History Main / GatelessGhetto

** It's mentioned that some the areas of the Hub that can be visited in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' are a few miles apart, but traveling between them is instantaneous. Other settlements, like [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles the Boneyard]], seem to do this as well.

** It's mentioned that some the areas of the Hub that can be visited in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout1}}'' are a few miles apart, but traveling between them is instantaneous. Other settlements, like [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles the Boneyard]], seem to do this as well.

** It's mentioned that some the areas of the Hub that can be visited in ''VideoGame/Fallout1'' are a few miles apart, but traveling between them is instantaneous. Other settlements, like [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles the Boneyard]], seem to do this as well.

** It's mentioned that some the areas of the Hub that can be visited in ''VideoGame/Fallout'' are a few miles apart, but traveling between them is instantaneous. Other settlements, like [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles the Boneyard]], seem to do this as well.

** Also, it's mentioned that the street is no longer open to ground traffic. Doesn't completely justify it though, since there isn't any pedestrian access either.

* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'': The underground city of D'ni can be like this at times in Uru - most of your access to it is on the island of Aegura, which is logically not directly connected to the rest of the city. The original game had extremely limited access to the majority of the city, and while the accessible area was greatly expanded in the first expansion, where the city became the center of action, Rezeero and the docks are both locked off from the main area by collapsed passages and immovable barricades, respectively. The one neighborhood on the other shore that you ''can'' reach - Bevin - is similarly sealed off from the rest of the capital. The result is an accessible area that covers approximately a square mile of world space in a city dozens of miles on each side.

* ''{{Myst}}'': The underground city of D'ni can be like this at times in Uru - most of your access to it is on the island of Aegura, which is logically not directly connected to the rest of the city. The original game had extremely limited access to the majority of the city, and while the accessible area was greatly expanded in the first expansion, where the city became the center of action, Rezeero and the docks are both locked off from the main area by collapsed passages and immovable barricades, respectively. The one neighborhood on the other shore that you ''can'' reach - Bevin - is similarly sealed off from the rest of the capital. The result is an accessible area that covers approximately a square mile of world space in a city dozens of miles on each side.

* {{Banjo-Kazooie}}: Nuts and Bolts averts this. The HubWorld, Showdown Town, is the largest in the entire series (and quite large, by game standards.)

* The VideoGame/MarioKart series's traffic courses are set on public roads with no visible way in or out (there are some exceptions, but the kart gets dragged back onto the track).
* In MidnightClub 2 the cities of LA, Paris and Tokyo are modelled after real-life cities with exception that there are no roads leading out of them.

* While this is a non-issue in 8- and 16-bit ''Videogame/FinalFantasy'' games, where towns and cities were composed of a dozen buildings at most, it becomes noticeable to the point of frustration in PlayStation-era games. Most egregious of all:

On a SlidingScaleOfVideoGameWorldSizeAndScale, games that use a GatelessGhetto are usually somewhere between "symbolic representation" and "realistic scale, most of world in background".

* Lampshaded in ''{{Earthbound}}''; in order to inhibit your progress, the police set up roadblocks, claiming that they are famous for their roadblocks and are going for a record.

* While this is a non-issue in 8- and 16-bit ''FinalFantasy'' games, where towns and cities were composed of a dozen buildings at most, it becomes noticeable to the point of frustration in PlayStation-era games. Most egregious of all:

* In the ''BaldursGate'' games, the cities are divided into districts. Each has a gate or two, from which you just warp to another area. The other areas of the city are off limits.

* ''PlanescapeTorment'' made heavy use of this trope: Sigil consists of six-seven areas you can move between and explore, with the implication that most of the places between are of no particular interest to you. The total amount of Sigil accessible to The Nameless One and crew through these areas is less than a single percent of its total size and population, given its tabletop stats.

* VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind's Tribunal expansion features the mainland city of Mournhold, in which levitation is disabled (Because the city is technically in an [[SkyBox enclosed cell]]), and the main gate is impassable (for no in-game reason). The only way to get from Vvardenfell to Mournhold and vice versa is via a teleport service.

* ''AnimalCrossing: Wild World'' takes place within a [[LawOfCartographicalElegance square]] Gated Ghetto, 256 meters on a side. West and east are solid walls, south is impassable water, and north is a solid wall interrupted by a small gate. But in order to pass through this gate, you must first be invited by another player with another DS and another copy of the game. This can get difficult if your real-life friends (mistakenly) [[RatedMForMoney think AC isn't appropriate for their age group]].
** ''City Folk's'' eponymous city is also one of these.

* A rare film version of this appears in ''Film/DarkCity''. The residents are all certain that the world outside of the city, Shell Beach in particular, are real and will tell you about them if asked, but anyone attempting to actually leave will find themselves blocked one way or another. [[spoiler: This is because, like a video game, those areas do not actually exist.]]

* Lampshaded in ''{{Earthbound}}'', in order to inhibit your progress, the police set up roadblocks, claiming that they are famous for their roadblocks and are going for a record.

* ''MedhalOfHonor'' does this with locked doors, invisible walls, and insurmountable waist-height barriers.

* TeamFortress2 tended to avoid this with locked doors and "behind the scene" areas with conference rooms and large computer areas, and then GravityBarriers in taller areas, [[InvisibleWalls not always though.]]

* ''MedalOfHonor'' does this with locked doors, invisible walls, and insurmountable waist-height barriers.

* The VideoGame/MarioKart series's traffic courses are set on public roads with no visible way in or out.

** ''[[TwentyTwentySeven 2027]]'' has Moscow under curfew, blocking off major roads.

* ''{{Summoner 2}}'', Munari City. You can only visit the docks, market, university and arena. Justified in that the remainder of the city is underwater.

* Lampshaded in ''{{Blood}} 2''. The incredibly snarky journal has a few things to say about Cabalco's engineers, who are apparently responsible for every single instance of absurd architecture in the game.

* The ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory'' series has used this a few times, most notably in III, where most of the city of Tarna is forbidden to humans. Somewhat averted in II, though, in which you can pretty much go anywhere in the labyrinthine city of Shapeir.
** The anonymous and uninspired nature of most of the default city streets and how easy it is to get lost though shows [[TropesAreTools the reason why]] this might not have been such a great design choice.
*** Done on purpose though cause the {{Feelies}} that came with the game included a map of the city in a form of CopyProtection. Guess no one heard of [[FridgeLogic photocopiers]] back then.
* {{Banjo-Kazooie}}: Nuts and Bolts subverts this. The HubWorld, Showdown Town, is the largest in the entire series (and quite large, by game standards.)

* The underground city of [[{{Myst}} D'ni]] can be like this at times in Uru - most of your access to it is on the island of Aegura, which is logically not directly connected to the rest of the city. The original game had extremely limited access to the majority of the city, and while the accessible area was greatly expanded in the first expansion, where the city became the center of action, Rezeero and the docks are both locked off from the main area by collapsed passages and immovable barricades, respectively. The one neighborhood on the other shore that you ''can'' reach - Bevin - is similarly sealed off from the rest of the capital. The result is an accessible area that covers approximately a square mile of world space in a city dozens of miles on each side.

* The Citadel in ''MassEffect'' is described as having a population of millions and the background graphics show it to certainly be large enough, but the player can only access an isolated area containing nothing but the plot-relevant locations, a few shops and the CoolShip's private parking space. [[ThrivingGhostTown And about ten people who will talk to you. And even fewer who will care if you start unloading bullets into them.]]
** Hence why ''MassEffect2'' disabled weapons-firing outside of explicit combat situations anyway. Both games have plenty of unusable doors presumably leading to other areas of the Citadel. That may not very well apply to Tuchanka or Illium (and maybe not even Omega), though.

* The Citadel in ''MassEffect'' is described as having a population of millions and the background graphics show it to certainly be large enough, but the player can only access an isolated area containing nothing but the plot-relevant locations, a few shops and the CoolShip's private parking space. [[ThrivingGhostTown And about ten people.]]
** Oh, there's plenty of people on the Citadel. It's just that there's only ten who will talk to you. And even fewer who will care if you start unloading bullets into them.
*** Hence why ''MassEffect2'' disabled weapons-firing outside of explicit combat situations anyway. Both games have plenty of unusable doors presumably leading to other areas of the Citadel. That may not very well apply to Tuchanka or Illium (and maybe not even Omega), though.