Is telling the location important?

[Ethan D]

It seems telling the location of the game to the player is good for atmosphere but imposes some troublesome requirements on the creator

For instance:
In the Blackwell games the sense of being in New york is great and very atmospheric but it imposes on Dave the responsibility of being accurate with areas, how people behave, even important historical facts.  (Obviously because he lives there its not really much of an issue.)

I'm working on a game that takes place in a city but it doesn't really matter at all to the story where as long as it is big, but two politicians are involved at one point and the date the game takes place is set during an election. One of these politicians wins and there is a great deal of illegality on the side of one of them, (I won't say which.  ) so obviously I can't use a real name as that would be an accusation... 

Does my problem make sense?

What do you all think? Does the player have to know the location?

[poltergeist]

If it doesn't matter to the story, then the player doesn't necessarily need to know where the game is taking place. You don't set up an atmospheric game just by saying "Hey man, you're in New York". You do it by creating intricate landscapes or cityscapes (or whatever else) that, in a sense, 'amplify' the general feel of the game. If you're telling a gritty detective story you won't be setting it up against a Toonstruck-type backdrop.

Look at Full Throttle for example. Does it really matter where the game takes place? You just see all the sand and think: "This must be the Mojave Desert or something." It's what you show to the player that tells them where the game takes place. If you give them a glimpse of a couple of familiar monuments and stick with the architecture, then you can convince the player the game is, say, taking place in Washington D.C. without even telling them.

So yeah, as I said already, if it's not imperative to the storyline and if it won't be referenced anywhere else in the game, I don't think it's necessary for the player to know the location.

[Igor Hardy]

In the Blackwell games the sense of being in New york is great and very atmospheric but it imposes on Dave the responsibility of being accurate with areas, how people behave, even important historical facts.  (Obviously because he lives there its not really much of an issue.)

If you're aiming to be fairly accurate and have references to real place, it will take a lot of additional work whether you live in the city you're using in your fiction or not.

But I'd say the presentation of New York and its history is one of my favorite elements of Blackwell, so in a lot of stories and for a lot of players it pays off to smartly implement fragments of reality into the game.

Than again I might be old-fashioned. I feel one of the current trends in popular fiction is to get rid of specific places and time periods, showcase globalization, and not even flesh out characters. More often than not we get heroes that are devoid of characteristics of individual beings and who live in dream-like worlds where they function as straight-forward symbols of teenage depression, love, anger or whatever.

[Ethan D]

Thanks for the responses.

Personally I don't see anything wrong with not having a specific place but I think a time period is nice, otherwise the player has no idea what the world outside looks like in the game's setting.

I feel one of the current trends in popular fiction is to get rid of specific places and time periods, showcase globalization, and not even flesh out characters. More often than not we get heroes that are devoid of characteristics of individual beings and who live in dream-like worlds where they function as straight-forward symbols of teenage depression, love, anger or whatever.

That's true but then that's usually what sells. (I'm not saying I support it.) Little gems like the Blackwell games are easy to overlook.  That being said, I do think that storytelling is slowly getting better. (At least in the case of movies and T.V. shows the good stories are getting better and the bad stories are getting worse.)  Although, it definitely seems to be lagging behind in the case of video games.  Personally, I think this is because in a movie, t.v. show, etc,. the storytelling is a standalone element that makes or breaks the medium.  Whereas, in video games the storytelling can be terrible and the game can still be great. (Unless if its point click adventure it seems.)

And poltergeist I like what you said about atmosphere, it answered my question quite well.  Although I do think that you create some atmosphere by telling the player where you are.  For instance if a game starts in an office building and it says (Downtown New York) it gives the player an instant atmosphere depending on their view and knowledge of New York.  Although certainly it does nothing if for instance it said downtown Fort Wayne instead, as only a few people know what that is like. (Its not so great...)

In any case, as you said atmosphere is created first by what you show so I'll stick with that.

[Ali]

I don't believe it is important, as long as the fictional world feels real and detailed. I would say the same about time period, though creating a sense of an era without being specific is rarely achieved well. Gilliam's Brazil does this very well.

You can also run into trouble by using real places without appropriate research.

Part of Broken Sword 2.5 takes place in York (presumably as a tribute to Revolution Software who are based there). In the game York has an airport and an underground train system, which is really quite silly. (If you haven't been to York, it's a lot smaller than New York).

Having lived in York, I found it particularly disappointing, because the real city is exactly the right place for a Broken Sword mystery, but the lack of research meant that it was under-exploited.

[Ethan D]

I don't believe it is important, as long as the fictional world feels real and detailed.

In this case the world isn't fictional just the characters.  Although I do agree in the case of a fictional world.  I suppose a better question is "Is it a good idea to tell the player the location, if possible."  I do think that it adds a certain quality to the story if you can have an idea of the outside world.  So its not necessarily important but in many cases I think it is beneficial, again as long as it is a real world location.

And just as you say you can run into troubles without doing research, so the question is whether the benefits of telling the player the location outweigh the effort you have to put into researching it. 

[Ali]

By fictional world I didn't necessarily mean something like Gormenghast, plenty of dramatic and satirical writing takes place in fictional locations which mirror reality very closely.

However, it sounds like your plot is inspired by real events in a real place. If realism and socio-political commentary are your goals, why not be honest and do the research? If a broader social satire is your aim, then why not invent a city which reflects reality through parody?

[Ethan D]

However, it sounds like your plot is inspired by real events in a real place. If realism and socio-political commentary are your goals, why not be honest and do the research? If a broader social satire is your aim, then why not invent a city which reflects reality through parody?

This particular section of the plot is inspired by real world political trends, (The trend of people get elected who know how to get elected not necessarily who know how to govern.) neither of the politicians are main characters they are simply involved with one of the player characters.  And as far as inventing a city I essentially am, as the politicians, characters and events are all fictitious, I just won't give the city a name.  It's just a large city in America.   People can choose to guess what it is it if they wish but I don't think I'll choose a particular place.

Thanks Ali.

[Dualnames]

I wanted TROICA to take place in Berlin, but I've decided not to clarify the location and just let it flow. It's not like it's THAT important to my kind of game, but it really depends.

EDIT: I do however find its important that YOU know. It makes it easier to relate and give depth to characters. Brazil was probably not even taking place in Brazil, but somehow that connection is what helped Gilliam create his world. I remember reading an interview of him stating that.

EDIT2: I just noticed Ali mentioned Brazil, kudos. 

[Derrick Freeland]

In some stories the setting can be a character in and of itself.  If this is the case, I think the setting should have some kind of identity or set of characteristics, and this should be described to the player in some way.  Depending on the story you may not always need to do this, but it's something to think about as a device to expand on your story or the in-game immersion.   

[Ethan D]

I do however find its important that YOU know. It makes it easier to relate and give depth to characters.

Right, but its important for the player to understand the setting as well even if not by name but by characteristics.  In fact as far as I can see now, the only reason to give the actual name is if it is a famous location that can give the player information about the setting without too much actual work.

In some stories the setting can be a character in and of itself.

What do you mean by that?

[Derrick Freeland]

The best example I can think of (off the top of my head) is the distopian Los Angeles from Blade Runner.  It has a certain look (its face?), a certain sound (voice?) and a bunch of other characteristics that are particular to that setting, much like the characteristics of any individual in the story.  It's an aggressive and unforgiving place filled with neon lights, heavy rain and a host of other very distinctive qualities (dirigibles displaying Japanese advertisement, for example).  There are other aspects to its 'personality' as well.  It has an accepting, almost mothering quality to it that we get to see through the story of the replicants.  They are able to find jobs and a place to live where they won't be noticed (for a while, anyway).  It's a place that protects and nurtures them.

It's this duality, or complex set of characteristics that can make a setting something like a character in your story.  You don't have to get quite as heavy with the development of your setting, but it's a great opportunity to flesh out your narrative.  Maybe the more detail you put into your setting, the less necessary it is to name it?  Maybe the player won't care about the name if there's enough characteristics about the place to go on.  Just my 2 cents.