Springfield's Orientation (North, South, East, West)

Mountain ranges in the continental United States run down the map, not across it. Living at the foot of one of those mountain ranges, it makes the most sense to me that the mountains are either west or east. It seems unlikely and unintuitive that the shore would be north, so option B is the most sensical. (At least if we're going to refer to land as being on the right, top, etc. Can't really do that if the mountains are northwest, even if that's the more intuitive option.)

I am finding this topic fascinating. I am particularly fascinated that many players own geographical location influences their orientation in the game.

Living in Portland, Oregon - Ocean is to the west and Mountains are to the east. However that has not influenced me.

I remember back to the beginning of the game when the town was small with just a couple of blocks around the original Simpsons house location. Which is only 2 blocks away from the mountains. If Homer was to walk to the Mountains he would have walked one block left - ie West. If he was to have gone to the sea, he would have gone south until he discovered Squidport did not yet exist and was unable reach the coast . This is where I developed the orientation that the Mountains are to the west.

The map has expanded and the load zone moved east (or south for some) causing different vantage points.

barryriddl474 wrote:

sandwedgeking wrote:
. Can you believe I'm gonna hafta nuke again?

http://31.media.tumblr.com/89651b493ce7f2ce9fd946d80e2000d8/tumblr_n3o1jg9RKq1smcbm7o1_500.gif

http://media.giphy.com/media/H8zg5nlGWWQ7K/giphy.gif

bump

B for me. The mountains where I live are west but the sea is east. Because I live right next to the mountains I always think they are west :)

The answer is clearly C.

https://understandingandfaith.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/its-only-logical-thumb.jpg?w=474

neuroheart wrote:
Mountain ranges in the continental United States run down the map, not across it. Living at the foot of one of those mountain ranges, it makes the most sense to me that the mountains are either west or east. It seems unlikely and unintuitive that the shore would be north, so option B is the most sensical. (At least if we're going to refer to land as being on the right, top, etc. Can't really do that if the mountains are northwest, even if that's the more intuitive option.)

Interesting, I choose A because I always associated the body of water in the game to an ocean. As I live on the east coast, the body of water in the game could not work as the Atlantic ocean but the Pacific works just fine with it so I always associated the water as west. Even though the Rocky mountains are also west, the water supersedes it. Doesn't Canada have mounts up there?

empathy77 wrote:

neuroheart wrote:
Mountain ranges in the continental United States run down the map, not across it. Living at the foot of one of those mountain ranges, it makes the most sense to me that the mountains are either west or east. It seems unlikely and unintuitive that the shore would be north, so option B is the most sensical. (At least if we're going to refer to land as being on the right, top, etc. Can't really do that if the mountains are northwest, even if that's the more intuitive option.)

Interesting, I choose A because I always associated the body of water in the game to an ocean. As I live on the east coast, the body of water in the game could not work as the Atlantic ocean but the Pacific works just fine with it so I always associated the water as west. Even though the Rocky mountains are also west, the water supersedes it. Doesn't Canada have mounts up there?

Yes, Canada has mountains. The Rockies still run North-South, though, so it makes sense that they are either on the east or west. Depending on where you live, you can find water on any (or sometimes all) sides, so I tend to take the mountains as the fixed reference. Granted, there are many places where you can be to the north or south of mountains, so it's mostly a matter of personal preference. I tend to like the argument of Barry's map, so I'm going with B.

A

I've got it in my head that Springfield is on the west coast and the water is the Pacific Ocean. It can't be a lake or a river because it's got whales and tropical islands in it!

The thing that makes it confusing for me is the neighbor list screen, where the mountains are at the top and the water at the bottom.

empathy77 wrote:

neuroheart wrote:
Mountain ranges in the continental United States run down the map, not across it. Living at the foot of one of those mountain ranges, it makes the most sense to me that the mountains are either west or east. It seems unlikely and unintuitive that the shore would be north, so option B is the most sensical. (At least if we're going to refer to land as being on the right, top, etc. Can't really do that if the mountains are northwest, even if that's the more intuitive option.)

Interesting, I choose A because I always associated the body of water in the game to an ocean. As I live on the east coast, the body of water in the game could not work as the Atlantic ocean but the Pacific works just fine with it so I always associated the water as west. Even though the Rocky mountains are also west, the water supersedes it.

But there's also ocean to the south, along the Gulf coast. Since there is ocean that goes across the map, but no mountain ranges that go across the map, it seems most logical to me that the mountains are west and the ocean is south.
(No mountain ranges currently extend all the way to the Gulf, but it's more likely that would happen than that they would shift their entire orientation and start extending across the map. Tectonic plates are stubborn like that. Maybe the mythical Springfield is in northern Florida and the Appalachians have extended down to that coast.)