Heavily debated issue: The Location

[tash]

One of the least agreed-upon parts of the game is the setting. I feel that we need to formally discuss the issue. Here are bulletpoints of discussion:

• Western or Eastern names, or a non-uniform combination of both?
  
• A real location, made up city, or an ambiguous setting?
  
• How urban should to focal location be?

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Leave your input here.

[bloodneck]

Names: I feel they shouldn't be one or the other, but a mixture of multiple types. For example, Neet-chan is japanese, so an eastern name. Girlfriend is something western, so western name. Cop is irish, so irish name. (Not saying she's irish)

Location: I think just an unknown city would suffice. Decent sized, but not huge. Maybe some mountains or forests on the far, far outskirts.

Urban: I feel like it should be pretty urban, so as to have a variety of different places available to have scenarios in.

[Tom]

My vote is for the setting to be a real life American city. I can't think of one off the top of my head, but it shouldn't be very remarkable -- not New York, LA, or Chicago -- but some mid-sized city, maybe in the midwest. Topeka, Denver, Fargo. I dunno.

Names: western all the way. Maybe make one of the girls Japanese, but other than that, it should be all westerners.

My two cents.

[awayawyle]

Choosing a major city would allow us to use landmarks to ground the reader, which is useful in maintaining verisimilitude. I'm personally a fan of London, Berkeley, and Seattle, and all of them are ethnically diverse enough that we could feature a number of Asian characters. If we have MC being a university student, particularly one who's studying engineering, we could easily feature a number of eastern names.

[polaroidon]

I think that somewhere in the US would make sense considering that it is pretty much a melting pot of different races.

Somewhere like San Fransisco I think would work, as the city has some very unique and interesting features. I wouldn't base it entirely off of the area, but the hills the city has would make for something not so generic.

[verde]

I think a rural location that leads to a suburban area. Then maybe the characters can ride the highway to a city. That way, they won't have to face all the riots and the problem of having so many people/zombies around. As a fellow university student in the middle of nowhere, this isn't so implausible.

Western names. There's no reason to have eastern names.

A real location would be easier, especially if we have some people nearby who can research the area. It's less work to draw out and plan everything.

[railgun]

Personality I want Japan, because it's small, the ideal of it being on an island trapped with zombies with all the transportation long gone, plus large buildings and famous spots can help the design and flow of the setting.
Plus in america, there is a gun shop at every corner, so what's from stopping MC from robbing the place and being the gun lord of the zombies? In japan, the best you can get is a katana, and I believe we agreed to not have retarded 1 hit kill zombies.

[polaroidon]

Railgun brings up a good point. Different cultures, laws, and customs will make for an issue. If the story took place in England, the MC can't really pull rifles out the who-haw considering their firearm restrictions.

[tash]

That's why there was a suggestion to have a location that's essentially an American city, but never actually given a location, so that liberties can be taken with the setting (such as gun control laws).

[verde]

For the gun problem, I know most universities don't allow weapons on campus. So that shouldn't be a problem for the beginning of the VN.

[Tougou]

Location should be undisclosed, and have a blend of multiple cultures.

If we set in US, MC and company can just rob every single gun store on the block and just shoot to kill as they try to escape, assuming said stores were intact. How about we put it somewhere in Canada or the like? Blend of cultures, guns are around but not abundant, weather can be variable. Can shove them on an island too.

[Tom]

Feb 7, 2012 23:18:47 GMT -5 Tougou said:

Location should be undisclosed, and have a blend of multiple cultures.

If we set in US, MC and company can just rob every single gun store on the block and just shoot to kill as they try to escape, assuming said stores were intact. How about we put it somewhere in Canada or the like? Blend of cultures, guns are around but not abundant, weather can be variable. Can shove them on an island too.

Canada might work, especially since we could throw in a "surviving the winter" angle too.

But Canada has more guns per capita than America, fyi. Lots of hunters.

[awayawyle]

maps.google.com/maps?q=gun+stores+near+uc+berkeley&hl=en&ll=37.861844,-122.290878&spn=0.279724,0.455246&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.90509,58.271484&hq=gun+stores&hnear=UC+Berkeley,+210+Sproul+Hall,+Berkeley,+California+94720-7118&t=h&fll=37.866181,-122.294312&fspn=0.279708,0.455246&z=11

There are no gun stores within an hour's walking distance of UC Berkeley.

[maiku]

Maybe this is a PipeDream but I want to share it anyway. Some of the most entertaining works I have enjoyed have a huge variety of locations so why not aim for that? Like Forrest Gump and Resident Evil 4, for example.

The game could start in Japan to have a MC from there. Also, ">This is how it starts. No music, no explanation, no title screen, you're just thrown straight into it" that would give an amazing mood to the game for the first play.

[Cupric]

I would suggest that the MC and his GF start in some sort of dirt cheap Apartment/Motel room on the outskirts of some city. Something like this:

i.imgur.com/rsSBZ.png

Just a thought.