History Main / ThrivingGhostTown

* UsefulNotes/NiagaraFalls on the American side of the border. The most you'll see in that area are a few hotels and ''maybe'' some residents.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamstown,_Pitcairn_Islands Adamstown,]] which serves as the capital (and ''only'' settlement) of the Pitcairn Islands in the South Pacific. It is the least populous national jurisdiction in the world, having a population of ''forty-seven people'' and falling.

The average small country town may have a population of 5-15 -- a big city, like the capital of a continent-spanning empire, may have as many as thirty. Generally, these towns consist of fewer than ten distinct buildings, all of particular interest to the player; no sign of an agricultural economy or professional tradesmen is outwardly visible. Similarly, approximately 90% of a city's observable population will interact with the player in some way relevant to the plot of the game.

A typical town the heroes find themselves in usually consists of the following; an [[TraumaInn Inn]], a weapons/armor shop (the true metropolis may have a separate shop for each), a general store, a specialty shop relating to the game's [[FunctionalMagic magic system]], and no more than three houses. In extreme examples, [[OnlyShopInTown only one shop of any kind is seen]], and it [[AnEconomyIsYou only stocks items relevant to gameplay]]. With the exception of the {{Non Player Character}}s living in those houses, the entire remainder of the population is apparently homeless; some [=NPCs=] seem to exist for the sole purpose of standing around and [[WelcomeToCorneria talking to passers-by.]]

In the earlier days of video games, this was a matter of data storage economy; every kilobyte was precious and couldn't be wasted on extraneous houses or people. Today this trope exists due to design limitations -- creating realistically sized cities with hundreds and thousands of people, houses and streets would take a tremendous amount of work for both developers and player's hardware, for very little gain. Not only that -- due to the TalkToEveryone convention in {{CRPG}}s, players would feel compelled to ''actually go through'' all these houses and people in the hopes of finding or learning something useful.

Some games {{handwave}} this by implying that the town is much larger via expansive background images; our heroes, for whatever reason, are [[GatelessGhetto only visiting a small portion of it.]] Some modern games try to downplay this by adding numbers of [[FacelessMasses generic or non-interactive]] pedestrians into city scenes, or buildings that the player cannot enter, to give the ''illusion'' of a larger populace and settlement. This also makes it a case of NoticeThis -- if some house is explorable while the vast majority aren't, or some NPC looks unique and/or is given a name, it must have something of interest.

* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'', much like [[SpiritualSuccessor its inspiration]] ''Harvest Moon'', is set in one of these. About 30 {{Non Player Character}}s reside in the section of the overworld map designated as "Pelican Town", the primary settlement in the valley, and there are perhaps three dozen (human) inhabitants in the entire valley.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Tokyo-3 seems to be very scarcely populated, seeing how Misato is seemingly the only tenant in her department, the almost always deserted roads shown in the panoramic shoots of the city and the scenes of the school where Shinji and co. go are always full of empty classrooms. It would be safe to assume that NERV's staff are the only people that still live in the city.

** Echo Isles is supposed to be the home of most of the Darkspear Trolls, but ingame, it is only about four huts and several NPCs, most of them guards. Notably in the RealTimeStrategy game, ''[[VideoGame/WarcraftIIIReignOfChaos Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne]]'', the island and the civilization on it was far larger.

** ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' has quite large towns (though some buildings have no door), ''except'' for the "largest" one, Fourside, which appears quite small compared to what it's supposed to be. It can be assumed that [[GatelessGhetto only the south corner]] of the town is visible, however.

** Those empty buildings make cities look bigger than they actually are, but they're still quite a bit smaller than the lore or storyline would suggest. A census by counting {{Non Player Character}}s would suggest that the population of Stormwind - the largest human city in the world - is probably around one to two hundred people, eighty percent of whom are guards. A census by counting houses and extrapolating from there, even assuming medieval population density, would suggest that the population is probably around two to four thousand, maybe as much as 10,000. But [[AllThereInTheManual according to the RPG sourcebook]], there are about 140,000 people in Stormwind.

* A good way to see this trope in action is to compare the cities and towns in the Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime to those in [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} the video games]]. For example, Viridian City in the games is just five or six buildings, but in the anime, it looks like [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/File:Viridian_City_anime.png a proper big city.]]

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Tokyo-3 seems to be very scarcely populated, seeing how Misato is seemingly the only tenant in her department, the almost always deserted roads shown in the panoramic shoots of the city and the scenes of the school where Shinji and co. go are always full of empty classrooms. It would be safe to assume that NERV's staff are the only people that still live in the city.

[[folder:Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatoing}}'' turns Rio de Janeiro into one.
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is usually justified in having such a small cast by being set in a single neighborhood, but the episodes set in school feature no more than the same cast of a dozen characters.
* A good way to see this trope in action is to compare the cities and towns in the Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime to those in [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} the video games]]. For example, Viridian City in the games is just five or six buildings, but in the anime, it looks like [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/File:Viridian_City_anime.png a proper big city.]]
* The CGI ''WesternAnimation/AngelinaBallerina'' series has this in both Angelina's school and in the town of Chipping Cheddar. It's quite rare to see any other inhabitants other than the cast strolling about town. As for Angelina's school, Camembert Academy, the building is shown both on the inside and outside to be huge; yet, apart from the occasional extras, we don't see anyone except Angelina, Miss Mimi and Angelina's friends.
* Beach City in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has a [[SarcasmMode whopping]] 20 people on a good day, and most of them own businesses. {{Lampshaded}} in a few episodes:
** In "Steven and the Stevens", when Steven claims the whole town will be at a music festival, his dad notes that's only about 15 people.
** In "Dewey Wins", Steven tries to reassure Mayor Dewey about [[InstantHumiliationJustAddYoutube an embarrassing video of him]] [[ProducePelting getting hit with a tomato]] has only been seen by twelve people. Dewey replies "Twelve people?! That's half the town!"
* The whole Southern Water Tribe in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' appears to be nothing but a small village whose population barely scratches the double digits. Lampshaded when Katara introduces Aang to "the whole town", done really quickly when she gestures to a small group. Justified somewhat, since the men are out fighting in the war against the [[TheEmpire Fire Nation]], and also [[spoiler: the South Pole has suffered several Fire Nation attacks in the last 100 years, most of them with the intent of wiping out or capturing as many Waterbenders as possible. One of those eventually led to the invention of [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Bloodbending]] by a captured Waterbender driven mad, and the last one ended with Katara and Sokka's mother murdered.]] Another realistic detail is how it took at least a generation to get so depopulated, since the older generation remembers when it used to be a ShiningCity like the Northern Water Tribe. It also doesn't ''stay'' a ghost town; by the time of the SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', the South Pole regrown into a large, busy port town after 70 years of peace and mended economic relationships.

* ''VideoGame/{{Arcanum}}'': Shrouded Hills is the first town in the game, and zigzags between being played straight and being a subversion. Played straight in that it has the usual junk merchant (one of the most-visited PCs in the game, as stealing his key means you can access his chest and ''repeatedly'' sell his own stuff and your own back to him until he runs out of money, not to mention selling magic items automatically identifies them), smith, general store, and magic store despite the source of income (the silver mine) drying up and being haunted, later subverted in that you can help restore the town's economy by removing the ghost. It also has a bank you can save from being robbed.

Due to TheLawOfConservationOfDetail, towns and cities in [=RPGs=] appear [[SpaceCompression much smaller]] than they would really be, rarely having an observable population of more than a single digit (or, at most, the 'teens); which is of course far smaller than any realistic level of economic sustainability.

The average small country town may have a population of a dozen or so people -- a big city, like the capital of a continent-spanning empire, may have as many as thirty. Generally, these towns consist of fewer than ten distinct buildings, all of particular interest to the player; no sign of an agricultural economy or professional tradesmen is outwardly visible. Similarly, approximately 90% of a city's observable population will interact with the player in some way relevant to the plot of the game.

A typical town the heroes find themselves in usually consists of the following; an [[TraumaInn Inn]], a weapons/armor shop (the true metropolis may have a separate shop for each), an "item" shop, a specialty shop relating to the game's [[FunctionalMagic magic system]], and no more than three houses. In extreme examples, [[OnlyShopInTown only one shop of any kind is seen]], and it [[AnEconomyIsYou only stocks items relevant to gameplay]]. With the exception of those {{Non Player Character}}s living in those houses, the entire remainder of the population is apparently homeless; some {{Non Player Character}}s seem to exist for the sole purpose of standing in a specific location and [[WelcomeToCorneria talking to passers-by.]]

In the earliest computer and console {{RPG}}s, this was a matter of economy; every kilobyte was precious and couldn't be wasted on extraneous houses or people. Today this trope exists due to design limitations -- creating realistically sized cities with hundreds and thousands of people, houses and streets would take a tremendous amount of work for both developers and player's hardware, for very little gain. Not only that -- due to the TalkToEveryone convention in {{CRPG}}s, players would feel compelled to ''actually go through'' all these houses and people in the hopes of finding or learning something useful.

Some games {{handwave}} this by implying the town is much larger via expansive background images; our heroes, for whatever reason, are [[GatelessGhetto only visiting a small portion of it.]] Some modern games try to downplay this by adding numbers of [[FacelessMasses generic or non-interactable]] pedestrians into city scenes, or buildings that the player cannot enter to give the ''illusion'' of a larger populace and settlement. This also makes it a case of NoticeThis -- if some house is explorable while the vast majority aren't, or some NPC looks unique and/or is given a name, it must have something of interest.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' averts this. For the most part, you're only visiting small colonies and outposts. The Citadel and Omega Station have lots of [=NPC=]s wandering around, and the areas you can access aren't the residential zones, either.

* ''VideoGame/BreathOfDeathVII'', aside from typical underdeveloped JRPG villages[[note]]Well, every NPC there is undead, so it's not like they ''need'' accomodation or something.[[/note]], also features two dungeons set in RuinsOfTheModernAge, which are quite expansive (''especially'' the second one).

* The world of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' would appear to sustain 12,000 monsters at the very least, [[spoiler: if the fight with Mettaton EX is anything to go by]]. It goes without saying that you'll only see a tiny, tiny fraction of them. [[spoiler: Even in a No Mercy run where the goal is to kill ''everyone'', you'll off less than 1% of the population during gameplay.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'': Most towns and cities in the game tend to have rather scant populations. Even cities noted for being large have populations at most comparable to small real-life towns -- Lumiose City, the largest settlement in the games, has only 416 inhabitants (For quick comparison, Paris, Lumiose's real life counterpart, has population of around 2 million in the city proper). Some particularly extreme examples include Lavaridge Town and Ever Grande City in Hoenn: the first consists of a Gym, a Poké Mart, a Pokémon Center and a herb shop alongside a single residential house, which combined with its rather out-of-the-way location raises questions about where the stores find enough business to stay afloat; the second consist of nothing besides the Pokémon League and a Pokémon Center. Likewise, most starting towns rarely have more than ten inhabitants. In contrast, the [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]] depicts cities more realistically.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''

** Also, while Clock Town in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' is relatively small, every character has a place to go at night, and you can in fact watch them walk home. This is largely done because of the GroundhogDayLoop mechanic. Justified in that aside from some stubborn business owners and government officials, most of the townsfolk have fled because ''the moon is falling.''

[[folder:First Person Shooter]]

[[folder:Role Playing Game]]
* ''{{VideoGame/Arcanum'': Shrouded Hills is the first town in the game, and zigzags between being played straight and being a subversion. Played straight in that it has the usual junk merchant (one of the most-visited PCs in the game, as stealing his key means you can access his chest and ''repeatedly'' sell his own stuff and your own back to him until he runs out of money, not to mention selling magic items automatically identifies them), smith, general store, and magic store despite the source of income (the silver mine) drying up and being haunted, later subverted in that you can help restore the town's economy by removing the ghost. It also has a bank you can save from being robbed.

[[folder:SimulationGames]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}''. All non plot important buildings in the city are completely empty, and seemingly serve merely to "be the city"; though they get occupied and used based on what they resemble. For example the slaughterhouse somehow feeds the troops through its mere existence, as there are no workers, and no slaughtering going on. Of course, the world they're in is based on TurnBasedStrategy tropes, where abstractions of this sort are commonplace. Not to mention other odd things; Farms "pop" piglets/calves/chicks, which get progressively older and fatter over the course of a few turns, until eventually they disappear and are replaced by pork/beef/chicken food items teleported directly to the consumer. Seriously.

* ''Animation/{{Ratatoing}}'' turns Rio de Janeiro into one.

* Unusual for a real time strategy game, ''VideoGame/StarWarsEmpireAtWar'' features small to sizable civilian populations and are interactive in that they'll either side with you and be controllable by the player, or side with the enemy, depending on that planet's pre-determined allegiance. Not only that, some of these units are capable of taking down ''tanks'' (Geonosians or Ewoks, for example) and if nothing else can make for very useful distractions or at minimum scouting (they respawn until their buildings are destroyed). Also, they can capture points, meaning you don't have to drop your own infantry.
** Likewise, in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'', large cities usually have a (sparse) civilian population spread throughout the city, which for the most part the player can't interact with beyond using them as target practice. In multiplayer, Soviets can mind control them with Yuri (and they have unique civilian soundbites when controlled), and wrap them in explosives with Ivan---this even works on cattle. The expansion pack ''Yuri's Revenge'' expands the set of mind control units and provides a "grinder" building you can feed them to for resources. Soylent Tank is people.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' makes efforts to justify this. The story takes place AfterTheEnd, when a good chunk of Hyrule's population was massacred by Calamity Ganon. The villages that are still around each have about three dozen or so named [=NPC=]s living in them, with many more scattered across the wilderness.

* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'', much like the aforementioned ''Harvest Moon'', is set in one of these. About 20 {{Non Player Character}}s reside in the section of the overworld map designated as "Pelican Town", the primary settlement in the valley, and there are perhaps three dozen (human) inhabitants in the entire valley.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'', a world can have a maximum of twenty-two friendly {{Non Player Character}}s (twenty-three during the Christmas season). Although Terraria requires each of these [=NPC=]s to have a home to live in (and thus would constitute a small Thriving Ghost Town if a player built an actual ''house'' for each [=NPC=]), a "home" can be as simple as a room in a much larger structure, so it's more commonplace for players to construct a base or fortress instead of a town. Which makes it either mystifying or ''disturbing'' when you wonder where all these zombies are coming from...

** Turks and Caicos islands. During resort season, it bustles with tourists. The rest of the time? Barely anybody.

* China's ghost cities. Large cities with full infrastructure and lots of construction, but very few people. They are built during the construction boom of the 2010s, but real estate speculation rapidly pushed the cost of the house out of the reach of regular Chinese citizens, which forces the government to build more housing with the hope that this time, they will be affordable. Inevitably, the speculators descend and this vicious cycle restarts.

A typical town the heroes find themselves in usually consists of the following; an [[TraumaInn Inn]], a weapons/armor shop (the true metropolis may have a separate shop for each), an "item" shop, a specialty shop relating to the game's [[FunctionalMagic magic system]], and no more than three houses. In extreme examples, [[OnlyShopInTown only one shop of any kind is seen]], and it [[AnEconomyIsYou only stocks items relevant to gameplay]]. With the exception of those {{NPC}}s living in those houses, the entire remainder of the population is apparently homeless; some {{NPC}}s seem to exist for the sole purpose of standing in a specific location and [[WelcomeToCorneria talking to passers-by.]]

** Those empty buildings make cities look bigger than they actually are, but they're still quite a bit smaller than the lore or storyline would suggest. A census by counting {{NPC}}s would suggest that the population of Stormwind - the largest human city in the world - is probably around one to two hundred people, eighty percent of whom are guards. A census by counting houses and extrapolating from there, even assuming medieval population density, would suggest that the population is probably around two to four thousand, maybe as much as 10,000. But [[AllThereInTheManual according to the RPG sourcebook]], there are about 140,000 people in Stormwind.

* Most of the games in both the ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' and SpinOff ''VideoGame/RuneFactory'' series tend to have the player settle into one of these. ''Island of Happiness'' and ''VideoGame/RuneFactory3'' are major exceptions: [=IoH=] has multiple {{NPC}}s move to the island and [=RF3=] has [=NPC=]s moving in and out of Sharance Village all the time; visiting, shopping or just travelling through.

* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'', much like the aforementioned ''Harvest Moon'', is set in one of these. About 20 {{NPC}}s reside in the section of the overworld map designated as "Pelican Town", the primary settlement in the valley, and there are perhaps three dozen (human) inhabitants in the entire valley.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'', a world can have a maximum of twenty-two friendly {{NPC}}s (twenty-three during the Christmas season). Although Terraria requires each of these [=NPC=]s to have a home to live in (and thus would constitute a small Thriving Ghost Town if a player built an actual ''house'' for each [=NPC=]), a "home" can be as simple as a room in a much larger structure, so it's more commonplace for players to construct a base or fortress instead of a town. Which makes it either mystifying or ''disturbing'' when you wonder where all these zombies are coming from...

** Dungeon town or not, though, The World That Never Was probably has it worst to the point of being creepy. It has a ''huge'' metropolis, with giant skyscrapers that would put Tokyo to shame, ignited by constant electricity that should mean that the city is at least functioning...but no activity other than Heartless and Nobody-slaying is present, nay, the city doesn't even ''have'' a single citizen; all activities are instead centered on a giant floating castle populated by only 13-14 people who are not even normal humans, [[spoiler: that gets slaughtered one by one as the heroes make their way to the top.]] Its first appearance can be forgiven since it's the game's TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, but when it appears in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days]]'', it's treated as a hub, an empty hub, that is. While this can be handwaved by the fact that the world is located close to the Realm of Darkness meaning people come to live there at their own risk, that doesn't answer the question of why the city was built in the first place. Did the Organization XIII construct it, but for what, since the live in the castle anyway? And what's up with the constant electricity?