Why is this game so french?

[Dao of Yakitori]

Even though I'm playing the game in English, you have french signs everywhere, lots of people have a french accent, a few of the writings are in french, the city/region names are french-like, but during the credits I only noticed about 5 french names!

What's going on?

[Waladil]

Most of the locations are metaphors for real places. Martinaise is French-themed, Seol is pretty obviously Korea (Seoul).

[Kain]

Funny how you only noticed the signs and accents but ignored the deep parallels between the Revolution of the game and what actually happened in france, it's part of the setting, a groovy parallel of the blood soaked history of the fight against the Bourgeoisie and pro rights of the working class, something that is about to happen again in game.

[Dao of Yakitori]

Originally posted by Waladil:

Most of the locations are metaphors for real places. Martinaise is French-themed, Seol is pretty obviously Korea (Seoul).

Yes Martinaise seems to be inspired by la Martinique, a french island, which is the main setting of the game.

The lead designer of the game, an estonian named Robert Kurvitz, seems to have a father named Raoul. Maybe that's part of the reason?

It's my first time playing a game so french without being made by french people. Actually, it's even more french than most french games, which is why I was really surprised.

[Dao of Yakitori]

Originally posted by Kain:

Funny how you only noticed the signs and accents but ignored the deep parallels between the Revolution of the game and what actually happened in france, it's part of the setting, a groovy parallel of the blood soaked history of the fight against the Bourgeoisie and pro rights of the working class, something that is about to happen again in game.

I noticed those too, but I'm unsure about how french revolution is. I mean, other countries have had revolutions too right? Given that I grew up in the french school system, the revolution theme looked normal to me, but maybe it's different in other countries? I have no idea. My other reference point is the US, and they also love their revolution.

[Kain]

Originally posted by Samsara:

Originally posted by Kain:

Funny how you only noticed the signs and accents but ignored the deep parallels between the Revolution of the game and what actually happened in france, it's part of the setting, a groovy parallel of the blood soaked history of the fight against the Bourgeoisie and pro rights of the working class, something that is about to happen again in game.

I noticed those too, but I'm unsure about how french revolution is. I mean, other countries have had revolutions too right? Given that I grew up in the french school system, the revolution theme looked normal to me, but maybe it's different in other countries? I have no idea. My other reference point is the US, and they also love their revolution.

Nah it's ok, I didn't meant to sound as much of an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as I did. But the French revolution was a big stepping stone in revolutions for the workers right everywhere in the World and a major event in France itself, all the dialogues about the conflict, the reconstructions of some imageries like executions and such mirror perfectly what happened and seems to also mirror the current situation of the game, in how close it can come up to that again, in this regard I think it's very French.

[Sisyphus]

And the Dutch stand in for aggressive colonialism and profit motive, as a former dominant capitalist power.

[Kokoyoyo]

more than the french revolution of 1789, the game historical setting is closer to the situation in 1870 when the people of Paris, after the defeat against the Prussians, wanted to continue to battle instead of sign a peace treaty with the Prussians.
afterwards, French government and Prussians army tagged along to crush the rebellion in Paris, called "La Commune", which purpose was to fight but also set up new rules in favor of the workers.

[Crom]

Because japanese love french culture.

[Dani_ZAUM]

Hi there
ZA/UM began as a cultural movement amongst like minded individuals and friends and has grown to include people from all around the globe. The main team are located in Brighton and London, and additional developers are located in China, Poland, Romania and Estonia.
Maybe that helps answer your question :)

[Dao of Yakitori]

OMG it's a cultural movement that actually produced a video game? Maybe that's the source of the passion and why the game is so polished! I thought it was just a company. Apparently ZA/UM is also a russian word that means "Out of Mind".

There is a wikipedia page about it that is only in Estonian. Here is the google translation if anybody else want to know more:

Originally posted by Wikipedia:

ZA / UM is an Estonian cultural group that was involved in the exchange of the editor-in-chief of the cultural newspaper Sirp in 2013 and later stood out mainly on the cultural and opinion portals ZA / UM and Nihilist. [1]

Members include writer Kaur Kender, writer and musician Robert Kurvitz, literary and artist Martin Luiga, artist Aleksander Rostov, writer Siim Nurklik, writer and citizen activist Made Luiga, photographer Ruudu Ulas, critic Helen Hindpere, journalist Märt Belkin and fashion photographer Lilian Marie Merila. [2]

ZA / UM has published books including Robert Kurvitz's novel "The Holy and Spooky Smell" (2013), Kaur Kender and Taavi Eelmaa's playbook "Without the Loss. The Case of the Lost Friend" (2014), Mudlumi (Made Luiga), Teemu Mäki, Olavi Ruitlas and Kender's works (2014-16). [Ref?] ZA / UM members have also been associated with the Margus Linnamäe-funded ZA / UM-based computer game project Disco Elysium (also "No Truce With the Furies", partly based on Kurvitz's novel [3] [ 4] [5].

The group's name is associated with the term "zaum", used in Russian symbolic poetry in the early 20th century, to denote "out of mind" experiments with sound symbolism and linguistic nature in an attempt to overcome rationality. The term was coined in 1913 by the Russian poet Alexei Kruchonakh. [6]

This is fascinating

[Саня Механизм]

Check this twitter thread about inspirations for Disco Elysium: https://twitter.com/studioZAUM/status/1181260632131325953

One of which is book "Germinal" by Émile Zola. I didn't read the book, but description is following: "the novel – an uncompromisingly harsh and realistic story of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860s".
Clearly workers strike in the game is inspired by this book. But it is also french book, I think a lot of french culture is also comes from it.

[Coin]

OwOui

[Mr P0oL]

It's also very dutch, with names like klaasje and oranje, which is a parallel for the netherlands.

I wonder where these influences come from, or are they just random?