Computer and video game events and occurrences

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The following is a list of events and occurrences which traditionally occur within video games.

Contents

[edit] Original plans always change

Many games start out with the character having an original goal which is simple, and supposed to be short. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past starts out with Link going to the castle to look for his uncle, and gets worse from there. Some games have a simple intros and openings, with alternate and sometimes much more innocent goals. The goals may then turn sour by the overused “destruction of hometown,” a botched mission, an ambush or other such unforeseen consequence. A game may have original goals, and upon completing those goals, newer tasks must be completed as a result of the earlier one, or newer goals are tacked on to give you more to do to extend game length. Often, no matter what the initial goal was, the heroes will end up having to save the whole world or will be the last hope for their cause.

[edit] Can't swim

Many early games simply had the player die if they fell in water, unless it was in an underwater level. A more recent example of this is the Grand Theft Auto series. The Monkey Island series is somewhat a parody of this as the protagonist Guybrush Threepwood can hold his breath for 10 minutes for no explicable reason. Exceptions include Link from the Legend of Zelda series (you could get an item which allows him to swim in most of the early games, in the more recent ones he can swim from the start). In Psychonauts, the main character and his family have been cursed by gypsies so that they and all their descendants will die in water, and a giant watery hand appears and grabs at him whenever he touches a large body of water, and will pull him under if it grabs at him three times.

In some Sierra adventures, when you fall in the water, you die after some seconds, unless you type swim.

Seen in: Most platform games, the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Grand Theft Auto series (with the exception of San Andreas), Frogger, Psychonauts

[edit] End of the world

In many role-playing games, the story follows the main character and his friends in a quest to save the world from complete destruction (see end of the world). The events that lead to this apocalypse usually involve the primary villain trying to punish the world or take it over. He often creates a doomsday device or summons destruction by the use of magic. In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Dark Cloud 2 and Little Big Adventure 2, the protagonists have to save the world by stopping the moon from crashing into the planet and destroying all life, and in Mega Man Zero 4, Zero must stop Dr. Weil from obliterating the world with his appropriately named Ragnarok space satellite. Ironically, the last world in Kingdom Hearts is called End of the World.

Seen in: Most Final Fantasy games, Grandia 2, Sonic Adventure 2, Chrono Trigger, Mega Man Zero 4, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Skies of Arcadia, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

[edit] Overwhelming odds a.k.a the one-man army

In Space Invaders, the player's single fighter is faced with waves of hundreds of aliens
Enlarge
In Space Invaders, the player's single fighter is faced with waves of hundreds of aliens

In many, many games on the market, the player is faced with situations where the odds are stacked impossibly against him. One of the earliest examples of this is Space Invaders (in which the player cannot actually even win, but must simply survive for as long as possible). Modern examples of this are first person shooters, especially World War II games, where the players are faced against waves and waves of soldiers. However the player goes against these odds and usually wins (or is forced to by the game in order to progress) no matter how hopeless the situation.

Recently, games have tried to stay away from this cliché. Newer war games like Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood and Call of Duty 2 have included teams of members to make it seem like the odds are even. However, the odds are usually still stacked unfavorably, with just a small team of (supposedly young and untrained) troops taking out many more enemy troops without one casualty.

This cliché originates with technical limitations that make it difficult to produce an enemy that is as challenging and engaging as a human player; interest is instead achieved by having a larger number of less challenging and weaker enemies. This cliché appears more widely in fiction; see stormtrooper effect.

Seen in: Just about every first person shooter, most notably Wolfenstein 3D, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and the Medal of Honor series. Other examples include Goldeneye 007, Space Invaders, the entire Star Fox series, Doom series, Killzone, Kingdom Hearts 2 and in particular, Serious Sam

[edit] Villains give speeches

See also The Villain Speech.

In most games that include bits of dialogue (through speech windows or voice overs), before leading up to the final battle with the big boss or a mini-boss of the game, the villain usually gives some sort of "speech". These speeches would usually include insults or taunts of the hero(es), a boast of how good the villain is as a fighter, how he/she is destined to accomplish global/world domination and/or how he/she will destroy you for ruining their plans/rebelling against their power. Villain speeches vary in type, whether it's serious dialogue, a comical rant, or somewhere in between. Sometimes after the villain's death/defeat, he/she/it gives another speech, the typical "Redemption" words.

Curse of Monkey Island makes fun of this cliché. The villain LeChuck, after capturing Guybrush Threepwood, insists on telling him his plans before executing him. Guybrush does him the favour to listen, but after a while he is so bored that he declines to listen any more, blocking his ears and singing, even if LeChuck pleads to continue.

[edit] Fetch quests and hunting for items

When the protagonist needs help from an NPC, that NPC will frequently require a rare item, which the protagonist must locate, obtain and hand over, before s/he can render the service. [1] These errand-boy tasks are known as "fetch quests", but the term has expanded to cover any exchange of goods and/or services between PCs and NPCs (in Final Fantasy I, for instance, the player must defeat A former knight before the king will repair an intercontinental bridge). Variations include:

Seen in: Just about any quest/mission-based video game ever created.

[edit] Hero always does what he's told

The hero will always obey anybody who tells him to not touch an object or to go somewhere, which forces him to make a complicated plan, often involving distraction, to accomplish his or her objectives, even though simply ignoring the injunction or command would make more sense.

[edit] Breaking and entering

In many games, such as Final Fantasy and Legend Of Zelda games, the players can search people's homes, take their belongings and break their furnishings without them doing anything about it, which in real life are crimes: trespass, breaking and entering, and theft. You can enter a person's home, and the residents will act as though nothing had happened, immediately talking to you without introduction or salutation. These people will sometimes act as if this is a common occurrence in their household. If players take their possessions, the NPC’s will never complain (except in a humorous way) or seek reparations. Players can search through chests and cabinets and, even though a residents would use these spaces, they almost always contain special treasure that the resident does not mind or or, often, even notice you taking. Other times characters can break into chests and crates or other belongings in a persons house and they will not seem to care. Often these will also contain treasures that had mysteriously never been uncovered by the owner.

A few games break the mold and actually punish such actions. Phantasy Star IV does so, preventing players from opening others' cabinets. This can also be seen in games, such as Elder's Scroll III: Morrowind & Elder's Scroll IV: Oblivion, where such actions are considered illegal and, if witnessed, will incur negative consequences (such as aggressive action). Additionally, in Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, the rich man on Windfall Island in the beginning will have you pay 10 rupees if you break the pots. In Breath of Fire, there is a chest in a house in Auria containing an unobtainable Cure. Every time this chest is opened, the owner of the house will call for the police, who subsequently arrest the party. The Ultima series has also traditionally punished theft.

[edit] Shops & shop supplies

Especially in many RPG’s, when providing basic necessities to the player, each town has exactly one inn, one general store, one weapon store, and one armor store. In some cases, either the last two or three stores will combined. Additionally, as the game progresses, shops in other towns will have the much the same stock as all previously visited stores of that type with, perhaps, a slightly upgraded selection of weapons to reflect the players advancement in the game. This may also be true for the strength of the healing items the player receives, with the potions gaining greater healing power as the player gets stronger. As this happens, the price of swords, shields, etc. will rise in proportion to the amount of money or strength the player has. Shops found later in the game generally only stock weapons that are improvements over those the player has, never worse. Shops will sometimes be "sold out" of any item the player already has, as a way to prevent the player from buying a weapons he/she already has. Inversely, if the item is common or a basic necessity, such as healing and mana potions, there is always an unlimited supply of these items in every store.

[edit] Doors are always locked

Many times in the beginning of adventure games, doors are locked, despite the fact that no guard in the game seems to be guarding the door, or seems to be carrying a key to it. In addition, keys to these doors may be found in impossible places, often discreetly hidden behind puzzles or in clever hiding places. This brings up the question of whether the original owner of the key actually hid there for himself to remember, or simply to keep the player from finding it. As well, in some adventure games, almost every door in the game will be locked by some key, and sometimes the keys are locked behind other locked doors as well. This leads one to wonder how the keeper of the keys would be physically able to lock the doors, hide the keys, then be able to traverse the locked areas freely. Often, a key will be guarded by a series of ludicrous puzzles or an extremely difficult to defeat boss enemy. Other times, a door may be completely blocked off to the player, serving only as a decoration implying that the area the player dwells is much bigger than what he just sees. It is typical in real-time strategy games that doors that are not already open are impossible to open.

[edit] Diversion

Many adventure games, have NPCs that forbids or blocks player character actions. The player is expected to create a diversion, keeping this pesky character busy allowing the player continue. Ways of diversion include: lighting fires, breaking things, getting someone to talk to the NPC, make a phone call, and so on. One of the most memorable diversions is in Larry 1 when Larry Laffer turns on a porn cable channel, in order to make a pimp move away from the stairs, relocating to in front of the TV.

Seen in: Full Throttle, Monkey Island series, Zak McKracken, Larry 1, etc

[edit] The ancient species

See also Xenoarchaeology.

The character(s) discover that a part of the world (or Galaxy if the setting is sci-fi) owes its present form to an ancient, now extinct, race that had a large Kingdom which dominated the known world(s); this Empire was usually ultra-advanced but cruel and enslaved the now-dominant known races (such as humans) that were petty and primitive then. Now the characters must explore their ruins and secrets in order to use part of their technology, usually merged with The ... of power concept (see below) and possibly seek the help from the last survivors of their species (who are now decadent and on the verge of extinction) to save the day against the bad guys. An example of this powerful technology is the Unity Device or the Star Forge.

Seen in: KOTOR (Rakata), Star Trek: A Final Unity (Chodak), Zak McKracken (Skolarians), The Dig (Cocytans), Neverwinter Nights, StarCraft (Xel'Naga), Fade to Black (The Ancients), Dungeon Siege and the Elder Scrolls series, the Metroid series (Chozo, Alimbics and the Lunimoth)

[edit] The object(s) of power

The storyline of many role-playing games requires the hero to collect X number of magical items, sometimes unofficially called "plot coupons", which, when brought together, will release some sort of great magical power. Often each item is hidden in a different world or level with a theme of water, ice, fire, etc. Often the hero(es) are trying to gain the items in competition with the villain(s). If this is the case, the Villain(s) will either get each item just before or after the heroes arrive, or attack and steal them all after the heroes have finished gathering them.

Seen in: Paper Mario, King's Quest VIII, The Legend of Zelda, the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Kameo: Elements of Power, Zak McKracken, The "Konquest" mode of Mortal Kombat: Deception, The Elder Scrolls: Arena (Staff of Chaos), Skies of Arcadia, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, many role-playing games

[edit] All-powerful artifacts

Stories often have several characters fighting over items with great powers. Usually, there is only one such item in existence, and very few people are able to control it or use its full powers. Often, such items come from ancient civilizations, were made long ago, or the original makers have died out or disappeared. The Lord of the Rings, though not originally a computer game, is probably the best known example of a story that uses such an item for its story, the One Ring, though the palantíri can be considered examples as well. Their names must include "of", something that sounds like a word from Latin or an east European dialect, or basically show the function of the item. Some FPS games give the player a final weapon to fight the last boss or stage; generally this is so powerful it would make the rest of the game a pushover, a notable exception being the Nuke weapon in Turok 2 which does no damage to the final boss at all.

Seen in: Many role-playing games
See also: MacGuffin, for a similar story device in movies.

The Halo rings in the Halo series.

[edit] Destruction of home towns

In many role-playing games (especially ones from the '90s) the protagonist would begin his adventure at home with his friends (many who become early party members). After a minor adventure or two not too far from town, events occur (which may or may not be inadvertently caused by the protagonist) that either threaten the the town, causing the protagonist to leave home and make things right (or in some cases, outright banished for causing the events), or cause the town to become destroyed forcing the protagonist (as well as whatever friends were with him at the time) to go on an adventure and start a new life, kicking off the game's plot. In some cases, the town is only partially destroyed, and the survivors banish the protagonist from the ruins of the town, as seen in Tales of Symphonia and Xenogears. Additionally, the character's hometown may have already been destroyed at the start of the game, rendering him a bitter, stoic lone wolf (Final Fantasy VII). [2]

Seen in: Advent Rising, Fatal Fury/King of Fighters and many role-playing games

Such as Fable.

[edit] Point man

Most (if not all) First Person shooters require the player to be the man to always fire first, be the distraction, charge that machine gun, get those documents, secure that building, or toss that grenade while all of your comrades in arms mill about and show up only when you have completed the task, repeat ad infinitum (they might provide cover fire). Comrades might also claim to be securing the area while you take point. Or, you are all by yourself awaiting reinforcements, or trying to meet up with "the squad" and you never see them, have all died before you arrive, or arrive only seconds after the combat is over and their help is no longer needed. This is starting to disappear with FPS games such as Halo:Combat Evolved and Timesplitters: Future Perfect. Also, in Call of Duty, as a Russian soldier you are in fact a sniper, and a soldier at one point is forced to run from cover to cover to flush out the enemies.

Seen in: Medal of Honor, Castle Wolfenstein, the Doom and Quake series, GoldenEye (Parodied in Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal, in which The Galactic Rangers are too weak and especially too cowardly to accomplish the objectives themselves, often making elaborate excuses to avoid putting themselves in danger and occasionally taking credit for Ratchet's deeds.)

[edit] Dying

In most 80s/early 90s platform games, when the playable character dies, they turn 90 degrees to face the camera, sometimes get a freaked-out look on their face, levitate a few feet above the spot where they died, and fall below the camera's field of vision, regardless of what is at the bottom of a screen (pits, spikes, even solid ground). Usually the normal game music stops and a "death jingle" plays instead.

A variation of this cliché is that the dying character immediately turns into a ghost and flies above the top of the screen. It is most notable in some games by Sega, such as Teddy Boy and the Alex Kidd series.

Platformers by Virgin and Shiny usually displayed a humorous cutscene after the characters's death. The Crash Bandicoot series also has a large collection of death scenes, and in Crash Tag Team Racing, you actually collect death scenes for the "die-o-rama".

Seen in: Mostly platform games, predominantly in the Super Mario Brothers, Sonic the Hedgehog and Kirby series.

[edit] Bottomless pits & pitfalls

In most games, especially in platform games, the hero(es) have to cross bottomless pits. Even in areas where a bottomless pit seems unlikely, there is always one or more bottomless pit to cross. These lead to some very frustrating encounters as bottomless pits or pitfalls are generally only crossed via a narrow bridge or a rope to present a challenge to the gamer. Sometimes the pitfall just has spikes, lava, acid, or water at the bottom, thus causing the death of the hero if s/he falls in there. (In most role-playing games they are there for decoration and very rarely have anything to do with what's going on.

Seen in: Most platform games, for example the Super Mario Bros. series and Sonic the Hedgehog. Spoofed in Zork Zero, where the main character triggers an event that removes all bottomless pits from the world, albeit replacing them with hordes of grues.

[edit] Weapon occurrence & power

In some games, especially in first-person shooters and third person shooters, the weapons found throughout the game are found in ascending order of their power, range, advantage, etc. Usually, the first weapon found is a simple mêlée weapon (such as the iconic crowbar in Half-Life) and the ending weapon is the most powerful weapon in the game, such as a rocket launcher or a one-hit kill weapon. Despite your advantage with weapons, all of the enemies will continually get stronger throughout the game to level your advantage with firepower. Alternatively, some random plot event - such as being captured in Half-Life or wearing a business suit to sneak into the enemy's facilities in Red Faction - may require the character to discard all their weapons so earlier weak enemies can be re-used.

This can also deal with other weapons, for example, getting stronger swords as the game progresses in a typical RPG game.

Seen in: Almost every FPS single player or third-person shooter game, including Half-life, Half-Life 2, Red Faction, the Grand Theft Auto series, the Metal Gear Solid series, the Metroid series, and the Quake series.

[edit] Upgrading enemies

As soon as the player upgrades his weapons, the creatures he has to defeat will become stronger. As well, the creatures may look exactly the same as previous enemies, with minor differences such as color, weapons, and stats.

[edit] All rumors are true

Any time a character says something along the lines of "it's rumored that the mage clans of the East can enchant weapons with powerful magic" or "legend has it that alien warships equipped with psionic weapons can be found in the Thunderhead Nebula," the player can be absolutely certain that they can find weapon-enchanting mages in the East and aliens armed with psionic lasers in the Thunderhead Nebula.

The Persona (video game) games turn the ever-truthful rumors into a gameplay element: any rumor heard and spread by the party will instantly become true, at times with humorous results (such as a rumor regarding a street vendor actually being a mafia smuggler: when spread, he admits it but doesn't even seem to know what "mafia" is.).


[edit] Imposible Amounts of gold

It is a common occurance that throughout games the player's party will encounter a character in possession of an item or service the player needs to use, and when asked about acquiring this item or service the NPC will give the party two options. The first option would be to exchange the item for an amount of gold that would take a unreasonable amount of time to obtain or an amount of gold that is more than can be carried and the alternative option would be to perform a task for them (this task may vary from getting an item to trade to helping a famliy member), in order so that the party must carrrying out the task, despite the 'choice'.

[edit] References

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