It has been an exciting year for gamers this 2018; huge reveals from some of the most anticipated titles have gotten fans and the internet stirring. But among them, one particular title has been the cause of much controversy.

Protests sparked outside of Bethesda Game Studios after the reveal that their upcoming game “Fallout 76” would not include NPCs (Non-Player Characters) in their world.

“We’re tired of being under-represented in games we don’t play,” said Marc Bautista, one of the many protestors outside the headquarters of BGS in Rockville, Maryland.

From early talks of the title being online multiplayer only, to more recent developments of online backlash with the release of the Beta tests revealing there were indeed no NPCs, Fallout 76 has been a polarizing topic for gamers within the community, and otherwise-uninterested  non-gamers like Marc. Indeed, during a time where left-leaning individuals have pressured many game developers into furthering their ideals, it seemed odd for Bethesda to not include NPCs, so we reached out to their Executive Producer, Todd Howard, about the decision to omit these non-player characters.

“We just didn’t see the point,” Howard stated, “why would we include them [NPCs] in a fantasy world when we deal with them enough in our own very real world? We wanted to create an exciting and mysterious post-apocalyptic world for gamers to immerse themselves in, not give them a glimpse of the future.”