Ok, I've been playing through the old Megaman games to get back in swing before Megaman 9 is released, and I've been wondering, what exactly are the stages?
They don't seem to have much logic or practical use. Why would Wily want to build or capture them.
Police Officer: Look out! Wily has a Robot Master in control of a ludicrous base on that mountain.
Citizen: Ok... Why?
Police Officer: I don't know! But its very important!

Fireman's level, could be a robot operated Geo-thermal energy plant. But Most of the others are beyond me. Like Snakeman's level. It doesn't seem to be anything.

So, what do you think the levels are, folks?

They are rooms that the RM's recharge their batteries in.

The idea that Wily could have built some stages himself isn't totally out of the question following Rockman 1.

Hey Hard, where's Iceman's stage located again?

Some of them could be mini fortresses the robot masters designed for themselves.

I think that in the first game, the sites of the Robot Masters have some significance, like a sub-arctic research facility and a large mine where a mineral that has some sort of importance to the world is obtained. Some of the other games may have this as well. However, in MM8, I know this is not the case, as the RMs hold the keys to the plot...and to Wily's Fortress.

Good lord, you too? It amazes me sometimes how sure you guys are about the geographic location of a stage despite never actually looking at the background at the very start for two seconds and thinking about what you see for a moment.

(I kid because it's really, really obvious.)

According to the MM3 Manual, the stages are "mining worlds" (and the word "world" seems to have the connotation of being a planet in this instance). Furthermore, the back of the box says he "blast[s] through a galaxy of mining stations". So, there you have it. At least for MM3, they are on different planets, specifically planets that are being mined for "energy crystals".

Of course, this may have been retconned by the time MMV for GB came around.