Not what it sounds like: Capital City

Capital City is horribly named, because the trope does not describe a Capital City, but rather a Metropolis / Global City. The trope is for a particularly important, large city in a setting. That city does not need to be a center of government, which is what a Capital City IS.

This leads to weird example like where in Eberron, Sharn is an example of Capital City despite the fact that Wroat is the real Capital city...

edited 22nd Jul '11 2:02:06 PM by Ghilz

I'd support a rename.

Yeah. This should be called Metropolis or something similar and Capital City should be about actual capital cities. There can be overlap, but they're still distinct concepts.

Major City? Metropolis is the name of a work, but I think society ganked the name from it. Not sure, not an etymologist.

Nope, it was in use long before the film.

metropolis: (from Gk. metropolis "mother city" (from which others have been colonized), from meter "mother" + polis "city") Meaning "chief town or capital city of a province" is first attested 1580s.

Megalopolis?

That means "huge city". This doesn't have to be big, just really important.

Errr.....

First line of description:

In role-playing games, the biggest city in the game.

edited 22nd Jul '11 7:02:56 PM by OmegaKross

But a megalopolis isn't simply the biggest city. It's an objectively huge city. Billings is the largest city in Montana, but it's not a megalopolis by any means.

Megalopolis:

1. A very large city.

2. A region made up of several large cities and their surrounding areas in sufficient proximity to be considered a single urban complex.

If a city was the biggest city in the setting, that would make it objectively huge by virtue of the fact that it's the biggest one wouldn't it?

Unless you had an entire planet like Montana.

Unless the equivalent of Billings there wouldn't fit the trope.

The largest city in a RP setting can be 2000 people. I wouldn't call that a megalopolis.

We already have Mega City, which is not this trope. I think Megalopolis would be too confusingly close to that, as well as being a pre-existing term that also doesn't match this trope.

What about Global City? The article even says that's what The Other Wiki calls it. If you're afraid that will be confused with City Planet, then maybe just The Big City? Bright Lights Big City? Commerce City? Biggus Citius? Bigopolis? They Named It Twice? (Warning: some of these suggestions may be more serious than others.)

OT: I'd also take move or remove the first sentence of the article. This is clearly not (just) a role-playing game trope, although it gives us a hint about how this trope started.

I like The Big City.

There is now a single proposition rename crowner for this trope here.

I hooked the crowner.

Given the overwhelming support a rename in the single proposition crowner, there is now an alternative titles crowner for this trope here. Feel free to add names as you wish.

I find Global City much too easy to confuse with City Planet.

edited 3rd Aug '11 4:37:53 AM by Camacan

I don't like The Big City. To me it brings for the image of someone in a rural area refering to the closest urban center. Or stuff like Town Mouse And Country Mouse.

That's more-or-less what it is. The Big City that everyone around calls the big city. In most games, it'll be the only city. Other settlements will more likely be villages. The Big City is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Think Ankh-Morpork.

The Metropolis is a terrible option, though, as everyone will mistake it for that city where Superman lives.

edited 3rd Aug '11 1:59:35 AM by Xtifr

It's the actual word!

But what I mean is, The Big City brings to (my) mind stories about rural people meeting urban people, etc, etc. It reminds me of Hot Fuzz and the locals saying that Sanford is not the big city, there's no murders here. While the trope is truly about the metropolis of a setting.

No, it doesn't have to be a Metropolis (though it can be). It just has to be the biggest city around. And I'm really still not sure what your objection is. It can have the connotations of being viewed from a rural setting, sure, but then so can this trope. And that's hardly the only thing The Big City means (phrase or trope).

edited 3rd Aug '11 2:12:09 AM by Xtifr

Metropolis: 1. Any large, busy city. 2. The chief, and sometimes capital, city of a country, state or region.

I think it fits. I certainly don't think of Superman's Metropolis when the title has a The at the front.

Personally, The Ankh-Morpork is appealing to me as a Discworld fan, but it wouldn't work as a name at all.

edited 3rd Aug '11 2:26:19 AM by redlar

That's not even discounting that this is an RPG trope (according to the description) and Discworld ain't Primarily one.

Might as well go with The Waterdeep, The Neverwinter or The Sharn or The Greyhawk or The Sigil but those would be just as bad as character named trope. Really preferring The Metropolis

edited 3rd Aug '11 2:42:03 AM by Ghilz

If it's called The Metropolis, it will be misused.

I think it's silly to limit this to video games, but that's a separate discussion.

The Chief City (straight from your dictionary) is a great suggestion. (I actually like most of the suggestions. The only ones I actually dislike are The Metropolis, Global City and Megalopolis.)

edited 3rd Aug '11 2:59:44 AM by Xtifr