Question: There are three problems with the setting of *Game of Thrones*: 

1. Because if the continent of Westeros in the show (and books) are probably set on either a parallel Earth or a very Earth-like alien world.
2. But the problem is that we find out that there are roughly forty years of winter for every ten years of summer (it could be more or less) so this planet is obviously not Earth because it must have a very different orbit to our world. It obviously takes fifty Earth years to orbit their sun and the planet is only positioned for summer for a short period of that time.
3. But we see in the opening credits that Westeros is inside the shell of a planet and at the centre is their large mechanical artificial sun, I don't think the opening credits of the show show us what is literally happening, I think it's an artists representation, so it's good to bear this point in mind but safe to ignore it.

So any ideas? 

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I believe I have confused some people with this question, first of all the story tells us something along the lines of "The summers last years and the winters last lifetimes!" I'm not sure what the exact wording is, but whether the tilt of the planet or the distance from the sun or the atmosphere is responsible is irrelevant, I think we can agree that it's not Earth or at least not our version of Earth. 

What I was hoping for was a little specific info on what this planet is for example, Lord of the Rings happens in a lost age in Europe, back when Elves, Hobbits and Dwarves shared the world with man, so we know Middle Earth, is Earth. Also we know Masters of the Universe happens on Eternia, Transformers happens on Earth and Cybertron so what planet does Game of Thrones happen on?

Answer: 
The planet is not named in the books or in the series. We see the world of the Song of Ice and Fire through the eyes of its inhabitants who are about the level of the middle ages in terms of scientific knowledge. IIRC, they don't even know that their world is round, not to mention that there are other planets orbiting around stars, so it is plausible that they may not have a name for their planet. Also, none of the religions described in the books seem to have a concept of heaven or paradise, which may explain why there is no term for *earth* as opposed to *heaven*.
In [this chat](http://web.archive.org/web/20001005212114/eventhorizon.com/sfzine/chats/transcripts/031899.html), GRRM confirms that the story does not literally take place on our earth, but rather a secondary world:

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> With references to aurochs, direwolves, and "winter is coming," are we to read any Earth prehistory into these books? Like the ice ages?
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> **George\_RR\_Martin** - No, it's a secondary world, like Tolkien's Middle Earth. No link to "our" earth.
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