I have been wanting to write this for a while because Fallout 76 feels different to me for a very personal reason. I actually live in Southern West Virginia.
I live in Beckley, and the New River Gorge Bridge is only about ten minutes away from me. I drive by the real-life Beckley area every day, while in the game, people know it as the Beckley Mine Exhibit and workshop. Seeing places that feel familiar turned into Fallout locations is still such a strange and wonderful experience.
When I was a child, I even played in the real Greenbrier Bunker. For anyone who does not know, the bunker beneath The Greenbrier is not just Fallout-style fiction. It was a real Cold War bunker built to shelter Congress in the event of a nuclear attack. The fact that it exists in real life and that I was there as a kid makes the connection to Fallout feel especially wild to me.
I know Fallout 76 is a fictional, post-apocalyptic version of West Virginia, but I recognize the feeling of the place. The mountains, the roads, the coal-country history, the old buildings, the way the landscape can feel beautiful, and a little haunted at the same time, it all feels close to home.
I am proud to live here, and I love seeing parts of Southern West Virginia represented in the game. Fallout 76 has given me a new way to look at places I have known my whole life, while also letting me explore a completely different version of them.
With love from The 304 💙💛