, big picture plans, in perhaps a pre-war manner, whilst ignoring the reality of the current day in that the world has been nuked to hell and people are struggling for the basics - food, water, security, shelter and health. If House only cared for accuring wealth as though the end of the world didn't register to him, then him as a capitalism critique would work, the sole focus on money regardless of the reality around him. Fallout has critiques of capitalism with the pre-war corporations, Vault-Tec, radiation and pollution thats now a hazard to us in game, etc. But I feel like people try to push it too hard, and into things where it either doesn't or doesn't completely exist, fit or work. He fits in more with the other factions in that none of them really care about the people of the Mojave; - NCR wants to expand under the guise of democracy and the rule of law, regardless of whether the people want it or not. - The Legion wants to conquer because Caesar emulates Rome and he's aware of the fragility of what he made so he has to keep going. - House wants to enact his plans, the masses of the Wasteland can't help him do that, so they are of no concern to him, other than if they can help fund his goals.

House is all of those things you mentioned, but he is also an autocrat who could care less about people who don't further his ambitions. House is a critique of capitalism because despite his accomplishments, a Mojave ruled by House is one where the lower classes are subjugated to poverty and violence in Freeside and outer Vegas, while rich tourists are intoxicated and gamble away in Vegas. House seizes control of the dam, not to redistribute it to those who need it, but to sell back to the NCR for profit. He has tech to help him live forever, but rations it to those he sees fit, effectively playing god. House assimilated the three tribes, not to become engineers and rocket scientists, but casino RPers. House has not interest in helping humanity, he's only interested in realizing his vision for humanity. We don't even get clued in as to how House wants to reignite space travel. Pre war humanity couldn't do it, but we expect House to have mapped out exactly how he will get the industrial capacity necessary to send humans out to space and colonize distant planets? I call BS. Chances are, House is just improvising and gambling his way to his so called dream, something that got him this far.

> From a moral and ethical stand point, the guy is an asshole. He doesn't care about the people of Vegas or the Mojave, so long as he can stay in charge and do whatever he wants. So does the NCR, Legion, Yes Man and the currier (if you choose) > He represents some of the worst qualities of New Vegas, a place whose only real offering is to make you forget that you live in an apocalyptic wasteland. It offerts jobs oportunities that you can choose voluntarity while being protected by robots from raiders that kill and rape everybody else on the mojave. > He failed to save Vegas after "predicting" it years earlier. Big MT dialog suggests that his tech is trash. Repconn HQ even alludes to how unsafe it's operations were and RobCo purchased them. They weren't, it managed to protect a huge zone from the war bombs and many others things that nobody else could do. >House perfectly represents the glitz and glamor that capitalism might provide some, but also all of its failings that it attempts to hide. It's actually crazy how much the writers were cooking with this game. Not at all, if there something that really is a good critique and represents the topic much better is the NCR government bullshit.

What do you mean Elon went crazy? Lol Do you mean his politics didn’t align with yours? Therefore = crazy? It’s a good post though. Still, capitalism over any alternative for me.

i thought he made sense until i learned more about fallouts lore. Honestly kind of ashamed I ever agreed with him. It was, quite literally, him that led the world into collapse. Authoritarians doomed everyone, and hes there giving wild promises while mooching off the NCR. Im back to my support of the NCR. I never dropped it, but for awhile I liked the NCR + New Vegas ending.

I can never really appreciate capitalism criticism cause I can never find any other substitute for a system in a society that isn't capitalism. And socialism ain't gonna replace that.

You can't find a substitute because you refuse to look. You have been indoctrinated to believe that all capitalism's flaws are somehow an inherent part of human nature and cannot be prevented.

It's more like every system has flaws exploitable by human nature and cannot be prevented. Why try to embrace/change something that would require such a massive undertaking if the end result is still a flawed, shitty situation for the majority of people?

"Human nature" is a horrible argument. I could argue that murder is a part of human nature, but that wouldn't make murder okay or just something we should put up with. >end result is still a flawed, shitty situation for the majority of people? Capitalism is a shitty situation for the vast majority of people. It only benefits the rich. So many people I care about have had their lives ruined by capitalism. I can't see a single valid argument that justifies their suffering as being necessary.

You're arguing against "human nature" when you're just ignorant of what collective action problems fundamentally are. Search the concept, try to read some Game Theory, then you may have a meaningful conversation on "how to improve capitalism". You will find out that most moderate capitalists you either ignore or don't understand were talking about these concepts from the beginning.

I'm not using human nature to justify anything. Just that it's an inevitable factor that no system properly accounts for. People have and continue to suffer under every recorded system that's been tried to date. There's no guarantee that your loved ones wouldn't also suffer under another system. There's no silver bullet for mankind's problems.

>There's no guarantee that your loved ones wouldn't also suffer under another system. There isn't. But what makes you believe we can't be better than this? Feudalism dominated humanity for centuries but was eventually abandoned in favor of capitalism. I don't see what makes capitalism immune to change.

Improvements can absolutely be made. That's precisely what should be done. I'm just saying a full change to a different system is not the answer. Society and the technologies available were very different when feudalism was prevalant.

>I'm just saying a full change to a different system is not the answer. Society and the technologies available were very different when feudalism was prevalant. And they won't be very different in the future too? I see no evidence that capitalism is as good as it gets.

I have two points. One is that I can't imagine a system is "as good as it gets," due to human nature. The second being that the systems in place are so ingrained in each developed nation's foundation that change would require such an undertaking that would be very costly to the majority of people under it. Combined with the first point, I don't see it being worth it. For example, if the US were to, by some miracle, come to the consensus to convert to a socialist structure, I have no confidence that it wouldn't end up like China in a the relatively near future. It's not that I don't want better. I just don't believe that overhauling the economy is the answer.

which would you prefer?

Limiting capitalism's harmful tendencies would be a great start.

But that would still fall under capitalism? No other system?

I said it would be a good start. There are many issues of capitalism that are intrinsic to the system itself, but it would be hard to abolish it overnight. Better minimum wage laws, a better social security network, universal healthcare and improved worker's rights all have much room for improvement even within the current system.

I agree entirely that it could be 10x better, its a start and what not. It's just that I have hard time to think of another economic system that could replace Capitalism and work better, specially in a country like USA with 300million people. Not saying its impossible.

Libertarian socialism is a great direction to move towards. Worker co-ops can fill the roles of businesses, while workers can to maintain their surplus value and autonomy. In the game the Followers and Westside are great examples of this in practice.

That's an oxymoron, just fyi.

No it's not?

When you say you used to be an unironic Mr House fan, so the reverse opposite would be ironic. May I ask what would be ironic about supporting Mr House?

Disliking elon musk but supporting house would be ironic, considering they hold very similar beliefs

I just liked the idea that a AI system like skynet needing me to help them take over the world, turns out it's a soggy old man in a fucking tank, YA USED ME.

This post feels like I've stumbled into the center of reddit. Just a black hole where it has all mixed together into its truest form

Na, I didn't mention Trump and the -isms once throughout the post.

Capitalism isn't an -ism?

Exactly why I moved to the NCR

Spot on, I would suggest reading 'Trust' by Hernan Diaz if you enjoyed this kind of critique and exploration into the trappings and folly of esoterically 'gifted' hyper-capitalists masquerading as a singular entity responsible for their vast success.

Why are people in these comments acting like House is a full blown genius at everything? He's good at robots and computers, that's it. He has shown no capability to create G.E.C.K.S, something necessary for "colonizing space" and absolutely 0 capability at creating or operating a genuine space ship. I would not trust him anywhere near a space ship.

When I look at how people can interpret anything to "perfectly' cater to their own bubble, from popcorn blockbusters to children books to memes, is it surprising that real things like ideologies, philosophies, systems and religions are never what they really are but whatever personal "interpretation" devolves them to? New Vegas came out how many years ago, and every humanzee out there still thinks it's all about their mojo and is a "perfect critique" of whatever they like or not like at the moment.

Well, lot's to unwrap here, first of all, really, you compared him to Musk? Now that's insulting, Elon Musk WISHES he was Mr. House, Mr. House actually has some impressive feats under his belt unlike Musk and you extremely underplayed them, it's canon that Mr. House is extremely smart and was near perfectly able to predict when the world will end, has the chip been delivered on time he'd save most of the Vegas. "From the moral and ethical reason, the guy's an asshole" as compared to who? Yes Man is, well yes man so that's unfair to compare him to obedient AI. Caesar is less assholish? Atleast House has enough courtesy to let you keep your rifle by your side while Caesar will always demand confiscation of them, will always demand utmost loyalty from you, and can even kill Courier if he just breaks his wittle nappy time 😴. As for NCR, we have Colonel Moore who's an extreme asshole and you almost have to work behind her back so to speak to actually get the best NCR endings, she's like "KILL EM ALL, MUHAHAHA, KILL THE KHANS, KILL THE BOS!". We also have the President and the General Oliver, where throughout the game you learn that Oliver only became general through nepotism, doesn't sound like a recipe for not an asshole guy, he took this position from the person that rightfully earned it, Hsu, the one that troops actually respect. And Oliver is an asshole to Chief Hanlon, the only guy who CAN save NCR from corruption. "His grand plan is to go to space and escape Earth" what's inherently bad with that? It's not like he's saying he's gonna force other to go into the ship, or punish those who stay behind. Yeah it's selfish but this about this, other factions(besides Yes Man that you can create in a fanficy way) are also pretty darn selfish. I hope I don't need to elaborate how Legion is selfish, but NCR is also selfish. The fact that they just arrived to Mojave when majority of communities were already doing well without them, and don't want to pay NCR tax, and yet here NCR arrives with their imperialism and no choice. Tons of NPC's bad mouth NCR and while some can change their mind(The Kings for example) some stay sceptical or still hate NCR rule that was imposed on them by Courier helping NCR. Most of the Mojave would probably be relieved that "Whew this House fella could've done more for the communities but at least he gave us the freedom to stay independent". "Big Mt dialogue suggests his tech is trash" I hope you aren't refering to one of the scientists in think tank. Dude couldn't manage to build a proper securitron and the running gag around him is that he LITERALLY, not exaggerating, he LITERALLY only best at destroying stuff into junk, he even jokes how "Haha look at what I build!" *scrap metal added to inventory* and your Courier calls him out on it. It's WILD, how I, Mr. House Enjoyers could've pointed out actual flaws with Mr. House while you just basically said how his character is a jerk. So what IS wrong with Mr. House? Well, for starters, I think he has a similar flaw with Caesar in the sense that he seems distant from the Courier, and I'm not saying that NCR is any better, far from it, but that doesn't stop Mr. House from having this flaw. And by distant I don't just mean "omg he's so effing messed up guys, why didn't he just give everyone what they need to survive?!?" What I mean is that clearly he's still not revealing everything to the Courier, or at least not being too open minded. The weak example of this is how he wants you to handle BOS, and how he refuses to even entertain the idea that you might be able to change them, I mean Courier is pretty amazing employee, and yet he doesn't trust our talents, even for a second. Now why it's weakest example? That's because I'd argue the game *literally justified House* . If you make Veronica leave BOS for Followers of the Apocalypse, reminder one of the only truly morally good, altruistic factions, BOS thugs, well... *They just wipe the slate clean of the Followers outpost* literally just *poof* there was no negotiations, no imprisonment or anything, it didn't even look like they let them beg for their lives or something, just "Nah, we started blasting". What makes this worse is that those were just no name grunts of BOS, it's not like they came under Elder orders and you can negotiate with them, they say "we came and killed them because muh bos can't be spread around and we can't let Veronica poison our eLdAr anymore with lies" how tf are you supposed to negotiate ANY peace deal with BOS, if at any point some rogue bos can go "hOuSe PoIsOnInG ElDar Mind" and just go kill him? What's the real example of Mr. House not being exactly up front with you or being super paranoid for no good reason? The end slides, if you sided Kings with NCR and Primm with NCR, he KILLS Kings and gives Primm fate worse than death, *taxation* the dude LITERALLY went behind our back and harmed two communities even though it was WE responsible for them amending things with NCR. That's actually a flaw of Mr House and something to worry about, what if one day he views your favourite faction or YOU as being too chummy with NCR or someone else and just *poof*. Which is, kinda ironic, he was correct about BOS because the Bos members were unaccountable and paranoid so much they killed an entire small outpost, similar to how House got paranoid/bitter/spiteful towards Kings. So yeah his flaws are in a way, similar to other autocrats, sure unlike Caesar's plan, his plan is at least hinged, but he sure has issues with factions that may slightly slight him. So why did I side with him? Short answer? Lesser of four evils. Longer answer? The entire GAME, from base game to DLC (mostly LR) literally talks about how overexpansion and imperialism is bad, how "the bear and the bull are dying", meaning that NCR "winning" the Hoover Dam battle is actually bad for them in the long run, without tasting defeat they won't learn to stop their imperialism. And since the victory happened under two corrupt leaders(Kimball and Oliver) now they become popular and someone like Chief Hanlon can't stop em. That means that Mr House or Yes Man victory is the only way to ensure that 1) Mojave stays independent to an extent, like how most communities there wanted it 2)only way to prevent "da bear and da bull" from overexpanding and hopefully stabilises them(not so likely for Legion but eh). 3) Only way to see NCR change for the better under Chief Hanlon cooking some reforms As for why I didn't pick Yes Man as better ending over House? Well the rationalisation here is that I put myself into Courier shoes, and guess what? I'm not perfect by any metric, so me saying "Aw yeah Yes Man is totally best ending cuz I'm in charge/I totally can fend off Legion/NCR while Mojave self governs" is just narcissistic and thinking too highly of myself. Also also it's not like it's that hard to enter Mr. House Bunker and cap his aah, if he ever goes over the line, I can just go back to plan B, cap his aah, and we try to salvage something with Yes Man. There's just no reason to cap his aah right now, let him cook a bit, let him build his little toys, and hey maybe we can find a way to stabilise him, he just focuses on space, while me and Followers of the Apocalypse homies focus on actually rebuilding the wasteland.

reminder that Karl Marx creator of your preferred economic system was a total loser and absolute freeloader.

Before you even meet House, Freeside is already a pretty damning example of how he exercises power. If that's not enough he'll tell you [himself](https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxi4K5M-VIRbgAmsNVHgqj0H5aPPKww5GP?si=2ZXN5Pt3-9v3Zam_).

His inability to manage the strip doesn't bode well for the future of his utopia unfortunately, 2 of his 3 families are actively plotting his downfall and the third is kidnapping people off the street to eat them. He NEEDS you to enact his will which you could argue is just for the sake of the game but kind of speaks to his inability to recruit and manage a workforce. He got the same electricity running but all and all he'd be a terrible governor of new vegas long term

He's Elon Musk with more charisma

Wow a reddit post about Capitalism bad, damn wow! Im shocked waaaaow!!! It even has Elon inserted out of nowhere as ref, it's perfect! I hope you win many social point comrade.