What the Hell is Briantis?
Throughout the ages, people have asked many questions: What killed the dinosaurs? How big is the universe? What is the meaning of life? People always seem to want an explanation for how things work, where someone went, who someone was, why something happened, or what something is. If you happen to be reading this, then chances are you’re probably wondering what the Hell Briantis is.
In order to explain, I’m going to take you back to 1992, the year when I got SimCity on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Unlike other people, I didn’t play SimCity first on the PC. I had heard about the game, but it wasn’t until I saw an article about it in the magazine Nintendo Power that I became interested in it. The idea of creating my own city sounded very appealing.
At first, I wasn’t sure what the Hell to name my cities. I used names of Nintendo characters (like Mario or Yoshi) or I came up with stupid names like “Frog Land” (since I really liked frogs). As time went on, I wanted something that sounded majestic and more like the name of an actual city. I looked at globes, atlases, and road maps (remember, we didn’t have the Internet back then), but nothing came to mind. That’s when I remembered the legendary city of Atlantis. I thought, “How about if I combine my name with the city of Atlantis?” Thus, Briantis (pronounced “Bry-ANT-iss”) was born!
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In subsequent games in the SimCity series, I continued to create different versions of Briantis. Over time, I came up with sort of a backstory for the city. I imagined that it was named after someone such as a king or a war hero. I would name some of the monuments “Statue of King Briantis” or (in the case of SimCity 2000) label a road “King Briantis Avenue.”
Eventually, when I got the Internet, I decided to use the name “Briantis” as part of my e-mail address (briantis1980@yahoo.com). Since then, the name kind of took on a different meaning to describe me personally. People started calling me “Briantis” so it became my new nickname.
Anyway, welcome to my new website. In addition to writing more about SimCity, I will be posting other articles that relate to me as well. Stay tuned!
