Huge Signs

* See also Gianormous_Infinite_BS
* See also Seriously_Chalkboards
* See also Posters 
* See also Lets_Push_The_Players_Face_Into_IT
* See also Gianormous_Statues
* See also Funky_Columbia_Machinery
* See also Milquetoast_Racism
add to giant gears below
Rapture had reasonable sized Signage to look at. The ones in Columbia got a bitInfinite Game HUGE Signs : As in Overdone, as well as Ignorance-Driven Mismatching 1900 Society - Simply Put : SHITTY WORLD-BUILDING ... over-large and over-absurd. Those linear paths the Players had to run - They were so long that soon Players simply could be expected to run past everything. THUS Huge Signs filler ...Ego of the Infinite BS gamemakers ??? ... "SEE HOW CLEVER WE ARE" - When it was so much utterly absurd and Un-Clever. 
Sign put OVER the Building's Windows ??? These Level Artists apparently just glued such shit together without much thought.
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They did HAVE that pointy arrow thing used to point you in the right direction ...
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Artists Who Make Those HUMONGUS Signs and Posters In Columbia ? :
Those are not realistic/plausible for that time period/era ( and many hardly even for the time since ) - Very expensive, done in a very implausible way for Real World signage ( They barely had 'color' anything in those days, so I guess Fink invented THAT too ... ).
Seriously, were the Players expected to be so DIM, and BLIND, and DISINTERESTED that anything and everything had to be *Hugified* to HIT the Player in the Face with them, instead of allowing the Player to find/see/discover them all by themselves ??? Having more Normal-sized things - That was much more prevalent in the Previous 2 games.
Was all this REALLY because : Being BIG meant you needed fewer created things to 'fill in' all that otherwise-lifeless BIG-IFIED space ??? Look again at any/all of those locations in the game and count the details. Look at pictures of real places (in that era) and compare. Suddenly you see that COLUMBIA IS SO SPARSE - There is barely the proper detail there (in the game) as compared to a real city.
(( AGAIN - for this MMORPG - There was the Idea of a PLETHORA ( look up that word ) of objects and things to look at and interact with - NOW To be made further possible by the inherent Player Creation of objects and detail which would be a fundamental part of the MMORPG game. ))
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Columbia Signage (Signs) Is Excessive BS ? Kalumbia Be Dah Trash :
Inappropriate - a BIG sign must mean a BIG Business ... Right ?? Complicated/Outsized signs for what can only be small businesses ( in Columbia which is really a small town ), likewise is an absurdity. For all Columbia's grandiosity, seen in the game, it is mostly empty air.
Bad Placement - There is another issue with Huge-ified Signs being with buildings so near each other - Big Signs at sufficient height can't be seen much when blocked by adjacent buildings - It negates their purpose. They also give people looking up from the ground at a sharp angle a neck ache, or worse - The sign simply gets ignored. The majority of real world signs are normally to be found closer to the ground, to fall into the normal vision of someone on the street ( and smaller also means cheaper to have made - unless bad Fantasy-Economics are in play ). Real People, who have signs made, are NOT STUPID.
In Columbia, many of the signs LOOK like they were designed by people with a view floating in the air ( "artist" who doesn't understand Viewpoint Contexts ). It is unlikely someone zipping by on those Skyline routes can look about/around themselves much, while they are hanging on for their lives ( especially as the 'tracks' strangely dip and twist so-much, throwing them about, like a Rollercoaster ). People who would likely see the signs generally will be ON THE GROUND.
Too Complicated - If you look at old city photographs, you will see that MOST large Signs of that era are no more complex than being PAINTED on the flat side of a building ( usually in white on a dark solid background for maximum visibility ). More complicated signs are usually small because of their significant expense ( and placed low, to be readable, seen close ). Signs of the 'blade' type stick out at a 45 degrees at a corner so as to be visible down 2 streets. 
Overdone - Big signs are a cheap game method of creating an affect of "being impressive" ( particularly to those who haven't a clue what real world signs at that time should be ). This helps Cover up the lack of detail. Unfortunately, a huge sign isn't that interesting and does not warrant a second look. Having large/HUGE LIT signs could bankrupt a small business (even today).
Lack of Detail - On far away 'Prop' buildings, any signs which were much smaller would be unreadable ( the idea that there were such signs visible wasn't enough ). Representing Visual Perspective with consistency seems a lost concept ( again all you have to do is look at real pictures ). To be realistic, you would also have to have MORE signs ( one big sign is alot less effort for a game developer to make than a realistic cluster of small/normal sized signs ). All those cloud effects only partially obscured details at distance, and signs ( which are designed for maximum visibility and have a distinctive shape ) are obscured the least, and so cannot really be omitted without the scene looking WRONG.
All in all, the presentation of Signage in Infinite BS was overdone crap.
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Instead of letting the Players see something normal, they had to make sure the idea was rammed into the Players face ( over and over ).
NOTICE at the left the size of those lab coats ... Now think about how ridiculously large that sign is.
Do You think it MIGHT have been because the Players had to be forced to see all the signs so that they wouldn't miss them and thus miss seeing how clever the game designers thought they were ?????? Any which way, it is pretty pathetic.
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It sometimes helps for game designers to have their skills grounded in Real World disciplines ( including the common skills used to find pictures of "real things" to use as a basis for their 'art' and the styles they are copying ). The Internet is full of old pictures which might prevent a result like this. Too much which looks to be designed for easy game swag 'Plushie' conversion.
One problem with 'pretty' distant props ( which you cannot get near in the game ) is : The signs have to be ridiculously Gianourmous to be discernible, like that atrocity above. It is a simpleton's idea of a 'sign', hanging off the side of a building. The banner to the left placement, covering windows, is also evidence of an artist who 'Just doesn't get it' (or didn't care).
Imagination like this I suppose is fine, but not for a place where there are no Unicorns.
One commentator said : "The whole place (Columbia), its lighting and colors and shapes looked like the inhabitants should shit cotton candy."
BTW - Quantumz doesn't cause things like Shear Stress to suddenly stop happening. The gusty wind hits that huge flat sign side and rips the sign off the building - taking a big chunk with it. ( "Don't ever let Artists or Idiots design buildings" - F L Wright )
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Whatkind.jpg|Oops, the nearblind Test Player missed this - fix it to be better.
CloseOffLimitsYahThink.jpg|Way up there so the Zeppelins can read it.
Absurdly.jpg|I guess players needed some help seeing these signs
Cominwitagun.jpg|SORRY, THIS SIGN JUST ISN'T *BIG* ENUF !!!!
Cantread.jpg|Too absurd
AbsurdIgnorantFeebleProp.jpg|Absurdly Large Props - Needing 'filler' in their over-sized interiors
BigSignz.jpg|Coulda made a damn fine lean-to with that huge board.
Disposal.jpg|SERIOUSLY, Were They Afraid The Players Would Miss A Sign If It Wasn't 8 Times Larger Than What It Should Be ????
KindaLargish.jpg|Simply No Trust in the Players' Observation Skills
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Seriously, didn't they look at old pictures to see the way ACTUAL signs were built and used in the old days ? ( The internet is full of such pictures ).
This is COMPLETELY wrong. Nobody would build that frame to aim/slope a sign down. Nobody would need to build a frame at all when the sign would SIMPLY be FIRST painted on the side of the building. And SECOND if was a separate 'board', it would be bolted to the wall. THIS STUPIDITY IS PERFECT" FOR THE WIND TO CATCH IT AND RIP IT OFF THAT BUILDING.
This is the kind of bad/ignorant assumptions and embellishments that were in so much of in that game.
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Why would a Passenger be interested in "Freight" ?? So even with this too large sign, it is about a path for a mundane purpose. Its Hugeness spoils/clutters the nice view. Routine operations in the Real World don't have to be this blatant. For a Game, these over-sized signs are quite 'Hand-Holdie', as if the gamemakers thought the Players had to be guided along like 'cattle' - too stupid to be trusted to figure even a little bit out for themselves. 
(( Players Treated Like "Cattle" - SO does that make Levine like Fink ??? - Is this a Hidden Confession that he thinks the Players are quite stupid, AND in need of hand-holding assistance to get them through the game ??? ))
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IT IS THE COST, IDIOTS !!! :
A photo portrait Business WOULD NOT have anything this big and costly Gianourmously Overdone - Seriously these hack gamemakers are stuck on their ignorant fantasy pretending, and not on Worldbuilding anything resembling the World Columbia supposedly was based on. . How many customers could they possibly have ?????? Even in real LARGE FRICKEN CITIES like New York, they would NOT be anything remotely this EXPENSIVELY big.Part of the issue of Lazy HUGENESS : Any details you want the Player to see you have to ALSO make absurdly large so it isn't lost in the exaggeration. Columbia we assume has some thousands of people. A small establishment would do fine. BUT NOT THIS RIDICULOUS MONSTROSITY. Illogical Bigness just to pad a Game Level - "LOOKEY, I CAN DO THOSE FANCY OLD TIMEE PRETTY LIGHTS - DERRRRRRRP !!!". 
Clueless.
Fictional Stupidity.
Infinite BS.
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Big Signs Cost Big Bucks :
Did Jeremiah Fink (or other) find some magic beans in a Tear that allowed humungus giant complicated signs and gold-plated statuary grow up like trees. That might be the only way Columbia could be so full of these ridiculously over-sized things. The section built as the 1893 Exposition Show City (El Floato) would only be a small PART of the larger later Columbia ( And NO, you didn't just take the other ground exposition buildings and levitate them - that would be years later, and THEY were made of fiber-filled plaster (called 'Staff') and Chickenwire -- All quite temporary and unable to last much more than a year ).
Ditto for the rest of Columbia's HUGE buildings costing ALOT of money, which can't possibly be paid for from Tax-Payer monies nor even the fictional cultist population. The vast majority of Real World cities are built over many decades, with business flowing in from a whole regional area - Something that is IMPOSSIBLE with Columbia's Limited Economy and Separatism.
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PIPES !!! :
Rapture had some huge pipes (ie- at Hephaestus), but they weren't as Pointless as these things were.
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Stairs just inserted/Cut-N-Pasted as an obvious graphics object - not integrated into the placement - a thin inaccessible area (with carpet) next to generic stair block - instead of a balustrade cleanly up against a wall. Cut-N-Paste Badness.
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Note - whistles this large would deafen anyone nearby, OR on eating huge amounts of steam would have such low tones that it would break windows. NO need for TWO of them. Again it seems a matter of lazy fill-in with hugified props. 
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Giant Statues just as Decorations. Maybe if Columbia was merged from 100 Alternate Columbias ... ( But how would the alternate Comstocks react to their stuff being stolen ?? )
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Waterfalls in Columbia make about as much sense as a Cos-Play Little Sister at a 'Furry Convention'. If they Cleverly had used Tears at the bottom level to subsequently drop the water back at the top ( Like "Portal""Portal" was a DLC game for "Half Life Two" ), then this waste might make sense ( and be more interesting and imaginative - and SHOW OFF the whole idea - that Columbia USED Tears To Make The City Work ) .
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Man in the Stupid High Tower ... ( What reason, other than to be 'tall' to serve as a backdrop, would these things have served ??? )
The blurring effects they used were obscene. Really bad. Little realistic variation with distance here - POORLY DONE, LEVINE.
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Columbia Behind the Facade :
Behind the Facade - that Plaster/Lathing/Chickenwire reality WOULD have been an interesting thing to have shown in the game - Inferring An amazing 'pretty' outward appearance ( in the good parts of 'town' ), but shoddy it being falling apart underneath ( once you looked closely, or behind the propaganda presentation, or the squalid areas where the 'lesser folk' had to live ). Instead, they went 'Full Retard' Gamemaker Fantasy ...
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A little too much 'community art school', and too little 'real world knowledge'. General signs you make 50 of, being BATCH PRINTED like this ( and likely only in Black and White ). With very many fewer needed, they would be more obviously handmade for each unique situation ( Real World guys called 'Sign Painters' have long been real good at making such things. )
This Sign is a little too specific and 'Explainy' for anything Real. It really should have been more like (small) :
DANGER KEEP OUT
NO ADMITTANCE
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Seriously, what good are GIANT signs when everyone around you is as 'poor' as you are. What rich people are supposed to be walking around this absurd 'slum' ?? Prostitution much ?? "New Adventures of Jack the Ripper" ?? 
Shantytown - It is a bit like 'Wizard of Oz' goes to Auschwitz - So Weak with its enormous 'Help Us' signs ( the guy wasted a can of paint there he coulda sold ... ) It is like the gamewriters did not think the Players would be bothering to look at or notice it much - While 'rushing past', On their way to their next Slaughter-fest arena battle.
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This is supposed to be a 'ChalkBoard'. How does one reach way up to the top to write/draw when it is this Huge ? It makes me think that these game designers don't even understand what a 'Chalkboard' is, or how it is used. What is really stupid is that dry marker boards ( frequently used for collaborative design meetings ) work the same way -- SO how could these people NOT Understand how boards like this Work ? (( They are Afraid that their 'work' would get 'missed' by so many bored/Rambo'ing Players ???? )) Not Great World Building (Actually the reverse).
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Major Cities Only Have Bank Vaults THIS LARGE And This Expensive ( and not just the door but the whole Stupendously Huge Vault too)
Another example of BIG to JUST BE BIG - Very Poor World-building for a game who wants the Players to Buy Into its Era and Normal Society (warped out of shape) instead of simply have Huge Glitzy Game Levels in place of a well-crafted detailed setting.
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== REAL WORLD SIGNAGE ==
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Crass Commercialism - Yeah, that belongs in the Holy Flying City ... ( Way too many themes they tried to push in their 'Evil America' bad fantasy ). 
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This is a highly commercial (capitalistic America) street, around the story date of Columbia. Note how FLAT the signs are ( painted on building sides ). This is with many hundreds of thousands of people IN the city to be potential customers, and more from outside it.
Signs painted on flat building sides. Plainly visible. Definitely Cheaper, when huge complex signs would be a major expense for a store/shop when there aren't enough people to justify anything so grand. The Wind hitting flat sides of signs - requiring heavy reinforcements ( even more expense ). Real Signs would definitely NOT be put over windows as seen in many game Columbia locations.
The bizarre huge signs seen in the game were the product of the game designers NOT understanding how EXPENSIVE real signs are - and such Over-Huge ones serve no purpose when AFTER a week everyone KNOWS where the business is ( Consider that Columbia is NOT even a 'town' in population, and doesn't have the 'pass through' city visitor customers who might need to be attracted/directed by such ).
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Note the way that THESE signs are made in the Real World. ( Not ridiculously huge, with reasonable expense ... Painted on the side of a building ).
The game artists really did NOT get this concept about reality - where things cost money, and businesses have to control costs, and giant huge signs are a liability and a maintenance headache/expense ( AND often face community restrictions ).
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Look at the (real world) signs - even decades after Columbia's time. Mostly flat, no weird fancy protruding things, and YES some are large ... But this is for a city with millions of people to justify such extravagance and huge cost - New York City was the Financial Capitol of the WORLD.
Perhaps Advertisement Sign Making was the true major industry in Columbia ??? ( seconded by monstrous statue-making ). 
HEY, Signs built out of the bones/corpses of murdered immigrants and worked-to-death minorities ( in a alternate dimension Columbia, at least ) might've been truly imaginative ... IMAGINE !!! ( Hmmmm ... Living Signs - slaves drawn from far lands through Tears to serve at the Founder's whims and as terrible amusement. ) 
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=="Thou Shalt Not Insult Thy Father Comstock" - Founder's Version==
=="Do not insult Father Comstock ( If you don't want a trip to 'The Box' ), even in your thoughts" - Untermenschen version.==
=="The Prophet Says It Is To Be So"==
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Neck strain having to look up so much ( Perhaps considered suspicious behavior when the Citizens DONT look at the Propaganda and 'make the Sign Of The Prophet' at it - Ignoring Father Comstock's messages maybe gets you a 'Caning' ).
Hint to all Gianourmity Using Gamemakers : Smaller signs near the ground are more Visible to people down there - AND are far Cheaper AND don't Block the buildings windows.
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==BIG GEARS AND WHEELS== 
LargeGears22.jpg|This Mini-Skyline Track Is As Derpy As Other Transport in Columbia
SteampunkyStuffz.jpg|Quantum Flywheel ?? The 'artists' seem to have 'googled' "Hit and Miss Engines"
TooDerpy.jpg|Things hang from cables, not ride on them.
KnowShitAll.jpg
FunkyMachinesTheseBe.jpg
MachinesByMorons11.jpg
LoveTheseMachinez.jpg|Derp Mechanics Reaches Its Heights
AFeebsGears.jpg
FeebClock.jpg
1984ish.jpg
Viewzing.jpg
GianourmityMustBeBetter.jpg
ClockFetish.jpg
FactoryYeah.jpg
ILuvMachinezDontPhysicallWork.jpg
DontEverLet.jpg
PRDR31562314989.jpg|Oh Wait, That's RDR2 - A Wheel With An Actual Reason.
TowerGears.jpg|Why are there Giant Wheels in The Siphon Tower ??
Throwback.jpg|Simply Bad.
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