Yeah, you'd sometimes find Mentats in old vending machines in the DC metro, which suggests a pre-war world accepting if not downright enthusiastic about chems.



I imagine they were marketed towards the salesman who has to break that crucial deal, or the student with an important exam in the morning, that kind of thing. Anyone in need of an edge. In The World Of Tomorrow!, Mentats would be akin to Pro-Plus or something.

Like tic-tacs, But you could get addicted to them.

Wait actually that can happen with tic-tacs too.

Party Time Mentats boost charisma by five, which gives a +25% attack / defense to followers.

I think being addicted to Tic Tacs is just being addicted to having something in your mouth. What's it called? Oral fixation?

No idea.

My candy of choice was Bubble Yum when I was a kid. I'd get the five pack of a fruit flavor and chew all five at once.

It is oral fixation though... Being addicted to having things in your mouth (a crude way to describe it at least).

Mentats must have been students favorite when it comes to exams.
Don't know the answer to the question? Pop in a Mentat and become an egghead.

I love the sound effect when you pop one.

Plus they apparently are flavored! They always make me think of Alka Seltzer when I use them too... I don't know why. It must be the "Plop plop, fizz fizz" commercials or something.

http://thedomesticdiva.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/smarties.jpg

Damnit now I got a sweet tooth. >_<
All I got is stupid turkey-sandwiches and low-fat milk...<_<

I have chocolate chip and walnut cookies... Want one? :cookie:

Get real...

They were developed by and for used-car salesmen, which is where the politicians found out about'em. See, one of the guys on some sleazy used-car lot had an unemployed cousin who dropped out of college while working on a chemistry degree...

Mentats are just another joke about the hypocritical quasi-50's pre-war culture, I think.
The people in the game's history were a mess -- paranoid, racist, backstabbing, wasteful, xenophobic, greedy... rationalizing Mentats as medicine fits right in with the culture.
That's my guess.

Just stuffed my face with more turkey-sandwiches and tea so now I'm full.

Ontopic: Would mentats really be legal for college students to use?

I doubt it. As seen they get in a fluster about MP3's and the sorts.

Heck, I would buy these tings.

Unless I already maxed out on the stats, which is at least what I'm trying to convince myself of. :hubbahubba:

Caffeine works well as a mental stimulant so I don't see why not.

Well they can be useful if you need that extra edge.
I used to love them in fallout 1/2 because they added to the perk requirements check.

They're probably made of that red spice everyone is snorting in Dune. In case anyone is curious the name comes from people who could calculate things at an inhuman rate from Frank Herbert's Dune.

But I mean, you're using drugs to achieve a goal your maybe otherwise couldn't reach.
Athletes are not allowed to use steroids to get stronger.
So why should students be allowed to use something that will temporarily make them smart enough to get a passing grade when they will most likely forgot what they've learned in the next couple of weeks?
I would consider it cheating.

You're applying real-world mores to the World Of Tomorrow!, though. 50s sci-fi was very optimistic about the benefits of technology, including mind-altering drugs. Smart pills would be embraced like any other life-enhancing tech, be it nuclear power or lasers or rocket ships. Technology is and only is ever optimistic in the pre-war world, no dystopias or dark underbellies, just Progress!

Ok I'm going to justify my answer with a statement full of speculation... Here goes!

Mentats function by speeding up the mental processes and boosting memory related functions (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mentats). Now while this could be considered cheating by some, all they really do is make the brain more efficient. The pills can't make the user pull answers out of thin air, so the user would need to already have absorbed the needed information at some point (you'd be surprised at how much information your brain can take in without you knowing). Functioning solely as a mental stimulant, like caffeine, it seems logical to assume that Mentats were accepted.

Steroids force the body to do something whereas Mentats would simply aid in the access of latent information. That's why I think they weren't banned from colleges. Besides, Med-Tek (the maker of the drug) was a large company that would've been more than capable of lobbying their Congress (who probably relied heavily on the drug) to support them.

I think that makes sense. I just woke up and I haven't finished my first cup of coffee yet.

I want a mentat.

It would help me when I write speehes.. :confused:

I normally just wing it. It really pisses people off that I can do it that way hehe

Does that make me an antagonist?

No that makes you the wingman for the antagonist.