Short version: He's got shit done, all by himself and in rather short time. In 7 years he rehabilitated 3 groups of tribal, cleaned up and rebuilt at least some parts of Las Vegas ruins while restoring them to a working order, just in time to welcome the NCR, AND made a treaty with them to restore Hoover Dam and keep the Legion at the east side of Colorado River. And then during the 7 years before the game begin, he kept the NCR at bay from annexing any parts of Mojave Wasteland, while simultaneous worked hard to recover the Platinum Chip. The search for the Chip, as argued in earlier pages of this thread, was a rather aimless and blind search for something so small that was lost for 200 years and could've been anywhere, yet it was found anyway and managed to move as close to Mr. House as Goodsprings, with the only 'error' in the plan not considering that Benny is a wild card. All of that, coupled with what we see in the ending slides (provided we did the 'right' thing), I wholeheartedly believe that Mr. House can achieve whatever it is he planned once he gained full control of Hoover Dam without the NCR breathing down his neck.
Long version: Just read this entire thread, and also Einhanderc's posts above.
I don't think the results would be 'pretty similar', considering House is a human, while Yes Man is an AI. Yes, House needs a life-support to see him staying alive through the whole ordeal, and yes who knows how long until the life support fails. But House is a human, and he possess visions and wits that no other man has, AND he also have humanity that no kind of AI could possess. Even with all of future plans and knowledge that House possessed, I think Yes Man wouldn't have the same visions and wits to truly use all of the information like House did.
Fair enough, Yes-Man lacks the intuition and House's experience, no argument here. However, I think you are omitting courier's influence here. Of course you can play the courier as a mercennary, then House definitely is the best option. However, with Good karma-Courier and I quote: "Supporting the ideals of independence, the Courier was recognized as the man/woman responsible for a truly free New Vegas. He/she ensured
Mr. House's tyranny was broken and neither Caesar's Legion nor NCR would ever gain control over New Vegas".
In comparison House: "The Courier, fair and kind-hearted to those in the Wasteland, ensured that Mr. House would keep
New Vegas stable and secure for future generations. Mr. House afforded him/her every luxury at his disposal in the
Lucky 38, out of gratitude - and a quiet sense of pride for his choice in lieutenants."
Tyranny is not a nice word, don't you think? Besides, there other things that happen around the world. Also, Stable and Secure for future generations? You mean like Gambling? House likes his snowglobes, doesn't he?
1.Boomers:
Independent: "Though the Wasteland became anarchic after Hoover Dam, the Boomers' display of power dissuaded fortune seekers from attempting to penetrate Nellis."
House: "Mr. House showed little interest on the Boomers, who eventually began venturing out of² Nellis to meet and trade with travelers."
Here House ignores Boomers. While independent New Vegas will struggle for some time, due to House's death, Boomers are unaffected one way or another. AND WE ARE TALKING ABOUT GUYS WHO HAVE A GOD DAMN WORKING BOMBER + home made fuel + mortars. Great insight here, House. I mean, if House really was that smart, why didn't he at the bare minimum establish some trade routes and such?
Also, even NCR establish decent relationship: "With the help of the Gun Runners, the Boomers developed a healthy trading relationship with the NCR. Eventually the Boomers began wandering out into the wasteland, while still preventing outsiders from entering Nellis."
2.Followers get screwed over in almost every way, so we will omit them.
3.Arcade:
House: "Though Arcade was proud to have been one of the defenders who turned back the Legion at Hoover Dam, he was crushed by Mr. House's ascent to power. Saddened by the
loss of life and liberty in the area, Arcade left the Mojave Wasteland for parts unknown. He was never heard from again."
Independent: :Arcade was proud to have been one of the defenders who helped repel the Legion from Hoover Dam. He was prouder still to see the area freed from the shackles of the NCR and Mr. House. Though independence for New Vegas was not all he hoped it could be, Arcade used his Enclave knowledge and technology to keep order wherever he could."
I mean, sure, independent is more chaotic, not denying that. However, loss of liberty and life in New Vegas? That does not sound like House just lets people do whatever they want. I mean, it rather implies that people there have to accept his rule with no argument and most likely heavy taxation. Tyrant, much?
4.GoodSprings:
House: "After Mr. House gained control of New Vegas, he sent a Securitron to Goodsprings as a token of appreciation for helping the Courier. Victor was a mixed blessing, however, as he continually monitored the town for Mr. House."
Independent: "With New Vegas' independence formally declared, Goodsprings thrived. More travelers stopped by Goodsprings on their way to and from the Strip, and the locals grew prosperous from the traffic."
Goodsprings comes out on top in independent ending. House here rather keeps an eye 24/7, like a big brother. So he most likely can and will keep the income of the town in mind and regulate it accordingly. Don't believe me? Here comes Primm.
5.Primm:
House I - NCR retreats: "Despite NCR's pledge to support Primm, they abandon the town after their loss to Mr. House. As repayment for their NCR loyalty, Mr. House sends Securitrons to Primm to "protect" it and collect heavy taxes from its citizens." Of course, if you reprogram Primm Slim or let Meyers in, it gets better. In fact, other endings like NCR or Yes-Man it prospers one way or another, the exception being legion.
Of course in my scenario, it is not all sun and rainbows either: "Despite NCR's pledge to support Primm, they abandon the town after their loss to the Courier. Independent again, Primm operates much as it had before the Powder Gangs arrived, full of ups and downs." So the town is getting on, even without House.
Though, this one is a bit more separated, so let's leave it at that.
6.Cass:
House: "Cass lived to see Hoover Dam in its Old World glory, humming with power the likes of which the Mojave had never seen. Vegas burned brighter than ever, securitrons filled the streets, and Cass's heart skipped... just a little. Her last words were to the Dam - and to herself. "We were going full speed ahead... but facing backwards the whole time.""
Independent: "Cass lived to see the Courier bring down three armies and by her count, that was three more than she'd expected. She'd kept quiet about that, though."
This one is a bit odd, but note the key phrase: "We were going full speed ahead... but facing backwards the whole time."
This sentence here is very important, it implies that House may bring development and such, but in his flawed Old World way. Of course, he has already proven that he can thrive in Wasteland by rebuilding the Strip and such. However, this coupled with heavy taxes and most likely a police state, brings rather questionable outlook on the House.
7.Kings:
House: "Accusing The Kings of lying with a foreign invader for their newfound ties to the NCR, Mr. House punished them by ordering their forced removal. The Kings, defiant to the end, were destroyed to the last man by House's Securitrons." - when you ease the tension between NCR and Kings. Was there really a need to destroy them to the last man? I suppose, the squaters could become a threat or sabotage the strip, but still... And to make it worse, here is what happens if you do not ease the tensions:
House 2:" During the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, some Kings took it upon themselves to launch several attacks on NCR citizens and soldiers around Freeside. Mr. House looked on these actions favorably, seeing them as proof of The Kings' loyalty to New Vegas, and decided to leave them alone."
Leave them alone, that's it? No words of appraisal, no securitrons to help with the crime, just let the people fend for themselves. Granted House does not have resources to spare on rebuilding Freeside with goals, but considering he is ready to wipe them out to the last man, based on assumption, does not make him look like a good leader.
Also, independent endings:
Independent 1:"Following the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, Freeside came to be known as one of the more stable areas in the region. Ironically, NCR refugees found Freeside safer than most of the rest of New Vegas, where resentment still lingers."
Safer than rest of the New Vegas, doens't that mean that Kings are doing pretty decent job at protecting the Freeside?
Independent 2: "In the aftermath of the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, The Kings took the opportunity to viciously force all NCR citizens out of Freeside. Travelers from the Republic quickly learned to avoid Freeside if they valued their safety." So here, we push out the squaters and make NCR avoid this area. This one is for the better, since squaters are most often gamblers who lost everything and thugs. In a way it helps Freeside. Also, don't you think antagonizing citizens of powerful country like NCR seems like a bad idea, don't you think?
"Yes-Man"? "Only loyal to the Courier"? Ha!
Okay, I guess you can say the Courier could reprogram Yes-Man to become only loyal to him/her/it, reversing Benny's work on Yes-Man which previously made the Securitron to answer every questions asked of it AND do whatever it's told no matter who it interacts with. Now, here's the catch: What's stopping anyone from hacking Yes-Man's network and cutting it long enough to reprogram it to do as this hacker's want it to do?
One thing about either going for House or Independent is, there's really not that much difference between either one. When you hook Yes-Man's defective program to the entire network to let him take over in place of House, you're exposing Yes-Man to whatever risks you can think of that might happen to Mr. House. The only difference is that now House's visions and wits are now lost.
Well, I imagine shutting down an actual AI is a bit harder than walking inside the lucky 38, hacking a few terminals without password and blowing House's head off. Also, a direct quote from J.E.Sawyer:
"Fan: Why'd you imply that Yes Man was going to take over in the Independent ending? After going to all the work to take Vegas over myself it was kind of a bummer to learn Dave Foley was going to take it all away.
JE Sawyer: That's not the implication." DUN DUN DUUUN!
"Fan: Then what is the implication? That seems to be what everyone reads into it-- Yes Man reprogramming himself to be more 'assertive' is kind of ominous!
JE Sawyer: That he will not just roll over for the next person to walk up to him in the Courier's absence. I.e. he will become a somewhat-independent steward instead of a powerful tool for any random person to use for nefarious purposes.
So, yep. Yes-Man does reprogram himself to become more like Alfred to Batman.
But isn't our opinion greatly influences our choices and, therefore, consequences of it? Because in case of the Boomers, House definitely wanted to add their arsenal to help with the inevitably coming battle for Hoover Dam, so he wants the Courier to gain their support, BUT if the Courier couldn't then at least must ensure their neutrality by eliminating their leadership.
I also think that you fail to see that, while House's orders are absolute and final (especially in case of the BoS, but that's for another discussion), he never really set the methods in stone. Like the aforementioned Boomers case, he want us to gain their support OR eliminate their participation from the coming battle, no matter the method, so we have a degree of freedom on how to do it. Remember, if you have Good Karma, House would proclaim how he's proud in choosing you as his lieutenant in the ending slide, and the way to Good Karma is not something that House cared for, but it's your choice.
Fair enough, we get to choose how to deal with different factions, House just says, which is the best option for it, if you manage it. However, I don't remember ever House what would happen if Kings were to stop antagonizng NCR. I mean, we get that quest, but House just straight out decides what to do, without an option to ask about it. A leader, who does not listen to his subject's corcerns seems pretty poor in that regard.
Your turn
