Before writing here, I’ve read many debates over the factions in New Vegas. Although I’ve seen many good points, I also feel that Mr. Robert Edwin House is often grossly misunderstood – both by his supporters AND by his detractors. To assist, I’ve endeavoured to read up on all dialogue, letters and terminal entries concerning House, and from that write out a summarized biography with occasional insights into the man’s character. What you’ll read is by no means exhaustive (and I always enjoy new perspectives from others), but it IS going to be a fair bit of reading. I mean, seriously, this is the abridged biography of a 200+ year old man, not some low-effort meme post.
Grab yourself some biscuits and make some nice hot tea. Sit back, relax and enjoy at your own pace.
DISCLAIMER: A flaw of my writing style, especially when using this many words, is that I can appear all over the place at times. I'm trying to improve that. Feedback is appreciated, and I love answering questions should you have any. Don't panic if I don't respond quickly though, IRL is kinda hectic right now.
Anyways, where shall we begin? Oh, right.
To understand House, we must examine the context he inhabited Pre-War.
1) Family Matters “Born June 25th, 2020, House was orphaned at an early age when his parents died in a freak accident (auto gyro, lightning). Though cheated of his inheritance, House attended the prestigious Institute in Massachusetts and founded RobCo Industries on his 22nd birthday. Within five years, it was one of the most profitable corporations on Earth.” - Mr. House’s obituary (“A Tragedy Has Befallen All Mankind”)
I have tried to find other texts to support the story Robert House gives of his early life (since we all know his obituary has more than a little embellishment in it), but haven’t found much, other than the eerie terminal logs in the H&H Tools Factory. The logs in general paint an objective picture of his half-brother Anthony House as a deranged man, ending with this noteworthy passage:
“It's worse than I feared. Henderson sent a 10-point memo outlining the benefits of mechanization and automation. As if I wouldn't know he's been plotting with my half-brother the entire time! I knew he was a weasel-dick traitor from the moment I laid eyes on him. Only one thing to do. One thing, and the company - my father's LEGACY - is safe forever. Cindy-Lou will bring him to me, and then I'll make an example. The Bastard will learn why you don't cross the House.” - Anthony House, regarding Robert House.
and
“Jenny, What the hell is up with these guys? They've been coming after our market share like they've got something to prove. No, strike that, this feels personal. Did Mr. H. run over RobCo's dog or something? Alan” With the above in mind, it is believable that Anthony House had cheated Robert House out of his inheritance, with the former viewing the latter as “The Bastard” (due to Robert being the younger half-brother) and thus undeserving of any part of the House family legacy. We can thus take the QUOTED part of House’s obituary above more or less at face value.
2) The end is nigh! Now, years after raising a famous company from almost nothing, Mr. House deduced the occurrence of the Great War. By his own account, he first deduced this in 2065 – at this point in time, according to the Fallout Bible and Van Buren, Vault-Tech’s “Project Safehouse” had been in motion for over 11 years with the apparent goal being to shelter humanity in the event of a large-scale nuclear or bio-weapon holocaust. Europe and the Middle East were mutually ruined due to extended conflict and lack of resources. Heritage sites like the Grand Canyon were open to be mined. And the UN may-or-may-not-have been disbanded. Going by the GNN report in Fallout 2 the UN still had at least another (fairly ineffectual) 9 years left counting down from 2065. According to the Fallout Bible, it was already long dead. Either way, the world was in bad shape.
It’d be easy for us, at this point, to turn to Mr. House’s prediction and say something along the lines of “No kidding”. It seems obvious, from where we stand now in the Pre-War Fallout world, that there would be a nuclear Holocaust. And indeed, it was obvious. Even the Mormons were buying spots in Project Safehouse, if we are to believe Van Buren in that particular instance. What made House unique in his deduction, however, was knowing not only that the Atomic Holocaust WOULD happen no matter what (Vault-Tech’s plans were based more around general contingencies for any large-scale apocalypse), but he also knew precisely WHEN it would happen – the War only starting a day or so sooner than he expected.
As an aside, in light of the shambles the Pre-War world was in, one must wonder just how much it actually meant to be “one of the most profitable corporations on Earth”. Earth, at that point, was almost a wasteland already and House still built and sustained a thriving business. But I digress; we’re not yet worrying about how House could rebuild a wasteland. What we need to look at now is this – what did House do with his uniquely precise knowledge of the impending Apocalypse?
“I knew I couldn't ‘save the world,’ nor did I care to. But I could save Vegas, and in the process, perhaps, save mankind.” And really, it is no wonder House did not care to save the world – there was barely anything left to save. The UN – an international force for peace – had either died or was rapidly weakening. The U.S. began setting its sights on annexing Canada. Entire forests were felled, Once-ler style, just as countries were felled to acquire them. Sure, people could build power armour, but only because the US military could no longer afford to fuel their tanks for sufficient mobility, and their “Mechanized Cavalry” needed something to take into battle. Even electricity is rationed after the fusion reactor of New York City almost went supercritical under the strain of providing for a 17 million+ strong population (Fallout Bible). And, despite all their troubles, America was still one of the best off countries in the world at this point (which makes you wonder how much worse it was in the others).
But whilst America carried on, Lonesome Road and Old World Blues show us that its values had changed, almost as if in a twisted homage to Heath Ledger’s Joker -
“You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve." We see this theme echoed in the NCR and even the Followers of the Apocalypse, but we’ll get to that later.
The Pre-War world wasn’t some ideal Utopia that was only ruined by the tragedy of the bomb. It was already a desperate place, already a wasteland in many ways. There simply wasn’t enough left on Earth to provide for everyone (RIP Charlie Chaplin). And that’s why House could never hope to save everyone, let alone the planet they lived on. Anything he tried on that scale would be “too little, too late”.
3) Who Wants to Live Forever Anyways? So…why did House choose to save Vegas?
Some say he did so in order to save himself. But if he truly wished to save himself, he could have been like Senator Todd Peterson, and built himself a private bunker within which to live out his days with whatever loved ones he may have had. Even if he wouldn’t be immortal, it’d still be a MUCH more comfortable way to spend his days. When it comes to the life he eventually chose, the Official Game Guide has this to say about House:
“He is emaciated to the point of being skeletal, bones visible under pale, translucent skin crisscrossed by faint blue blood vessels. House's command helmet is not detachable - we don't want to imply that the player could put it on and take his place. The helmet might be bolted right into his skull, like a "halo" used to stabilize severe neck injuries. Or it might not be a helmet at all, the top of Mr. House's skull having been removed and fitted with transistors and vacuum tubes.” No, House did not endeavour to save himself. If anything, he condemned himself to a special kind of Hell. He was a man with the means to luxury, and yet sealed himself off from it, and almost all human experience the average man might take for granted (the smell of a flower, the touch of a woman, the feeling of a cool breeze on a Summer day)…forever. He mentions his longevity came with a cost. He was not kidding. If anything, he was understating.
Others instead compare House to Andrew Ryan, and say that he saved Vegas only so he could be the head amongst the wealthy and the elite. I must disagree here too – the tribals he later babysits were never elite in their own right by Pre-War standards before House’s intervention. Aside from being a superficial reference to Howard Hughes, House has very little in common with Ryan. Billions of US Dollars were at House’s disposal. If he really wished to be a leading figure amongst the elite, he would’ve built the Fallout equivalent of Rapture in the middle of the ocean ages ago. Or he would’ve built his own “Sierra Madre” to rival Sinclair. Or he would’ve ingratiated himself with the Enclave (who he did contract work for) or the Institute (where he studied), who could’ve used a man like him to lead their projects.
He did none of those things. He chose to save Vegas. Young, old, rich, poor, honest and crooked alike. And he chose to become immortal, despite the steep personal costs.
But why?
4) Long Term Investments “Vegas is more than a city. It is the remedy to Mankind’s…derailment.” - Mr. House “I grew up not far from here, and though I traveled the old world extensively, I never found another place like it.”
- Mr. House Aside from being House’s birthplace, Vegas -in the Fallout Universe - was home to not only the (in)famous casinos, but also to many factories dedicated to manufacturing drinks, robots, tools and rockets. Nearby there is an air-force base and –perhaps most importantly- Hoover Dam and Helios One. In a world fated to end over a lack of resources, ensuring access to two of the most basic and important renewable resources in the aftermath would go a long way to help ensure humanity at least doesn’t end entirely.
And all of these resources would fall within range of his Securitron Network – at least once the Mk II upgrade arrives.
If we are to believe that Mr. House wished to establish colonies on new worlds as a solution to Earth’s resource problem regardless of whether the War happens first or not (and the Official Game Guide confirms House is interested in technological progress, at the very least), then it makes sense that House would choose Vegas – not because it is particularly important in itself (compared to other possible cities), but because it is the central location from which he could gain control of resources vital to the space program –renewable energy, REPCONN HQ, rocket test sites and seemingly limitless clean water for his employees. Still, as we find out later, House doesn’t let Vegas itself go to waste by any means…
The site chosen, House toiled over his defenses. He built a nuclear reactor under his casino with enough energy to power the Mojave. He built a life-support system to ensure his survival into the post-apocalypse, no matter the cost. He built Securitrons to protect his interests in the aftermath, and then built a factory/ storage facility for them under Fortification Hill – a mere stone’s throw from Hoover Dam - so that his army might never run out. Meanwhile, the brilliant Big MT scientist who would become Dr. 0 silently fumed in envy over House’s superior abilities in robotics.
Some may doubt that the Fort’s bunker was a factory. After all, House just calls it a “barracks”, which implies storage, right? Well, consider some barracks have recruitment offices – and in RTS style games, they’re often functionally the same building. Now what would the Securitron equivalent of a “recruitment office” be? Powering up the Fort Bunker causes distinct, repetitive hydraulic sounds, as if there were an assembly line moving. Does that sound like mere storage to you? No. You think he’d build an army with no way to replenish it?
“I'm surprised you can still underestimate me after everything you've seen.” 5) For Want of a Nail But now, ironically after the above quote, we encounter House’s greatest failure. You see, House had everything set up, but it was still in BETA (insert Fallout76 Joke here). He commissioned the “Platinum Chip” to contain all the patches, software upgrades and override commands he could need for the foreseeable future. It was specially shaped so it could only be used on hardware he specified – no other company could hope to steal it or otherwise use it for their own purposes. The Chip was finished and scheduled to arrive a day before the predicted date of the war.
And then the War arrived a day early.
77 Warheads targeted Vegas. Mr. House, irrevocably entombed within his Life Chambers, readied Vegas’ defenses…
“I was in Mexico City when the bombs dropped. Even from there, we could see House's defensive rockets shooting down the incoming missiles.” -Raul Tejeda
And what House couldn’t shoot down, he hacked, deactivating warheads mid-air so they could never reach Vegas. But, because the Platinum Chip hadn’t arrived in time, the software remained a BETA - and would for another 204 years. Nine warheads managed to impact the Mojave.
*“When blaring civil defense sirens heralded mankind's doom on October 23rd, 2077, the citizens of Las Vegas bore witness to an astonishing spectacle. Huge laser cannons unfurled from secret housings in the roof of the Lucky 38 casino and Hoover Dam's intake towers and began spitting blasts of green fire into the sky, destroying warhead after warhead and sparing Las Vegas's urban center and the dam from direct hits. Citizens filled the streets and cheered. And then they died horribly from the lethal fallout that blew in from the dozens of warheads that detonated around Las Vegas.
Though Mr. House's missile defense grid performed admirably, the Great War was in actuality the day of his greatest setback.”*
- Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide
House saved no-one that day. You were either in a Vault, or you were House, or you were dead.
Software bugs, compounded by the EMP from nuclear fallout, caused the defense action House put forward to result in multiple system crashes, forcing him to shut down his fully automated reactor before it melted down from faulty programming. Now without Hoover Dam (EMP) or his reactor, House’s life support relied on a very limited supply of emergency power. It was all he could do to restore his OS to an even less advanced -but more stable- build before passing out from shock.
6) Too Stubborn to Die Now, the Courier is famous for rising from the grave to finish their quest - but House did it first. 61 years after the bombs dropped, House woke up. At this time, the Master (of Super Mutant army fame) was active and alive. Vault 15 – from which Shady Sands was built – hadn’t even opened yet. The majority of House’s Securitrons are offline, with only a handful of downgraded ones stationed in his casino. Raiders plagued the Wastes. And House’s own limited power supplies dwindled ever lower.
Now, he lived a full life. Raul notes how House was something of a superstar who dated all the beautiful women and made billions before the War, reaching the ripe age of 57 before the bombs fell. After losing almost everything in his gamble to try save Vegas, it’d be tempting for anyone in House’s position to give up, to shut down again and just…die. Instead…
“Immediately he began using his Securitron robots to search out human settlements…” From this point onwards (until his determinant acquisition of the Dam) House is forced to make choices most of us don’t even have to consider. Everyone has to worry about their budget for the month. Some of us have to worry about their budget for the year…or a company’s or even country’s budget for a similar period - maybe 5 or 10 years, in some cases. House has chosen to worry about the World’s “budget” (fiscal or otherwise) over the course of…forever, because no one else alive is as acutely aware of the global resource shortage as House, who lived through multiple wars caused by it, culminating in that big famous one that almost ended the world.
“For years, I played a miser with my emergency power supply. I began to run out of reserves around the time I woke the first batch of Securitrons”. Of course, House had his own budgets to worry about. It was not long after sending out his forces to find other humans that his power supply began to dip dangerously low. Realizing the costs of waking up his robots after the first batch forced House to play very carefully – after all, he couldn’t enact his plans to revitalize the global economy if he died now, could he? He sent his mechanical agents out, quietly hiring prospectors to find his beloved Chip – with no personnel or infrastructure to reproduce it, he had to find it…before he shut off forever.
Beyond that, he ran silently, keeping his “electrical bill” as low as possible, hoping the Chip would find him in time. As it turns out, the NCR got to him first.
If you ever wondered why House did not try to personally civilize Vegas, introduce sustainable agriculture and grant free schooling before NCR showed up, it’s because doing those things would require him to take a very active role in life outside the Lucky 38, and doing that, with his power reserves as they were, would have been fatal for him (to say nothing of the mutants, raiders, etc). This is the weakest he has ever been since his half-brother swindled him.
But I digress. The NCR is on the horizon…as was the Legion.
7) I Called Dibs 2 Centuries Ago Suddenly, things moved very quickly. For years after the Wastes were repopulated, (what passed for) peace and order in Nevada was maintained by the vigilante Desert Rangers, who allowed themselves to be absorbed into the NCR in 2271, in exchange for help against Caesar. A year later, the Mojave Outpost as we see it –under NCR- came to be, the Mojave south of the Vegas area having been pacified earlier under the leadership of then-General Kimball. Then, Kimball achieving Presidency, Hoover Dam fell under their grip.
In the span of 2274 House engaged his final power reserves in a last-ditch effort to secure his future (and, by proxy and from his perspective, the future of Mankind). Beatrix Russel and the King describe Pre-House Vegas as a place where everyone got by, but the truth is less-than-spotless; according to the FNVOGG, tribes fought amongst the ruins – Slither Kin, Boot Riders, Great Khans, and many other smaller or more mysterious groups. Using Securitrons as his intermediaries, Mr. House enlisted the help of all who were both willing and capable of aiding him, playing on their self-interest and need to survive by promising (and delivering) them resources and power. But whilst you can teach tribals to fight your enemies and socialize with your allies, you can’t turn them into a competent team of technical specialists – not in the time available. And he’d need educated men and women to truly restore the glamour of his New Vegas.
And that’s where Vault 21 came in. After uncooperative tribes like the Great Khans were pushed off the areas around the Strip, House made an offer to this community, who had previously lived in peace as chaos raged above them. The offer was simple: help rebuild Vegas…or not. Most chose the second option, but a small group of Vault residents decided to gain support on House’s behalf, eventually achieving a consensus: they would work for House, and opened their doors to him. They soon found themselves aiding House’s tribals in building a massive wall sheltering both the Strip and Freeside from the rest of Vegas. Vault 21’s lower levels were salvaged of useful technology to aid in construction…and then (infamously) filled with concrete to ensure future, less innocent visitors to the Vault couldn’t use it to breach the Lucky 38’s sub-levels or Vegas’ defenses. At the request of its more agoraphobic residents, House spared Vault 21’s top levels, transforming it into a hotel for them to run. With the Vegas Strip being far larger – more casinos, more housing, more everything – in lore, art and cutscenes compared to in-game, it is plausible to believe the displaced Vault Dwellers were rehoused on the Strip itself; as relatively well educated individuals, they’d be invaluable in House’s endeavours – of the three we met, we know one became House’s top sign artist, one became a hotel manager and one voluntarily left Vegas to be a travelling doctor before retiring in Goodsprings (we know because he eventually returned to marry his sweetheart, who still lived not far from the Vault she came from).
Whilst not yet open for business by any means, House had managed to turn a ruin plagued with tribal conflicts into a citadel presided over by Three Families. The NCR arrived in force, expecting just another wasted city picked over by warring raiders…and instead found a fortress in the wastes…and surprisingly, one that not only wasn’t hostile to them, but outright welcomed them…providing certain concessions were made…
With the threat of the Legion just on the horizon, NCR were faced with an offer they could not refuse – they would be allowed to set up an embassy and police force on the Strip, as well as a military base in Outer Vegas so long as they provided 5% of the Dam’s power output to Vegas (which they would need to do to make use of their embassy and base anyways) and allow their citizens and soldiers on leave to enjoy House’s amenities at their own discretion. Sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? NCR agreed to the terms, implicitly legitimizing the sovereignty of New Vegas under House. Power flowed to the Strip and House, who had to suffer multiple power outages, whose salves and meds almost curdled because of this, whose life was literally tied to that of his battery…could finally breathe easy, now having more (electrical) power than he knew what to do with.
8) But why didn’t House…? You may be asking “Why didn’t House instead provide his resources to the NCR, allowing them to push the tribals out of Vegas and restore it that way, possibly becoming a prominent citizen in the process?”
House’s detractors often refer to his compulsive need for control, and control is
precisely why House would rather recruit tribals to work for him than try to merge with something larger. But why does House want that control?
I’d argue it isn’t due to a compulsive need for it – his leadership is extremely hands-off. To understand why House wants to remain in control, rather than admit subservience to a larger civilization, we need to look back to Pre-War America and that Joker quote we put down earlier.
NCR is, in many ways, similar to Pre-War US. It was founded on lofty ideals. And when resources became scarce? They abandoned their ideals and annexed whatever and whoever they wanted to get more resources until the globe was almost depleted and -BOOM! So far, NCR is just at the “annexing” stage (not that they have nukes anyways), but the globe is about as depleted as it was 200 years ago.
Chief Hanlon speaks of the overconsumption and mismanagement of water in their territories, Doctor Hildern predicts a famine after a decade of population growth. Supporting this, the intro-cutscene for the game outright states NCR’s expansion is influenced by a lack of resources for their growing populace. NCR’s current population as a nation…around 700 000. Compare that to Johannesburg’s (which is just one city) population of 900 000+. Compare that to the 39 million+ strong population of real life California today. And NCR is the largest unified population on the continent. And they’re running out of resources already. By modern IRL standards, the population that Earth (or at least, America) can sustain in the Post-War Fallout universe is absolutely
tiny. Even the possible savior we find within Big MT’s matter replicators is in question, with the substantially wealthy Sinclair being driven almost into debt just to fund the creation a few according to the terminal in the Y-0 Lab, and very few having been found outside the Sierra Madre despite Dean’s claims. Of course, perhaps that could change with time and resources directed towards further development, but until then… (As it stands, Pre-War US couldn’t/ didn’t make them economically viable to produce before the Great War started). If even the Followers of the Apocalypse are willing to commit murder over water at this juncture (White Wash), imagine how things would be later down the line. There aren’t infinite resources in the Fallout world – just too few people to deplete what is left…yet.
No one is as painfully aware of the resource shortage as House. Maybe others of his intellect will rise up in the NCR, but like him in Pre-War US, they won’t detect the issue until it’s too late to properly solve it. Not wanting to gamble on the multi-headed NCR following his advice forever, he instead puts on an appearance of having power, ensuring full control over his enterprises. This is why House doesn’t bid for NCR citizenship.
He’s seen what happens to Democracies when the going gets truly desperate – how they corrupt into oligarchies blinded by greed or desperation. Rather than watch that happen again, he chooses to become an autocrat in a long-term venture for the good of Mankind – after all (as we’ve stated before), he has little reason to continue living for himself.
9) The Nature of the Strip “A fool and his money are soon parted.” – Proverbs, 21:20, King James Bible
Strip away the gambling amenities, and what is left? A luxury resort, a fine-dining restaurant, an art gallery, a theatre, bars, hotels, a brothel and a gentleman’s club.
For want of a nail, House cannot access the powerful amenities around Vegas, but he’s made the best of the city itself. Early on, access between the Strip and Freeside was unrestricted (according to the FNVOGG) – Securitrons thoroughly patrolled both areas and just about everybody there was living relatively well.
For those of you familiar with casinos, you know they pull every trick in the book – the smiling staff, the bright lights, the music, and the colours – in order to subtly entice you to make a wager. For those who’ve only visited casinos to partake in their collection of arcades, restaurants, cinemas or theatres, you know all those psychological prompts to “pay to watch people flip paper squares”, as Follows-Chalk likes to say, are entirely ignorable.
For a man like House, the Strip exists to collect money (a.k.a. the power to requisition resources) from those who do not know how to spend it and redistribute it into the hands of those working towards his ends (maintenance aside, recovering his Chip – which is still invaluable despite the power from Hoover Dam - is becoming a tad expensive, after all). It also exists as a place of culture and relaxation for more responsible visitors. For many others, however, the Strip has become a beacon of hope.
Enthusiastic entertainers finally had a place to permanently employ their gifts. Those who were unfortunate in life but otherwise hard-working made livings as Street Vendors on the Strip, earning far more than they could anywhere else even after taking House’s Franchisee taxes into account. And formerly inter-warring tribals were finally living in peace, operating lavish casinos semi-independently in return for making and enforcing certain agreements with House (notably, cannibalism carries the death penalty).
10) The Separation from Freeside Around two years BEFORE the game started, or 2 years AFTER the First Battle of Hoover Dam, House began to wall Freeside off from the Strip. Whether it was due to being overwhelmed by too many people trying to spend money they didn’t actually have, or due to a security issue, House decided to pull his Securitron forces and loyal employees off of Freeside to concentrate on the Strip, with admittance becoming more exclusive. You either:
a) possessed a passport indicating you were trusted to visit the Strip
b) had enough money on you to prove you were a tourist who could afford to enjoy the Strip’s services (there is no entry tax or fee – just a credit check to ensure you aren’t going to just indebt yourself within 5 seconds of visiting)
c) have to stay in Freeside or go home
d) were an NCR soldier or VIP on leave
OR
e) tried to break past a cordon of armed robots whilst ignoring their instructions to stop and turn around, earning yourself a Darwin Award (of course, NCR troops will also kill you if you try to use “their” Monorail under similar circumstances, only they won’t wait for you to break
past them).
But despite the new checkpoint, a woman from North Vegas – who previously could barely afford to eat – found good, steady work on the Strip as a salesperson. Street performers like the Lonesome Drifter or Billy Knight were admitted in without a peep. Although it’s true that the Strip’s services cater to the rich, the people it truly looks after are the hard working and enthusiastic (Billy Knight isn’t an exceptional comedian, but he clearly loves his work and that was clearly enough). Remember that no one local to Vegas was rich before House came back –since his resurrection he has been an employer of the willing and the able, and that hasn’t changed. Vegas puts on a big show for wealthy consumers, but it’s people like Billy Knight or the woman from North Vegas who come out ahead.
But, of course, not everyone liked the idea of working for House. Perhaps, more tragically, they decided too late to find employment as all staff slots were filled. Regardless, Freeside, with most of its more capable now residing on the Strip, and the Securitons no longer protecting it, degenerated back into lawlessness and became a hive of scum and villainy. It is from these conditions that a man calling himself the King rallied various dispossessed former tribals of all colours into a new tribe of his own. But we’ll return to him later…
We never find out for certain why House shut out Freeside. The Locals will blame the droves of NCR squatters around Vegas (for just about everything), but we’ll likely never know for certain beyond plausible speculations.
*Edit: Miranda's comments are bolded...
Hey there Miranda, it is really great of you to answer some questions about Pure Pwnage. The fans are really excited to hear what you have to say. Before I get to that, let me just say that everyone wants to offer their congratulations on being a mommy. Now then, on to the questions...
Thanks for reaching out. I'm happy to answer questions to the community!
1) Jarett and Geoff once told the story about offering you the role as Tagi, but could you tell us from your point of view how that whole thing went down? There is a rumor that you thought they might be making an adult film or something...?
There's no rumor, and if anything I'm the one that started it. I just have a terrible sense of humor. It started in 2004 (I think!) when I was asked about how I got involved with the series. I auditioned just like other people did. The way that I got an audition was that Geoff was working at my university as an RA and his girlfriend was in the same year as me, so we had lots of mutual friends. Geoff approached me in the dining hall one night and asked me if I wanted to audition, and I said yes. The joke that I started was that he said it's an "internet show" and if you remember, back in 2003 there was no such thing as an internet show. So I joked in an interview that it seemed like he was asking me to be apart of something much seedier than it was. Then the actual audition was more of an interview, which makes sense since the web series was very collaborative/ improvised humor was encouraged. So for the interview/ audition I went to Geoff's lodging, and Jarett was there (maybe others? It's been awhile, I don't exactly remember), and he was sitting behind a large desk, and I recall he had on sunglasses. But we all hit it off right away and had a good chat, and then the rest is history.
2) What was it like shooting Pure Pwnage? Was it a stick to the script type situation or was there a lot of ad libbing going on?
It was definitely a scripted comedy, especially for characters like mine that had a lot of gaming dialogue when I knew nothing of WoW or gaming vernacular. However, because it was a comedy we did do some improvising to embellish a joke, or if we found a funny moment that made sense to the story. It was really fun to be collaborative in that way.
3) Tagi changed quite a bit from her initial appearance to her last scene in the web series, how much input did you have in her character?
Not sure I understand the question. Do you mean appearance-wise from web series to film, or the character herself? In terms of appearance, I dyed my hair and Geoff and Jarett liked it and were cool with me keeping it that way for the movie. In terms of character, I agree that Tagi's character in the film is different from the web series. But I think it makes sense because the movie honors the passage of time that occurred from the web series and tv series so it makes sense to me that she's moved on, just like all the characters after several years.
4) Pure Pwnage was one of the, if not the biggest thing on the internet pre-YouTube. Did you have any notable interactions with the fans? Do you still get recognized as Tagi today?
Shockingly, yes. And I say shockingly because I think it shocks me more than it shocks you when I get recognized. It always catches me off guard. But of course, it's always great that the show means and meant so much to so many. I've always had great interactions with the community, and I've travelled the world, and met up with fans or been recognized by fans, and it goes to show how small this world really is. In 2009 I had a great time in Italy and met up with Alessandro Schiassi who gave my husband (then boyfriend) and I a little tour of Milan, I went to Johannesburg and hung out with Dave Lee, and when we went to a casino there were PP fans there, and when I was in Scotland in 2012 on work, I was approached by a fan at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It happens on the streets of NYC, too, which always makes me laugh because I'm like, Gigi Hadid just walked by! You should be taking HER photo!
5) Piggybacking off of the last question, could you share your best and worst fan interactions?
Best fan interaction was probably back in the height of the web series when we all went to the UK to premiere the newest episode (I think ep 9), and Jarett, Geoff, Stacey, and I all got to meet the European fans. Nothing specific, but I just remember there being so much love in the room, and it was the first time I realized how important the show was to so many. Before that our premieres had been localized so I thought that our fans were local to Canada. Worst fan interaction: there aren't many bad ones honestly so not much comes to mind. The only advice I can give is, just be yourself. I love meeting the fans and having a chat when the time and place makes sense.
6) The scene with Jeremy humping Tagi's head was pretty funny, how did that come about and what was your initial reaction to that scene?
That was 100% scripted. My reaction is pretty much the reaction I give in the scene. I remember just being like "Okay... that's enough". I think that's part of what made that scene funny. Jeremy's reaction was so over-the-top and enthusiastic compared to Tagi's confusion/ annoyance/ sadness.
7) Was there anything you wished you could have done with the Tagi character? Anything you wish you could do with her in the future?
I used to try and get Geoff and Jarett to write Tagi as the secret hero, haha. I wanted to return to the Big Bad narrative and for Jeremy and the clan to get stuck in some epic battle, and then if the Tagi break-up storyline has been implemented, which it had been in the web series, then out of the blue she could come and in a save him and they could have some huge battle/ victory. Or alternatively it would have been cool if Tagi could have gone to the dark side after Jeremy dumped her, and embrace some dark WoW villain alter ego. Then she would either be a permanent villain in the series or have the opportunity to be saved. But the show isn't about Tagi. The show has always been about Jeremy and his journey as a pro-gamer and that's the crux of the story and what the community relates to. I think the story has honored that narrative really well, and Tagi has served her role too. She she serves as a physcial manifestation of home and the things that are really important in Jeremy's life (his friends, his love for games, and his desire to help people pwn noobs better), so when they get back together I think it's symbolic of Jeremy coming home to his real self.
8) What was your husband's and family's reactions to Pure Pwnage? Does your husband realize how many guys grew up having a crush on Tagi?
My husband has been around forever, and is used to it. I told a story a long time ago about when he was in university at Waterloo and he entered a computer lab and saw a bunch of guys watching PP on the screen, and he said "Yeah, that's my girlfriend" and the guys just laughed and were like, "Yeah right. That's my girlfriend too" because they didn't believe him. He didn't like that, haha. But he's cool with it. It doesn't affect my day-to-day like at all.
9) Looking back on Pure Pwnage, how do you feel about the web series?
The web-series was a ton of fun, and my first time working with film. I had only done theatre up until that point, I was so young! I had just graduated from high school. It was great, and we got to run around Toronto and shoot wherever we wanted, and work with great comics, and it just felt like hanging out with friends and having a fun party. We had a ton of fun.
10) Have you watched the Pure Pwnage TV Show? If so, how do you feel it compares to the web series?
I was in the US by the time the tv show came out so it wasn't until it came to hulu that I could have watched it. I haven't seen too much of it, but of course I watched it to support Jarett and Geoff and the gang. I can't really speak to the comparison of the tv series and the web show because the writing teams were so different, and you can't really compare writers on different projects even if the content is similar. I think the tv series succeeded in being it's own show, and the web series succeeded in being it's own show completely separate of each other.
11) Speaking of the TV Show, was there any reason you weren't in it?
I'm sure there is a reason, but I'm not sure of the reason exactly. I never auditioned for the tv series, so I don't think Tagi was ever considered for the story line. The reason for that is much bigger than any of us could control and comes down to the network and the executives.
12) How do you think October from the TV Show compares to Tagi?
They are both women who play WoW, and they both have a flirtation with Jeremy which is the biggest comparison. Otherwise I think they are very different characters, but I don't know enough about her storyline on the tv show to be able to give a more thorough analysis. I thought Melanie did an excellent job as October in what I saw, and I know she had a lot of fun working on the tv show. She was always really sweet every time we got together.
13) In the Pure Pwnage movie Tagi and Jeremy seemed to have reconciled, do you have any knowledge about what was supposed to have occurred between the web series an the movie?
At the beginning of the movie I think they are just friends, which is pretty normal to me. I'm sure that Tagi and Jeremy, who have all the same friends, just figured out a way to move on and be friends. It's not until the end of the movie that we find out that maybe there was always something unresolved between them.
14) Tagi had very little screen time in the movie, was this a logistical decision or a story line one?
Purely storyline. I think the focus of every Pure Pwnage narrative is about the hero's journey (Jeremy's journey) to overcome his demons such as his addiction to video gaming combined with his desire to "grow up and get a real job". So I don't think it was intentional, I think that the story is just staying true to the hero's journey.
15) Are you done with the Tagi character or would you be willing to come back for another movie or web series?
If Geoff and Jarett want to continue making Pure Pwnage then I'm sure I'll be apart of it.
16) Is there anyway to get you to join Jarett and/or Geoff on another live stream? We could crowdfund you a plane ticket!
If Jarett and Geoff want to do a live stream I'm sure we can all figure it out. But you gotta get Dave and Joel in there too.
17) Looking back at Tagi, how do you think she holds up?
Not sure I understand the question. I have a clear idea about who she is, and it's up to me to get that across regardless of how prominent she is in the story. I think her character in the web series is so different from who she grew up to be in the movie, so not really sure how to tackle that question.
18) What are you up to these days? Anything you want to promote?
I'm acting, and producing for film and tv in New York. You can easily see what I'm up to with a google search haha. I'm looking for $1 million financing for a feature in January written by my friend and collaborator, and about $10k for a short film I'll be acting in come September, so if you know of $1 million laying around that you can recommend to me, then let me know! hah! Also seeking distribution for a film I produced last summer "When We Grow Up" starring Cathy Curtin, which is currently in the film festival circuit. Other than that, I'm having a baby boy next month, and I'll be on NY Post social media content for Mother's Day talking about my pregnancy.
submitted by The story of a programmer with 30 years of experience Vladimir Chernitsky, Faceter co-founder and CTO, talks about how the work of the programmer has changed since the late 1980s and whether neural networks will soon be able to surpass human capabilities.
I started programming almost 30 years ago I started programming at school in Chita, almost 30 years ago. We had the first computer class in the city. In most Soviet schools, teachers explained computer science on the blackboard, and then students completed assignments in notebooks. We were lucky — we had real Yamaha computers.
I joined an informatics section, and at first, we mainly played video games there. Then a teacher appeared, who began to explain the basics of programming: Basic, cycles and arrays.
We read the «Modelist» magazine in which pieces of ready-made programs were published: an article with a short explanation and two or three pages of code. There was a game named Sacoban; we tried to recreate it on our computers. We wrote a simple game together with a friend and showed it as an example of what can be done on computers to younger students for inspiration.
Programming became my main hobby, and I asked my parents to buy a home computer.
When we received feedback from Australia, we were shocked In 1994, I graduated from school and wanted to enter the Tomsk Institute of Automated Control Systems and Radio Electronics. But my parents did not dare let me travel to another city.
So, I stayed in Chita. There was not a single IT-faculty, and I entered where there was strong mathematics. It was an energy faculty. A year later, I found a job in the information-analytical agency of the Chita region. At first, I just created the layouts of different magazines and books on computers in Photoshop and Corel, and set up the network.
In 1995, we received the Internet. In that time, the Runet area was completely empty, and the most popular search engine was Altavista.
Our department received an order to make the first site of Chita. I learned to write scripts, and made the first guestbook on Perl. I remember that someone from Australia wrote there, and it was a shock. Then I started to work at the «Chita.net» company. It was the first Internet provider in the city. I developed a billing system to account for customer traffic. It was a beginning of deeper programming growth — C ++ and other stuff. I learned it through teaching myself — I could already find professional forums, publications and books on the Internet.
In the early 2000s, I received $300 per month I was strongly influenced by an acquaintance with my colleague. He was a hardcore programmer, already at the time, in the early 2000s. He talked about data structures and trees, and developed software for foreign companies on outsourcing.
My colleague was looking for clients, and we earned serious money, although for Western companies, our work cost a penny. I took $ 6–8 per hour. In a month, I received $300, and it was 2–3 times more than my official salary. We made a website for one customer from Europe — for his clan in the MMORPG game. Also, we developed a site for the Australian state office. As a result, my partner left for Australia.
I stopped enjoying my work I was 30 years old when realized that I was tired of everything. At that time, I already had a family, an apartment, but at same time I felt a dissatisfaction, I wanted to grow. With my wife, we began to think of where to move.
We chose Novosibirsk. At that time, I was already a leading programmer in «Chita.net». When we moved, it turned out that I wasn’t the big fish that I thought I was back in Chita before. I sent my resume to four places, and I was invited for an interview, but I was refused everywhere.
I realized that my knowledge was still superficial. As a result, I went to Azoft company for an average position. After only a year of work there, I probably learned as much as during my previous career. I began to learn different technologies, and projects became more serious. I wrote front-ends in PHP, as well as back-ends in Java. In that «before iOs- and Android-era», where JavaME and SymbianOS dominated, I developed mobile applications.
It was 2008 when iOS appeared, and we wrote a test application, and customers came to us. I headed the mobile development unit. The department grew to six people. We wrote under iOS, and a little later, Android appeared, which we quickly mastered.
We recreated the technique of drawing on the water in the application Once a client came, he wanted to recreate Ebru, the Turkish art of drawing by colors on the water, in his mobile application. The customer wanted to create a software emulation of this technique. The activity of R&D company started with this project, and my new era began.
We built a physical and mathematical model, and then went to Akademgorodok to talk with professors to understand the hydrodynamics of the process. As a result, we managed to recreate it quite accurately right on the GPU — on the iPad. Of course, the model was simplified, but the customer was satisfied.
About neural networks In this project, it became clear that we needed to create an R&D department in the company. I headed it, and we started to do different non-standard projects. In the same way, we came to neural networks that just began to rise.
Neural networks are «ancient» technology, but it received a new life in 2012 with Alexnet. Jan Lekun also wrote a study on this subject in the 80's.
The first notable project in the field of neural networks was called Neocognitron. Japanese scientists in the 80’s dissected cats, studied how the visual cortex of the brain is arranged. Even then, the technology of pattern recognition appeared, and the machine was taught to «learn» the numbers. Later, Neocognitron finalized and created convolutional neural networks. In 2010, it became clear that these algorithms can be run even on ordinary home computers, and a new life of neural networks began.
I studied the «neurons» from and to In 2013, a customer came from Spain. He wanted to develop an application for the recognition of data from credit cards for bank customers. It turned out that the best way to achieve this is to use convolutional neural networks.
We created the application, and the customer was very satisfied. It took about a year. And then there was a new client who wanted the same application — Robert Pothier from South Africa.
At that time, I worked for 7 years in Novosibirsk, I continued to develop as a professional, but again I had a strong desire to change something. Robert wanted to create a development office in Moscow and offered me a position in leading it. I took my family and just went to Moscow. In the project Pay.cards, I got the opportunity to study «neurons» from and to, squeeze out a maximum of them. We managed to create an excellent product.
Sometimes neural networks surpass human capabilities In 2014, an unfortunate accident occurred, which eventually led us to the Faceter. Robert was robbed on the street in Johannesburg, moreover, under several cameras of video surveillance. He did not suffer, although the attackers threatened him with a knife.
It affected him so much that he started to think how to make video surveillance more effective.
In this way, we came up with the Faceter software, which actually replaces the guard or the policeman on duty, and оbserves everything happening continuously without days off and smoke breaks. It is a vivid example of how artificial intelligence can replace some human abilities. Even more, neural networks in some cases surpass our capabilities — a system like ours can store data on millions of people and recognize them in the video stream in real time. Of course, one person is incapable of doing this. We want to make sure that the «neurons» could recognize not only faces, but emotions as well, and also analyze the chain of events and diagnose the situation. For example, if a person with an aggressive expression takes a sharp metal object out of his pocket, the system must turn on the alarm mode.
Neuron systems will change everything in the world in the coming decades I believe that, in the next 20–50 years, this technology will change everything in the world, and fundamentally. I am inspired by the opportunity to develop systems that will be part of this process; I feel I am on the front line of the fourth technological revolution.
Our system uses computer vision. It has already been tested in real conditions. We achieved recognition accuracy of 99.78% for the LFW test and 79.46% for MegaFace.
We completed three PoC projects:
- Face recognition is used for loyalty programs in famous South African pizzerias Debonairs.
- In the largest casino network, it is applied to identify those who are prohibited from visiting gambling establishments.
- At one plant, we helped to cope with the fact that employees, when they cannot take a shift, give their passes to untrained relatives or friends. The system compares everyone who passes the checkpoint to a database and reports when it sees an unfamiliar person.
AI can bring real benefits We are working on advanced recognition technologies. Now the system recognizes people by face, and soon it will be able to identify silhouette, clothing, and track movements of a person from the camera to the camera. Then we will learn to recognize situations — the system will not analyze single frames, but chains of events, for a long period of time.
Now, systems that can detect individual events already exist. But those who can recognize the chain of events and diagnose situations has still not been developed. Many companies lead such developments. But our main mission is to make the product for mass users.
We want to show that artificial intelligence not only can print photos in different colors or draw paintings in Van Gogh style, but also bring a real benefit to everyone.
The work of AI is not much different from the work of the brain Of course, I share the concerns about the dangers of artificial intelligence. Progress is speedy, and we just cannot follow it. If you could recently say that AI is a primitive organism with limited abilities, now robots can do a backflip and understand the English speech better than most people.
In my opinion, the work of AI is no different from how the brain functions in principle. It is, evidently, a simplified model, but it reproduces what is happening in our head.
Now, AI is like a children’s toy car in comparison with a standard adult car. But the technology develops rapidly. Everything is radically different from the technologies of the first generation, since the appearance of which only 5 years have passed. Evolution is intense. People try to reproduce the processes in the brain. Extensive development is due to the growth of equipment productivity: networks can be made deeper every year. The computing power of the neural network will be equal to the human brain in the next decade.
Humanity stands at the threshold of universal systems creation, and will be enough to indicate the rules, and they will find the best ways for solutions!
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