Acceptable Breaks From Reality

A Willing Suspension of Disbelief is a must for almost any work of fiction. There are certain elements of story or gameplay where realism would simply make a work tedious, difficult, or confusing for the audience. Thus there are ways in which works will be blatantly, unabashedly unrealistic, and nobody really minds. See the Rule of Cool.

It's possible for these to become unacceptable, when the abstraction gets in the way of enjoying the work. On the flip side, it's possible to get so accustomed to a particular break from reality that people stop realizing it's unrealistic.

Compare Necessary Weasel.

Forms of Acceptable Breaks From Reality include:
And with perfect American/English/Australian/wherever-the-work-was-made accents too! Someone already got through this trap-laden dungeon to wait for you, so why are the traps still all there? It wouldn't be fun, otherwise! Because they'd get stuck behind a table sometimes. It'd be annoying depending on whether or not you're teleported to a battlefield or fight enemies wherever you stand and your character's stuck. Because designing a wide variety of weapons, as well as unique battle animations for every one of them, is hard. Video game guns damage your life bar, not your organs. Accurate simulations of the physics and biology of bullet wounds are prohibitive for modern consumer-grade computer hardware, especially when fighting cannon fodder. Arbitrary requirement that stops you from having too many characters in a party or unit. Yes, the other fifteen members of the party could carry on the fight should the frontline trio fall, but that would make the battle too easy. There is no "maximum range" for weapons in space - but that wouldn't make for gripping space battles and, if it's video games, system performance will take a big hit if it has to track that many objects that are not in the play field anymore. Virtually all Sci Fi space ships have some form of artificial gravity. How is rarely explained. No, the work doesn't follow actual biology, but if it did, we wouldn't have a very good story. No, the work doesn't follow actual physics, but if it did, we wouldn't have a very good story. To the extent that litigation is dramatic, almost none of it happens in the courtroom. But the way it actually plays out, i.e. trading written motions over several months, does not exactly make for gripping television. Yes, some of these are cases where the creators Did Not Do the Research. Sometimes, though, they did, but if it were totally realistic there would be no drama. The higher a character is in his hierarchy, the better he is in a fight. Horses never have to be watered, fed, or rested in video games, and often not in other media. Everyone in the team can access the same inventory even when they're apart, because forcing the player to micromanage the inventory would be too obnoxious. Cars with 2 doors but four seats can't be used to carry more than two people. Architecture and geography seem to be designed for that genre and your character's abilities. There will always be an escape route. If the building's on fire (or even exploding) there will be one non-burning pathway. If there isn't, it will conspire to collapse in such a way as to create one as a character approaches a dead end. What's a medkit doing here anyway? Fictional characters don't have to do mundane things like eat, sleep, or pee unless the story dictates it. You get unlimited shots, because who wants to stop the action to reload? Having the Action Hero survive gunfire by hiding behind a Mook might not be realistic, but it's definitely cool. A maximum number a game puts on numeric amounts, ranging from statistics to score to damage points. When geography of countries and buildings in sequels do not resemble their previous incarnations. A game in which nothing gets built unless the player orders it to. An object that either should be easily affordable or else found in everyone's home becomes a priceless artefact acquired at great pains. In Racing or Fighting Games, ensuring that each character is balanced enough to be used somewhat effectively against every other character. Characters can hide behind anything and be protected from projectiles, even if they could, in theory, penetrate whatever is being used for cover. In sneaking games, enemies will be very attentive to your noises but not to any others. Avoids a Timed Mission by only having everyone act like you're in a hurry. A character can get as close as they want to lava - as long as they aren't actually touching it, they'll be perfectly fine. For some reason, the one thing that can kill a villain is smack in the middle of his lair and/or fighting arena. Powers and abilities have arbitrary, fixed recovery periods that are usually independent of each other. You're perfectly fine with 87 pounds of weight, but add one more item and you suddenly can't move. You're perfectly fine with 1 Hit Point left or otherwise being just one step away from death, but lose the last bit of health and you die instantly. When you give orders to your troops, they are transmitted instantly to every soldier. You don't need to worry about feeding your troops or keeping up supplies - that all happens automatically. All stores in a videogame city are centered around selling things you in particular will need. In MMORPGs, a quest item is supposedly "unique", yet there's one for every player of the game. Day and night are always the exact same length, regardless of the season. In-universe time and calendar is based around the hero's actions and progress rather than a real-time clock. You will be able to see the path of bullets, to assist in aiming or following the action. Things will vanish or otherwise no longer be seen when a character is done with them (killed enemies, broken chairs, etc.). Should be impossible, but... In Real Time Strategy games, wood is always shown in bundles. Enemies flash colours when hit. Because it's much easier than building proper structural supports. One many people gloss over, but still there. In any play, characters will always face each other so both faces can be seen from one particular wall. And though there are assorted important doors, windows, etc. on all three walls, that fourth one never has any important features, despite the fact that everyone keeps standing facing it. Children have more freedom in the work than in real life. The protagonist's attacks will never damage their friends, and enemy attacks won't damage their allies, unless done specifically that way. Because the character of a game knows things the player doesn't, sometimes the character gets amnesia to excuse the explanation to the player. You're dumped in a small part of a city walled off from the rest of it, so you can't explore what hasn't been programmed. The same money is used across the entire world (spanning multiples countries and/or times). Because who honestly wants to do realistically calculate the values of copper coins to golden coins, etc? Nobody bats an eye if you bring your Infinity+1 Sword or BFG to a private audience with an important person. If they do, it is always a trap. When you pick up a medkit or use a potion, you get healed instantly - no medicine application, no bandaids, no waiting. Food and sleep will instantly heal you. When you want to see that it's dark, but the audience still wants to see in the dark. Because real hacking is actually quite boring, would become worthless after the technology is exposed, plus would be a bit boring in a Video Game. Because the fact the main character would end up too damaged and insane to ever live a normal life after the events of the average videogame isn't a very happy ending. In games, you can carry an absolutely enormous amount of stuff; who knows where you actually keep it. Enemies in RPGs are given statistics based on how powerful you are expected to be at that point, not how strong that enemy would be based on common sense. Where did they come from? Who put them there? Why does nobody else ever open them? A flashlight which never runs out of batteries or needs to be recharged, except if the plot demands...or if it's a gameplay mechanic. Game characters' equipment won't show up visually; they may be wearing Diamond Armor, but it looks like the same old Stripperiffic costume to me... You can easily just blow up security cameras or otherwise make them useless and nobody will be alarmed by it. Unless there's a Dangerously Genre Savvy supervisor present, at best it will be dismissed as a temporary glitch to not worry about. Characters can turn around in an instant. When you buy something, it shows up instantly, or at least much faster than in Real Life. Because we don't have 15 minutes of valuable airtime to waste watching a tranquilizer go into effect. When you clear a game stage, all the troubles, death traps, remaining enemies etc. are completely ignored, because You Won! Driver doesn't die or get injured when a car crashes without explosion. No matter how much damage he suffers, he just keeps coming back! Items can generally be created by just sticking two or three things together. An in-game explanation for why you can keep coming back from the dead. A tutorial that makes sense in context. A work takes place in a foreign land, and the children have American accents. Land masses will never cross the edge of a world map. When fighting in RPGs, characters not in the active party will get some percentage of the experience that the active party gets to prevent Can't Catch Up situations. Yay for programmer laziness! Playing music REALLY LOUD at someone won't cause hearing damage. Because being hit again and again without being able to retaliate is really irritating. Monsters carry money. When you beat the monster, you get the money. You have no flashlight, so just start blindly firing your weapons and follow the muzzle flash! Don't worry about zoning laws, the abandoned building is just waiting for you to use it. As soon as something important happens in the plot, everyone in the world will know about it. A lot of enemies can't heal, especially since this would get very annoying for some particularly hard enemies. Nobody ever menstruates. In strategy games, you can't scavenge debris for usable materials. At least not onscreen. Only people that are relevant to the plot or a Sidequest will be blessed with names. Everyone else will be Nameless Narrative or be referred to with generic or descriptive titles. For balance purposes mostly. Once you raise a stat, it will never go down again because it would get annoying. In a game Dialogue Tree, people will not remember when you pick the "wrong" choice; you'll just get to choose again. If (or once) you know how to swim, you will do it perfectly and for as long as you like. The game allows the player to capture and control creatures that a preteen hero has absolutely no business owning. In a game, if you fire one bullet and reload, you will be shown reloading a full magazine but will still only have reloaded one bullet. Clothing and armour can be worn by anyone, regardless of its source or the wearer's size or sex. A work of Science Fiction or Fantasy has only one religion (The Church) in it; furthermore, there are never any factions of it, or different interpretations of its belief. Drivers can safely ignore all the rules of the road, often with no more consequence than, at worst, a bystander making a rude hand gesture and/or being profane towards the driver. Bullets are slow enough to Dodge the Bullet. Especially common in Platform Game and Shoot'Em Up games. Sometimes from a developmental point of view since showing all 3-8+ party members on-screen at all times means more models to program at once. Whenever you see a bookshelf, there will never be more than one book (and often one line) that you can read; so that you don't spend an hour looking for something relevant. You do not have to break off the action to rest, eat, or sleep in-world, though your characters may abruptly decide to do so in a cutscene. The more powerful an item, monster, or ability/spell is, the harder it is to find. In a game, if you exit and re-enter the room, any puzzle will reset itself. Not only for other characters to catch up to the plot, but also so the Viewer is on the same page as the characters. Sometimes literally. A seemingly arbitrary prize for an in-universe action, with no explanation as to who gives out the prize or why. The inside of a creature's stomach looks like the inside of the entire creature lacking organs. All buildings can be produced and military units trained in a ridiculously short amount of time. A war or other contest involves struggles for regions which are wholly in the possession of one side or the other, are treated as "spaces" for movement, and can't be divided up in any way. Some stuff that's Played for Laughs is funny only because it's not real, namely Video Game Cruelty Potential or Comedic Sociopathy. In Real Life? Dude, Not Funny. Gravity is only applied to some things; others are totally immune. The inability of a long-range weapon user, especially a villain, to use said weapon at long range. A way to completely forget everything you knew about your current job and learn everything from scratch again. A fall from any height at all can be rendered harmless or merely incapacitating if, at the end of the fall, the character meets a body of water. In the entire in-work world, there is only one kind of entertainment or only one city where you can find it. In video games, many things have distinctive sounds, to the point where you can be tipped off by what's happening just by listening for them. Where an environment is blatantly not to scale so you don't spend an entire day just walking to the next city. In Video Games, no matter how high your strength, speed, etc. goes, you still will not be able to, for example, lift that tree in your way. Nobody is ever bothered by extremely loud noises and explosions and things, unless it serves the plot. Video Game characters can breathe underwater for infinite amounts of time. When a Video Game character is shrunk and encounters a recognizable object scaled to the character's new size, said object will retain the function and properties scale of its original size. Micromanaging or representing a military force on the scale of most modern armed forces would likely destroy either one's patience or one's video card. When the game gives you a whole whack of healing items and ammo, you're about to fight a nasty boss battle. The villain won't put his dastardly plan into motion until you get there, no matter how long you spent inbreeding fluffy ostriches in the meantime. Wouldn't be fair to just realistically railroad you. Instead on anything historically accurate, there is a tree of inventions that you use Research Points to buy your way through, so each tech has an oft-rigid set of prerequisite techs that don't always make sense. Best of three wins in a Fighting Game. You start again with full health. Cities and towns are much, much smaller than they should be for sustainability. Normally, people do not see themselves in their own visual recall, unless some mirror was there showing themselves. Can be used very effecively. You spent all that time going through the dungeon and beating all the puzzles, so how the heck did these guys get here first? Sleeping at an inn is guaranteed to instantly cure all wounds and even death! You wear your armor everywhere. You eat with it, you sleep with it, you take baths in it. In Real Time Strategy games, infantrymen are ridiculously large when compared to vehicles and buildings. A character can drive any vehicle they come across, without any training. There is only one type of poison, and generally one type of antidote for it. Saves a spot in the inventory. You've slowed down time, and while enemy bullets will crawl like molasses, yours go at normal speed. Lunging forward or back-stepping has the same effect as firing an invisible jet pack. The world map is a toroid. Distances aren't quite right. But hey - it's a video game! A thief can pick the pockets of a giant direwolf in the middle of an all-out brawl, and come away with an eight-foot claymore. Fake use of a time scale means that empires rise and fall in the time it takes to take the trash out. Where you can collect millions of gold coins and not have your pants fall down. Want to sell that suit of armor at a grocery store? They'll take it! There are only a few NPC models or actors; you'll see them repeated over and over again. When a special character is incapable of dying or being seriously injured in a battle. In Video Games, when you're knocked down, you can't be damaged until you get back up, because it's quite annoying when it's averted.
 * Aliens Speaking English
 * Already Undone for You
 * All in A Row
 * All Swords Are the Same
 * Arbitrary Gun Power
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit
 * Lazy Backup
 * Arbitrary Maximum Range
 * Artificial Gravity
 * Art Major Biology
 * Art Major Physics
 * Artistic License Law
 * Artistic License Indexes
 * Authority Equals Asskicking
 * Automaton Horses
 * Bag of Sharing
 * Back Seats Are Just for Show
 * Benevolent Architecture
 * Big Damn Fire Exit
 * Blatant Item Placement
 * Bottomless Bladder
 * Bottomless Magazines
 * Bulletproof Human Shield
 * Cap
 * Chaos Architecture
 * Command and Conquer Economy
 * Commonplace Rare
 * Competitive Balance
 * Concealment Equals Cover
 * Conspicuously Selective Perception
 * Continue Your Mission Dammit
 * Convection Schmonvection
 * Convenient Weakness Placement
 * Cooldown
 * Critical Encumbrance Failure
 * Critical Existence Failure
 * Easy Communication
 * Easy Logistics
 * An Economy Is You
 * Enough to Go Around
 * Eternal Equinox
 * Event Driven Clock
 * Every Bullet Is a Tracer
 * Everything Fades
 * Explosions in Space
 * Firewood Resources
 * Flash of Pain
 * Floating Platforms
 * Fourth Wall
 * Free-Range Children
 * Friendly Fireproof
 * Gameplay Guided Amnesia
 * Gateless Ghetto
 * Global Currency
 * Gold Silver Copper Standard
 * Guns in Church
 * Heal Thyself
 * Hyperactive Metabolism
 * Hollywood Darkness
 * Hollywood Hacking
 * Hollywood Psych
 * Hyperspace Arsenal
 * Improbable Power Discrepancy
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests
 * Infinite Flashlight
 * Informed Equipment
 * Insecurity Camera
 * Instant 180 Degree Turn
 * Instant Home Delivery
 * Instant Sedation
 * Instant Win Condition
 * In Vehicle Invulnerability
 * Iron Butt Monkey
 * Just Add Water
 * Justified Extra Lives
 * Justified Tutorial
 * The Kids Are American
 * Law of Cartographical Elegance
 * Leaked Experience
 * Limited Sound Effects
 * Loud of War
 * Mercy Invincibility
 * Money Spider
 * Muzzle Flashlight
 * Never Recycle a Building
 * News Travels Fast
 * No Cure for Evil
 * No Periods Period
 * No Recycling
 * Nobody Poops
 * Nominal Importance
 * No Arc in Archery
 * No Stat Atrophy
 * NPC Amnesia
 * Olympic Swimmer
 * Olympus Mons
 * One Bullet Clips
 * One Size Fits All
 * One True Faith
 * Optional Traffic Laws
 * Painfully Slow Projectile
 * Party in My Pocket
 * Pamphlet Shelf
 * Plot Powered Stamina
 * Power Equals Rarity
 * Puzzle Reset
 * The Reveal
 * Reward From Nowhere
 * Ribcage Stomach
 * Ridiculously Fast Construction
 * Risk Style Map
 * Rule of Funny
 * Selective Gravity
 * Short-Range Long-Range Weapon
 * Skill Point Reset
 * Soft Water
 * Sole Entertainment Option
 * Sound-Coded for Your Convenience
 * Space Compression
 * Statistically Speaking
 * Steel Ear Drums
 * Super Not-Drowning Skills
 * Surprisingly Functional Toys
 * Suspiciously Small Army
 * Suspicious Videogame Generosity
 * Take Your Time
 * Tech Tree
 * Three Round Deathmatch
 * Thriving Ghost Town
 * Third-Person Flashback
 * Took a Shortcut
 * Trauma Inn
 * 24-Hour Armor
 * Units Not to Scale
 * Universal Driver's License
 * Universal Poison
 * Very High Velocity Rounds
 * Videogame Dashing
 * Video Game Geography
 * Video Game Stealing
 * Video Game Time
 * Wallet of Holding
 * We Buy Anything
 * You All Look Familiar
 * You Call That a Wound
 * You Get Knocked Down You Get Back Up Again