![]() ![]() It’s really an exploration of New Orleans’s landscape, and also the types of people and personalities and communities and cultures that it has created and has the potential to create. The narrative of the game is constructed in a way where the landscape takes primacy in many ways. The three acts of the game are in many ways slightly disparate, but they all do tie into the industrial landscape of the river parishes and the suburbs of western greater New Orleans, so Kenner and Metairie. It’s intended to be a composite look at not only the region in Louisiana, but also the Trump era. It has a lot of nontraditional gameplay elements. The game itself uses a lot of classic adventure-game tropes, but at its heart, it is more of an interactive piece of media. YUTS: I’m from Norco, grew up in Norco, went to UNO, lived in New Orleans up until about three years ago, when my partner accepted a job in the Blue Ridge Mountain region of Virginia. Yuts, can you tell us about yourself and the game Norco? ( courtesy of Geography of Robots/Raw Fury) Oil refineries loom large in Norco, as they do in the town for which it is named. ![]() The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. I asked Richard to join me for a conversation with Yuts to discuss what makes Norco such a compelling artistic subject. The town of Norco-or, rather, the petrochemical complexes lining the riverfront in Norco-also recently graced the cover of Enigmatic Stream: Industrial Landscapes of the Lower Mississippi River, by photographer Richard Sexton and published by THNOC. Norco, the video game that Yuts and the collective known as Geography of Robots created about his hometown of Norco, Louisiana (approximately 25 miles west of New Orleans), launched to critical acclaim in March, and has been billed by the game publishing platform Steam as “a Southern Gothic point-and-click narrative adventure that immerses the player in the sinking suburbs and verdant industrial swamps of a distorted South Louisiana.” Distinguished by its hauntingly gorgeous pixel artwork and engrossing storyline, Norco won the Tribeca Film Festival’s inaugural award for game design and has captivated gamers and non-gamers alike. Such was the case for the game developer and geographer known pseudonymously as Yuts. When these behemoths tower over your tiny hometown, though, you have little choice but to get acquainted, and perhaps even come to find beauty in this alien landscape. You’d be forgiven, however, for not really knowing what goes on here-or not wanting to find out. If you’ve driven the River Road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, or caught a glimpse of the flickering refineries off in the distance from I-10, you probably have a sense of the heavy industrial presence all along the lower Mississippi River. ( C ourtesy of Geography of Robots / Raw Fury ) Values above or below 100 represent above-average wealth or below-average wealth compared to the national level.Scene from Norco, a sci-fi adventure game based on the creator’s Louisiana hometown. It represents the wealth of the area relative to the national level. The Wealth Index is based on a number of indicators of affluence including average household income and average net worth, but it also includes the value of material possessions and resources.The % of Income for Mortgage quantifies the percentage of median household income dedicated to mortgage payments on a home priced at the median value (assuming a 30-year mortgage and a 20% down payment).Values above 100 indicate increased affordability, while values below 100 indicate decreased affordability. The Housing Affordability Index base is 100 and represents a balance point where a resident with a median household income can normally qualify to purchase a median price home. ![]() An area's diversity index increases to 100 when the population is evenly divided into two or more race/ethnic groups. If an area's entire population belongs to one race AND one ethnic group, then the area has zero diversity.
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