The next value in the “self-direction” category of Schwartz’s big list is creativity, which is really a bit of a holy grail in a lot of video games. That became especially true with the advent of the “sandbox” game, I guess, popularly identified with the Grand Theft Auto series, particularly the miraculous experience of playing GTA III.

Fallout 3 allows for some “obvious” takes on creativity, particularly in the sense that you can “create” your own weapons at little workstations throughout the game. But that’s clearly a pretty blank perspective to take on the whole thing, it doesn’t lead anywhere and it’s not actually creative, it’s the representation of someone else’s (the avatar’s) creative process, kind of.

When we talk about creativity in games, we normally mean that there are novel and interesting ways of achieving your ends, either those assigned by the game or by the player themselves. In Fallout 3 there’s definitely a degree of this – there are a number of ways you can accomplish your goals, often dividing along the lines of “being stealthy about it” or “not bothering to be stealthy about it”, and various tactics along that spectrum. Back-of-head-shooting versus face-shooting, you could call it. Again, maybe not really that creative.

We want creativity in a game to ultimately be the potential for self-expression, perhaps. Fallout 3 doesn’t offer much of that, most games don’t in the basic game level (they often do socially). As a canvas and set of tools, the game doesn’t give you a lot. You could argue that the most creative acts come, literally, in designing the way your avatar looks (despite never actually looking at him/her throughout the game), or perhaps in managing your inventory or choosing which weapon to use in a particular fight. These are creativity-moments, but weak ones in my opinion.

Near as I can tell, Fallout 3 just isn’t a creative game. You don’t make things so much as admire what’s there. The ruined world, the scenic (if apocalyptic) beauty. The game’s the artwork and the creating’s been done, we just live in it.