Nachzehrer on 3/7/2020 at 22:30
I'm wondering why despite Thief's good writing, the city that the game is located in is just called: The City. It feels so out of place compared to the rest of the games writing. Is there any reason that the city is called like that? Or did the writers just have problems giving it a name and called:"Taff it, we'll just call it, The City."? What do you guys think?
ZylonBane on 4/7/2020 at 03:53
Prepare to be ground into a fine paste.
Grandmauden on 4/7/2020 at 06:30
For people living in or near a major metropolitan area, there's not much need to call their city by its actual name during casual conversation. They can just say "the city," and everyone will know which city they're talking about. In that sense, using the moniker "the city" is just like referring to a person by their title (e.g. "the Baron" or "the Sheriff") or a pronoun, instead of using their name all the time. It's a matter of convenience, especially if that name happens to have a lot of syllables.
So LGS's decision to not give The City a proper name (or at least to never have their characters say it) was likely to enforce the idea that this is a single vast metropolis, far bigger than what we see in the individual missions. It's also a subtle way of adding an air of mystery to their game world, and who doesn't love a good mystery?
Udo on 4/7/2020 at 10:52
Well, there are other cities/metropolitan areas, like Blackbrook. Also the area is big enough to house e.g. the Mage Towers(which are however connected to the City via sewers).
Why they didn´t give the City a real name, is of course up to speculation. Maybe it was planned for later, maybe it was really meant to make game more ambiguos. Or just sloppiness, also in regard of the origins of the game...likely they didn´t come up with a name after the whole Camelot fighting game stuff was scrapped.
Fallen+Keeper on 4/7/2020 at 21:59
It's called "the City" because of the good writing.
Stefan_Key on 4/7/2020 at 22:27
Because it's "THE" City.
Estel Randir on 6/7/2020 at 04:12
Ever watch many of the TV sitcoms based in or around New York City? They do not say, let's go into New York City or let's get out of New York City, they say let's go into the city or let's get out of the city. They only use proper names when they are referring to a certain subsection of the larger city. Like we are going to Queens or Manhattan today. The city is so vast it does not even need to be named in conversation. Everyone knows what they mean when they say "the city". It is literally their world. Nothing else but the city matters in their daily lives. The same for Thief. If they had named it, it would be as annoying as Batman always saying Gotham City every 5 minutes. Making it just "the city" adds so much more to the depth to the game imo than naming it. That way it could be anywhere.
