University for Continuing Education Krems Hope after the Bombs: Apocalypse, Utopia, and Transcultural Imaginaries in Classic Fallout Mods from the Former Eastern Bloc The concept of apocalypse is a difficult and often misconstrued one. Just as the study of utopia is often associated with visions, dreams, or desires of a better time and place, the study of modern eschatology similarly favours visions that foretell a better tomorrow rather than doom and damn the future. To what extent then, are games about the apocalypse useful to the concept of utopia? How can games about the apocalypse encourage unique cultural contexts through which we may envision novel utopian forms? This paper explores the classic post nuclear role-playing games, Fallout 1 and 2 (Interplay Productions 1997; Black Isle Studios 1998), as unique transcultural experiences from the perspectives of players, designers, and modders from former Eastern Bloc countries. Utilizing Mikhail Epstein and Ellen E. Berry’s (1999) transcultural interference framework, I argue that Interplay’s Fallout games emphasize “an open system of symbolic alternatives to existing cultures and their established sign systems” (24) as demonstrated by classic Fallout mods, such as Fallout: Nevada (Nevada Band Studio 2015), Fallout: Sonora (Nevada Band Studio 2020), and Fallout: Resurrection (Resurrection Team 2013). Each of these mods, produced by developers from the former Eastern Bloc, are exemplary transcultural negotiations that seek to transcend Fallout’s predominantly apocalyptic American cultural forms in order to produce utopic transcultural imaginaries. en TEXT book part Buchkapitel Capitolo di libro Testo Capitolo di libro Text book part Text Buchkapitel Fallout mods transculturalism Eastern European post-apocalyptic aesthetics utopia 2025-11-14 2025-11-14 Alexander Hurezeanu University of Krems Press