Official News
Published October 9, 2024.
When we think of the pillars within the Fallout 76 community, Ken instantly comes to mind. Not only does he host the Fallout podcast, CHAD: A Fallout 76 Story Podcast, but he also founded and leads charity efforts at Fallout for Hope. His passion for Fallout and bringing the community together is unmatched. Read on to learn more about Ken and Fallout for Hope!
Table of Contents
- Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into the Fallout series?
- What’s your favorite aspect of Fallout 76?
- How has playing Fallout 76 influenced your life outside of gaming?
- Can you share the story behind the creation of Fallout for Hope? What inspired you to start it?
- What is the most memorable moment from your past streams?
- Can you share any success stories or significant milestones achieved through Fallout for Hope?
- What has been the most rewarding part of your involvement with Fallout for Hope?
- What advice would you give to those looking to get involved with Fallout for Hope?
- What plans do you have for Fallout for Hope over the next year? Anything fun or unexpected?
- What’s coming up next for Fallout for Hope?
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into the Fallout series?
My name is Kenneth Vigue, showrunner for “CHAD: A Fallout 76 Story Podcast”, a dark humor serial broadcast, and also founder of the Fallout for Hope Charity Initiative. I’m a lifelong gamer, marketer and writer who first got into gaming playing with the original Nintendo Entertainment System way back in 1986. My family only got a PC when I was 16, but when we did, my first two games they gave me for Christmas with it were Quake and MYST. I was hooked on exploration and shooters forever after. One Christmas in 2008 I had been given a gift card so I picked up Fallout 3, my first ever Fallout game. I lost myself completely to it, having never played anything like it before. To this day I’ll never forget that first “step out” moment after exiting Vault 101 and the world opening up below me. I love all of the Fallout games I’ve played since for different reasons, but that one in particular holds a special place in my heart.
What’s your favorite aspect of Fallout 76?
At launch we emerged into a wasteland intended to be a creative sandbox where the stories we tell would be our own and where we would be the NPCs. Fallout 76 was my first ever online game, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it forced me outside of my comfort zone and to meet people from all over the world. Beyond that, without a forced hand of scripted experience like in previous games, 76 inspired me to return to creative writing for the first time in over a decade. I started writing CHAD first as stories that went viral on Reddit, then decided to try doing a cast audio drama and here we are 5 years later with over a million listeners. I never, ever could’ve imagined that would happen, much less a video game to reconnect me to my writing. My story isn’t exclusively my own either. So many creators were inspired by Fallout 76.
How has playing Fallout 76 influenced your life outside of gaming?
Fallout 76 didn’t influence my life. It changed my life. End quote. I started playing 76 at a time when I was very much in a dark hole and needed an outlet, more than that I didn’t realize how badly I needed people. I wasn’t prepared for the social aspect of the game and how much that helped me out of that hole. Of course, now there are social components in the game, but in the beginning, you had to seek out Discord groups to find friends to play with. The people I met in this game became my closest and dearest friends. Through mounting medical debt, it was the Fallout 76 community who helped us to get through that. It was friends who helped me sell our house. It was friends who helped us move cross country. It was friends, found through this game, who became my family. I’ll never be able to repay anyone who was there for me, for us and helped us – nor thank enough YOU all (Bethesda) for keeping this game going, growing and evolving. I’m not alone in feeling this strongly, but I think I speak for all of us when I say this game has changed a lot of lives for the better.
During COVID, I started streaming just to be able to talk to and connect with other people. As the year was coming to an end, I just couldn’t end it without trying to do something positive. I’ve donated privately to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for years, so I decided to do a fundraising stream for kids fighting for their lives during the holiday season. I asked around the Fallout community to see who wanted to get involved and dozens joined, then hundreds! Before I knew it, we had almost 300 streamers and content creators signed up and we raised $106,000! Fallout for Hope was born. Our success is thanks to dedicated volunteers, especially our Executive Director, PedernalesFalls, who has been with me from the start.
What is the most memorable moment from your past streams?
Last year for voice actor Wes Johnson’s VoiceAPalooza we did a Fallout 4 radio play, “Death Shroud!: A Nick Valentine Mystery with live acting on stream and were able to bring much of the original voice cast back together again to reprise their characters for the first time since launch. It was a fun, film noir story that saw Nick Valentine (Stephen Russell) team back up with the female Sole Survivor (Courtenay Taylor), Paladin Danse (Peter Jessop), Hancock (Danny Shorago), Macready (Matthew Mercer), and Vault-Tec Rep (Paul Eiding) . Taking place years after the events of the main game, the characters we love deal with the repercussions of their choices and a strange twist in reality that sees Valentine having to team up with the Silver Shroud (Wes Johnson) to conquer a terrible force. Pete Hines and even Emil Pagliarulo were kind enough to get involved. To date, it has been the single most successful charity event we’ve ever done, raising more in a single stream than all previous ones. It blew up on Reddit with fan art, new AU fan stories, and almost a million views and listens after we aired it live. I’ll never forget that, and it also became a template for the kinds of programming we liked to do to bring the community together.
As of now, going into our 5th anniversary, this community has raised over $635,000 for worthy causes. That’s Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Starfield players planting trees in inner cities, funding Alzheimer’s Research, and paying for life-saving surgeries for kids fighting cancer. Today there are over 750+ volunteers in 87 countries on the team, all working together and it’s nothing short of amazing. I’m also very aware and want to reiterate that while our team has become really great at planning large scale events, if not for the hard work of these streamers, creators and the generosity of their followers, viewers and supporters, none of this would be possible.
What has been the most rewarding part of your involvement with Fallout for Hope?
It’s often easier to turn a deaf ear, blind eye or think some problems are too big for us to try and do something about. We can’t do it all on our own, but we can and we have done amazing things together. This charity team is the singular thing I am most proud of in my entire life. It is the best community in gaming. Every year more gamers get involved, often streaming for the very first time or getting involved in charity streaming for the first time. It’s wonderful to see.
What advice would you give to those looking to get involved with Fallout for Hope?
Just sign up! The team welcomes everyone regardless of how big or small their following is, and whether or not they’ve been streaming or creating content for years or are starting new. They can sign up at FalloutForHope.com [https://falloutforhope.com/join/] and we can get them onboarded. We have staff Discord Setup Nights where everyone hangs in voice and we walk people through setup, give advice, and best practices. This year, a few community members are teaching classes in our Discord to help everyone learn about and improve their skills in content creation and streaming. All our fundraising is done hands-off for transparency, and we exclusively fundraise via Tiltify, which works directly with all charity organizations.
What plans do you have for Fallout for Hope over the next year? Anything fun or unexpected?
One of the things we’ve fallen into the role of beyond charity streaming is helping groups organize community events, build awareness, and get involved in charity work. Some of our staff have been helping the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, Nevada plan their Fallout Fan Celebration for the past few years. We also helped the modding community form a broader Bethesda-focused Community Creations Con (C3), a charity raid stream event that sees modders and mod teams show off their builds and share their knowledge on getting into modding. Last year, C3 raised almost $8k in our first year for the Make A Wish Foundation International. Beyond fundraising, I’m hoping for Fallout for Hope to become a platform from which we can bring the community closer together.
What’s coming up next for Fallout for Hope?
On November 14th, the 6th anniversary of Fallout 76 and Fallout for Hope’s 5th anniversary, we kick off our annual holiday fundraiser for St. Jude. We have big plans in terms of programming, including a live performance with some very special guests, as well as other surprises in store. This team of amazing people at Fallout for Hope has become very good at helping bring the entire community together to celebrate, often on our own unofficially, and other times…very officially. This year we were asked to help Bethesda do something unique and special that I can’t wait to talk more about…when I can of course.
Special thanks to Fallout For Hope Staff and key organizers not mentioned in article: Cobalt, Spacecasenicole, Kellydanielle, ProfGoggles, Bio_Wagon, SpikeJonson, Chip Monk, Krazz, Phil, Tentakelfrau, Kate Aces, CasualinaCorset, Jessica-Star, LetitiaTHELemon, WreckItRenee, munchkinjesse, Shredz and Tooniversal. As well as Voice Actors: Zack Ward, Jon Bailey, Keythe Farley, Shari Elliker, Bill Lobley, Alex Cazares, James Lewis, Jan Johns, Paula Tiso, John Patrick Lowrie, Ellen McLain, Aeric Azana, Jon St. John, Richard Epcar, Ellyn Stern, and Jim Foronda
We can’t wait either, Ken! Thank you so much for chatting with us. Be sure to tune into Fallout for Hope’s fundraiser starting November 14th, and check out the links below to learn more!
Fallout for HopeTwitchTwitterFacebookInstagram
Get involved and join the Fallout For Hope Charity Stream Team. Open to everyone regardless of follower count!
Love Fallout and podcasts? Give a listen to their full cast audio drama and our special charity episodes! CHAD: A Fallout 76 Story is available on all platforms including Spotify