TV Tropes has existed for how many years now? Go there. You'll get all the examples you want, as dissected of their context as you want.Reactor wrote:I have a special request for you. This may sound strange, but I desire to know more gaming clichés - preferably of FPS games - which are commonly used in most games.
You're right,I almost forgot. How could I, as this is one of the most hated things in gaming...oh well. The time limit without a reason is another overused (and totally unsubstantiated) cliché. If the time limit has a good reason, it's fine. If there is none, it's just shit.Naniyue wrote:I can't BELIEVE I didn't list this first:
!!!!!!!!TIME LIMITS!!!!!!!!!!
Who says Mario can't take a few extra seconds to judge a jump? Does he really have to die the moment some celestial clock runs out? Is the air really that poisonous in Gauntlet? Actually, I understand time limits a little more in arcade games, as the whole point is to take your money, but in a home version they should be adjustable!
You just described 100% of game mechanics!Reactor wrote:If the time limit has a good reason, it's fine. If there is none, it's just shit.
Imagine that you are a professional mapper working in a development studio. Your assignment is to model a convincing city. Are you going to model several hundred interiors under time and budget constraints? How about doing the same for four or five neighboring cities, lest you box the player into one? Commercial game development isn't done by hobbyists with all the time they want.Reactor wrote:- 90% of the doors cannot be opened, they're only decorations.
- Invisible walls or Sudden Death Syndrome to box the player.
It depends entirely on the game. Not everything is striving for ultimate realism and immersion. A time limit adds to the challenge of the game, preventing you from dawdling. Just like the game designer makes it so you can't take infinite hits, they make it so you can't take infinite time. You have to get through the stage with few enough hits in a short enough time or you lose and need to try again. And at least in earlier games, you were awarded more points for getting through faster, encouraging you to try to do better next time (or for secrets, by ending at certain times to get bonus points).Reactor wrote:The time limit without a reason is another overused (and totally unsubstantiated) cliché. If the time limit has a good reason, it's fine. If there is none, it's just shit.
I guess it is a matter of taste. That's called "progression". It's been around ever since hardware could support it - the first games to ever feature powerups. You get new items as a reward for playing well with the ones you have, and as a means to handle the increasing challenge ahead.Reactor wrote:Another cliché is what was present since Wolfenstein 3-D: The player begins the world/empire-saving quest only with the absoluet minimal supplies! A sidearm & knife, no additional supplies, no medikits, no nothing. Yes, I know, in these cases, the hero always starts as a prisoner or a last survivor of a team, and this is necessary to retain the game's progressivity, but this is still a highly popularized phenomenon in FPS games.
Super House of Dead Ninjas. Limited lives, strict timer, reflex platforming, fun as hell. And this from someone who doesn't normally care for limited lives, strict timer, or reflex platforming.Chris wrote:Continues and lives were a thing that serve no real mechanical purpose. They were there to encourage you to dump more quarters in arcades, but on home systems where each play is "free" and you can quit at any time, they don't add much. These don't really exist in modern games anymore though, and even the original Doom decided to drop them.
Being a cliché is often means its subject is favorized, or simply it became sort of a tradition (much like having a Shotgun in FPS games' armories, even in those which take place in the far future). There are some good clichés and some others are bad. What puzzles me is their origins and the meaning behind.
), it's true that the word cliche does not always mean things are bad.Well, it's usually quite logical that the player starts the game with little/no supplies (as you said, it's explained by the player starting as a prisoner, etc.), what's not logical to me is that the player loses all their weapons and supplies after each episode. Why the player in Wolf 3D starts every episode with a pistol? Why couldn't they atleast bring a submachine gun?Reactor wrote: Another cliché is what was present since Wolfenstein 3-D: The player begins the world/empire-saving quest only with the absolute minimal supplies! A sidearm & knife, no additional supplies, no medikits, no nothing. Yes, I know, in these cases, the hero always starts as a prisoner or a last survivor of a team, and this is necessary to retain the game's progressivity, but this is still a highly popularized phenomenon in FPS games.
Legolas pants. In all saga tolkine dont mentions that legolas has pants. So what hinders me to think that legolas rode through all books without pants?Reactor wrote:Yes, sometimes starting with only minimal equipment is illogical, only the usual game progression is what demands this occurrence. Hell, B.J. doesn't even change his clothes - he wears the same gray prison outfit through the entire six episodes AND Spear!
Same thing at Doom. Cleaning out the Phobos base, Doomguy just thinks "meh, who needs these anyway", and goes to Deimos with only a pistol and 50 bullets. And the same thing happens after Doomguy finds out that Deimos is floating above Hell itself. Luckily, this was corrected later in Doom 2 between the three major parts of the game.
