More ethnically diverse content

[boggo2300]

4 hours ago, VileTerror said:

I mean, let's not forget where Paragon City is geographically.  It's analogous to New York City in the real world in a lot of ways.  That's one of the most culturally AND ethnically diverse places in the whole world!

I thought it was supposed to be a small-middle sized city in Rhode Island?

[boggo2300]

20 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

That, and the example idea of a Chinatown that "looks like" Chinatown is a cultural distinction.  

 

Since by far most people of "Ethnically" Chinese descent in the US live in places that look exactly the same as people from anywhere else. 

 

 

I have to agree, when I saw the subject line I was expecting something very different inside the thread

[VileTerror]

Rhode Island, yes.  But definitely not small!  Paragon City is the largest metropolitan city in the u.s. according to the lore.  Or at least was prior to the Rikti invasion.

[Haijinx]

1 minute ago, VileTerror said:

Rhode Island, yes.  But definitely not small!  Paragon City is the largest metropolitan city in the u.s. according to the lore.  Or at least was prior to the Rikti invasion.

Which is weird.

 

Both in that the city we see isn't even close to that size.   

 

And of course the fact that there are a lot of metro areas in the US with larger populations than the entire state of RI.

[Haijinx]

5 minutes ago, boggo2300 said:

I thought it was supposed to be a small-middle sized city in Rhode Island?

Its an expy of Metropolis 

[boggo2300]

2 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

Its an expy of Metropolis 

seems a little small for that to me, but ok

[Haijinx]

4 minutes ago, boggo2300 said:

seems a little small for that to me, but ok

I guess you have to make it a huge city narratively to explain why everyone and their brother attack it.

 

To avoid the Aliens in Cardiff trope.

[boggo2300]

1 minute ago, Haijinx said:

I guess you have to make it a huge city narratively to explain why everyone and their brother attack it.

 

To avoid the Aliens in Cardiff trope.

I've been to Cardiff, I'd attack it to!

[VileTerror]

Count the number of buildings on both sides of the warwalls in each zone.  Paragon City is HUGE, especially since we only see about 1/3rd of it due to the warwalls.  Yes, in-game measurements are kerflunkled, with zones like Indie Port and Kallisti Wharf being very oddly sized when compared to the wider city map.  Alternate reality, so obviously a lot of things don't line up (not least of all the coastline), but it's established that Paragon City is quite the hub, with many massive shipping lanes leading to it, and an international airport which never features in the game itself, but shows up on the map that was part of the boxed copy of the game.

[Megajoule]

In lore, Paragon is basically "what if the entire state of RI was, instead, NYC".

[MTeague]

I'd definiltely put this in the "it would be nice if" bin. 

But I admit, I've seen enough articles where people get offended at Cultural Appropriation that I wonder if it wouldn't be a minefield best avoided.

[ShardWarrior]

2 hours ago, Leogunner said:

That's why I nitpicked, because ethnicity is quite political in the current year.  Not many complain about culturally authentic restaurants or festivals but they will obsess over the ethnicity of particular political candidates or topical stories.  You don't have to take my advice as I'm not forcing the matter, but it's unwise to ignore someone's point of view out of spite.  I was trying to help you.

Please stop derailing the thread with this stuff.  Please?

[siolfir]

2 hours ago, MTeague said:

But I admit, I've seen enough articles where people get offended at Cultural Appropriation that I wonder if it wouldn't be a minefield best avoided.

This.

 

Also, if you miss the 'n' in the thread title, you're thinking it's a request for more villain content.

[Haijinx]

3 hours ago, ShardWarrior said:

Please stop derailing the thread with this stuff.  Please?

I, for one, appreciated that the distinction was made.

 

[Widower]

This is a preemptive reminder that one should assume good faith of one another, and that I am watching this thread very closely.

[Lines]

8 hours ago, MTeague said:

I'd definiltely put this in the "it would be nice if" bin. 

But I admit, I've seen enough articles where people get offended at Cultural Appropriation that I wonder if it wouldn't be a minefield best avoided.

The design of any new areas should have all the care and consideration of a real architecture/urban development project. It would mean taking into account the needs of the stakeholders, the residents and the city. A chinatown area, for example, should avoid being a mockery or fascimile but aim to be an authentic celebration of a culture and a response to an existing demand.

 

At the same time, we marry this with the corrupt, dark underbelly of Paragon City and its crime syndicates and illegal influences. I think there's a lot of room for some great passive storytelling in how we design these sorts of areas of the city by playing out good versus evil all around the environment.

 

Slightly off topic, but if we ever get our hands on the right tools, my first project would be transforming the whole of the north end of Boomtown into a clockwork kingdom.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Lines

[VileTerror]

Holy crap, Lines!  I was literally just thinking that last night!  Big, rusty metal spires made of twisted and bent rebar . . . but immaculately configured to have an almost Disney-esque sensibility to it.

 

And then I'd have the Clockwork launch marching lines toward the Council Base in the south to try and harvest the Goliath for scrap.  Gives a reason for why Boomtown isn't getting rebuilt by the City Officials; it's still an active warzone (with a little help from occasion Rogue Island Raids, per the level 15 to 20 mission).

[Alchemystic]

I know it isn't exactly what the subject is about, but I wouldn't mind more rustic or historical areas in Paragon City.

 

There are plenty in the Rogue Isles, like Mercy Island's belltower, or Port Oakes' fort, and a few things dotted around elsewhere too. (I know plenty of Paragon was destroyed by Rikti, but I would think some survived at least)

Edited January 3, 2020 by Tyrannical

[ZacKing]

4 hours ago, Lines said:

The design of any new areas should have all the care and consideration of a real architecture/urban development project. It would mean taking into account the needs of the stakeholders, the residents and the city. A chinatown area, for example, should avoid being a mockery or fascimile but aim to be an authentic celebration of a culture and a response to an existing demand.

 

At the same time, we marry this with the corrupt, dark underbelly of Paragon City and its crime syndicates and illegal influences. I think there's a lot of room for some great passive storytelling in how we design these sorts of areas of the city by playing out good versus evil all around the environment.

 

Slightly off topic, but if we ever get our hands on the right tools, my first project would be transforming the whole of the north end of Boomtown into a clockwork kingdom.

Totally agreed! 

[dangeraaron10]

There is a lot of room for development in Paragon City.  Having been wracked by war between various criminal factions and Paragon's heroes and police, much of the city is actually in total ruin!  Maybe one day if the Homecoming team has the manpower, time, and possibly the legitimacy, they can set to work on an Issue that sees parts of Paragon City rebuilt.  And while they're already focused on asset creation, we might see different styles of architecture based on who's putting in the work and footing the bill to rebuild.

 

And in such a case there's definitely room for something resembling Chinatown, though I imagine new missions in the area would likely be dealing with Tsoo that want to control the new neighborhood as they done with other Asian groups under the Triad in the past.  

[srmalloy]

On 12/30/2019 at 7:10 AM, ZacKing said:

I would like to see more ethnically diverse content.  By "content" I mean architecture, trees, skins, costume parts, weapons, stuff for bases all that kind of stuff.  maybe even a new zone or two.  Most every major city in the world have their own areas or districts where people of common ancestry gather and live and work, like a Chinatown or Little Italy, Little Tokyo, Little Havana etc.  these areas are sadly noticeably missing in Paragon City. 

I feel as a side note to this that it should be pointed out that Rhode Island, where Paragon City is located, is an extremely whitebread state. From the 2010 census, a breakdown by ethnicity for the whole state:

81.4%	White alone
5.7%	Black/African-American alone
0.6%	Amerind & Alaska native alone
2.9%	Asian alone
0.1%	Native Hawaiian & Other Pacific Islander alone
6.0%	Some other race alone
3.3%	Two or more races

If you ballpark where Paragon City is by loosely matching up the waterfront to a real map of the state, that puts it in Kent County, which is even more whitebread:

93.4%	White alone
1.4%	Black/African-American alone
0.3%	Amerind & Alaska native alone
2.0%	Asian alone
0.0%	Native Hawaiian & Other Pacific Islander alone
1.0%	Some other race alone
1.8%	Two or more races

The early immigrants to Rhode Island were mostly from Europe and Canada, largely Irish and French Canadians. In the early 20th Century, there was an influx of Italians and Portuguese immigrants. Hispanics began to immigrate around 1970, and Asians around 1980. While the Italian immigrant community has been in existence long enough to have ethnically-recognizable enclaves (although tending to accumulate in entire communities, rather than just neighborhoods), the Asian immigrants did not arrive until long after the social pressures that formed the sort of enclaves you're describing had decayed. At best, there would be areas that had a higher than normal percentage of recognizably ethnic businesses, but not neighborhoods that were ethnically homogeneous. I suspect one of the considerations that led the devs to place Paragon City in Rhode Island was to be able to sidestep ethnic neighborhoods as being a complication the art department didn't have the resources to address.

[biostem]

There's a mission where you go into one of the Tsoo leaders' mansion, and I recall it being rather nicely decorated;  Perhaps some of those assets could be used to redecorate a section of a zone...

[boggo2300]

29 minutes ago, biostem said:

There's a mission where you go into one of the Tsoo leaders' mansion, and I recall it being rather nicely decorated;  Perhaps some of those assets could be used to redecorate a section of a zone...

If you can remember what contact this is from I'd love to see it, it doesn't ring any bells for me, and sounds interesting

[GM Mathison]

18 minutes ago, boggo2300 said:

If you can remember what contact this is from I'd love to see it, it doesn't ring any bells for me, and sounds interesting

The mission can be found from Graham Easton in Steel Canyon around the 15-20ish range. Might be 5 levels in either direction. There is a badge for completing it depending on outcome and you can also find it in Ouroboros to repeat. Great arc. If you are in that level range you can go to Contacts and click on the Find Contacts button and go through and he should appear there.

[boggo2300]

2 minutes ago, GM Mathison said:

The mission can be found from Graham Easton in Steel Canyon around the 15-20ish range. Might be 5 levels in either direction. There is a badge for completing it depending on outcome and you can also find it in Ouroboros to repeat. Great arc. If you are in that level range you can go to Contacts and click on the Find Contacts button and go through and he should appear there.

Awesome, thanks!!!