Best and Worst Fictional Cities/Places to live in?

[Valentine Z]

Hi, everyone! Well, first and foremost, I hope that this is in the correct thread, so here goes. With all the political craziness going on in our real lives, I figured, hey, maybe we take a break from that and talk about works of fiction.

From countless books, video games, movies, and TV shows, you will have come across an equally countless number of breathtaking universes, cities, places of living... all teaming with life. The multi-planet system of Star Wars, 2000-meter tall New Alexandria of planet Reach from Halo: Reach, a colorful neon Vice City from GTA: Vice City, the open fantasy world of Skyrim, the bright and futuristic Earth in Overwatch... the list goes on.

So, with that, I ask you: What is the best and worst place for you to live in, given a choice?

Best place
For me, the best place for me would be New Alexandria from Halo: Reach. Well, at least in its heydays before, ahem, spoilers, it was invaded by The Covenant. I am a sucker for more than a thousand meter tall (according to the gameplay, buildings are actually that tall) skyscrapers, even though I have a crippling fear of heights. I love the balance of nature, as well as a booming metropolis. New Mombasa from Halo 3: ODST come in at a close second. Playing the campaign was a whole new experience for me, to explore the empty city all by myself, to appreciate the architecture.

Further edit: I might have contradicted myself that while I love nature, I actually love New Mombasa too, even though it does not exactly show nature reserves in the game. To be fair, based on Halo 3, Tsavo Highway seems to connect to a natural place, so there's that.

More further edit: Planet Sirius from Serious Sam 2 is also a runner-up. How does it look like? Well, feast your eyes on this.

Honorable mention goes to Rapture from Bioshock, which I thought about, but heck no... As much as I love the plasmids, did you see what the ADAM do to your body and mind? No... just no.

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Worst place
On the other hand... I would hate to be a civilian stuck in Liberty City from GTA 4. I mean... holy crap, the whole city is just muted - little to no color, and there's no nature to go around; every single place you go is industrialized, and the water is heavily polluted. I'm not exactly a crazy hippie (nothing wrong with that, mind you), but I just like somewhere to walk around after a day's work). Yeah, I mean there are city parks, but meh, it's so small! Oh, and don't forget the crime and drugs, as well as a crazy psychopath going around shooting wildly (I assume that I will live there as a typical citizen, not the protagonist of the GTA games).

Not to mention the products they have. Take a note at something as innocent as an energy drink:

Sprunk is a carbonated lemon lime beverage claimed in a Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas radio commercial to contain "10 times the caffeine and sugar", mixed with mercury, ether and benzene, and packaged in fragmentation grenade-shaped cans.

Holy shoot, that crap would kill you after just one can.

The whole city is just insane. I appreciate GTA IV as a game and satire on real life, but the city is a hellhole.

[The New California Republic]

Best place

The Citadel from Mass Effect. I just like the idea of so many different races/species living in that high-tech spinning space station. And the flowing lines of the architecture is amazing as well.

Worst place

Speaking about the citadel, the worst place would be City 17 from Half Life 2. That place is hell, literal hell, regardless of the lies that Dr. Breen said. Barnacles, headcrabs, tainted water that makes you forget things, random beatings by Civil Protection, ugh. It was hell even before the uprising. Possibly the only place worse than City 17 would be Ravenholm, also from Half Life 2, but that doesn't count since it wasn't really inhabited when the player encountered it.

[Cetacea]

Best: Eerie, Indiana or Neverland (Peter Pan)

Worst: Megacity-1 or Venusville (the one with three-breasted whores and contaminated air)

[Faschistisches Land]

Best
Bikini Bottom (Pre-Movie): Because of its low crime rate, low chance of dying due to good hospitals (Duct tape to fix bones ftw), and best of all THE KRABBY PATTY

Worst

Virtual Steelport: Well, to start off, normal Steelport is already bad being divided by gangs and having an imbecilic corrupt police force (from my experience anyway). Now take that, remove the gangs, add an authoritarian alien dictator, an Orwellian system of government, alien technology, a bunch of psychopaths with superpowers, glitches, and the fact that it takes place within a simulation you just got a recipe for BAD

[Escalia]

Best: The world of HP, Hawkins, Indiana, the world of ATLA and LOK.
Worst: Westeros, Redania (The Witcher), Skull Island, pretty much anywhere in Warhammer 40000.

[Dumb Ideologies]

I wouldn't mind living on Aqua, the terraformed version of Mars from the Aria series. Mostly so I could steal President Aria and squish his face and belly all day long.

["take home" face intensifies]

[Donut section]

Best Caladan from Dune
Worst Geidi Prime from Dune

[The Federation of Kendor]

I don't know. But do you think that Zootopia will be a good place to life? I will take the Bikini Bottom example as a good place to life, and the Liberty City and Virtual Steelport as the worst, though how about Los Santos too?

[Alanis Star]

I don't know. But do you think that Zootopia will be a good place to life? I will take the Bikini Bottom example as a good place to life, and the Liberty City and Virtual Steelport as the worst, though how about Los Santos too?

Los Santos seems fine, to be honest. There're still rampant crime problems, and corruption is the issue, but hey, countryside is pretty nice this time of year!

Worst place

Speaking about the citadel, the worst place would be City 17 from Half Life 2. That place is hell, literal hell, regardless of the lies that Dr. Breen said. Barnacles, headcrabs, tainted water that makes you forget things, random beatings by Civil Protection, ugh. It was hell even before the uprising. Possibly the only place worse than City 17 would be Ravenholm, also from Half Life 2, but that doesn't count since it wasn't really inhabited when the player encountered it.

Oh, yes! I totally forgot about that place... City 17, ahh, ain't life grand there?

[Stellar Colonies]

Best: One of the Federation worlds from Star Trek, probably on Earth itself. Although not during the later seasons of DS9.

Worst: Probably the Equatorial Front from 1984. If you weren't being killed outright when captured, you'd merely be drafted and enslaved by one supernation or another to fight an endless war.

[Saiwania]

There are too many to choose from. Off the top of my head...

Best- Equestria. With my opposable thumbs, I will coerce innocent ponies and etc. to do my bidding! Poverty seems minimal to nonexistent there.

Worst- Ord Mantell, the entire Star Wars planet is a junkyard and landfill. Wouldn't it stink to be where the entire galaxy's trash is dropped off?

[Lomagna]

I don't know about the best city but London, Oceania would definitely be the worst.

[Saiwania]

On the other hand... I would hate to be a civilian stuck in Liberty City from GTA 4. I mean... holy crap, the whole city is just muted - little to no color, and there's no nature to go around; every single place you go is industrialized, and the water is heavily polluted. Yeah, I mean there are city parks, but meh, it's so small! Oh, and don't forget the crime and drugs, as well as a crazy psychopath going around shooting wildly.

The whole city is just insane. I appreciate GTA IV as a game and satire on real life, but the city is a hellhole.

Liberty City in GTA 4 is a loose parody of New York City, a metropolis of nearly 9 million people, the largest city in the entire US in terms of population. As such, it has the largest standing police force in the US at 40,000+ law enforcement officers with the very best equipment- generally speaking. Any major international city such as that- is going to have some crime by virtue of the fact that more people are crammed together in a relatively limited geographic area.

I've been to NYC in real life, and it doesn't have as much crime as is sometimes portrayed. The city is just way too flush with cash and economic activity to have a lot of crime relatively speaking. To be sure, it comprises a lot of New York state's economy.

My only real complaint about NYC is that it is too expensive at any time of the year. I imagine it is difficult to live there unless you're already well off. NYC would almost single handedly be responsible for New York being a blue state.

[Omakhandia]

Earth in Star Trek: TOS certainly sounds like a good idea.

For worst, pretty much anywhere in the entire world from A Song of Ice and Fire. Even if you're filthy rich, you're still going to die a horrible death, possibly on the privy. And if you're a peasant, well... enjoy farming radishes your whole life until The Mountain decides to burn your hut down and cut you to pieces for kicks.

[Sunstruck]

best: equestria [mlp] (happiness, healing magic, everyone has a purpose)
worst: Velen [witcher] death swamps of death, disease and monsters everywhere, bandits, corruption, your family members have 50% chance of turning into monsters or ghosts or being possessed

[Mega Mexico]

Best: Gravity Falls from "Gravity Falls" (duh).

Worst: Either the world of "Fahrenheit 451" or "Brave New World".

[Kenmoria]

Best: Petrew city from Pokémon, the people there never age (Ash should be around 19 by now) and every task imaginable can be done by slaves that trainers hold virtual mind control over with pokéballs.

Worst: Anything from George Orwell, take your pick.