'''Raccoon City Expansion''' launched as GeographicFlexibility: [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=trp45bhmnixiwctbjepj6zdk&trope=GeographicFlexibility From YKTTW]]

''From Television GeographicFlexibilityDiscussion:''
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SusanDavis: ''Pine Valley, PA, setting of AllMyChildren. . . also has a beach. In Pennsylvania.'' Erie, Pennsylvania has a university with multiple graduate programs, a medical school, a PBS station that has produced nationally-carried programs, an international airport, the headquarters of several corporations, and miles and miles of sandy beaches. (No casino, but there have been discussions, and it's not far to Niagara Falls or the Seneca reservation.) Perhaps Pine Valley is located somewhere in Erie County?

IdleDandy: That would certainly work, but Pine Valley is close enough to NYC and Atlantic City to make day trips (at one point, the casino seemed to be in Atlantic City, but now it appears to be in Pine Valley proper.) Characters are always either Yankees fans or Phillies fans, which seems to place PV in the eastern part of PA. Of course, the entire concept is allegedly that PV is a very small town. They used to use nearby "Center City" for city-based plots, but PV has grown so much they don't bother anymore.

{{Gus}}: Out of my zone here, but I thought Metropolis was always an analog of Chicago, rather than New York. And that Gotham was the DC New York. Will stand by for correction from those in the know.

LooneyToons: Oddly enough, in the very same comic book I reference in my recent addition to FourthWallDiscussion, Superman was able to determine that he was in Earth-Prime by noting that Manhattan had overrun the location of Metropolis. At other times, Metropolis has been tentatively located in Delaware, but in general it's been considered a New York City analogue. Gotham is either Newark NJ or Philadelphia, depending on which canonical travel time between them you pick. Center City is the best candidate for the DC Chicago. Bludhaven is Providence, RI. Star City is Los Angeles, and there are several more but I can't remember them.

WhogusTheWhatsler: Now that you mention it, is this possibly a whole other trope, having fictional cities represent real cities? I can't think of many other examples, but there are at least the fictional SouthPark, Springfield in ''TheSimpsons'' (which apparently bears numerous similarities to Matt Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon) and ''GrandTheftAuto'''s Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas ([=NYC=], Miami and San Francisco).

MorganWick's two cents: I always thought Gotham and Metropolis were ''both'' NYC analogues to varying extents, Gotham more so. As created by Siegel and Shuster, though, Metropolis was originally a blend of Cleveland and Toronto, if I recall.

Incidentially, there is also a New York City in TheDCU, but it's nowhere near as superhero-populated as Gotham, Metropolis, or its MarvelUniverse counterpart.

SusanDavis: Arguably, Toronto ''is'' a NYC analogue.... :-)

LooneyToons: I've heard -- and somewhat agree with at times -- the argument that Metropolis and Gotham are at their core light and dark versions of New York City. ("Gotham" is, after all, a nickname for NYC that dates back at least to Washington Irving.) As far as their physical locations in TheDCU are concerned, though, they're not quite so close to each other.

Re: ''GrandTheftAuto'''s Liberty City -- with a name like that, I'd think it'd be more likely to have been Philadelphia...

SusanDavis: It's a pastiche of the entire East Coast, although Pike Creek (in Shoreside Vale) is more reminiscent of Seattle, and you'd have to get at least as far away from New York as the Catskills or Delaware Water Gap to find a dam surrounded by mountains like the one in Liberty City.

{{Gus}} I'm with WhogusTheWhatsler on this. This is a trope. It is about how a fictional setting incorporates the character of a well-known city, without being hamstrung by literal/actual characteristics of the place. I like FictionCity for a lable. It probably needs a reference in/to AdventureTown.

DarkSasami: It sounds like a parallel to the [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed character version]] of it: something like NoCommunitiesWereHarmed.

BTTheP: What about Bizaroville, as in a twisted clone of the real-world city? Also, a trope entry for the city naming convention, made-up names that just mean "(thematically appropriate word) city", like Metropolis, Townsville (ThePowerpuffGirls), Municiberg (from ''The Incredibles''), Retroville (''JimmyNeutron''), Endsville (''The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy''), Middleton (''KimPossible'') or any number of other place names.

LooneyToons: EveryTown, maybe?

WhogusTheWhatsler: I like DarkSasami's name. I think I'll go ahead with it now.
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Working Title: Geographic Flexibility: [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=h8adz28j&trope=GeographicFlexibility From YKTTW]]
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