Today, I want to talk about Fallout 76’s community and why it’s so friendly and welcoming. Most MMOs have a small minority of people who enjoy harassing and teasing other players.

But in contrast, you’ll see new players posting on Fallout 76 Reddit almost every day, talking about how welcoming and friendly the community is. Low-level players ask how they can repay all the gifts from high-level players, and high-level players ask how they can give gifts without scaring off new players.

But why is this the case? A lot of people are wondering about this situation, so let me tell you my conclusion. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my opinion.

Pacifist Mode

One of the biggest reasons is that the game has a Pacifist Mode. By default, if the setting is on, you can’t start a player-versus-player fight. Even if it’s off, PvP can only start if the other player retaliates.

Any player who shoots another player will only deal a fraction of the damage they should. A full PvP match will only start when both players have dealt some damage to each other.

This is in stark contrast to most MMOs, where PvP is expected. In my experience, most Fallout 76 players play with Pacifist Mode enabled. But even with Pacifist setting, if players want to PvP, they can. They just choose not to.

I never saw a true PvP duel while playing, and the only time I did PvP was when I tried Hunter Hunted event. I think this has a lot to do with Fallout series itself.

Enjoy Single-Player More

Fallout is always a single-player. You do fight, but you and your companions might be fighting in Wasteland. You fight raiders, you fight super-mutants, you fight mutated creatures. Sure, some players go on a killing spree, and some even join Legion.

But for the most part, Fallout is a game where players end up doing good things. Whether you saved Vault 101 by acquiring Water Chip, sacrificed yourself to repair Water Purifier in DC, or restored Minuteman and saved Synths in Commonwealth, you were a hero.

As a result, most of the player base will prefer the single-player experience of roaming Wasteland and killing monsters rather than fighting other players. This isn’t surprising if you remember that Fallout has always been a single-player game.

Low Online Population

On top of that, anyone more interested in vandalism or trolling will also be put off by the low player count. Fallout 76 tends to peak at around 10 to 12,000 players per day. That’s actually not that high for an MMO.

Beyond that, the player base is pretty spread out. The most we saw at any given time was about 8 full teams, which are about 32 players. Even accounting for players who don’t join teams, there were probably 50 players per server at most.

Aside from core locations like Nuka-World on Tour and Whitespring Resort, which have many players, I rarely ran into anyone while exploring the world. So if you want to hurt someone, it’s actually very hard to find another random player. It’s even harder to find someone who doesn’t have Pacifist Mode enabled. So the odds of you actually being able to hurt someone are very low.

But if that’s what you want, why not just play GTA or Red Dead? In fact, players who don’t like that type of game actually seem to be pushed away from those games. In contrast, the way Fallout 76 is set up does end up pushing away hurters and encouraging aggressive players.

Also Read: Fallout 76: These Locations Are Ideal For Farming Abundant Lead

Difference In The Need For Supplies Between High And Low-Level Players

So this explains why players don’t kill each other. But it doesn’t explain why gifts are often given to new players. Why is this?

If I had to answer this question in one word, it would be abundance. Once you reach a certain power level, you have a lot of wealth. Just farm some Crops and Water Purifiers and you’ll have more Fallout 76 items than you ever need.

Play for a while and you’ll have hundreds of spare Stimpacks, RadAways, and Rad-Xs. With the last few updates, attending an Eviction Notice is enough to get you Legendary Gear.

But most importantly, everything in the game has limits for players. You can only store a certain amount of Legendary Gear in your stash. Chems and Ammo have weights, and there are daily caps on earning currency. The developers encourage players to reduce their inventory, even if it means dumping items.

Especially when an Eviction Notice or Radiation Rumble event comes around, you’ll see people always dropping one or two star legendaries. It’s not cost-effective to carry them, and you can always get more the next time you play.

While high-level players have too many items, low-level players are often short on things like Ammo and Stimpacks, especially if they don’t participate in public events. So it became customary to give away excess items to new players.

This custom is now so common that the developers have even added a Donations Box where people can put items in it for new players to take away when they emerge from Vault 76. According to Public Test Server, more Donations Boxes will be added to other places where players gather.

Helping Others Has Become A New Community Culture

You may have noticed that I used the word “custom” deliberately. Because whenever there are many people gathered together, a unique culture will emerge. You will have a common set of customs that existing members will participate in and new members will learn.

In the case of Fallout 76, it is clear that the community has a culture of welcoming and helping new players. When these players become high-level players, they will pass this goodwill on to new players.

I think this culture stems from the natural preferences of the player group, the abundance of resources brought by relaxing some game systems, and the restrictions on player reserves and currencies that prevent even the most determined hoarders.

Giving gifts may have originally been a way to get others to get some use out of the items you would otherwise discard, but the culture has taken root. Now people have become proud to help new players. This is why Fallout 76 has one of the best MMO communities.