I've recently been proud of some of my Canadian game studios. BioWare setting ME3 in Vancouver and such. Deus Ex placing Canadian characters in the game and setting on level in Montréa. But that is something new, most games are set in America or based around American players. Much like the film industry they produce the film in Vancouver but pretend its Seattle why? I understand the American market wants to see an American city. But really do the consumers really care whether the bank being robbed is in Seattle or Vancouver? Has the American setting harmed sales at all in the international market?

Why does a World War II game not feature Canadians or often French or sometimes even British etc..etc.. even when the game is made in Europe the characters are often American. Settings almost always the United States. The only country I see developers shaping their entire setting around is Japan but often foreign companies don't even set their games in Japan.

Am I the only one that thinks developers in different regions should always put part of their own culture and country into every game possible? If you want to target Americans with a brave US Marine but a British SAS soldier alongside him or maybe a Canadian JTF-2. If your from Norway maybe set a level or two in Norway or have a character from Norway. Honestly I would love to play a level in Norway or as a Swedish soldier or as a character from almost any country.

Case and point I was watching a game interview the other day not sure what game but it was on EPDaily and the person being interviewed bragged This game will take you all over the world to some of the worlds greatest locations like New York and Washington you see the beauty of the world. What you honestly believe New York and Washington are examples of locations around the world. At least use two cities from two different countries or continents. We need some diversity in the games industry some foreign culture and some patriotic pride in our games. I am sick of seeing every game feature an American hero even if America was barely involved. In an older Call of Duty their was a battle and you played as American and their was British helping you. But in the real battle Canadian forces were supported by British and Americans were barely involved. But for some reason the developer thought American soldiers should take the lead. Lets see some other countries represented in the majority of games. It is fine to have Americans or America in the game but diversify we live in a globalized society and you likely aren't an American. Nobody is going to boycott your AAA game just because the protagonist is not American.

Joelcool7 said: *long post*

My only response to your thread: This.

Well written.

Joelcool7 said:   Why does a World War II game not feature Canadians or often French or sometimes even British

Call of duty 3.... with Polish armies as an extra...(french is resistance though). 

yeah seems like the movie/game studios think they have to use american characters or cities to have the biggest succes because of the american market. i don't know if they have more succes then on the american market but if, i really don't get it.

sure if i would see a hollywood movie in germany it would be nice because there aren't so many hollywood movies in a german cities but if i only would see german cities in those movies i would hate it. it is freaking boring, every second movie in new york or los angeles.

as american i would love to see more cities of other countries from around the world.

it's the same with gta as example. i would love to play in cape town or so. cape town has hills and the see around the city and it has robben island where mandela was arrested! this would be so awesome as gta game wouldn't it? hills, see, isle and huge city with a totally different culture. but if they would have cape town as gta city, millions of americans wouldn't buy it anymore because they want to see an american city they see every day (which is freaking boring).

or it could be in rio or so as well...

i really don't understand it why a gta in rio or cape town wouldn't sell as much as the 20th gta in los angeles (in 50 years or so haha) but i understand the developers.

Honestly, I don't think most people care that much about where characters come from or where a story takes place; but I do think most people want their videogames, movies, or books to take place in settings they're familiar with. To a certain extent, being that the American market is so large and (many) Americans are ignorant about the world around them, this limits the number of potential settings ...

Canada has (maybe) 6 cities that Americans would recognise (Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and maybe Ottawa, Quebec City or Calgary); and American's familiarity with Canada is (probably) an order of magnitude greater than any other country in the world. This means that your story has to take place in a world class city (London, Sydney, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, etc.) in order for many Americans to have ever heard of the place; and many world class cities (Buenos Aires for example) would be familiar names to Americans but they wouldn’t have a clue where they are.

Of course, sheltering Americans from their ignorance only keeps them in the dark; and they will probably never consider looking beyond their borders as long as this continues.

I have another question: who the hell cares?

Most people probably don't even pay attention to the setting. I know I don't.

National pride? Not so much.

National variety? Hell yes!


Playing through Metro 2033 truly makes you realize how important the setting is. Not only do you hear people speaking Russian-English, but you also see them behave more European which makes the entire experience very enjoyable and unique unlike the usual repellent macho-American characters.

In other words: Don't only make the setting visually different, but also make it change the entire atmosphere. Maybe I'm going a little off-topic here, but I think I've made my point.

No, the main characters in Call of Duty are British! If Infinity Ward / Treyarch has more national pride they would replace them with Marines.

So what's keeping so long for THE game that the world and I want from Canada?



We are waiting for a Due South game Canada!

National pride doesn't matter to me, but I fully agree that we need more variety. I don't mind the American setting but changing it up is always better then seeing the same scenery every time. Games like Half-Life 2 and Stalker stand out for me because of the setting. I would rather have a game like AC3 be situated in India then the states again. Varanassi and Agra would make awesome locations for an AC game.
The same goes for atmosphere. Killzone series is very good graphically but why on earth do they try so hard to be all Hollywood American instead of making it something different closer to home.

Racing games need different settings too. NFS hot pursuit is great but I miss the variety of the original with German, French and British police chasing you. Let me race through the busy streets of Sao Paulo, Havana, Jakarta, Manila. The biggest reason I still haven't picked up Driver: SF is because I've seen SF in games too many times before.