If we're all being honest, this poll was rigged from the start

Of course it’s rigged. 🤦‍♀️

Both the Lone Wander and Sole Survivor have very similar stories (family separation, a spouse dies with a baby, one looks for the other, start in a vault, long tutorial) so I'm not surprised The Courier is winning and would see him win even without the many New Vegas fans, myself included.

Yeah, NV isn't even my fav, but I'd still say courier over the others, just because he is a born wasteland denizen, and not either a vault/pre-war educated character.

^Forgot about the bonuses the Courier gives for roleplayers in comparison.

Courier.

Exactly, there is a lot more room for head-canoning a background for "your" courier; almost any build can be made to "make sense." Also, the courier is already a seasoned survivor...and an adult, unlike the LW's strangely skilled, highly sheltered (literally) teenager. Please note that I am saying this as someone for whom 3 is their fav Fallout game in terms of plot and setting. The LW's background is pretty much my only hang up in the entire game, and has required massive amounts of head canon explanation (and mods to make it work). NV isn't my fav game, but the character is the best by far imho.

Freedom of backstory and character motivation is huge. The Courier has so many instances where something may or may not be true about the character, all based on what dialogue is chosen. Not every Courier is the same, with my Courier and your Courier having different life experiences, but every Lone Wanderer and Sole Survivor is going to be uniform. Ironically, Nate and Nora, despite being two different established characters, have less variety between them and their respective histories, than the choice on the table for players to draw from with their Couriers. Because it is manifest in game, it's not having removed as head canon or fanfiction, and the player can have agency in saying more about who their character is or what that character knows. That's an extremely powerful thing.

For F3 and F4, liking the main character rides heavily on buying into the preset backgrounds and plot direction based off of familial ties. With F3, the much longer and more indepth opening section sold me on the character. There is a history I cannot change, but who the character is and their ethics on display, have a chance to be told throughout several interactions we see unfold across their lifetime. We are able to "do" rather than be told. Finding James is still not ideal, for me it forces a choice between the open world design which is filled with wonderful locations and interesting side quests, which must be avoided if you are, in character, actually concerned at all about tracking down your missing father. Unlike F4, you can at least rationalize that James abandoned you, at least for the purposes of exploration and side questing, but the main quest never quite picks up on this, and buries its nose in the LW being much more invested in the search. F4 doubled down on this problem, having the search for a stolen child be the motivation, even the tutorial tries to forget it, with the breadcrumb quest to the MM having you learning about settlement building long before giving more information about the search for Shaun. And unlike a parent running off on their own, your child and last vestige of your old life being stolen away, is a much more pressing matter. The SS really falls into this role as well, with the much more limited dialogue options and little to no input from the player, making the SS almost unique among these three options as being the closest to a defined character we happen to be play as, instead of making our own character.

My favourite quote from my second favourite player character (the courier):

“You’re a little bitch, and your brother was too.” - The Courier to Private Kowalski

My favourite quote from my favourite player character (sole survivor) I’m probably getting the wording wrong:

“I’m here to pick up my order - 2 pepperonis and a calzone - order under the name ‘fuck you’” - Sole Survivor to the courser at Greentech Genetics