Suggestion: Childless Dystopia

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I think the empty playground from Half-Life 2 would be a good page image, since the entire reason Valve put it in the game was to show the player that there are no children in this Dystopia. Here are some pictures: [1]◊ [2]◊ [3]

edited 26th Apr '13 10:12:24 PM by Rethkir

I see what you're going for but I don't quite get "dystopia" from those.

I was getting that feeling myself from those pictures. The unused playground does symbolize the childless world pretty well, and those ghost sounds of children playing certainly create more of a vibe. And that doll is beyond creepy. Perhaps I could play that part of the game again and get take a picture with the City Scanner watching me to give that Dystopian Big Brother Is Watching feeling.

edited 26th Apr '13 10:56:19 PM by Rethkir

I think the first one looks pretty dreary. It works.

"I see what you're going for but I don't quite get 'dystopia' from those."

Agree. It's just dirty/dreary/disused. "Dystopia" would only register to people familiar with the work. It'd need a really stellar caption to tie that together.

The first especially makes me think of Chernobyl - not sure if I like any...

The guards in the back say "dystopia" to me. Maybe if we got a shot of the playground with the Combine soldiers more visible, it would work.

I don't think it looks that bad at all. Seen worse in a living city.

Maybe 1.1 cropped like this? I think it's good enough with the guards and the doll.

edited 27th Apr '13 7:30:57 AM by m8e

I think that's fitting.

9 is good.

I took some pictures from the game directly. I pissed off a guard and had him come after me to get a better feeling of Dystopia. For extra bonus, the City Scanner is watching me. I tried to make the empty playground prominent.
However, I do like 9 as well, it feels more desolate and lonely.

edited 27th Apr '13 9:42:15 AM by Rethkir

I think 9 is great. We don't need the guards in our face because it's about how bad a world is without children. I'm not familiar with the work and I think an abandoned playground really sells it.

So, I'm feeling a pretty strong consensus on 9. I agree that it would be the best image. Does anyone have any caption ideas, or does the image stand by itself without a caption?

edited 27th Apr '13 5:18:32 PM by Rethkir

Let's get at least a couple more clear s for it before taking any action.

9 is good.

9 works. And I know it's been said, but I also got a Chernobyl feel from these images. But, as a friend observed, Chernobyl could count as a dystopia. It is a pretty desolate place

Good enough. 9 is up, potholed, and tagged. Caption or no?

"As the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in. Very odd, what happens in a world without children's voices."
— Miriam, Children Of Men

I agree. This would make a better page quote. In that case, I don't think the picture needs a caption.

edited 1st May '13 6:43:28 AM by Rethkir

That would make a wonderful page quote, but doesn't really have much to do with the image, particularly. Definitely better than the current page quote, as it describes an actual dystopia, which the lyrics don't make clear. Also I don't know of any song by that name from Bob Dylan. This one is from Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, which is adapted from an earlier Joseph Kerschbaum song.

I support 19 as a page quote.

19 is an improvement over the current quote.

Hi I was the page creator. Current pic looks good, it emphasizes the emptiness. (I couldn't think of a way to have a pic about the lack of something.) The Children of Men quote is fine as a replacement too.

I think 19 is an improvement over the current quote too. I don't know what we could do for a caption. If we could bring attention to how everything is abandoned, even the doll, that might be good.

Alrighty. The quote is switched in, the tag is adjusted, and I've moved the old one to a Quotes tab. I got nuthin' on an actual caption.

edited 1st May '13 10:03:06 AM by Willbyr