Here’s one for the what-won’t-a-state-do-to-promote-itself file. A soon-to-be-released post-apocalyptic video role-playing game called Fallout 76 by Bethesda Softworks uses images of rural West Virginia locations. The game will reportedly feature scenic vistas that hint at the state’s real-life pre-apocalyptic beauty. It was these images that caught the attention of the state’s tourism department prompting the state to join in on promoting the game. 
The Wheeling News Register reports: There are the remains of a ski resort near what was Elkins. The Moundsville Penitentiary still stands. Harpers Ferry, located near bombed out D.C., still exists. You can even fight monsters, such as the Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster. You’re free to see and experience it all in the game.
[Notably West Virginia really is the location of formerly secret Cold War era underground bunkers built for federal government office holders, officials, and their families. See “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die,” by Garrett Graff, who was briefly a candidate for Vermont Lt. Gov until tripped up by a residency clause.]
The Fallout 76 trailer opens with John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads song playing over views of West Virginia back roads. There are also monsters, including a huge winged beast inspired from local folklore. The players acquire nuclear launch codes and can use nuclear weapons to reshape the game world. Players then explore the West Virginia-inspired irradiated areas to find rare weapons, gear, and survival items, and then battle powerful enemy inhabitants.
“Some people have been surprised given the post-nuclear setting, but we see it as an opportunity,” said Chelsea Ruby, the state’s tourism commissioner. “There are going to be millions of people exposed to our state and to the theme song of our campaign through this game, and given the way that the state’s beauty is portrayed in this, we just see it as a great way to remind people of West Virginia.”
The bulk of the campaign will kick off after the game’s release and will include promotions, targeted advertising and official travel itineraries and tour opportunities for Fallout fans who’d like to see the real-life inspirations behind the places featured in the virtual world.
Eight locations from the trailer are outlined on the state’s tourism website, with sliding images that allow users to toggle between the real-life and post-apocalyptic versions of each site.
Although many US states spend big bucks to promote themselves, it is difficult to accurately track the effectiveness of these expensive ad campaigns. Here in Vermont we have been spared — at least so far — from spending our tax dollars hyping post-apocalyptic video games. Our so-called “out of box,” attention-grabbing tax-payer funded promotion efforts have included dangling a $10,000 check to select people who agree to move here (as long as they e-commute out of state), regional Stay to Stay weekend sales-promo pitches to “captive tourist audiences,” and a pop-up lemonade stand stunt on a state hiking trail sponsored by an out-of-state outdoor-apparel manufacturer. The Scott administration, in 2016, even hired a Pennsylvania company for $1.58 million to create videos and glossy marketing materials to “rebrand” UVM to attract out-of-state applicants.
I suppose if offered the chance, Governor Scott’s Dept. of Commerce would jump to get a piece of post-apocalypse marketing. “Oh look, that’s where the Vermont state house once stood, it was such a brave little state!”
