Putting the pieces together - what is the story about?

[Dampfsalzig]

What do you think is the story surrounding Babbdi?

For me, it seems like Babbdi is one of the last bastions from the rising sea levels. Most people have already abandoned Babbdi as it is about to flood soon too and already went more inland (behind the great wall), and now the district behind the great wall is flooded with fugitives from Babbdi and many other of those rim bastions, which is why there rarely are train tickets given out anymore in order to stop the influx. If you go up the half-circular wall you can see that the water level is a few centimeters close to overflowing into Babbdi's drainage system. (There's a big concrete pipe entrance above the water.) Some of the residents seem hopeless or depressed, like the guy who talks about jumping off the roof, and the lack of basic supplies which is why the wife had to die in such a tragic manner. Then there's the youth still kicking, partying, and hanging around, and other people who seem to have accepted their fate and are just waiting for the finishing stroke and going about their daily lives as long as they still can.
There also was that weird part with the TVs, as if they were spewing harmful noise. Not sure what exactly it meant, but I guess it would have something to do with the disconnection between the politics and the actual situation people find themselves in.
Another detail that didn't really make sense to me was that the trains go both ways. Either there's a U-connector between the two rails in the direction of the sea, or it implies that the tracks actually extend outwards in the sea. Maybe Babbdi is an outer district of a big circular district that's connected with another bastion of some kind? Maybe I'm reading too much into this.

I might have easily missed something, so what do you think?

[thekelbell]

There is one other thing in the room of note-- a mirrored version of The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. This is notably the only picture ever shown in the game that isn't a skewed, AI-generated caricature of its subject. Thus, it might be worth taking it into consideration. The Fight Between Carnival and Lent is an allegorical picture, which shows the conflict between secular and religious. It also prominently portrays common working class people of the day, who were one of, if not the main group during the Bolshivek revolution, so much so that an entire work (proletariat) was created to describe them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fight_Between_Carnival_and_Lent
Another interesting point about Pieter Bruegel the Elder is that he famously painted a series known as "The Tower of Babel." The biblical story of the tower of Babel is the story of people "building a tower to heaven" so that they would never be "scattered across the face of the earth." God was displeased with this, so he changed their languages to prevent the building of a society. It's a story with the themes of man's hubrius, and, most importantly, collapse of society-- a theme which we are seeing over and over.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tower_of_Babel_(Bruegel)

It's very possible that the name "Babbdi" is a corruption of the name "Babel." Almost all of the signs we see in the game are scrambled to similar levels, and it would make perfect thematic sense.

I also believe that Babbdi is somehow related to East Berlin and the Soviet reign there. Admittedly, I am not as confident in this connection, but it does explain some quirks of the game. Namely, it would explain why the playground is listed on the map as "Spielplatz." Spielplatz is the German word for playground. It struck me as odd when I first saw it, to have a random German word among everything else. However, if we look at the game as related to East Berlin, it makes perfect sense. It would also put the main quest and story of Babbdi into a new light. During the Soviet regime in East Berlin, a large wall called the Berlin Wall was constructed to keep people leaving East Berlin to West Berlin. The main quest of Babbdi is to leave the city, which is surrounded by large walls. It's possible that these are connected somehow. Admittedly, it's a weaker connection than the rest, but I thought it worth bringing up.
These are just a few of the many different hints and signs throughout the game, but I think they lay a strong case for Babbdi being strongly based in Soviet history, and telling a story about the collapse of society because of man's own faulty ideas and actions. If anyone has anything that I missed, please let me know.

[Dampfsalzig]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von thekelbell:

I believe Babbdi is a dystopia, specifically a dystopia based off of the USSR/communism in general, and possibly specifically telling the story of East Berlin. There are many clues that reveal the theme of the game.
To begin with, the architecture is the spitting image of Soviet bloc architecture, as has already been pointed out by several. Several of the buildings in Babbdi seem taken directly from real-life Soviet buildings.
https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/12007/eastern-bloc-architecture-monolithic-housing-blocks-part-7
https://www.greyscape.com/can-politics-ever-be-separated-from-architecture-poland/
However, this connection can be drawn further. In one of the apartments, a bookshelf has the book "1984" by George Orwell on it. 1984 is a dystopia which is based upon life under Joseph Stalin's Soviet Russia. Orwell also wrote Animal Farm, a retelling the events of the Bolshivek Revolution and the subsequent rise of communism in Russia. When Orwell is invoked, in combination with the architecture, we can come to the clear conclusion that this game takes place in a very Soviet place.

The other books on this bookshelf also tell us a lot about the story. There are three books by Jared Diamond on the shelf-- The World Until Yesterday, Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Collapse. All of these are books about society. The World Until Yesterday showcases what Western societies should learn from other societies. Guns, Germs, and Steel argues that environmental factors have helped European and North African societies thrive. Perhaps most tellingly of all, Collapse explains how and why societies fail and collapse. A big point is that most of the reasons that Diamond lays out are based in overpopulation or enviromental destruction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Until_Yesterday
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed
This point about overpopulation leads us into the next book, Make Room, Make Room by Harry Harrison. It's a science fiction novel about "overcrowding, resource shortages and a crumbling infrastructure," which continues the theme we've seen carried over from Collapse.
There are also two books by Voltaire, and a science fiction called Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, two brothers from Soviet Russia. Voltaire was known for being a prominent skeptic and a strident campaigner for civil liberties, and Roadside Picnic is a book about so called "visitation zones" where strange artifacts are found. Both of these line up very well with what we see in the game-- I wonder if some of the secret objects might be a reference to Roadside Picnic's artifacts?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Room!_Make_Room!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic

Yes i think it was quite obvious that Babbdi's brutalist environment is directly inspired by the slavic housing of the 20th century and general working class housing blocks. I don't really see the connection to any of the books that you mentioned apart from all the obvious signs already. I mean there wasn't any artifacts from Roadside Picnic like the hell-slime or phenomenoms like the meatgrinder. The idea that the Name is inspired by the Tower of Babel is actually in interesting catch but also seems far fetched IMHO. But now that you remind me of the Spielplatz thing, yes that was quite strange, didn't notice it because i'm a native speaker. Maybe the bastion Babbdi is part of is actually a multilangual and multinational shelter because maybe many demographics from many point of origin fled into it after signs of devastating increase in sea level. Would only make sense that languages and cultures would start to fuse together in such a small environment.
Could you maybe elaborate on your Berlin wall take a bit more?

[Dampfsalzig]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von SloppyShot:

I see references to the Chinese with gutter oil and the lying flat movement.

how so? Am i out of the loop of something?

[hbrika]

From all the weird writing and funny way the NPCS have of talking I get "Babel" from Babbdi. Add in all the towering buildings and that one achievement and it fits. Trying to escape Babel.

[maggotjelly]

i think babbdi has zero story

[Dampfsalzig]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von maggotjelly:

i think babbdi has zero story

i think you have zero imagination