u/Equivalent-Donut3400

Urban segregation is one of the most common parts of city life in the states (I should know, I seen it in action on the daily) and it greatly affected the Steel Belt, or what is now the Rust Belt. When a city is primarily blue collar, that industry leaving fucks everything up. Carcer City is one such city.

Carcer City is on the decline. Crime and poverty are up, job opportunities are down, and the city is being taken over by a mysterious entity who seems to have ties to the second most powerful man in the city, the police chief. But the residents of Carcer don’t lose their pride.

The Skinz might be one of the poorest gangs in the game, yet they insist on finding ways that they’re superior. They’re heterosexual white men, so that means they’re superior right? No, of course not, but this twisted perception of worth is the only thing these absolute freaks have going for them.

The Wardogs are obsessed with the military, and they seem to be equally low on the socio economic totem pole, as they live in the projects. These guys likely never saw A Shau valley or Southeast Asia at all, but this identity, even if it’s false, is all they have, so they cling to it and berate anyone who they perceive as a civilian.

Even though the CCPD is a huge police force with hordes of men, they’re under equipped and underfunded, and they’re here on the ground floor doing the dirty work while their superior officers sit on their equally corrupt asses not informing them of the task at hand fully. And yet they cling to the fact that despite all of that, at least they aren’t homeless, and they take it out on the growing homeless population just for fun.

Nearly everyone in Carcer City is under the thumbs of a few extremely powerful and rich men, living in poverty or barely scraping by, but instead of bringing the city together to go against a common enemy, they remain split apart by their races and classes, all bitter against another group of people, and determined to be seen as better than them.

This is extremely realistic. Sadly, it is human nature to try to find ways you’re inherently better than large demographics of people. It’s how we have homophobes, classists, sexists, racists, anti-Semites, and transphobes. Carcer City is an exaggerated, yet realistic portrayal of the effects of urban segregation.

I hope this was an interesting read and I hope I raised a few good points. Most importantly, make sure to treat others with respect regardless of your race, class, sexuality, gender identity, or creed. We’re all human and deserve a chance until we’re proven not to.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Lmk your opinions below.

I often see people talking about the real life basis of Carcer City, and which city it really is in relation to the real-life united states. In this analysis I’m only going to be analyzing the 3D universe iteration of Carcer to make things easier.

So first of all, Carcer is described as nearby by the Liberty Tree newspaper so it’s not too far from LC, which is confirmed to be on the east coast. This could possibly place it in real-life Pennsylvania or Jersey, meaning Carcer could be a stand in for Philly or Newark.

The Hoods gang are all locals of Carcer City and they all have New Jersey/Bronx accents. The Skinz have Southern accents but they’re confirmed to be guys from the Deep South who moved to Carcer in their voice lines.

Carcer City is in the Rust Belt, which spans as far east as Trenton, New Jersey and as far west as Davenport, Iowa, and as far north as Saginaw, Minnesota and as far south as Owensboro, Kentucky. An ad in San Andreas lists the location as also being in The Heartland, which seems to bar it from being in real life Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

I know lots of people think that Carcer is the GTA stand in for Detroit, and yeah sure some parts of it are based on Detroit. In fact Carcer takes from a lot of real-life rust belt cities. But I think it’s for the most part based on Cleveland, Ohio.

For starters, Cleveland is one of the closest Heartland Rust Belt cities to the East Coast. Cleveland also is known for its world-class zoo, which Carcer apparently used to have before it was abandoned. The Carcer City Police Department has uniforms and vehicles resembling the ones used by Cleveland police through the 80s to 2000s. Carcer, like Cleveland, also seems to have a large concentration of Irish Americans and Italian Americans. Cleveland is notable for being one of the few Rust Belt cities with a subway, and Carcer has one too. Cleveland also has many abandoned swathes throughout the city, similar to East Los Albos seen in the game. And last but not least, the Flaming River mentioned in that GTA San Andreas commercial earlier is a direct reference to the disgustingly polluted Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, which actually did catch fire once.

So, in conclusion, I think Carcer is mostly based on Cleveland, but of course It draws influence from other Rust Belt cities. If you disagree with me or have anything to add, lmk. Hope this was an interesting analysis and tysm for reading :)

I always wondered what the enigmatic Gary Schaffer would look like, so here he is! Schaffer is one of my fav characters even tho he’s not a major character, the fact that you only hear his voice and that he’s such a powerful figure, being the police chief of a major city’s police department, shows just how deep Carcer’s corruption goes. Hope you like the art :)

Law Enforcement

The CCPD is probably the worst police department in Rockstar Games history. They are not only ineffective at fighting gang crime, shown by gangs running rampant around Carcer and empty CCPD vans lying around the Innocentz controlled East Los Albos. The CCPD is, despite being well staffed, a bit outdated for 2003, with many patrol officers using revolvers and both CCPD vehicles (the Police Cruiser and the CCPD van) are from the 80s. Worse, the CCPD is extremely corrupt and brutal. They openly despise the homeless and enjoy beating them down, and also are on Starkweather's payroll. The corruption runs so deep that police chief Gary Schaffer himself is in Starkweather's pocket.Overall, the CCPD won't help you, and they might actually hurt you. Avoid them.

The CMPD isn't great either. Cottonmouth's police seems to be equipped far worse than the CCPD. While the CCPD use nightsticks, revolvers, light handguns, heavy handguns, sniper rifles, shotguns, and submachine guns, the CMPD only has access to nightsticks and, for the SWAT, only shotguns. They also seem to be woefully understaffed for a city of Cottonmouth's large size. They do however have a police helicopter (possibly where the money's going?) They also use the same exact 80s cop car as Vice City and Manhunt, even more outdated for 2007 than 2003. They're extremely cruel, shown when they beat a Red Kings member to death while he's surrendering. Overall, neither Manhunt police department is at ALL good, avoid both of them if you can. No points for either city.

Public Transport

Carcer City has a metro system, which, unlike many amenities in Carcer City, is perfectly functional. The subway map is pretty extensive and seems to cover lots of Carcer City and the surrounding suburbs. The two subway stations visited by Cash, 54th Street Station and Carcer Point Station, both have many amenities for riders like bathrooms and coffee stands. The Carcer City Subway also runs extremely late into the night, with Cash taking the train around probably midnight or later. The stations have digital departure boards and bells that ring when the train leaves the station. Carcer City also has an airport mentioned in passing in GTA San Andreas. As for buses, rusted out husks of city buses are seen in Carcer Mark and East Los Albos, but operational Carcer City buses and bus stops are never seen in Manhunt. The Mean Street Taxis company also operates within Carcer, shown by their Carcer Mark adverts.

Cottonmouth has the Watkins Train Yard, but the trains shown are exclusively freight rail. No buses of any kind are seen within the city (buses were going to be included in the beta but I can't give the city a point for this) Cottonmouth is generally extremely car-centric, the public Transport point easily goes to Carcer.

Housing

Carcer City, or at least most of the parts of it that we say as Cash, are in pretty bad condition. Let's go over the neighborhoods. Carcer Mark, the first neighborhood we explore, has many large, run-down brick and mortar apartment blocks, lots of them above the many businesses lining the district. The Hoods live here and have a stronghold of the neighborhood, but civilians live here too, shown by lights on in the buildings and air conditioners running, as well as operational parked cars alongside the wrecks. Dentons City Junkyard is a trailer park completely inhabited by the Skinz. It's disgusting, run-down, and probably a violation of many health codes. The former inhabitants of the trailer park hanging from nooses, lynched by the Skinz. East Los Albos, Innocentz territory, seems to be the only entirely abandoned part of Carcer City. Every building is completely empty, half-destroyed, or both. The only residents are the Innocentz and the Tramp, who are probably squatters in the abandoned buildings. The Projects adjacent to Darkwoods Pen are also very run-down, clearly not funded very well by the city. The apartments also have lights on and running ACs, but the Wardogs's apartment building seems to be only lived in by Ramirez and his men. Central is probably the most ideal neighborhood we see in the game. Every apartment building is completely habitable and reasonably well maintained. We actually get to see an apartment in this district (The Journalists's) and it's moderately sized and pretty clean. Central is also served directly by the subway's main station to serve residents and tourists alike. Wapona Hills, the last residential district seen in the game, is on the outskirts of the city on a large hill. The houses here, as shown by Starkweather's estate, are ginormous and extremely expensive. The Journalists's news broadcast at the beginning of Border Patrol shows that Wapona Hills is a gated community only accessible to the ultra-rich that live there. Overall, the best neighborhood of Carcer City, and possibly the only ideal one, to live in is Central, with Dentons City and East Los Albos being completely unlivable.

Let's go over the residential areas of Cottonmouth. The Red Light District isn't a great area to live, with a lot of seedy businesses and people around the area. The neighborhood looks like it was once a beautiful neighborhood that's fallen into decay over years of neglect and Cottonmouth's shitty weather. There are a fair amount of livable apartments, though some of them are above the aforementioned seedy...businesses. The neighborhood is also the turf of the dangerous Red Kings street gang, so residents will have to watch out for them. The Residential Zone seen in Most Wanted is an upper middle class suburban area, most of the houses are 2 stories and decent in size. Unlike the Red Light District, this neighborhood doesn't have a gang presence (The Bloodhounds chase you here, but these are contracted bounty hunters, not residents.) The Wooddale Community Enclave (where Daniel and his family used to live) is a wealthy gated community, very well off. The only crimes committed in the area were both by Daniel/Leo and 8 years apart from each other. Many residents have families, and some homes have speedboats or sports cars. The residential zones of Cottonmouth are, by and large, a lot nicer than those of Carcer City's. The point for housing goes to Cottonmouth.

Crime

Carcer City is extremely dangerous when night falls. The many gangs of the city are dangerous enough for civilians to stay shut inside while they're patrolling. The Hoods, a mixed-raced gang of thugs, control Carcer Mark, and have taken over the Carcer Market and the library. They aren't armed all too well, with many of them happy to engage in street fistfights, but they also carry bats, blackjacks, and crowbars. The Skinz are a disturbing white supremacist, homophobic, neo-Nazi gang who happily hang people by nooses. The Skinz use metal bats and Nailguns. The Wardogs are a stolen valor gang that have turf in the Carcer Zoo and the Carcer Projects. They hide in the bushes, are extremely territorial, and carry machetes, tranq guns, shotguns, and sniper rifles. The Innocentz, made up of the Skullyz and the Babyfaces, are not a force to be reckoned with. They carry revolvers and sawn-off shotguns, as well as using axes, knives, and sickles. They have a stronghold over the East Los Albos area, making the entire area dangerous for anyone who decides to venture there. The Skullyz are in the drug trading and arms dealing industry, while the Babyfaces are...actual pedophiles. Ew. The Smileys are a bunch of criminally insane asylum inmates who took over the institution, and them escaping could cause hell on earth for the residents of Darkwoods. The gangs of Carcer City are violent, large, well-armed, and take over large swaths of the city.

Most of the crime in Cottonmouth isn't gang-related. The Pimps and The Red Kings are violent street gangs, but neither are particularly large nor well armed. MOST of the crime comes from The Project and its offshoots. The Pervs run a brothel where they kidnap random passerby and violate them and torture them to make snuff films. Not only that, but they brainwash these passerby into becoming Project zombies. The Project uses the Pickman Bridge to turn on and off the personality of a violent psycho killer at will, though the personality gains control and becomes its own separate person who tries to take over the body of the original host. These experiments are so inhumane that the US Government cut their funding, but they continued on with their atrocities. If you live in Cottonmouth, there's no way to determine if you're safe from The Project. Oh, and The Bloodhounds are heavily armed neo-confederates and bounty hunters that the police and the Project allow to operate in residential areas. Fun. Overall, the crime is ever so slightly less bad in Cottonmouth, as there are more areas where you can avoid gang and Project crime.

Entertainment

Carcer City has many entertainment facilities, many of which are closed or abandoned. The Carcer City Zoo is a large zoo with many animal exhibits and a food court and, like any other good zoo, is abandoned and patrolled by the Wardogs militia. The Carcer City Mall is a huge, multifloor shopping mall, but it's half destroyed, abandoned, and overrun by The Innocentz. The Carcer City Library is, also, abandoned, derelict, and overrun with Hoods. There are some functional entertainment facilities in Central though, like the CIty Museum, and the CHIPS Casino. The unseen nightclub in the unseen neighborhood, The Chancery, offers some much needed nightlife to the city. Carcer City has its own news station which is apparently big enough to have helicopters for their reporting.

Cottonmouth has many clubs, almost all of them concentrated in the Red Light District. The clubs are extremely seedy, like the Perv-run Papillion Rouge and the Pimp run Bee's Honey Pot, and some are run by criminal orgs or orgs adjacent to The Project. The TV Channel TVMK broadcasts out of Cottonmouth, airing westerns, children shows, weather, and news. The channel, however, is used by the project to brainwash civilians, so it's ill-advised to watch the show. Generally, for civilians, there's more to do in Cottonmouth, but it's uhh a certain kind of fun... I dunno whatever point to Cottonmouth.

Economy

Carcer City, as a city in America's Rust Belt, was once, and still sort of is, an industry town. There's the Carcer Chem Plant in East Los Albos, the Marveley and Sons. Co factory in the Industrial Zone (in the bonus level Time 2 Die) and the Carcer Point stockyard and trainyard. There are also plenty of grocery stores and convenience stores, and other urban businesses. Carcer City is a very blue-collar city, and if you live here, you're likely going to be working blue collar, as a cop, for the government, or not working at all. The CHIPS Casino also provides well needed revenue to the city.

Cottonmouth's economy is a lot better than that of Carcer in the present. Maibatsu Plaza in the City Center has hotels and large companies in modern tall skyscrapers, also with the Maibatsu car company having an office location there (hence the name) MKTV also brings in lots of revenue for the city. The city has less blue collar jobs available than Carcer, but to afford to live in the Residential Zone or Wooddale, you'll likely be white collar anyways. Cottonmouth is in general a lot more up to date and with the times than Carcer, and their economy is as well, being more likely to bring in overseas investors. Point to Cottonmouth.

Final Verdict

Neither city is ideal to live in, like, at all. But Carcer City has been beaten down so hard by decades of neglect and years of Starkweather ruining the place, Carcer only has a couple good spots left. Maybe after Starkweather's fall the city can return to it's former glory, but as is, it'd be better to live in Cottonmouth. Carcer 1, Cottonmouth 4. I want to put Carcer higher, but in good conscience, I can't.

God writing that took FOREVER. Lmk your opinions below! I love Rockstar's cities and how much detail's put into them! Hope you like the analysis!

Bully is, in my opinion, a great game. But how do all the missions stack up? Just for clarification, most missions that only require collecting a few items/taking a few pictures will be relatively low, while the most unique and combat heavy missions will be closer to the top. Lmk your opinions on the matter, and whether or not you agree! I love talking abt this game with its fans :)

I rarely ever see fanart of Lance, who’s a rather nuanced character. He’s obsessed with helping others and trying to improve the lives of other people which ends up giving him something of a hero complex, and he projects his insecurities onto others. He’s also, if you listen to his dialogue, pretty tough, so here he is intimidating Harris lol. Hope you enjoy it!

I don’t see much Townie fanart here, so I figured: why not? Gurney’s the townie who I think has the coolest design, he sticks out from every other character. Lmk what character I should draw next! I was thinking of Lance, Ivan, or Trevor since they never get any love from the fandom

Tom Gurney is one of my favorite characters in Bully. Tom is a bully, and he’s ashamed of it. Tom has been friends with the bullies a long time and while he’s against their new bullying behavior he puts up with it and engages with it himself. This still makes Tom a prick, but a more nuanced one. Tom is also wary of the manipulation going on around Bullworth, and unlike many other students he’s disgusted how people take advantage of each other. Tom is actually right about the manipulation going on but no one listens to him about it due to his thuggish nature and him generally falling for baseless conspiracy theories. Add all of those interesting traits to a unique character design with a noticeable black eye and a unique voice with a distinct Brooklyn accent, Tom is one of the more interesting NPC’s in the game. Want to know how many missions he’s in? One. He’s a backup goon for Davis in The Setup. He’s there to cut down your health a bit before Jimmy kicks his ass and that’s it. No mission specific voice lines, no mini cutscenes, nothing. If you guys have any characters you wished had more role in the story, please lmk, I love talking abt this game and its characters

Disclaimer: Mr. Matthews and Mr. Wiggins are the only teachers at Bullworth who’d have a chance of being hired ANYWHERE in the real world. Neil and Carvin are rude to students in a way that would be reported IRL, though they’re still far better than the rest of the teachers. Also yeah, Hattrick isn’t at the bottom of this list. He’s an asshole but compared to some of the other ppl here he’s nothing

EDIT: This is supposed to say STAFF, mb gang

Hey guys! Bully is a game with canonical queer representation, which was contested during its time of release. I’m very glad it has it, as a queer person seeing representation is always nice! I sorted every Bully character by their sexuality. Let me know what you think, these are all based off of the characters’s voice lines and mission appearances

I made this tierlist for a couple reasons, to figure out for myself where I thought the characters were monetarily, but also to hear the opinion of all of yall! Please tell my your opinions, I based these off of the voice lines of the character, appearance, and clique

(oh btw Christy should be in working class with Wade)

edit: I have no idea why Luis isn’t on here, he should be in the same category as Lefty since they’re childhood friends

I’ve always wished certain NPC’s had different looks, so I drew Trent in the style of each clique! Hope it’s good, if yall have any criticism let me know!

Wanted to post this since I saw lots of pretty inaccurate power tier lists. For this tier list, I used the stats of characters like attack frequency, HP, damage, blocking frequency, and grapple moves. A character being listed before another means that they’re more powerful, unless they have the same stats. Ex: Dan being in front of Kirby doesn’t mean he’s stronger, they have the exact same fighting stats and fight style, but Wade is more powerful than Gordon, due to his higher HP, higher blocking frequency, having stunlocking kicks, and having grapple moves (the gut punch and the ground punch and spit finisher) Tell me how you’d change the tierlist in the comments!

As a Massachusetts resident, born and raised, I see lots of influences in Bully from places I've been to! I'd just like to go over some of them in this post!

Bullworth Town Influences
Yum Yum Market in Bullworth Town has what looks to be an apartment complex on top of it, very common in Massachusetts. The apartment above it has what is known as bay windows, which were designed to protrude further than the rest of the building to let in more light. The 4 floors of apartments above Easy Drugs also have bay windows.

Leighson's bank, the BPD headquarters, Bullworth City Hall, and what is probably the post office, all have traditional 1700s-1800s architecture, using pillars, arches, and material like marble and granite. Not a real direct influence to them, just taking from older New England government buildings.

Old Bullworth Vale Influences

Old Bullworth Vale has VERY strong New England influences. To get the traveling carnival out of the way, no, it's not based on anything. The boardwalk is heavily based on seaside towns such as Rockport, Mass. The businesses all look like homes, with shingles and some of them having shingled roofs too. There is also a large congregation of seafood restaurants, like the one owned by Mr. Martin (A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED, FRIEND!) similar to Rockport.

The suburban section of Old Bullworth Vale, both the more middle class and upper class section, also have heavy New England architecture. New England has lots of architectural aspects carried over, unsurprisingly, from England. Victorian architecture and Tudor architecture show up often in Old Bullworth Vale. (sorry for the bad picture of the Tudor house in bully, there weren't many good pics of it)

New Coventry Influences

New Coventry is based on more inner-city neighborhoods of New England cities, especially in southern New England (where I'm from)

The bay window makes a reappearance on The Final Cut building, not too much of note there.

New Coventry has a lot of tenement housing, buildings made up of concrete or brick. The apartments found in the residential part of New Coventry are heavily based on similar brick buildings in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury, all neighborhoods in Boston. In general, New Coventry takes the most influence from urban New England.

The industrial section takes heavy influence from the industrial parts of Dorchester, such as Newmarket, with boarded up abandoned industry buildings and warehouses.

As for Blue Skies Industrial Park, that's a lot more based on Southern US industrial areas, so I won't cover it here.

I hope this was informative! I love this game and I love New England!