This is a universe with faster than light travel and near infinite resources. There's a homeless shelter in one of the major cities. I helped them out. Why the fuck is there a homeless shelter in a universe with FTL and near infinite resources?
I'm starting to think Fallout under Bethesda isn't a satire and their writers are just incapable of imagining anything beyond capitalism.
It's just what the US will be once it goes into space and it's borders become nebulous. It's the smiling face of neoliberal fascism (in space edition). Poor people in the US already live in that world.
There's nothing wrong with any of the analysis here, and I agree with all of it, but I think they are more applicable to a directed narrative experience or a movie rather than a sandbox game that simulates the authors world and serves as a hub for a bunch of different isolated stories.
It's good analysis and very informative for games like Disco Elysium or Baldurs Gate 3, but maybe not as useful for sandbox games that don't have a main plotline. Other sandbox games like GTA have similarly flavored settings.
I was also originally very turned off by the lack of personality in the factions and how generic a lot of the things are in the universe, but it really is a universe and there are a ton of different stories that are built on top of it and I'm starting to recognize that the stories might actually benefit from having a canvas that more closely reflects our own world to build on top of.