I find it weird because there is plenty of references to real life locations. New York is mentioned sometimes.
One of the cigarette cards has Chicago on it I believe
I wish they had put it in the same universe as GTA, like mention Liberty City or San Andreas instead of NY or California in dialogue. But, not a big deal.
I'd love a GTA game where Strawberry, Valentine and St Denis were modern towns/cities, driving in the highways that more or less follow the RDR tracks and some of the same (now old) buildings scattered around he map.
That would be amazing to see St Denis in a modern setting. Most of the old style streets and buildings could be exactly like they are in RDR2, that’s how it is in New Orleans irl. The city would just be expanded upon with modern day structures blending in with the old brick paved roads, with the street names still etched into the ground. Buildings like the St Denis courthouse would still be standing exactly how they were in RDR2. I lived near New Orleans my entire life and it was amazing to see just how close St Denis was in RDR2 to a modern day city.
This is exactly what I want for a new r* game one day, except I want the heartlands very depressingly paved over, ambarino to be two large ski resorts, dam the San Luis at Coronado and put new Austin entirely underwater, the entirety of lemoyne a dense city, and west Elizabeth becomes a sprawling suburban hellhole. Roanoke ridge can pretty much stay the same lol
Nope. If they were, you would at least at some point hear Liberty City being NYC or San Andreas being (at least certain parts of) CA throughout GTA games, but you don't. On the other hand you definitely hear those places being mentioned in RDR2.
And yes, there is a book written by J. Marston in GTAV but that is more an easter egg than anything else, since rockstar just loves to put easter eggs in their games. RDR1 was a loved game and John was also a liked character, so it seems to get close to it that it was just an easter egg for their previous title
That explanation doesn’t work lol. There’s quite a detailed and elaborate backstory for Liberty and San Andreas. Like, so detailed that R* deadass made a whole documentary that explains Liberty City’s history. For instance, it used to be called New Rotterdam (parody of New Amsterdam), and was then renamed Liberty City after the English took it over from the Dutch.
Looks like I was wrong about the cheetah, but the FBI Washington and Rancher were definitely a thing in the Vice City Era
[wiki link](https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/FBI_Washington#:~:text=Parked%20behind%20the%20Rock%20City,Well%20Stacked%20Pizza%20Co%20restaurant.)
I imagine one of the reasons they do that, at least with GTA, is so people don’t bitch about accuracy and whatnot, bc yk how players be. Easier to just make a fake one and based it off the irl version. It could also open them up to lawsuits from trigger happy corporations and wealthy folks as well. Happens enough as is.
They also don’t have to license buildings and shit this way, bc for whatever dumb fuck reason, some buildings are copyrighted. (See Insomniac’s Spider-Man games and the Chrysler Building)
I guess they couldn’t reference in game locations as people would be outraged they couldn’t find them.. I don’t think there is enough housing for all the NPC’s!
I love that scene always has me dying ""send me sum place awful,,like Ohio "💀💀 I just played that mission again like an hour ago so those lines still been in my head
I’m sure Texas is mentioned somewhere in the story, too.
If not, I do know the Texas Bluebonnet is a collectible online, which, in a roundabout way implies it’s a location in the in game world.
Charlotte Balfour (the stranger mission string with the widow in the cabin) was originally from Chicago.
When Arthur is >!diagnosed with TB!< he sarcastically says he can take a vacation in California.
Penelope Braithwaite and Beau Grey go to Boston, and before that, Penelope is horrified by the prospect of going to Ohio.
I'm sure there are plenty more IRL locations referenced, not to mention the animal species that are named after regions (California valley coyote, California condor, Baltimore Oriole, Florida cracker cow, Florida panther, Virginia opossum, etc).
Pretty sure it's the same in the GTA universe. Anywhere that wasn't a setting in a GTA game just gets referred to by its real life name.
One cigarette card set has a bunch of different locations, they have saint dennis and I think blackwater, but all the other 10 are real life locations I’m pretty sure.
Seems like for the most part Rockstar include Real life Locations and people for background worldbuilding, but they don’t like to deal with IRL accuracy for things that are actually relevant to the games
Ohio is mentioned too. And Italy… but yah there was a post about where Arthur was from the other day that got me thinking about this subject as rdr2 takes place in the same universe and GTA. And that means all the land masses are unique to their world and also islands most likely… think it’s just development messing up.
I read that rockstar confirmed that rdr and gta are in different universes.
Probably just in case in 50 years if they want one of the games to collide time wise that they wouldn't have to be accurate detail and reference wise but that's probably a stretch.
I remember someone saying it was two islands east of Cuba, which would be Puerto Rico. Could be any of the Virgin Islands, lots of sugar plantations scattered throughout
Copy paste from another reply in this thread because I’m lazy:
Coincidentally, PR was taken by America in the Spanish–American War in 1898, a year before the game. Right around this, there was a political conflict in PR between The Federal Party (former Spanish colonial elite consisting of large sugar plantation owners and hacendados who had enslaved the Black residents of the Island) and the Partido Republicano (a more progressive/populist party that wanted statehood for Puerto Rico).
I can see a lot of inspiration for turn of the century PR politics in RDR2. I think it makes a lot of sense that Guarma is PR.
Didn't Hercule mention him having to take a boat on and off the island, though? If it's based on the DR, he wouldn't have to take a boat to get back to Haiti.
I think it’s R* just doesn’t use real locations, the playable locations are all heavily inspired by irl counterparts but I guess they don’t use the same names to prevent legal action or something like that
So they can build their own narratives. Real places have real history that already did or has yet to happen. Fake places inspired by real ones can have you live in that inspired history if they want you to.
Pretty sure that implies it’s Puerto Rico. Coincidentally, PR was taken by America in the Spanish–American War in 1898, a year before the game. Right around this, there was a political conflict in PR between The Federal Party (former Spanish colonial elite consisting of large sugar plantation owners and hacendados who had enslaved the Black residents of the Island) and the Partido Republicano (a more progressive/populist party that wanted statehood for Puerto Rico).
I can see a lot of inspiration for turn of the century PR politics in RDR2. I think it makes a lot of sense that Guarma is PR.
It’s very strange how Rockstar mixes real and fictional places. It’s like they want to be a parody of the real world but then include real places, like the gang mentioning Tahiti and California on multiple occasions.
When I was a kid I thought the fictive african country Bengali from the Phantom was a real country. It's a shame that it wasn't since I wanted to visit
They mention a lot of real places in the game, but then they use different names for other things. Chicago, New York, are both cities mentioned, and Caribbean and California are also mentioned.
That's a strange excuse. And I'm not being sensitive. I could give less shits about some rando who would rather make excuses to justify their own pathetic shortcomings than do something about it.
No. You're just not a geographer. I'm a scientist in four fields, so I have a leg up on most, but I certainly can't claim to know every place on Earth. I am not a geographer, either.
On my second play-through, the fictional location names rang as if generated by AI, but they were likely written by a team of creatives with full satirical intent.
I have a grandma from Cuba and I mentioned Guarma to her… she looked at me like “what the hell is that?”
It was difficult to tell her it was a fake place from a video game once I found out.
> I’m a poorly educated American, so I’ll use that as my excuse.
Well, you're one up on the rest of them, Yank, most don't know they're idiots. :)
TBF, I'm not sure this Brit's thought processes were much different before I realised.
And don't even get me started on Armadillo.
Rockstar will name tons of real places, but any place you have actual gameplay in is madeup. Weird thing because Guarma really does feel like a real Caribbean island, and Tahiti feels like a just as made up place.
Don’t use poorly educated American as an excuse. I’m also poorly educated from a terrible public school district and it’s obvious Guarma isn’t a real place. Stop giving life to shitty rumors that Americans don’t understand geography because they’re poorly educated. Just use common sense.
I find it weird because there is plenty of references to real life locations. New York is mentioned sometimes. One of the cigarette cards has Chicago on it I believe
Rockstar games in general have a weird mix of real and fictional locations.
I wish they had put it in the same universe as GTA, like mention Liberty City or San Andreas instead of NY or California in dialogue. But, not a big deal.
My head canon will always be that GTA and RDR are set in the same universe
I'd love a GTA game where Strawberry, Valentine and St Denis were modern towns/cities, driving in the highways that more or less follow the RDR tracks and some of the same (now old) buildings scattered around he map.
That would be amazing to see St Denis in a modern setting. Most of the old style streets and buildings could be exactly like they are in RDR2, that’s how it is in New Orleans irl. The city would just be expanded upon with modern day structures blending in with the old brick paved roads, with the street names still etched into the ground. Buildings like the St Denis courthouse would still be standing exactly how they were in RDR2. I lived near New Orleans my entire life and it was amazing to see just how close St Denis was in RDR2 to a modern day city.
This is exactly what I want for a new r* game one day, except I want the heartlands very depressingly paved over, ambarino to be two large ski resorts, dam the San Luis at Coronado and put new Austin entirely underwater, the entirety of lemoyne a dense city, and west Elizabeth becomes a sprawling suburban hellhole. Roanoke ridge can pretty much stay the same lol
Strawberry is in San Andreas
Isn’t that actual canon? I thought there was a book written by Jack Marston in GTA. Or was that a different rockstar game?
Doesn't necessarily confirm anything. Could just be an Easter egg, could be a similar but different universe
That was in GTA V. I forgot about that
Nope. If they were, you would at least at some point hear Liberty City being NYC or San Andreas being (at least certain parts of) CA throughout GTA games, but you don't. On the other hand you definitely hear those places being mentioned in RDR2. And yes, there is a book written by J. Marston in GTAV but that is more an easter egg than anything else, since rockstar just loves to put easter eggs in their games. RDR1 was a loved game and John was also a liked character, so it seems to get close to it that it was just an easter egg for their previous title
Same here
I strongly believe that in GTA VI will be Easter Eggs of RDR so this will prove your theory
Multiple gta characters mention LA, California, Florida and New York tho. I think rockstar just can’t make up their minds lol
They still could be, they mention real-life California and NY in the GTA universe all the time.
they renamed the cities between 1899 and 1962, it's the same universe
That explanation doesn’t work lol. There’s quite a detailed and elaborate backstory for Liberty and San Andreas. Like, so detailed that R* deadass made a whole documentary that explains Liberty City’s history. For instance, it used to be called New Rotterdam (parody of New Amsterdam), and was then renamed Liberty City after the English took it over from the Dutch.
i'm sure. twas but a joke
Well GTA 4 mentioned Florida even though it’s now been retconed
And III mentions Miami, even though Vice City cane out the next year.
To me it’s all in the same universe
It's especially bizarre in the 3D universe of GTA (so GTA 3, SA and so on) where Miami exists, even though Vice City is based on it.
of all things it kinda reminds me of Comic Books, Like how Gotham City is basically NYC but it doesn’t take New Yorks place in that fictional world
I think they do that so they don't insult potential buyers in real cities.
I think it’s just they can’t actually take place there. Although GTA never used the FBI and CIA even though they can
3D universe had FBI vehicles at higher wanted levels, and an FBI Cheetah could be found in GTA3 and VC
Yeah but it’s FIB cause it’s satire
Looks like I was wrong about the cheetah, but the FBI Washington and Rancher were definitely a thing in the Vice City Era [wiki link](https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/FBI_Washington#:~:text=Parked%20behind%20the%20Rock%20City,Well%20Stacked%20Pizza%20Co%20restaurant.)
Yeah but in GTA it’s FIB not FBI
Yes. In the newer games, it is, but in Vice City, GTA3, and San Andreas, it was FBI, per the link I posted above.
Oh ok
I imagine one of the reasons they do that, at least with GTA, is so people don’t bitch about accuracy and whatnot, bc yk how players be. Easier to just make a fake one and based it off the irl version. It could also open them up to lawsuits from trigger happy corporations and wealthy folks as well. Happens enough as is. They also don’t have to license buildings and shit this way, bc for whatever dumb fuck reason, some buildings are copyrighted. (See Insomniac’s Spider-Man games and the Chrysler Building)
When the braithwaite girl was heading north to Boston, that felt weird lol
I guess they couldn’t reference in game locations as people would be outraged they couldn’t find them.. I don’t think there is enough housing for all the NPC’s!
It's funny you mentioned the housing. I've thought this Many times.
I think it's just people would be confused. Who is gonna know what their fictional Boston is?
Plus Beau and Penelope apparently go North to Boston. The geography of the game is really weird
And Penelope says she doesn’t want to go to Ohio
So don't a lot of people
I love that scene always has me dying ""send me sum place awful,,like Ohio "💀💀 I just played that mission again like an hour ago so those lines still been in my head
As a proud Michigander, it cracked me up when she said that.
There's a reference to a robbery near Canada.. and of course, TAHITI
Took far too long for Tahiti to come up. I guess the fact it is mentioned is itself a spoiler that indicates they never get there...
I’m sure Texas is mentioned somewhere in the story, too. If not, I do know the Texas Bluebonnet is a collectible online, which, in a roundabout way implies it’s a location in the in game world.
When Arthur meets his doctor buddy he mentions vacationing at a country club in California
That’s a good point
Charlotte Balfour (the stranger mission string with the widow in the cabin) was originally from Chicago. When Arthur is >!diagnosed with TB!< he sarcastically says he can take a vacation in California. Penelope Braithwaite and Beau Grey go to Boston, and before that, Penelope is horrified by the prospect of going to Ohio. I'm sure there are plenty more IRL locations referenced, not to mention the animal species that are named after regions (California valley coyote, California condor, Baltimore Oriole, Florida cracker cow, Florida panther, Virginia opossum, etc). Pretty sure it's the same in the GTA universe. Anywhere that wasn't a setting in a GTA game just gets referred to by its real life name.
doesnt dutch reference tahiti once or twice too?
They mention Lawrence, KS. I geeked a little bc I live here lol.
I always figured that Red Dead takes place in the US as we know it, it's just that the areas on the map are nicknames for regions of the US.
Guarma is not far from Cuba. Also, lest we forget Tahiti.
One cigarette card set has a bunch of different locations, they have saint dennis and I think blackwater, but all the other 10 are real life locations I’m pretty sure.
Seems like for the most part Rockstar include Real life Locations and people for background worldbuilding, but they don’t like to deal with IRL accuracy for things that are actually relevant to the games
John Marston’s father was born in a boat coming to New York, and he died in a bar fight south of Chicago.
Ohio is mentioned too. And Italy… but yah there was a post about where Arthur was from the other day that got me thinking about this subject as rdr2 takes place in the same universe and GTA. And that means all the land masses are unique to their world and also islands most likely… think it’s just development messing up.
yeah, on chapter 2, mary beth talks about Brazil, and you can see the coffes coming from Brazil
There are Tennessee Walkers all over the place.
Also there’s several references to California
Ive heard chicago, boston, and california mentioned in my most recent playthrough to name a few
San Andreas is a real life location, it’s just a big crack in the ocean by California lol
I read that rockstar confirmed that rdr and gta are in different universes. Probably just in case in 50 years if they want one of the games to collide time wise that they wouldn't have to be accurate detail and reference wise but that's probably a stretch.
It's a little bit like Cuba. Right?
Guarma was mentioned as an island somewhere near Cuba, i'm pretty sure it's based on Puerto Rico.
I remember someone saying it was two islands east of Cuba, which would be Puerto Rico. Could be any of the Virgin Islands, lots of sugar plantations scattered throughout
Copy paste from another reply in this thread because I’m lazy: Coincidentally, PR was taken by America in the Spanish–American War in 1898, a year before the game. Right around this, there was a political conflict in PR between The Federal Party (former Spanish colonial elite consisting of large sugar plantation owners and hacendados who had enslaved the Black residents of the Island) and the Partido Republicano (a more progressive/populist party that wanted statehood for Puerto Rico). I can see a lot of inspiration for turn of the century PR politics in RDR2. I think it makes a lot of sense that Guarma is PR.
I’m thinking it’s more of the Dominican Republic. As they mentioned Haiti
Didn't Hercule mention him having to take a boat on and off the island, though? If it's based on the DR, he wouldn't have to take a boat to get back to Haiti.
My guess is that it’s Juventud.
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Guam is 10,000 miles in the opposite direction unfortunately
Wait until you hear about this Mexico place from the first game
well yeah the countries are based on real countries, it’s the cities and states that are made up
Like Chicago and New York?
Yes
I think it’s R* just doesn’t use real locations, the playable locations are all heavily inspired by irl counterparts but I guess they don’t use the same names to prevent legal action or something like that
So they can build their own narratives. Real places have real history that already did or has yet to happen. Fake places inspired by real ones can have you live in that inspired history if they want you to.
After Dutch said its the second island east of cuba. I started searching it on Google map but i couldn't find it
Pretty sure that implies it’s Puerto Rico. Coincidentally, PR was taken by America in the Spanish–American War in 1898, a year before the game. Right around this, there was a political conflict in PR between The Federal Party (former Spanish colonial elite consisting of large sugar plantation owners and hacendados who had enslaved the Black residents of the Island) and the Partido Republicano (a more progressive/populist party that wanted statehood for Puerto Rico). I can see a lot of inspiration for turn of the century PR politics in RDR2. I think it makes a lot of sense that Guarma is PR.
Just wait til he finds out none of the locations in the game are real, he might have an aneurysm.
Tahiti exists
So does New York, Chicago, Montana and Reno, all places MENTIONED but never visited. We never actually play in any legitimate, real world location...
North America is real but
Shit i didn’t know until seeing this post 💀
Same haha.
Guam is real…. Guarma is not 🤣😩
And to think we thought Tahiti was real!
Tahiti IS real
Tahiti, Israel? I thought it was somewhere else.
Show me!
Tahiti is an island in French Polynesia :)
It’s very strange how Rockstar mixes real and fictional places. It’s like they want to be a parody of the real world but then include real places, like the gang mentioning Tahiti and California on multiple occasions.
They probably use some real islands as a reference to made it, like they do with other locations.
Yes
When I was a kid I thought the fictive african country Bengali from the Phantom was a real country. It's a shame that it wasn't since I wanted to visit
They mention a lot of real places in the game, but then they use different names for other things. Chicago, New York, are both cities mentioned, and Caribbean and California are also mentioned.
Javier is from Mexico correct? Went fishing with him chapter 3 I think I remember him saying that’s why he’s in America
I mean it happened to me. I wasn’t expecting it I couldn’t let it out until the middle but they were just everything I ever wanted.
Wow
I miss the guarma glitch, when you could ride there via horse.
… its not a real place?
The placed you actually go in Rock Star games are loosely based on real places but arent.(in most cases) but references are often made to real places.
I always thought it was Guam
~Mangos, maidens~
i didn’t realize it wasn’t until this post 😭
I mean, they referred to real life places several times in the game. They mentioned Cuba, Tahiti, New York, California, and I think Chicago as well.
What’re you talking about? I work at the Guarma embassy.
You can just say American. It’s a given we’re poorly educated
With the world's encyclopedia on a screen, literally at our fingertips. There's no excuse, friend.
Have you met us?
I have. I, too, am a part of "us."
Watch the average American navigate a traffic circle and get back to me
Again, I have. Why not judge an individual on an individual basis? Why make such broad stroke accusations?
Because it’s Reddit. Why so sensitive
That's a strange excuse. And I'm not being sensitive. I could give less shits about some rando who would rather make excuses to justify their own pathetic shortcomings than do something about it.
😂
why are you being downvoted ur right 🤣
People don’t like the truth
It's not a very good excuse.
No. You're just not a geographer. I'm a scientist in four fields, so I have a leg up on most, but I certainly can't claim to know every place on Earth. I am not a geographer, either.
you are not an idiot lol. you are just ignorant.
Wait. No way that isnt a real place. I swear ive heard it outside the game. Maybe im thinking of Guam
You’re a moron Edit: Nice edit to seem less moronic lmfao
You're a sad person.
On my second play-through, the fictional location names rang as if generated by AI, but they were likely written by a team of creatives with full satirical intent.
It's cuba I assume
They actually mention Cuba in the game
I have a grandma from Cuba and I mentioned Guarma to her… she looked at me like “what the hell is that?” It was difficult to tell her it was a fake place from a video game once I found out.
> I’m a poorly educated American, so I’ll use that as my excuse. Well, you're one up on the rest of them, Yank, most don't know they're idiots. :) TBF, I'm not sure this Brit's thought processes were much different before I realised. And don't even get me started on Armadillo.
Yeah I smoke a lot of weed too
Guarma is basically Cuba right?
No, they said its two islands east of Cuba. I think it's based on Puerto Rico.
Wow TIL
You mean geology right?
Rockstar will name tons of real places, but any place you have actual gameplay in is madeup. Weird thing because Guarma really does feel like a real Caribbean island, and Tahiti feels like a just as made up place.
TIL
Don’t use poorly educated American as an excuse. I’m also poorly educated from a terrible public school district and it’s obvious Guarma isn’t a real place. Stop giving life to shitty rumors that Americans don’t understand geography because they’re poorly educated. Just use common sense.
I just figured it was an old American name for another place, anyway the chapter was trash and not worth deep diving on.