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I hate it when games don't name their fictional businesses properly

Aurc

Aurc

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,890
So I'm replaying RE2 in anticipation of RE3, exploring and taking in the environment more than usual since it's been awhile since my last full playthrough, and I couldn't help but notice this place behind RPD.
4yCMEmu.jpg
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That's right: It's a restaurant... called RESTAURANT. The devs, for whatever reason, didn't bother coming up with an actual name for the place. It's especially weird when you consider that, not far from "Restaurant", there's a place called Mikhail's Pierogies, which is at least a cool reference to an RE3 character, plus something that sounds like it could be a real business.

Here's two more examples, both from Yakuza 0:
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A coffee shop called Coffee Shop? A popcorn shop called... Popcorn Shop? Come on, man. The least they could do is make up some decent sounding fictional names, because this is some barebones worldbuilding right here (if you can even call it worldbuilding).

Would anyone here eat at a restaurant called Restaurant? Be honest. Me personally, I'd at least like to know what type of food they serve, because "Restaurant" just tells me nothing at all except that they do indeed serve food.
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
50,114
Maybe it is worldbuilding. Maybe being really boring is part of the local culture. Did you ever think of that, OP?
 
Ryuelli

Ryuelli

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,209
I've legitimately seen a few places in real life that were just called "Restaurant", especially in small towns.
 
Vitamin_B_Complex

Vitamin_B_Complex

Member
Jan 21, 2019
2,902
Aurc said:
So I'm replaying RE2 in anticipation of RE3, exploring and taking in the environment more than usual since it's been awhile since my last full playthrough, and I couldn't help but notice this place behind RPD.

That's right: It's a restaurant... called RESTAURANT. The devs, for whatever reason, didn't bother coming up with an actual name for the place. It's especially weird when you consider that, not far from "Restaurant", there's a place called Mikhail's Pierogies, which is at least a cool reference to an RE3 character, plus something that sounds like it could be a real business.

Here's two more examples, both from Yakuza 0:

A coffee shop called Coffee Shop? A popcorn shop called... Popcorn Shop? Come on, man. The least they could do is make up some decent sounding fictional names, because this is some barebones worldbuilding right here (if you can even call it worldbuilding).

Would anyone here eat at a restaurant called Restaurant? Be honest. Me personally, I'd at least like to know what type of food they serve, because "Restaurant" just tells me nothing at all except that they do indeed serve food.
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In a Japanese setting like Yakuza, I don't think it's too crazy to assume that these shops are called just that.
 
OP
OP
Aurc

Aurc

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,890
L Thammy said:
Maybe it is worldbuilding. Maybe being really boring is part of the local culture. Did you ever think of that, OP?
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I guess "GUN SHOP KENDO" is also sort of a dull name. At least the owner has his name in there, though. It's not just "GUN SHOP".
Ryuelli said:
I've legitimately seen a few places in real life that were just called "Restaurant", especially in small towns.
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They need to get a real name!
TripaSeca said:
Doom eternal caught my attention with a store in level 2:
waddaya buying
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That's actually a great reference! I love it when looking at the environment for stuff like that pays off.
 
FakePlasticTree

FakePlasticTree

Member
Jul 24, 2018
10,277
Aurc said:
So I'm replaying RE2 in anticipation of RE3, exploring and taking in the environment more than usual since it's been awhile since my last full playthrough, and I couldn't help but notice this place behind RPD.

That's right: It's a restaurant... called RESTAURANT. The devs, for whatever reason, didn't bother coming up with an actual name for the place. It's especially weird when you consider that, not far from "Restaurant", there's a place called Mikhail's Pierogies, which is at least a cool reference to an RE3 character, plus something that sounds like it could be a real business.

Here's two more examples, both from Yakuza 0:

A coffee shop called Coffee Shop? A popcorn shop called... Popcorn Shop? Come on, man. The least they could do is make up some decent sounding fictional names, because this is some barebones worldbuilding right here (if you can even call it worldbuilding).

Would anyone here eat at a restaurant called Restaurant? Be honest. Me personally, I'd at least like to know what type of food they serve, because "Restaurant" just tells me nothing at all except that they do indeed serve food.
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With regards to Yakuza, I'd say the names are accurate as a lot of shops in Tokyo have very boring, broken, English typed names.
 
HelloItsPulse

HelloItsPulse

Member
Dec 14, 2017
2,069
There's a dentist building in my area just named "DENTIST", so I don't think I can be shocked at any generically named place.
 
Doctor_Thomas

Doctor_Thomas

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,674
What's amusing is that we're talking about them, while a creatively named shop would get no thread or recognition.
 
The Adder

The Adder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,160
There's a pub not too far from me actually named "Local Public Eatery."

I could believe in a restaurant named Restaurant.
 
Bossking

Bossking

Member
Nov 20, 2017
1,435
Aurc said:
So I'm replaying RE2 in anticipation of RE3, exploring and taking in the environment more than usual since it's been awhile since my last full playthrough, and I couldn't help but notice this place behind RPD.

That's right: It's a restaurant... called RESTAURANT. The devs, for whatever reason, didn't bother coming up with an actual name for the place. It's especially weird when you consider that, not far from "Restaurant", there's a place called Mikhail's Pierogies, which is at least a cool reference to an RE3 character, plus something that sounds like it could be a real business.

Here's two more examples, both from Yakuza 0:

A coffee shop called Coffee Shop? A popcorn shop called... Popcorn Shop? Come on, man. The least they could do is make up some decent sounding fictional names, because this is some barebones worldbuilding right here (if you can even call it worldbuilding).

Would anyone here eat at a restaurant called Restaurant? Be honest. Me personally, I'd at least like to know what type of food they serve, because "Restaurant" just tells me nothing at all except that they do indeed serve food.
Click to expand...
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The Yakuza sample is more of an outlier just because even in your screenshot, it's surrounded by other storefronts with (assuming) more creative names. The fact that that store's name is in English makes it stand out more, which is probably the mindset a local business owner would have in naming it.

And to be honest, sometimes, it does feel more real to see a few boring, uncreative businesses thrown into the mix. If they're ALL like "restaurant" or "grocery store" it'd be boring, but seeing a store called "Popcorn Shop" in the middle of all these other Japanese businesses does make you stop and think about what the story behind it can be.
 
mikhailguy

mikhailguy

Banned
Jun 20, 2019
1,967
I remember a really sketchy computer repair shop nearby that all my friends and I assumed was some sort of front. Some Russian people ran it.

It was just called, "Computer."
 
Vitamin_B_Complex

Vitamin_B_Complex

Member
Jan 21, 2019
2,902
Tavernade said:
Yeah, especially since it's in English. I wonder if naming convention is similar if it's just written in Japanese? I do feel like most places have descriptive names there, though.
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Well on pop corn shop it says ice cream in Japanese. And considering Yakuza is set in a district with a lot of tourism, having these generic names makes a lot of sense since most tourists can't read kanji or the kana.
 
zma1013

zma1013

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,688
We have a warehouse that sells carpet and the name on their building is Warehouse Carpet.
 
lamalande

lamalande

Member
Feb 9, 2019
92
And in the opposite, you have Frontier games and the amazing Planet Coaster with its customed brands which got their own mascots and all...

aa68dw67kpwx.png


CwmallYWEAQNSzM.jpg
 
TheOnlyJ

TheOnlyJ

Member
Oct 29, 2019
617
What was the 80s or early 90s movie that had every product had "product" written on it? Or maybe it's just a reference to the No-Brand brand.
 
lamalande

lamalande

Member
Feb 9, 2019
92
Aurc said:
Man lamalande, now that's what I'm talking about. I love that Foxy Coffee brand and mascot especially.
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In fact, this one was created by a fan during a contest and reworked after by Frontier devs.
But yeah, the attention to details put by Frontiers made me think they're one of the top-tier dev team on the world right now.
 
ghibli99

ghibli99

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,877
We always used to laugh at this in Seinfeld...

Tom%27s_Restaurant%2C_NYC.jpg


...I know it's Tom's/Monk's, but the generic 'Restaurant' just seemed perfect to us in a show about nothing.
 
Bradford

Bradford

terminus est
Member
Aug 12, 2018
5,423
There is a Chinese restaurant down the street from my apartment that literally only has a sign saying restaurant on it. We didn't know what kind of food it was until we went in.
 
Vonocourt

Vonocourt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,632
This is not uncommon OP.
Griff said:
There is a Chinese restaurant down the street from my apartment that literally only has a sign saying restaurant on it. We didn't know what kind of food it was until we went in.
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I wouldn't be surprised if its just because the space came with the sign already, and it's expensive to make and install a custom sign.
 
MC_Leon6494

MC_Leon6494

Member
Sep 7, 2018
501
I 100% agree OP, it's very very frustrating and doesn't help with my immersion. I get a lot of people's examples saying "oh yeah this place in my town has a super generic sign with no real name" but I would bet every single one of those examples has an actual name but the company didn't splurge and get a custom sign - especially in a small town with only one Chinese restaurant.

Most of these "coffee shop" examples in games could be sidestepped with calling them "The Coffee Shop" or "The Coffee Place" or just adding a generic area-appropriate name to the front and get "Joe's Coffee Shop" and the like. Are they interesting names? No. But it's an easy solution to a nearly irrelevant issue.
 
Mass Effect

Mass Effect

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 31, 2017
16,819
Okay, but how do you feel about REAL businesses being inside games?

Need for Speed Underground 2:
nfsu_bestbuy.jpg


Burnout Revenge:
ingameadvertising.jpg
 
Lukemia SL

Lukemia SL

Member
Jan 30, 2018
9,386
I appreciate the sign in kendo's gun shop saying ballistics. That's all I've got to say about that.
 
PeskyToaster

PeskyToaster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,316
You just have to put that disclaimer that's on a lot of books and stuff that it's all ficitious and any similarities to persons or business real or fictious are purely coincidental.
 
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