10 Video Game Tropes That Make No Sense

[Music] when you play a video game as we occasionally do here at team triple jump oh it's an unspoken rule that you will need to at least to some extent suspend your disbelief after all most people play games in order to escape the mundanity of the real world so grounding absolutely everything in reality would make for one very boring experience with that said however there are one or two common tropes that still have us scratching our heads no matter how hard we try to overlook them we can cope with magical fantastical beasts and weapons that can shoot lasers but show me a character with more storage space than your average garden shed and i'll show you exactly where we draw the line we've already explored the ways in which video games defy real world logic in another list but today we're going to look at many more things in video games that for one reason or another just don't add up now it is worth noting that what we're here to talk about today is just things that seem weird when you compare them to the context of the real world we're not saying that these things should be gotten rid of in fact you'll find that many of the entries in this list are absolutely necessary for an interesting or enjoyable gameplay experience so keep that in mind we're not ragging on these tropes we're just saying they'd be kind of weird if they happened in the real world okay so with all that said i'm peter from triple jump and here are 10 video game tropes that make no sense number 10. nonsensical crafting thanks to the rise in popularity of the survival genre more and more developers have begun incorporating some form of crafting mechanic into their games whether it's to allow you to make potions weapons and ammunition or building materials everyone from minecraft to resident evil will have you smushing random ingredients together to create useful items generally you'll need a handful of crafting materials you've gathered on your travels plus some sort of recipe for the thing you want to make so far so realistic all you then need to do is find either a work bench or just a nice quiet corner where zombies aren't going to try and munch on your achilles tendons and get to it whistle while you work if you want but whilst some of the recipes make sense for example joining some sticks and planks together to get some fence or slapping some string on a stick to get a fishing rod others are downright nonsense i mean on what planet would combining two containers of gunpowder make handgun ammo i mean i'm no expert on the subject but surely we were at least missing some casings of some kind and specialist equipment that would bring the whole thing together and why on earth would i need herbs to make rocket pistol ammo what's next oregano in my tnt ridiculous number nine enemies attacking one at a time there's a good reason your mum always used to extol the virtues of safety in numbers and that reason really does just come down to basic maths i.e a large group of people is far more likely to be successful than a loner should things ever come down to a physical fight clearly the hordes of video game enemies we come across on a regular basis don't seem to quite grasp this as all too often a protagonist will wander alone into an area densely populated with baddies and for whatever reason i suppose just some misguided notion of fairness they'll come at us one at a time we understand that from a gameplay point of view this is obviously to ensure that the player doesn't just get mangled by every troop of bandits they come across in reality however even the dumbest band of brigands would realize that a group attack is far more likely to succeed than multiple individual ones we must also give an honorable mention to the idiot adversaries that will continue to blindly attack our heroes even after we've bashed in the heads of all their other mates we certainly commend you for your bravery if not your brains number eight silent protagonists there's an old saying that goes if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all if that's the case then we can only assume that some of our favorite video game protagonists are a right bunch of indeed the silent protagonist trope is incredibly common with series like half-life and persona opting not to give their heroes a voice this is fine if you don't think too hard about it but in reality it would be a bit bizarre to try and talk to someone who made no attempts to communicate back the trope is generally used so as not to assign too much of a personality to a character and to therefore try and make the player feel more like they are in the story instead but personally i can't think of anyone i know that would just stand in complete silence if somebody was trying to talk to them at best it's kind of awkward and at worst it's downright rude you're raised better than this we understand that there are people who are differently abled that may well communicate in non-verbal ways but this isn't the case for your average video game silent protagonist and rather than immersing us in the character it just makes us think that they're intentionally choosing not to speak and are therefore a bit of a discourteous butthole to be honest number seven weird revival mechanics though we are in no way trained medical professionals here at team triple jump we understand enough about the human body to know what is effective and what isn't when it comes to first aid as an example most deep wounds will at the very least need some sort of sterilization and dressing if you have any hopes of recovering from them although medical professionals have extolled the benefits of a positive mental attitude when it comes to recovery from any kind of injury or disease sadly just thinking happy thoughts isn't enough to cure whatever ails you yes we're looking at you gears of war and battlefield because even though one of our comrades has kindly helped us to our feet and given us a pat on the back we've still got a whole load of bullets riddling our torsos so forgive us if we don't feel instantly better we're also not sure how killing someone else a lot borderlands would help us get over a vast array of injuries either sure it's certainly cathartic to take a baddie down with you but it's no replacement for a pack of bandages and a saline drip oh and don't even get me started on the magical healing properties of food i've been stabbed 37 times in the chest but oh oh a blt oh that'll do me just right thanks very much number six skimpy lady armor in most games where combat is the order of the day it's necessary to kick your character out with a snazzy set of armor if you're unfamiliar with the concept the idea is to clothe yourself generally from head to toe in sheets of metal or other sturdy material with the aim of minimizing the amount of damage one could sustain from various sharp pointy weapons it's advisable to ensure that you have at least kitted yourself out with a helmet and chest plate so as to provide some protection to your vital organs and major arteries and so it's for this reason that we're often confused by some of the options offered to female characters whilst many games these days are a bit more pragmatic there are some both now and throughout gaming history that utterly confound us now don't get us wrong we're all for looking sexy i mean look at us but there's a time and a place for it and that time and place is not smack bang in the middle of a battlefield sure if you want to wear that black leather one piece with the plunging neckline and thong back you go girl it looks very nice but unless the enemy is aiming their shots directly at your nipples i'm afraid you're going to end up with more holes than a block of swiss cheese not to mention the fact that if the temperature drops by just a few degrees you'll catch your death number five safe rooms now hey we absolutely like the idea of a space that protects us from various beasties and monsters and safe rooms are effectively the video game equivalent of the toilet cubicle we'd hide in at school to escape the bullies or the do they would place over us to stop the axe murderer getting us in the middle of the night no james i don't care if you've got an axe you're not having my lunch money unless you're in some sort of jodie foster situation however we highly doubt that many of these so-called safe rooms would actually do anything more than slow your enemies down a bit as they walk through the door survival horror titles are chiefly guilty of this trope with resident evil in particular allowing players to take a breather by simply stepping into certain rooms whilst brainless zombies might admittedly not have the dexterity to operate a door handle we know full well the likes of mr x and nemesis have a certain level of cognitive function and failing that superhuman strength so even if just opening the door proved an issue they'd have no problem in just tearing off its hinges we're also a bit confused as to why castle de metresque would have rooms that its own inhabitants are unable to enter whilst we're not wild about the idea of getting caught by lady d although then again we don't see why she's forced to stay out of a room in her own home whilst ethan winters happily hangs around in there just scratching his bum and wondering what to do next number 4. inconsistent character powers when it comes to video game characters and their various supernatural powers there aren't many things that can take us out of the moment whether they can fly see through walls or are insanely strong we're absolutely on board with it it's part and parcel of a fantasy game that is until the inconsistencies start crawling out of the woodwork because some games will have us believe that we have the ability to literally blast our way through enemies only to then force us to faff around with lock picks in order to open a flimsy gate why can't i just use my powers sure it'll make a mess but it's a real time saver you know and am i also supposed to believe that my character can be tossed around a boss fight like a rag doll and receive nary a scratch but a fall off an eight-foot ledge will finish him off that's a hard doubt from me it's also frustrating to see our favorite protagonists bested in a cutscene when not five minutes prior they've been kicking butt left right and center we understand there are always going to be tougher enemies or narrative reasons why a cutscene might show us failing but it still feels a little unfair to cut to a cinematic where we have our arses handed to us by an enemy that proved to be little more than an inconvenience earlier in the game number three animal enemies with money some say that money is what makes the world go round while others believe it's the root of all evil whichever side of the fence you fall on i think we can all agree that there's absolutely no reason for animals to carry money we're not talking humanoid creatures like those you may come across in your average rpg nor do we mean those that have been transformed from a human state by some kind of magic or curse since it would make absolute sense for them to still have a bit of wonga no no no we mean actual animals that haven't got the fetus grasp of economics and therefore have no reason to carry cash i suppose you could argue that maybe they've lifted it from the bodies of their unfortunate victims but you'd have to wonder why they bother most animals kill people either for food or to protect their territory or young so it's highly unlikely they're going to rob the bodies when they're done maybe they swallowed the odd coin as they chowed down on the corpse one time but that's no excuse for there to be stacks of money inside the occasional murdered sewer rat i don't know maybe i've got this all wrong and they do actually intentionally lift the coins from the bodies of their victims perhaps they're going to spend it on take away or throw pillows to make their cave look a bit more inviting fair enough actually number two no friendly fire a common trope in games with big shooty things is the lack of option to fire upon those who are on your side be it your own team in a multiplayer shooter or friendly npcs that the game doesn't want you messing with if like me you're fairly la say fair with where you point your gun it's a useful mechanic to have even if it does mean that you can't shoot the idiots on your side that are proving to be more of a hindrance than a help whilst we do appreciate the practicality of not allowing friendly fire in certain video games in reality well it just wouldn't work would it i mean how could you possibly engineer a system that only protects your comrades but that can also distinguish enemy from civilian you could argue that games using this trope are set in a technologically advanced universe in which ammunition is so cutting edge that it can distinguish between allies and opposition to which i say no no i'm not having that not only is there absolutely no way that that would work but i'm also pretty sure that if we ever reach the stage where that is technologically possible we probably won't be using regular old guns anymore either way also this trope appears in games that are set very much not in the future so it's a very sorry excuse indeed i guess what i'm really trying to say is that i just want to punch this irritating mei in the face is that too much to ask and number one overly patient npcs if there's one thing to love about open world rpgs it's the sheer amount of stuff you can get up to what would the main storyline side missions and dozens of other random encounters and activities available to players if you're anything like me you may well go around collecting quests and hoarding them like some sort of weird quest dragon so that you can pick and choose which ones to do in what order it does leave us wondering though about the npcs that offer these tasks up and the level of patience they must have to put up with the fact that you've said you'll do something for them only to disappear for months on end you know full well that you will be back to solve whatever their problem is just as soon as you've levelled up enough but as far as they're concerned you've agreed to help them out before ghosting them whilst timed quests can be a chore it would make sense that if players agree to meet an npc at the docks after dark that it's made clear they should do it that evening not at some unspecified evening in the future that way your poor npc isn't left standing there every single night for the next six months like you stood him up on a date oh poor guy

Channel: TripleJump

Views: 52,335

Keywords: worst video game tropes, worst video game cliches, video game tropes, video game cliches, gaming tropes, gaming cliches, weirdest video game tropes, weirdest video game cliches, video game tropes that make no sense, video game cliches that make no sense, list, top ten, top 10, triplejump, teamtriplejump, team triple jump

Id: QmYT9bKczy0

Length: 14min 53sec (893 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 30 2021