A gamer visited the real Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, and three years later reached it in Fallout 76 as well
The small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia isn't famous for coal or the Ohio River, but for a winged creature with glowing red eyes. The legend of the Mothman dates back to 1966, when local residents reportedly encountered a mysterious humanoid, and half a century later this folklore turned into one of the state's most recognizable landmarks.
Bethesda didn't miss the chance to weave this mythology into Fallout 76, set in a post-apocalyptic West Virginia. In the game, Mothman has his own full-fledged cult, complete with followers, shrines, and an annual Mothman Festival that kicks off next month according to the in-game event calendar.
One player decided to connect the two worlds literally. Three years ago, he visited the actual Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant and posed next to the famous metal statue of the creature. Recently he made it to the virtual version in Fallout 76 for the first time. The result is a collage of two photos, where the real trip and the in-game journey mirror each other almost perfectly.
The best part is in the details: in the real photo, the group members ended up with photoshopped Mothman cultist masks, just like the NPCs in the game. The virtual cult followers, though, weren't exactly welcoming to newcomers, and the encounter ended in a shootout. One commenter joked, "I wasn't wearing my glasses at first and I was like Wow look at those awesome masks!"
A separate thread of conversation unexpectedly veered into the anatomy of the in-game Mothman. One commenter asked, "is the irl Mothman as bootylicious as the in game version??" The metal Mothman statue in Point Pleasant does have a rather muscular build, and Bethesda game designers picked up on that detail and turned it into a full-blown meme.
The actual Mothman Festival, by the way, takes place every third weekend of September and draws tens of thousands of visitors, while the virtual celebration in the game runs on its own schedule.
