The world is donut shaped

[Captain Maxx Power]

Since I will be leaving you all for an inordinant amount of time, I present to you my finest moment; a time of visual clarity and eurekaness. I speak of my theory regarding the shape of FF's (and indeed, the large majority of RPG's) world. As we all know, the overworld maps of many worlds act on the somewhat sound principal that travelling to the edge of the map will result in you looping to the other side. From east to west or vice versa, this is perfectly sound and in line with our own planet (to a degree). However the main problem occurs towards the poles. As you should know, our world is spherical. What this means is that it bows out nearer the equator, and comes to a point near the poles. If one is to head directly north or south from any latitude on the planet, one would eventually find oneself in the same position. The circumferance distance (the distance taken to traverse the circumferance of the world, in other words from left to right or right to left) also changes depending on how far away you are from the poles. A person at the North or South pole could literally walk right across this distance in a manner of seconds.

In RPG worlds, however, this is not the case. Directly upon entering the northern or southern parts of the world, a character traditional appears at the same place except at the other end of the world. This, of course, cannot occur on a spherical planet, as going north or south would result in the same point being reached each time. As such, this means that the world must be set up in such a way that, upon entering the top half you reappear at the bottom half, and vice versa.

The only way this can occur is through a donut-shape, as I will explain below.

Imagine if you will your traditional RPG map (Fig 1). As we know travelling off the right will result in appearing at the same spot on the left. From this we can deduce that the "world" is connected lineraly on both edges (Fig 2). This achieves the effect of being able to traverse from one side of the map to the other. Now of course is the problem of getting the player to travel off the top and appear at the same latitude at the bottom. Again, for this to occur, the remaining sides (top and bottom) need to be directly attached to each other. You could technically turn the map the opposite way (and have the landmass on the inside), but since most RPG worlds demonstrate a constant lightsource, we can assume that the landmass is on the outside. This of course means that the map must bow into itself in the middle, allowing the top and bottom segments to connect to each other, thus allowing travel off the tops and the bottoms of the map (Fig 3).

All of this means that, from a logical point of view, the only shape any FF world could be is donut, otherwise the logistics of it's travelling patterns would not apply.

Comments?

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/720/theworldisdonutshapedgg8.jpg

[Necronopticous]

Maybe Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne is a prequel to all RPGs?

[jammi567]

Interesting, and it puts a new spins of things.

[Ramza Beoulve]

......





COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...... *takes breath*OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

[vorpal blade]

Doughnut-shaped? Don't be rediculous. A wizard did it.

[Slothy]

Doughnut-shaped? Don't be rediculous. A wizard did it.

Don't be silly. It was obviously Superboy punching reality... or maybe Wanda did it, I don't know.

Anyway, your theory makes sense, though I seem to recall FFVIII having an option for a globe shaped mini map. Explain that please.

[Darth Anarcus]

Well, the fact that we see the worlds of FF7 and FF8 from space, as well as Gaia in FF9 in the form of various globes and a mystical appearance in Memoria, I guess that disqualifies them.;)

[ljkkjlcm9]

i mean, it was either FFVII or FFVIII where you could set up the map in the corner to be a globe, and it worked. So, no you're wrong

THE JACKEL

[boys from the dwarf]

well if the world isn't spherical, which ithink it is, i'd count on it being a magical square.

THEW ORLD ISSQ UARE

[No.78]

This is were square goes "fuck"

[Little Blue]

In some games like Civilisation, you can set it to be an east west loop or an east west and a north south loop. If I recall correctly, its listed as being an "earth" world and a "doughnut" world respectively.

Anyway, if I can remember the point I'm trying to make, despite in CGI's in some FF's showing a spherical world (IX explicitly shows that planets are spherical I think), torus shaped worlds are the only ones that can support the commonest mode of locomotion at the edge of the maps. Of course, you're saying it much more eloquently :p

[farplaner]

Since I will be leaving you all for an inordinant amount of time, I present to you my finest moment; a time of visual clarity and eurekaness. I speak of my theory regarding the shape of FF's (and indeed, the large majority of RPG's) world. As we all know, the overworld maps of many worlds act on the somewhat sound principal that travelling to the edge of the map will result in you looping to the other side. From east to west or vice versa, this is perfectly sound and in line with our own planet (to a degree). However the main problem occurs towards the poles. As you should know, our world is spherical. What this means is that it bows out nearer the equator, and comes to a point near the poles. If one is to head directly north or south from any latitude on the planet, one would eventually find oneself in the same position. The circumferance distance (the distance taken to traverse the circumferance of the world, in other words from left to right or right to left) also changes depending on how far away you are from the poles. A person at the North or South pole could literally walk right across this distance in a manner of seconds.

In RPG worlds, however, this is not the case. Directly upon entering the northern or southern parts of the world, a character traditional appears at the same place except at the other end of the world. This, of course, cannot occur on a spherical planet, as going north or south would result in the same point being reached each time. As such, this means that the world must be set up in such a way that, upon entering the top half you reappear at the bottom half, and vice versa.

The only way this can occur is through a donut-shape, as I will explain below.

Imagine if you will your traditional RPG map (Fig 1). As we know travelling off the right will result in appearing at the same spot on the left. From this we can deduce that the "world" is connected lineraly on both edges (Fig 2). This achieves the effect of being able to traverse from one side of the map to the other. Now of course is the problem of getting the player to travel off the top and appear at the same latitude at the bottom. Again, for this to occur, the remaining sides (top and bottom) need to be directly attached to each other. You could technically turn the map the opposite way (and have the landmass on the inside), but since most RPG worlds demonstrate a constant lightsource, we can assume that the landmass is on the outside. This of course means that the map must bow into itself in the middle, allowing the top and bottom segments to connect to each other, thus allowing travel off the tops and the bottoms of the map (Fig 3).

All of this means that, from a logical point of view, the only shape any FF world could be is donut, otherwise the logistics of it's travelling patterns would not apply.

Comments?

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/720/theworldisdonutshapedgg8.jpg

CONCLUSION: YOU HAVE WAY TOO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS.

[Fynn]

Come on. It's obvious that the world is flat. It's just the same on both sides.

[No.78]

Does that mean there's 2 of every person :O

[farplaner]

Does that mean there's 2 of every person :O

one German word: doppelganger.

[Mirage]

I've come to the conclusion that the worlds are flat, but with portals around the edges.

[silentenigma]

impressive.

[Darth Anarcus]

Dude, you people are reading entirely too much into it. It's a suspension of disbelief. Many works of fiction utilize them.

Another important thing to keep in mind--and this goes for absolutely every game ever made--is that gameplay is never canon. Why? Because there are a million different outcomes based on every single button or tap of the joystick the player makes. The story is canon, the general plot progression is canon, the mini-stories carried out in some of the more prominent sidequests are canon (but not all of them), FMVs and in-game cutscenes are canon, and the most realistic depictions are canon. But the things that the player carries out him- or herself is not canon, and this includes how one traverses the world map; and, to a certain extent, the world map itself. If the actual world map is the canonical depiction of the world, then the world is mostly barren, the towns cover five of the US' states, and Squall is as tall as Godzilla. The world map is a representation of the characters transitioning from one area to the next, not an actual depiction of it.

[Bart's Friend Milhouse]

Either that or it's an inverted hyperbolic paraboloid

[NeoCracker]

Dude, you people are reading entirely too much into it. It's a suspension of disbelief. Many works of fiction utilize them.

Another important thing to keep in mind--and this goes for absolutely every game ever made--is that gameplay is never canon. Why? Because there are a million different outcomes based on every single button or tap of the joystick the player makes. The story is canon, the general plot progression is canon, the mini-stories carried out in some of the more prominent sidequests are canon (but not all of them), FMVs and in-game cutscenes are canon, and the most realistic depictions are canon. But the things that the player carries out him- or herself is not canon, and this includes how one traverses the world map; and, to a certain extent, the world map itself. If the actual world map is the canonical depiction of the world, then the world is mostly barren, the towns cover five of the US' states, and Squall is as tall as Godzilla. The world map is a representation of the characters transitioning from one area to the next, not an actual depiction of it.

Someone here is reading ot much into the thread and its responses.

[No.78]

Dude, you people are reading entirely too much into it. It's a suspension of disbelief. Many works of fiction utilize them.

Another important thing to keep in mind--and this goes for absolutely every game ever made--is that gameplay is never canon. Why? Because there are a million different outcomes based on every single button or tap of the joystick the player makes. The story is canon

When Terra turns into an esper for the first time, she flies across the world map out of your control, and takes a short-cut by going off the edge.

SO HAH!

[Darth Anarcus]

Again, gameplay isn't canon, including in this case. In fact, I'd say that in the pre-FF7 games, next to nothing we visually see is canon apart from the general progression of the story and FMVs, because of the limitations of sixteen bits.

[farplaner]

lol corncracker.

I suspend no disbelief! ...except my disbelief that someone can use the word "canon" more than twenty times in a paragraph.

[Darth Anarcus]

It's a great word.;) We Star Wars fans have it shoved down our throats all the time, so it's become a common word to us.