What if Fallout Online doesn't Have anything Related to Fallout Universe?

When Interplay announced Fallout online and brought up an teaser site we were happy to see that one of the most classic RPG on PC officially got an MMO version. But things went contrary to our wishes in the past few months as the court fight between Bethesda and Interplay was still ongoing. The latest debate centers on whether Interplay has the right to use Fallout universe in their Fallout MMO. What? A Fallout MMO without Fallout-related contents?

According to Gamasutra, who claimed to have a January 7 Interplay court filing, Bethesda just licenced Interplay to use the Fallout trademark, not the whole Fallout universe.

Bethesda contends that there is "no other license" included in the deal, and that any Fallout-branded MMO made by Interplay cannot feature any assets from the established Fallout universe, such as characters, settings or storylines.

The game is far away from us though, according to Interplay's president Eric Caen, Fallout online will start testing in 2012. But, if Fallout online isn't based on the Fallout franchise that we are familiar with and love, why would we want it?