History Main / GatelessGhetto

* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', the arena where the Tributes compete is one of these, as [[spoiler:Katniss]] finds out when using some GenreSavvy to avoid combat.

* Partially avoided in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games, each of which features a vast and functional city, but normally the player begins the game restricted to a certain area of the city (due to [[BrokenBridge Closed Bridges]], BorderPatrol, etc.) and remains stuck there until certain missions have been completed. [[SolveTheSoupCans These missions rarely have anything to do with the reason for the obstruction]]. It is possible to [[SequenceBreaking find ways around the obstacles]], particularly after ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'' introduced swimming, but this is generally discouraged. In the first two games, there was simply nothing but empty streets in the blocked off areas, whereas the later games would give you a high wanted rating. Also, most buildings, including public ones, are inaccessible.
** Often, there don't seem to be any roads leading into the city, blocked or not. However, there is a tunnel in Shoreside Vale in [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto3 the third game]] that's permanently blocked by an InsurmountableWaistHeightFence. Apparently, this is the only road into the city. The later games each have their cities built on islands in the middle of the ocean.
** The reason for this is that after GTA3, Rockstar decided they did not like having land that the player could not reach. So while in-game the Cities are portrayed as islands, in actuality they are meant to be connected to land. Also, on GTAIV's website, the picture of the city is much larger than the in-game city, confirming this.

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* ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'' suffers from this: you can't get to various parts of [[spoiler: Haven City]] before you get the appropriate permit.

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** This is actually pretty common in ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games, dating back to [[ShinMegamiTenseiI the first one]], where thanks to a coup d'etat instituting martial law and an invasion by the American army, most of Tokyo is out of bounds to you until AfterTheEnd.

* Also appears in ''Film/TheTrumanShow'', for obvious reasons.

* ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'' uses a variant of {{Invisible Wall}}s (which are actually visible forcefields), and - in one city - also the rubble and ruins approach. Also, in the Ravenholm level the maps are hedged in by wooden barriers presumably built to keep the zombies at bay or in one area (though some of them could probably just jump over them anyways).

* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' games are an interesting example. In the [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 first]] [[SilentHill2 two]] games the town is fairly wide open, but parts of it are blocked off by large crevasses and, later, construction sites. While still a Gateless Ghetto, this gave the town a more open and organic feel than, say, the Raccoon City of the early ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' titles.

* In Shattered Memories, the inaccessible areas are blocked off by massive snowbanks.

* In most towns and villages in the various Monster Hunter games, you can only visit a single street or square, while you can see the rest of the town in the background but never visit it.

* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' games are an interesting example. In the [[SilentHill1 first]] [[SilentHill2 two]] games the town is fairly wide open, but parts of it are blocked off by large crevasses and, later, construction sites. While still a Gateless Ghetto, this gave the town a more open and organic feel than, say, the Raccoon City of the early ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' titles.

* Partially avoided in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games, each of which features a vast and functional city, but normally the player begins the game restricted to a certain area of the city (due to [[BrokenBridge Closed Bridges]], BorderPatrol, etc.) and remains stuck there until certain missions have been completed. [[SolveTheSoupCans These missions rarely have anything to do with the reason for the obstruction]]. It is possible to [[SequenceBreaking find ways around the obstacles]], particularly after ''San Andreas'' introduced swimming, but this is generally discouraged. In the first two games, there was simply nothing but empty streets in the blocked off areas, whereas the later games would give you a high wanted rating. Also, most buildings, including public ones, are inaccessible.
** Often, there don't seem to be any roads leading into the city, blocked or not. However, there is a tunnel in Shoreside Vale in the third game that's permanently blocked by an InsurmountableWaistHeightFence. Apparently, this is the only road into the city. The later games each have their cities built on islands in the middle of the ocean.

* Many ''Franchise/TalesSeries'' games, especially ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', allow you to see in the background unvisitable parts of the towns and cities.

* Multiplayer maps in the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games are like this. Invisible walls block you from exiting the map via wide open spaces, whereas highly urban areas (like in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' and ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2'''s "Karachi") have fences, brick walls, and railings that keep you from exiting the map space.

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* While this is a non-issue in 8- and 16-bit ''Franchise/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:

* ''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.

* ''VideoGame/RyuGaGotoku'' only lets you enter a restricted part of Tokyo or Okinawa. The rest is sealed off by invisible walls.

* The ''Franchise/{{Bioshock}}'' games restrict you to certain sections of the city and, to a lesser extent, certain areas within those sections. Many establishments are closed up or blocked by malfunctioning doors or rubble. Even the bathyspheres can only take you to the next level, or to levels you've already visited; this is never really explained.

* ''VideoGame/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 and the town in ''New Leaf'' also fit this trope.

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

** ''TheNamelessMod'' justifies this with Forum City being under lockdown.

* In ''PerfectDark'', one mission in Chicago takes up one small street and a couple of alleys. There's no way to access any other part of the city; there isn't any traffic, gates, or doors leading out of the enclosed space.

* ''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 and the town in ''New Leaf'' also fit this trope.

* The Building World and other otherworlds in ''SilentHill4''. All are either completely isolated from the outside, have permanently locked doors, or the exits are [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence blocked by debris]].

* Done in both ''[[TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA True Crime]]'' games when the scale of Los Angeles and Manhattan are almost identical to real life. Buildings and road blockades prevent you from leaving LA and Manhattan.

* ''RyuGaGotoku'' only lets you enter a restricted part of Tokyo or Okinawa. The rest is sealed off by invisible walls.
* Averted in the ''SaintsRow'' games. Once you're out of the first mission, you can go anywhere in the city. Played straight in that there doesn't seem to be any way to drive to or from Stilwater, however. The city has no standing bridges other than those that connect the two main islands, meaning the only way into the city is by plane or boat. Steelport in ''The Third'' is much the same. There is a single collapsed railroad bridge on one of the islands, but beyond that there is no evidence of a bridge in the distance.

* ''[[JakAndDaxter Jak 2]]'' suffers from this: you can't get to various parts of [[spoiler: Haven City]] before you get the appropriate permit.

* A parellel example from outside computer games: the designers of the map of the ''{{Discworld}}'' city of Ankh-Morpork chose to represent only the "city centre" inside the city walls. Their reasoning is that 90% of the action in the novels featuring the city takes place here, and there was no need to map the whole of New York - only "Manhattan". whilst those buying the map can see the city rolls away into suburbs in all directions, there are only cursorily dealt with or else are not even mentioned. Therefore the virtual visitor to Ankh-Morpork is confined within the gates of the city walls...

* ''MedalOfHonor'' 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 [[GravityBarrier Gravity Barriers]] in taller areas, [[InvisibleWall not always though.]]

* ''CityOfHeroes'' plays with this. At first glance, most of Paragon City's neighborhoods are sealed off by the War Walls--massive concrete-and-forcefield barriers erected during the [[AlienInvasion Rikti War]], and still used to keep hazardous, wrecked areas of city isolated from the populated areas--from which the only way in or out is through security checkpoints guarded by the PPD SWAT (with the exception of the [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer Sewer Networks]], that is). [[SubvertedTrope However]], most of the populated areas have tunnels between the War Walls that let traffic and pedestrians move freely between neighboring zones, and the Paragon Transit Authority has several metrorail lines that serve all of the populated areas.

* Multiplayer maps in the ''CallOfDuty'' games are like this. Invisible walls block you from exiting the map via wide open spaces, whereas highly urban areas (like in ''ModernWarfare'' and ''ModernWarfare 2'''s "Karachi") have fences, brick walls, and railings that keep you from exiting the map space.

* ''TheThirteenthFloor'' features this in the simulated world. Everyone inside is programmed to never ''choose'' to leave the city. One way to prove the artificial nature of the world they are living in was to pick a far away destination they would never think to actually visit and try to get there; eventually the person will come to the edge of the simulation and see how it starts to break down into crude line drawings and then just nothingness. [[spoiler: The protagonist thinks these instructions apply to people living in the simulated world he helped create, but eventually discovers they were meant for the world he lives in, which is also a simulation (running under the same rules as the one he built).]]