Questions re: California in GTA:W

[Lucie]

12 minutes ago, Chef said:

References to all of those places exist in GTA 5 and they're all part of the lore.

Many of the players never played other GTA games, or didnt play GTA V single player at all. After all its just a name, itd be the same saying Liberty or New York, but more complex things of GTA lore shouldnt be used, since first, its a parody, second not all of us played the games

[Chef]

Just now, Lucie said:

Many of the players never played other GTA games, or didnt play GTA V single player at all. After all its just a name, itd be the same saying Liberty or New York, but more complex things of GTA lore shouldnt be used, since first, its a parody, second not all of us played the games

They do exist however and it's not the responsibility of the rest of the community to ignore that fact; it's up to the individuals joining the server and the community to familiarize themselves with the environment and the lore.

 

That's why the continuity team has to step it up!

[Trupiano]

For reference from the GTA Fandom San Andreas wiki

 

 

San Andreas is a large, populous state. Its diverse climate makes it unique, ranging from grassy plains to arid deserts to forests and mountain ranges. The forests of San Andreas are dominated by the mighty Redwood trees, standing tall over the ground. San Andreas is located on the West Coast of the United States, and is the birthplace of several new pop culture trends, including celebrity fallouts. The state sits on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. San Andreas is nicknamed "The Golden State", much like California.

The area of San Andreas accessible in Grand Theft Auto V consists of two counties: urban Los Santos County and mostly rural Blaine County. Other locations such as San Fierro and Las Venturas do not appear, but are mentioned numerous times. Red County and Bone County were also previously mentioned in Grand Theft Auto IV.

 

Little is known about the history of San Andreas. Throughout the story, snippets of the state's history are mentioned in dialogue. San Andreas used to be a territory of Mexico in the 1800s, which explains the large Mexican population and some Spanish geographic names. The city of Los Santos, however, was founded in 1781, which was when the Spanish Empire was still in control. Old Mexican bloodlines like Manuel's resided there for over 200 years, and consider themselves more American than Americans themselves. Blaine County was established in 1823.

Judging from the state flag, it is possible that the American settlers came to San Andreas and defeated Mexico, thus establishing the San Andreas Republic. Los Santos County was established in 1889, several years after the founding of Blaine County. In the 20th century, San Andreas became the center of culture in America and gave birth to the famous Vinewood film culture, resulting in classics like Vinewood Zombie. In Grand Theft Auto IV, it is stated that Los Santos experienced riots in the 1990s, just like the Los Angeles Riots.

The beaver is the official state animal of San Andreas. The beaver can be seen on the state flag, the logo of the Los Santos County Sheriff, and on the seal of the city of Los Santos.

 

San Andreas has four known counties: Los Santos County, Blaine County, Red County and Bone County. However, the latter two do not appear in the game.

 

Major Cities

 

Los Santos

 

The city of Los Santos is the main setting of the events of Grand Theft Auto V and initial home of two of the protagonists.

 

Other Mentioned Cities

 

San Fierro

 

The city of San Fierro is based on San Francisco. The city was mentioned by Lester Crest during The Doomsday Heist.

 

Las Venturas

 

It is implied that Las Venturas is based on Las Vegas, Nevada. While Las Venturas was in the State of San Andreas (which is based on California and partially on Nevada) in its previous rendition, it has not been specified if it is still within San Andreas state.

 

 

I do suggest everyone read the wiki, It is incredibly interesting and I'm sure just reading it would give many people ideas for RP.

[TheSenate]

The traditional policy has been to treat SA as a 51st state. Yes, it's weird imagining that it coexists with California, no it wasn't what Rockstar intended. However, the lore on these servers tends to follow real life more closely than GTA Lore anyways. Let people RP what they want, and if they want to be from California, let them. Just like all the people who choose to be from New York as compared to Liberty.

Edited July 8, 2020 by TheSenate

[my_g]

to me, the idea that city developers decided to create a miniature parody of los angeles Inside a state that is also a minute parody of California is laughable and ridiculous, it's a direct hypocrisy to the idea that you're roleplaying this for realism purposes. By this logic San andreas isn't even the 51st state, it'd be the 53rd + after the State of Liberty and Alderney, in which there also exists miniature versions of NYC and New Jersey. I don't really have a problem with people roleplaying something like this on an individual level even though I'm not going to take it seriously, but I don't see any reason why this should be implemented as an actual part of our lore.

[Engelbert]

I simply roleplay Los Santos and rest of the landscape as it is. Including brands, which are often referenced in the game.

[Tank]

Might as well share my opinion on the subject.

 

I believe we should encourage people to role-play San Andreas as its own fictional state. We have already embraced the different brands found in GTA: cigarettes, alcohol and even vehicles. The whole point of San Andreas is to be a mini satire version of California. This should be our universe based off the lore that's been established in the HD universe GTA games. Obviously, we shouldn't role-play any of the events that take place in GTA IV or V, we should simply use the backdrop that's been provided.

 

The reason for this is that we have better control over the grand plot that covers all our characters as it's not strictly necessary to follow real life events. San Andreas should replace California, Liberty City should replace New York and so on. I also think, regardless of whatever is decided, the continuity team should jump on this topic ASAP. I believe it's important for players to understand what kind of world they're role-playing in and avoid confusion, disagreements during role-play and so on.

[r0yal]

I personally choose to ignore California's existence unless it's extremely needed; e.g someone famous gets killed in California, the California fires- you simply can't mesh these things into San Andreas without it getting tricky. Everything else I roleplay as happening in San Andreas.

 

As for the island part, it's hard to ignore it and say you're still connected to landmass on every side as it's not like SAMP where the devs put up huge mountains due north, here I just roleplay it being an island just off the coast.

 

I personally don't like or use the other replacement cities such as Las Venturas, Vice City and Liberty City as I find it unneeded and just complicates things more. However if somebody else mentions them I'm not going to be all weird and have a debate with them IC.

 

This topic as a whole has hundreds of varying opinions which likely nobody will ever agree on, you should just roleplay what you want to roleplay in your own little circle and improvise if somebody roleplays otherwise.

[Valkyria]

Just now, r0yal said:

This topic as a whole has hundreds of varying opinions which likely nobody will ever agree on, you should just roleplay what you want to roleplay in your own little circle and improvise if somebody roleplays otherwise.

 

This is what I do, and it's the way to go IMO. I just don't go out of my way to mention/reference California and it honestly doesn't come up in a conversation all too often anyways. When it does? Just apply common courtesy and roll with the punches.

[StoneFire]

I think the man himself made it quite clear; (Link to the post)

On 11/28/2019 at 2:07 PM, Nervous said:

Just for a quick explanation as it seems it's not clear for any of you - we are roleplaying the state of San Andreas, portraying California.

Edit : We will put up a continuity thread asap explaining it all as there are two views opposing themselves which are roleplaying SA as a separated island from california or replacing california completely.