Why Shadowrun creators choose Seattle? Options

[mattness pl]

Question as in topic title.

Does Weisman or Dowd or someone from SR1 writing stuff admited, why they chose Seattle as starting city? Why not Chicago (FASA was placed there), why not NY or something Deus Ex Machine style, like Night City (cyberpunk v.1 was in the market before SR1), or Neo Tokyo?

Thanks in advance

[fatal2ty]

I have no evidence of this, but my theory would be that Seattle is a very working class, blue collar port city and most Asian imports go there before anywhere else, So in theory that would make Seattle a very important city in the trade market, and if the US lost control of California, Seattle would be the most important link with Asia and would therefore be a hub for all import/export and trade comodities, with Importance comes Corporate Headquarters, With corp headquarters comes lots of people, and with lots of people comes uncontrollable crime.

it probably seemd like the most interesting city when they finished drafting the world

[CircuitBoyBlue]

a) choosing Seattle was prescient in a way, given the high cultural profile it got during the 90s

b) I'm not sure the Native American business would have made as much sense anywhere else (at least the cities you mention). It's not such a big thing now, but the Native American element used to be HUGE. It was at LEAST as important in the 1st ed. books, I think, as IEs and other ED tie-ins.

[Spike]

And MY Question has been: Why focus on a single city at all? Why a Seattle? Why a 'Night City'? What is it about cyberpunk styled futures screams :Single City: at people?

I've read the books, most, if not all of them tend to have world travel (and beyond!) ingrained in them, so why do so many games feel the need to be so geographically restricted?

I mean: Neuromancer starts in Tokyo, moves to Turkey, among others, and ends in Space!

And that's just the one book, arguably the granddaddy/bible...


Bah.

[DireRadiant]

Had to choose somewhere.

Cyberpunk 2013 is 1989, SR1 1990, Cyebrpunk 2020 is 1991, Night City is a Cyberpunk 2020 so the city setting is actually released after SR1. If you check the publication dates Night City was released after SR1.

[Synner667]

I imagine that Seattle was chosen for it's location and cultural breakdown [port, Indian land, etc].

As for why base it in a city at all..
..Otherwise people flounder badly when it comes to imagine places, peoples, setting, etc without some sort of help.


Most cyberpunk fiction, written before SR and CP2020 arrived on the scene are local - no globetrotting, because they mostly revolved around street-level stories and people who very often didn't have much in the way of 'ware..
..Because that was the essence of the cyberpunk movement and the stories, 'ordinary' people struggling in a speeded-up world.


Games like SR or CP2020 don't really reflect cyberpunk, anymore - they now seem to be trying to be action movies like Mission Impossible or Hard Boiled or SWAT, etc.

[NativeRigger]

Games like SR or CP2020 don't really reflect cyberpunk, anymore - they now seem to be trying to be action movies like Mission Impossible or Hard Boiled or SWAT, etc.

I don't know, Snow crash and Hardwired (both seminal works) were definitely closer to SR and CP2020 than the average joe cyber concept.

Also, I think Seattle was chosen because it's "chic"'ness was firmly established by the late 80's. Ie. They chose it because it was considered "cool", unlike say Montogomery or Hoboken.


-NativeRigger

[mfb]

heh, Snow Crash was actually sort of anti-seminal; it came at or after the peak of cyberpunk fiction, and was intended at least partly to be a satire of cyberpunk. Snow Crash is anti-seminic, you heard it here first!

[Spike]

I namecheck Neuromancer (with a good 6 years? on CP and SR) and he tries to tell me that 'prior to...' that all these were 'local street stories'?

I mean, Gibson's later works (virtual light and all) were local streetish stories, but they postdate Shadowrun...
and even they included trips to Japan and the like (Idoru...).

[Shadow]

1st ed. SR came out in '89 (btw). It was writen, I am sure, a year earlier. Seattle was just becoming the new city, almost like an emerging AAA. The population there was booming (500k to over a million in 8 years) and everyone was talking about it. It probably made sense to put it in a New Large city that many people had heard of but not everyone had been to. The settings of LA and New York were done to death... and really who gets excited about Chicago?

As for "Neo Tokyo" or other such made up cities, I think the creators wanted to keep SR grounded firmly im reality. They took great pains to lift our future past from things that could happen. The whole game is based on a real life calendar.

[Vegetaman]

Because when you look at D&D, the world is so... Well, there's no timeline or set universe. So you have to start somewhere to make a tangible world like Shadowrun. Seattle seems to be a good starting place. Modern, a port city, and as was mentioned should continue to be large and important in the future.

[Adarael]

Why?
Because Seattle kicks ass, that's why.
Maybe I'm biased, though.

On some level it DOES disturb me that I moved here because of Shadowrun. Or rather, I visited because of shadowrun, and decided to move after that.

[Jhaiisiin]

... and really who gets excited about Chicago?

Jim Butcher

[mattness pl]

So, no-one get "official" statement from SR1 book authors about "how the Shadowrun universe emerged"?
I was afraid that this idea was discussed, and topic long dead & closed on jive.dumpshock old forum.

I expected that somebody (Bull, or Rob, or maybe Ancient/Gurth) knew something from FASA developers.

So, no-one ever try to interview eg. Weisman or Dowd and ask him "How you get THIS particular idea? Seattle, dragon-media celebrity" etc.?

If my English was better I would do that by myself. It's good moment - after FPS failure, Weisman working with this SR again (interview=keeping "hype" about brand), and Nigel Findley example ( :cry: ) shows, that we can't wait forever (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[nathanross]

Why not Chicago (FASA was placed there), why not NY or something Deus Ex Machine style, like Night City (cyberpunk v.1 was in the market before SR1), or Neo Tokyo?

The rain.

[Jhaiisiin]

Acid rain is always fun. And Mattness, looks like you're English is coming along quite well already. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Vegetaman]

Jim Butcher

Considering that I live near Chicago, I have to say that it is nothing to get excited about.

However, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novels (and the TV show) were absolutely amazing.

[Cadmus]

On the other hand the fact that the SR guys got to tell fasa that they nuked them must of been great fun (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[FlakJacket]

One of the reasons put forward that I heard was that they chose Seattle because it was relatively unknown to people and hadn't really been used much by anyone. And then along came Nirvana and grunge. Whoops. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Riley37]

Shadow asks "and really who gets excited about Chicago?"

Insect spirits... then, after the abundance of corpses, Shedim.

[Cardul]

I think yu can look at it as a combination of factors. First, as has been pointed out, Seattle wasn't used by much and really, no-one had heard much about it at the time. Second is that what is around it wuld be perfect for setting up things like Council Island, etc, and the NAN around it to the north(and the Tir to the South). Another reason is because they COULD put the Tir to the south, because there are a number f places associated with certain grups of New Agers as places of power there(Crater Lake) and up around Seattle(Mt. Shasta). Made a good place, really.

[nezumi]

I agree, I'm stumped. If I were looking for a grungy, cyberpunk, dystopian city, Seattle is just about the LAST place I would look. But then again, maybe things were different pre-Starbuck's.

[Fortune]

You have to look at all the factors. Near enough to the mountains, but on the coast for shipping. Close to the NAN lands and the Tir, but isolated enough from the central UCAS to be almost a free city. It's location alone opens up many different gaming scenarios that might be harder to fit in, or more contrived in other places in the Sixth World.

[nezumi]

The NAN and UCAS are made up places. If they had decided instead to go for NYC, Louisiana or Baltimore, they could have put the NAN (or some similarly ridiculous group) and the Tir right next door again and come up with their own history and justification for such.

[Fortune]

Not really. Most of the eastern tribes have long since departed through one means or another. The west coast was more reasonable for a location, especially when factoring in the other geographical features, as well as a strong Asian presence and influence.