City 17 linguistics

[gabriel]

if city 17 is supposedly located in europe, how come no one has an accent?

 

[Mechagodzilla]

A signifigantly large portion of them are immigrants from america/canada, like Kliener, Alyx and the rest of the gang.

People like Odessa, Gregori and (reportedly) the fisherman have accents though.
The citizens don't have accents because they are meant to have an accent that is as generic as possible, and american english is pretty generic.

Of course, if you change your language settings to french or german, everyone will sound european.

 

[J_Tweedy]

heaps of people are being relocated all the time, that's what the trains are for.
OR
so that the main Valve market (the US) can understand and identify with the characters.

 

[clarky003]

its not located in europe, its a completely fictional in that way, look at some of the bigger maps ingame... if anyone compares the sea/lake area around Seattle you might recognise the land form of Bremerton and Port Orchard , the maps and location have some significance to certain members of the valve team, or so I heard, where they live or grew up or something.. or is it simply where valve are based?

they have just chosen to utilise european architecture in city 17, from the maps its in America which explains the accent's perfectly, but in a fictional world it doesnt have to make sense or relate to the real world accurately.

higher quality version of ingame map ... shows City 17 is located in and around Seattle.

 

[gabriel]

A signifigantly large portion of them are immigrants from america/canada, like Kliener, Alyx and the rest of the gang.

People like Odessa, Gregori and (reportedly) the fisherman have accents though.
The citizens don't have accents because they are meant to have an accent that is as generic as possible, and american english is pretty generic.

Of course, if you change your language settings to french or german, everyone will sound european.

the fisherman? what fisherman?

 

[Ames]

the fisherman? what fisherman?

He's a cut character. Going to reappear in the Lost Coast level.

 

[OvA]

its not located in europe, its a completely fictional in that way, look at some of the bigger maps ingame... if anyone compares the sea/lake area around Seattle you might recognise the land form of Bremerton and Port Orchard , the maps and location have some significance to certain members of the valve team, or so I heard, where they live or grew up or something.. or is it simply where valve are based?

they have just chosen to utilise european architecture in city 17, from the maps its in America which explains the accent's perfectly, but in a fictional world it doesnt have to make sense or relate to the real world accurately.

higher quality version of ingame map ... shows City 17 is located in and around Seattle.

wow! thats signifigant. I'm not going to be like veryone else and ignore you. That may even be worthy of it's own thread.

 

[gabriel]

its not located in europe, its a completely fictional in that way, look at some of the bigger maps ingame... if anyone compares the sea/lake area around Seattle you might recognise the land form of Bremerton and Port Orchard , the maps and location have some significance to certain members of the valve team, or so I heard, where they live or grew up or something.. or is it simply where valve are based?

they have just chosen to utilise european architecture in city 17, from the maps its in America which explains the accent's perfectly, but in a fictional world it doesnt have to make sense or relate to the real world accurately.

higher quality version of ingame map ... shows City 17 is located in and around Seattle.

whoa that's a pretty interesting thought. you should post some pics showing the real place and the in game place side by side

 

[clarky003]

here ya go, this just proves all the ramble about it being in europe somewhere, Russia.. or something, isnt true. Valve's city17 is seattle and the surrounding area.

you can find the map in water hazard where you first get the weapon for the Airboat. Ive rotated it 90 degrees Clockwise here to relate it to the map.

 

[Milkman]

They used seattle to design the map and made it take place in eastern Europe, is that too hard to understand?

 

[clarky003]

wtf.. it could easily be the other way around,, they used the location and put european style architecture into it to fictionalise it and make it look nicer. Infact it makes more sense that way with the american accents and everything.

It doesnt really matter though.. it's not real

 

[r2000]

here ya go, this just proves all the ramble about it being in europe somewhere, Russia.. or something, isnt true. Valve's city17 is seattle and the surrounding area.

you can find the map in water hazard where you first get the weapon for the Airboat. Ive rotated it 90 degrees Clockwise here to relate it to the map.

Thats cool. The city 50 miles to the N of me is actually City 17. :O

 

[[Dragoon]]

wtf.. it could easily be the other way around,, they used the location and put european style architecture into it to fictionalise it and make it look nicer. Infact it makes more sense that way.

It doesnt really matter though.. it's not real

Not really. I'm pretty sure it's a solid fact that it's located in europe. My guess is that they decided to use geography from near where they're based for one of a couple reasons; perhaps because they knew it better, perhaps as an egg for anyone who noticed it, or perhaps for some other reason I can't think of at the moment.

 

[clarky003]

perhaps, but a map of the location is more factual than european 'style' building's , because thats all people have to go by without maps,, pure speculation.. so technically there is no fact by guessing its somewhere in europe because of the type of building's, but there is some grounding when you blatantly flash maps around of the general area.

in a fictional universe, no one says you cant have european architecture in Seattle , anyway its obvious valve are combining elements to create an interesting fictional, partially relateable to reality location.

 

[gabriel]

wow. you learn something every day. lol

 

[Asus]

Half-Life 2 takes place in europe. Half-Life 1 took place in Black Mesa, New Mexico. What they used for inspiration for geography could be different (such as the maps indicate). Also, I'm not sure if you where here or remember the thread but someone took pictures out their window and the buildings in Poland looked just like HL2 buildings.

 

[MadGuy]

And when you ride up the citadel, you see a view of New York from up there..


compare:
http://img134.exs.cx/img134/9237/adcitadel9ue.jpg
http://img139.exs.cx/img139/3278/f4nyc3eo.jpg

 

[pomegranate]

Nice find MadGuy.
I think that, as it's a fictional place, the landscape and geography is more generic than the architecture. As in, 'this landscape could be anywhere temperate in the world', but 'this architectural style has a clear and intentional identity'. Any place in the world has rolling hills, a coast and beaches, but architecture is very firmly location-specific. It's a bit unlikely that distinct European architectural styles just happened to be utilised somewhere in North America, in the HL universe, unless it's happening in some surreal alternate universe.
Unless C17 is actually meant to be in an actual specfic place, I think the map should be taken with a pinch of salt. And it can't actually be a specific place, because, for instance, the map and the city-scape above are contradictory.
As Valve have said, they chose an east-European location to help echo the sense of oppression by reflecting the Soviet era.