Fallout: New Vegas stages four claims to rule the Mojave: Mr. House’s technocratic Strip, the NCR’s stretched republic, Caesar’s Legion’s terror-order, and Yes Man independence. Size and guns alone do not settle legitimacy; the Courier still has to choose.

In this Mythic Mind Games conversation, Dr. Andrew Snyder (with Ian) reads House as wizard-in-the-tower continuity with the old world, the NCR as a decaying beast that can oppress while preaching order, the Legion as cartoon evil with one Hegelian monologue, and independent Vegas as Courier-held Securitron power that still must answer Hoover Dam scarcity. Augustine’s pirate and emperor linger behind the question: what makes a government more than a gang?