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Author Topic: Settings in fiction  (Read 16273 times)
Akhel
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« on: June 07, 2009, 07:40:30 AM »

I've been thinking about non-traditional or remarkably creative settings lately, but didn't find any discussions about the subject here. So... what are the best settings you've ever seen (in any piece of fiction - game, book, movie, whatever)? How important is the setting for the story as a whole, and how closely are they related? What elements make a setting interesting?

This is the settings thread. Gentleman
« Last Edit: June 07, 2009, 09:41:56 AM by Caio » Logged
Akhel
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« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2009, 09:13:08 AM »

Planescape and Mage: The Ascension probably have the two greatest settings I know of, even though I admit I've never read the core books of either (I did play P:T though). They are both mind-numbingly creative and deal with a subject I find extremely interesting, consensus reality. It's a shame they haven't been explored more in video games.

I think Lost has a nice setting, although the story is becoming increasingly underwhelming. The whole "modern science in a magical place / with magical things" thing is always fun to me. It seems Penumbra (the indie game) is somewhat similar.

Zeno Clash and Morrowind had terrific-looking worlds, but I think that was mostly thanks to the art direction than to the construction of the settings themselves.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2009, 09:42:18 AM by Caio » Logged
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« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2009, 09:24:39 AM »

I loved the setting in the Mortal Engines series of books by Philip Reeve, it has a very nice Postapocalyptic-Steampunk world. Essentially there was a nuclear war and in order to keep on living the remaining humans built giant moving cities that traveled the lands, surviving by eating each other.

The cover art gives you some idea;
http://www.mortalengines.co.uk/old_tech_page
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Bree
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« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2009, 09:27:58 AM »

Miyazaki's movies always have fantastic/fantastical settings. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind probably has the most creative set-up.



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JLJac
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« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2009, 11:23:04 AM »

Agree on gibli movies, their settings freakin' rules!

Here's some of my favs:

Myst II, riven: The game that best shows of the myst atmosphere, according to me. Those sunlit rocks and islands, and the books... ah the books Wizard


Lost, really good setting really bad story. The orientation films made me cry with excitement when I saw them, and the machine that needed resetting every hour was a cool concept too. Sad that the series sucked.

Halo, especially the first one. I have seldom had such a strong feeling of "what is this place??" And at this time you didn't really know anything about the covenant, making them a bit... mysterious. They name a ship "Truth and reconciliation" how the hell does the mind behind such a thing operate? Kind of like with japanese people.

Phil Pullmans the Golden Compass. I am of course not talking about the movie, where everything has been ruined by kitschified design, but the book, the first book that is. Really interesting alternate reality, breaking a lot of fantasy clichés.

Cowboy freakin' bebop! Almost the only story in a space-setting where the creators have actually realized that even in space people will still be people.

The saying "Nothing good comes from earth" is worth admiration in itself.

Of course blade runner. And that means deus ex too.

Half life 2 is cool, that eastern europe look is awsome. Not all of it is great though, just the cities.

Williams Gibsons Idoru. Has insignificant story, it is mostly about a setting, tokyo some years from now. It is so awsome and yet believable it will blow your minds Addicted

Have any of you guys googled for "The city of metronome" ?
They didn't find a publisher Shocked

And tons more... For me this is maybe, now that you point it out, the most important thing in fiction.

Sadly I think we're having a big dip in creative settings nowdays. Especially in games they tend to just pump out the same softcore sci-fi over and over again Tired Makes me not want to play them.

The setting is everything!

Also this is great thread, I'm looking forward to seeing it develop Grin
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Pietepiet
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« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2009, 11:28:48 AM »

Mother 3's setting always stuck to me. I've always loved modern settings, but what made Mother 3 stand out was the change in Chapter 4. The change played a crucial part in making the player understand how Lucas, the main character, probably felt. I don't want to spoil too much in case someone wants to play it. Basically, what it comes down to, is that the change of setting is the start of things taking a turn for the worse. It's kind of hard to explain without spoiling anything Sad

Another one that I really love, and is much easier to explain, is Skies of Arcadia. That's simple. I love wide-open areas, and you can't get much wider open than a huge sky with floating islands.

There's a ton of worlds I really like, but these two are definitely high up on the list. I'll try to think of some worlds outside of games later.

[EDIT] Holy shit, how could I forget my favorite game of all time?

Grim Fandango probably has the best setting I've ever seen in a game. Every single part of The Land of the Dead was designed beautifully, with nice little Dia de la Muerta touches on everything in the scenery. Excellent.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2009, 11:32:20 AM by Pietepiet » Logged
I_smell
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« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2009, 03:39:25 PM »

One o these days I'll actually watch Cowboy Bebop. Been meaning to for ages.

Gonna say BIOSHOCK:

WELCOME TO RAPTURE!

Rapture is the realised vision of a man who hates religion, hates goverment, hates everything that can stand in the way of progress. So in about 1940, he starts a project to build a city where artists can push the boundaries, mechanics can build any innovative machines they want, and scientists can develop any new experiments they like with nobody around to step in and tell them to slow down. Where can this lawless city of infinite progress and liberties exist? What country would allow that? The answer is none. Rapture isn't built in a country, it's built at the bottom of the ocean. The result is a paradise of amazing architecture and new types of medicine that can allow everyone to live in better conditions than the world's ever seen.
For about 5 years.
Then everyone turns into rabbid psychopaths and start killing each other, the doctors are ripping people's faces off, and genetically enhanced little girls are harvesting recycled drugs from all the corpses. Sensational!
« Last Edit: June 07, 2009, 03:43:27 PM by I_smell » Logged
Bood_war
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« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2009, 04:54:52 PM »

Howl's Moving Castle was on.... a moving castle.  Well, hello there!

And Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking series was very good. I won't ruin it by telling you the setting though.

The world-sized Tree of Avalon from The Great Tree of Avalon was really cool.

City 17 and Ravenholm. Nuff' Said

The settings of Chowder and Misadventures of Flapjack (Those shows really disappointed me, the art is wonderful but the main characters are turn offs)

That's all I can think of at the moment
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Smithy
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« Reply #8 on: June 07, 2009, 07:20:42 PM »

The ocean in the world of Aquaria.
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pen
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« Reply #9 on: June 08, 2009, 12:13:43 AM »



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moi
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« Reply #10 on: June 08, 2009, 09:04:07 AM »

Something out of the real world history. You know without elves or aliens or vampires or steampunk.
Anything like that is like a breath of fresh air.
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« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2009, 09:21:23 AM »

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

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JLJac
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« Reply #12 on: June 08, 2009, 10:45:31 AM »

Rapture is un-good. They didn't think. The elitism enclave idea is cool, but when things started to go wrong it is as if they couldn't come up with a believeable reason for it, but just stated ...but something went horribly wrong...

Also you see several signs of a suprising tolerance for non-high culture, such as the whole sponge bob themed harbour area, top notch intelligent elitists would never allow anything like that. The people that have turned into "splicers" as they call them also doesn't seem to have any traces left of who they once were, except from a few that are "characters" meaning extremely over exaggerated b-horror movie villians with manic laughters. Doesn't seem like evil from intelligence/elitism to me.

The whole game seem like it is made by people with strong but surpressed religious beliefs, that are both admiring and being afraid of intellectuals without really knowing what it's all about.

The design is good though :D
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« Reply #13 on: June 08, 2009, 04:07:13 PM »

I loved the setting for Arcanum. I loved how pretty much legend can be demistifed to a more human aspect, with no blacks and whites and goods and evils. The books there are quite rich and interesting. The whole issue with Orcs, the case of the half-ogres, etc.
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JasonPickering
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« Reply #14 on: June 08, 2009, 04:58:58 PM »

I always loved the setting in the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy. a lot of stories are done in space, but I always liked this kind of space. and I think a game that went a little silly, where the main player is in this world the is completely incomprehensible, but they are just along for the ride would be really fun. and your spaceship should be a Bistro.
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Bree
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« Reply #15 on: June 08, 2009, 07:55:47 PM »

Neil Gaiman's Sandman has some of the best settings ever. Cereal Convention, anyone?
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Seth
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« Reply #16 on: June 08, 2009, 08:54:52 PM »

New York City, I think, is probably the best setting there is.  It's so big and there's so many people from so many different cultures.  It's the most happening place there is.  There's a reason one half of all movies and TV shows take place there.
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William Broom
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« Reply #17 on: June 08, 2009, 09:30:34 PM »

Neil Gaiman's Sandman has some of the best settings ever. Cereal Convention, anyone?
Haha the Cereal Convention was awesome. Wink

I really like the setting in Peter Carey's "The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith". It's set in two fictional countries (Efica and Voorstand) but it acts like they are part of the real world, i.e. he makes some references to their being colonized by Britain in the past. It's as if you're reading about a foreign culture that really exists in the world, but you never heard about it before. Plus, he very casually slips in some small elements of sci-fi, like hologram shows and animatronic robots that roam the streets. They're only described a fair way into the book, and so naturally that you go "Ok, sure... wait, what?"
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JLJac
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« Reply #18 on: June 08, 2009, 09:49:25 PM »

New York City, I think, is probably the best setting there is.  It's so big and there's so many people from so many different cultures.  It's the most happening place there is.  There's a reason one half of all movies and TV shows take place there.

Yeah, and talking about real life settings I also think the whole southern american continent seems pretty interesting.
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Seth
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« Reply #19 on: June 08, 2009, 10:53:41 PM »

I think settings are so much more important in games than in books or movies.  In many games, the setting basically IS the game, (seiklus, etc.), but I think you could argue that most games are, at heart, exploratory games, meaning that the creator is presenting the player some designed world, and exploring that world has always been more important in games than plot or characters, as opposed to movies where it is often focused on plot and television where it is often focused on characters (both with many exceptions, of course). 

That said, I think it's a shame that so many games fall back on fantasy/sci fi. I was kidding about New York City being the best setting--I'm growing very tired of seeing it everywhere--but I would like to see more settings that lean less on the outright fantastic.  I don't mean realism, really, but even a stylized or skewed version of reality.  You know, a world that at first seems like the real world but is off a little or something.
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