Locations (a 20min-ish blog)

As no one seems to read this, I might as well announce that I plan to set up a website about locations. I plan to have general locations which I find promote certain emotions and circumstances. Classic ones for me are in the built environment for example underground railway stations and multi storey car parks.

That is not really the subject of this post, but more the opposite - the irritation of the recurrent use of these in media - especially computer games. Although I personally love the underground stations that pop up in many RPG games, could we have something a bit more original? Some of the old classics, in particular I was thinking of Deus Ex, Rainbow Six, Metal Gear Solid & Half Life, there are many similar locations in the games:

• Warehouses
• Heliports
• Prison Cells
• Snowy Mountains
• Tunnels with or without trains in / air vents
• Lifts
• Ports / dockyards
• Generator Rooms
• Hotels
• and many more!

But we do we get fed up with dodging lasers and security cameras in what really could be almost anywhere without the graphics? I personally seem to play the games with a high priority to explore new virtual worlds, sometimes to annoyingly high detail!

A lot of the above involve transport systems - perhaps due to their generic set up and required functions that we are all familiar with but also because it adds a dynamic feel to the game. Certain locations, however, do seem to create certain moods and when done in the right way with a half decent story line they can be fairly emotional. The industrial style and scale of many, such as the furnace in Metal Gear Solid or the warehouses in Deus Ex add to the significance and dark side of the stories. This presumably helps suck the player into the world which is presumably what we want when we play games. Notably similar situations occur in films where the stories and moods are more vital, but I'm thinking of computer games today. Games give you the opportunity to play about in environments you may visit (or may just know about) such as a warehouse which you wouldn't get to do in real life - so in a way fulfills a real life desire. That seems to be why most games are based on real life situations which most of us won't get to experience - car racing, combat, mass management etc.

Notably the locations often make the most of what a character in the game can do - climb crates, swim underwater, shoot from a distance etc.

So could we get some other good locations? Here are some of my ideas (which may be in games I haven't played):

• a level whilst parachuting in mid air?
• a level on an icy slope with ice buildings?
• more real life landmarks like in some early Rainbow Six games
• mines / construction sites
• fields of crops such as maize
• offices with particular purposes - e.g. stock exchange (okay, the bank in Raven Shield was good)
• a level on a motorway such as in Matrix Reloaded
• more sports grounds / stadiums

but I must admit that I still love the classic locations, especially the underground railways! I also wouldn't want to advocate pointless, purely made up and unrealistic locations (the inside of a plant that produces newspapers?)

Any more suggestions or are we limited?