u/Phaser-Duck

I’m building a structured dataset of real-world locations represented in video games.

A retrieval system could use the data to answer questions such as:

• Which games feature locations in Japan?
• Which records refer to historical sites?
• Which locations have exact rather than representative coordinates?
• Which games contain fictionalized places connected to real-world geography?

A few records look like this:

{
  "game_title": "Assassin's Creed",
  "location_name": "Jerusalem",
  "country_iso": "IL",
  "location_type": "city",
  "setting_status": "real",
  "coordinate_method": "representative",
  "verification_level": "verified"
}

{
  "game_title": "Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name",
  "location_name": "Sotenbori",
  "country_iso": "JP",
  "location_type": "district",
  "setting_status": "fictional_with_real_anchor",
  "coordinate_method": "representative",
  "verification_level": "corroborated"
}

I’d appreciate advice from people working with retrieval systems:

• Would row-based records like these be sufficient, or should each record become a natural-language document?
• Which values should be used for metadata filtering, and which should be embedded for semantic retrieval?
• Is the distinction between real and fictional_with_real_anchor useful for evaluation?
• Arecoordinate_method and verification_level useful for evaluation?
• Would source URLs and evidence text be necessary for a meaningful benchmark?
• What kinds of test questions would make this more useful than a simple database lookup?

I am grateful for any feedback.

I’m developing a geospatial dataset of real-world places represented in video games.

The main modelling problem is that not every location corresponds to one precise point. Some records refer to a city, while others represent a landmark, region, island, natural feature, or country.

For example:

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Duga Radar | UA | landmark | 51.3053, 30.0651 | exact

Assassin's Creed Mirage
AlUla | SA | region | 26.6084, 37.9232 | centroid

Battlefield 1
Achi Baba | TR | natural_feature | 40.083, 26.3 | approximate

These points have different geographic meanings. The first refers to a specific landmark. The second uses a centroid for a larger region, while the third is an approximate point for a natural feature.

I would appreciate feedback from GIS users:

1. Is a point-based representation sufficient for an initial dataset?
2. Should regions, islands, and natural features eventually be represented with polygons or lines?
3. Is coordinate_method enough, or should the dataset also include an uncertainty radius or confidence area?
4. Are the terms exact, representative, centroid, and approximate sufficiently clear?
5. Which gazetteer or geographic entity identifiers would you add?
6. Would GeoJSON or GeoPackage be more useful than CSV for this type of data?

Thank you very much for your feedback!

I’m building a structured dataset of real-world locations represented in video games.

The current dataset contains close to 3,000 records from more than 380 games.

Two example records look like this:

record_id,game_title,release_year,franchise,primary_genre,location_name,country_iso,latitude,longitude,location_type,setting_status,coordinate_method,verification_level

acw12_0001,Assassin's Creed,2007.0,assassins_creed,Action Adventure,Jerusalem,IL,31.7683,35.2137,city,real,representative,verified

bra49_0006,2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil,2014.0,fifa_world_cup,Sports,Arena das Dunas,BR,-5.8267,-35.2125,stadium,real,exact,corroborated

The two rows illustrate an important distinction: Arena das Dunas can be represented by an exact point, while Jerusalem is represented by a point that stands for a larger city.

I would appreciate feedback from people who work with public datasets:

1. Should a public preview include source URLs and evidence, or is it reasonable to keep those in a separate research layer?
2. Which additional information would make the records easier to validate or reuse?
3. What kinds of analyses or applications would you personally build with this dataset?

The goal is to improve the data structure and documentation through feedback from people who might actually use it.

Thanks for your feedback :-)

https://preview.redd.it/r0u46fnjnzeh1.jpg?width=1083&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0df6e222fdd4c2ebdc8a0a4f88a8ea53cc075f4b

I always wished there was a way to explore locations in video games geographically, so I decided to build one. I've been researching different real places that appear in video games: cities, famous landmarks, silands, etc.

The map: https://vglocations.org/

Every marker represents a verified real-world location featured in one or more games.

Click a marker to see:

• the game that uses the location
• geographic information
• YouTube gameplay thumbnails

Each location is individually researched, verified, and classified. Whenever possible I assign precise geographic coordinates instead of simply placing markers in the middle of a country.

Behind the map is a structured database that currently contains more than 2,900 verified locations from over 300 games across 80+ countries, and I'm continuously expanding it.

I've also started publishing curated versions of the dataset for free. They're available for research, GIS projects, AI, data visualization, journalism, or simply for anyone interested in video game geography.

There are still lots of games, franchises, and regions to add, so it's very much a work in progress.

If you know a game that recreates interesting real-world places, I'd love to hear about it.

I hope you enjoy exploring the map!