When asked how he incorporates fan feedback into his next game during the "Evolving Game Design" panel, "Fallout 3" lead designer Emil Pagliarulo addressed how many gamers didn't like the fact that the game ended -- at all. "We look at other games, and how many other games end? All of them, so we'll end 'Fallout 3,'" he said of the thought process behind the idea. "Roll credits, it's over -- but people didn't like that so much." He added that "Fallout 1" ended as well, but the studio underestimated how much people viewed "Fallout 3" as a sequel to "Oblivion."
"So for us," he said, "it doesn't even go as far as the next game, it goes as far as DLC." He then explained how in the third piece of DLC for the game, titled "Broken Steel," they're addressing this issue by changing the end of the game so it doesn't end anymore. "That's a great thing about doing DLC," he said. "You don't have to wait for a full four-year development cycle; you can react in a matter of months to player feedback."