Worldbuilding, Nuclear Engagement, Resource Scarcity, and Raymond Williams’ Structure of Feeling in Bethesda’s Fallout 4

Bethesda’s Fallout 4 is a popular installment in the established, well-loved video game series. The game’s post-apocalyptic setting exhibits the potential environmental ramifications of unchecked mass industrialism, pollution, and overconsumption of goods that result in widespread pollution and resource scarcity for players in the material world. Fallout 4’s immersive visuals and recognizable culture based upon the United States’ 1950s society create a gaming atmosphere emblematic of Raymond Williams’ structure of feeling in which players associate the catastrophic physical environment and social circumstances of Fallout 4 with the real-world’s conditions. Fallout 4’s settlement construction feature awards gamers agency in post-apocalyptic worldbuilding but also forces players to reconcile that they must rely on trash, debris, and discarded mass-produced goods to ensure settlers’ well-being and accumulate valuable equipment that enhances players’ success. While exploring the game’s map, players have the option to listen to songs from the 1950s and early 1960s—many of which have an upbeat rhythm while addressing nuclear radiation and bombs and serve as political commentary. Fallout 4 simultaneously displaces the positive nostalgia associated with the 1950s while highlighting environmental dangers contemporary audiences continually encounter.