Well, the title says it all? What would be your thoughts if I made a game, that was street accurate to new york, set in the 1980’s, should I put the world trade center in, or just leave it out and fill the site with smaller buildings?
I will answer with another question : if you wanted to make a game in the prehistoric ages, should you put dinosaurs ? 
If the game is known to be set pre-9/11 wouldn’t the player expect it?
And if you are going for accuracy why wouldn’t you ?
It is what it is…
The title doesn’t say it all. Specifically, what kind of game are you making and who are you marketing to? You can always find someone who’s going to be offended by your content.
Yes.
I’d just include. It was a terrible event, but it shouldn’t be forgotten and it may insult people if you act like it never happened.
You just answered your own question.
–Eric
I think it’s fine provided the game doesn’t involve knocking buildings down.
lmao
Why would it be more an insult to completely forget 911 in a videogame’s New York, than not mentionning all the other related horrors that happened in the last 10 years ? Irak civil casualties ? Egypt delocalized tortures ? Or even other terrorist attacks that followed in Greece, France, UK, etc ?
That’s why it’s better to keep such a memorial away from a story that has nothing related to it (here, a videogame) : the whole 911 story is so huge that you couldn’t just demand attention only for the Twin Towers, and not even mention all its ramifications. Either you handle with silk gloves the whole affair, either you don’t try to handle it at all. It would be disproportionate, in my humble opinion.
edit : let me insert this anti-flamewar “it’s ok anyway” symbol : 
If/when you do, make sure that it’s clear that the game really is 1980’s New York. If it’s during a cutscene, you could go for the classic movie technique of putting…
New York City, USA
February 30, 1985
… in the bottom corner of the screen, with the Twin Towers visible at the same time, just to really drive the point home. (Replace it with a real day, of course.)
On a sidenote, an episode of Fringe was set during a 80’s flashback. And in one plan, we clearly saw the Twin Towers.
Attention was not focused on them, they were just a part of the view, and I don’t think they had any complaint from this representation.
Of course you should[1].
This is precisely the kind of eggshell-walking reaction the plotters behind that event were aiming for. By pandering to this rubbish, you’re letting them win. Seriously: the fact that a tiny minority may feel offended by the sight of the WTC is outweighed by two rather more important facts:
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Said buildings did, undeniably, exist prior to the attacks.
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You have every right to do whatever you damned well please in your own game. If memory serves, this, and many other Rights, are written down on some famous Bill, or similar document, the name of which temporarily escapes me.
Europeans—and the British and Spanish in particular—were already veterans of terrorist activities decades before 11-SEP-2001[2]. One vox-pop interviewee after the 7-JUL-2005 bombs in London summed-up that city’s response thusly: “[CRIKEY!] you! We’ve been bombed by professionals!”.
[1] (Unless your game is set in some alternate universe version of New York where someone with a reasonable sense of design aesthetics in architecture was in charge of the original WTC complex’s planning process.)
[2] (“9/11” means “the 9th of November” in almost every country outside the US. If the PR and Marketing Department of the entire United States of America can’t get me to write dates in that order, Al Quaeda certainly aren’t going to make me.)
I would included them if they existed during your stories timeline. It just makes sense too. I think that you might even cause a controversy if you omit them. People will be expecting to see them if they know the timeline. If they are not there they may start to think you have some other agenda or find it disrespectful to have omitted the landmark.
Think about it this way: Should every movie house go back and remove the Twin Towers from their movies?
Cool, nice points you guys have.
The reason I asked is because I am making a virtual new-york based city, it’s not 100% accurate (it’s alot smaller than the real thing) but I’m putting in the new world trade center buildings and was looking to see what was appropriate if i pushed the time in my game back 30 years, and i think the only reason I’d have to put the old ones in was if i did a street by street map. I’ll think I’ll stick to my city that’s set around 2018 :).
I think this is exactly what you should avoid doing. Don’t make a point of it, don’t draw attention to it. It’s not an issue, they’re just there for the sake of realism and authenticity. If you start making a big deal about it, that’s when problems arise.
Yeah, I think you should. I don’t think anyone is really going to notice anyway unless you draw attention to it. In Braid for example (slight Braid spoiler, maybe?) you can see the world trade center in the background and I think very few people even noticed that.
I never said don’t mention those other things. He just asked if he should put the buildings in, and I said yes. Neither the question nor the response had anything to do with anything else.
My apologies then, I totally understood the opposite