Real Life/Tropes O-Z


 * New Rules as the Plot Demands: Usually averted since no one can figure out what the plot is. Though some events make you wonder...

O

 * Obvious Beta: The Moon. Developed from the Earth's Alpha Build source code, and still lacking flora, fauna or even a basic atmosphere when the Beta Testers arrived to try it out. The weak gravity, however, proved popular and was retained as a Good Bad Bug. Despite its popularity the only way to reach this zone is down to having a very specific skill set and armour list and by grinding rep with the appropriate space guilds. Even then you have to hope that the quest itself will pop up in your play time, it took four decades for the quest to be selectable a second time. It's been rumoured that some of the devs are beta testing new faction specific vehicles and equipment to make this zone more available to casual players as well as the hardcore crowd.
 * For quite a while now, a few players have been considering Mars to be this. Recent discovery of leftover code that showed it had successfully run the water module advances this theory.
 * Any modeling of the Earth's surface from billions of years ago when it was still Lethal Lava Land will look like this.
 * Obvious Rule Patch: Whatever happened to the dinosaurs was probably a result of this. Other than that, pretty much averted. When a new rule is discovered (generally as a result of poking an old rule until it breaks) it's also discovered that the new rule applied even before it was discovered.
 * Official Couple: A system has been devised to cement a couple as being, in their own opinion, the author's One True Pairing. A lot of these are eventually Jossed, but many others remain plausible for the duration of the characters' tenure.
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder: The human race is extremely fragile and can easily be killed with a single attack. Also subverted because humans are tougher than they look - time, though, eats up HP something fierce. Also, modern weaponry have made humans one-hit kills, and it would take a much longer time to bring one down with just the hands.
 * One-Way Visor: Spacesuit helmets, welding goggles, Hazmat Suits, and mirrored, wraparound shades.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Welcome to the Internet.
 * Many famous characters, like Snoop Dogg, Elton John and David Bowie are subject to this trope.
 * Only Sane Man: Most players think they are the Only Sane Man, but if they're all sane, why is everyone surrounded by crazy people?
 * Which leads to a subversion as some people think they are the only insane person surrounded by sane people.
 * One Steve Limit: Averted massively.
 * Only Smart People May Pass: You're repeatedly tested on your knowledge in the "School" phase as well as the optional "College/University" phase. Depending on the character class you choose, you'll also have to do this kind of thing frequently during your job.
 * Ontological Mystery: Characters enter the world naked and crying with no idea whatsoever of their purpose for existence. Might all be a giant Shaggy Dog Story.
 * Our Presidents Are Different: Even more so starting with the Turn of the Millennium arc.
 * Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Both averted and played straight. While atheism as a whole seems to be gaining popularity, there are still billions of people who adhere to a religion and as a whole, those that hold such beliefs are usually treated in a civil manner from those that don't (aside from the Real Life Hollywood Atheists). Played straight in that many ancient religions have become mythology since almost no one believes them anymore.
 * Out of Focus: Happened big-time to Mongolia after the death of Kublai Khan. More recently, Australia gets much, much less attention than Canada or Britain.
 * For a long time, formerly great civilizations like Arabia, India and China were more or less ignored. Now they seem to be making a comeback. Recently, France and Russia seem to feel this is occurring for them.
 * Overly Long Gag: This page.
 * End of the world predictions.

P

 * Pacifist Run: This is the default option, see Player Versus Player below for exceptions.
 * Path of Most Resistance: Claimed to be the best way to succeed. Played straight if you needed to get into a highly technical position or rely heavily on ability, but subverted by those who manage to bluff or use other means to gain status.
 * People Sit on Chairs: One of the few places that this trope makes sense to list because everyone literally does in some form or fashion, or the closest thing to it where chairs do not exist in the form most associate with the definition of "chair".
 * People's Republic of Tyranny: The more a country's name sounds like the personification of an ideal, the more likely it is to be the opposite.
 * The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, The People's Republic of China, and The Democratic Republic Of The Congo are all good examples.
 * Perpetual Beta: While functionally complete, this is a game that is constantly being updated and shows no sign of stopping at any point.
 * Perpetually Static: Subverted.
 * Pilot Episode: Matter of much debate. It's generally considered to have taken place in Africa, but nobody is exactly sure when except that it was a long time ago.
 * Pinball Scoring: Some currencies' values are so low that one USD is equal to thousands of that currency. And then there's hyperinflation; post-World War I Germany, for instance, had bank notes with values as high as 100,000,000,000,000 marks. Zimbabwe is an example, with everyday bank notes hitting the trillions and maybe beyond. This was recently patched and as a result, the currency in question no longer exists for practical purposes.
 * Player Versus Player: Between the "Law/Crime", "Wimps/Bullies ", and opposing "Military" class tree players. Technically any player can engage, but it's not a very good idea.
 * Special rules for Player Versus Player contests exist in minigames known as Boxing, Wrestling, and Ultimate Fighting. The advantage of these is that there's no penalty for engaging in them, and they do not cause death (most of the time)
 * The entire world is one big Player Versus Environment zone unless you are either doing one of the above or in a designated Player Versus Player zone such as Somalia or Iraq. Penalties for attacking players outside of those zones can range from your character getting banned and deleted from the server to being restricted to special penalty zones where you can get ganked by trolls and twinks.
 * The 'Lawsuit' minigame is a good choice for players who want nonviolent Player Versus Player action... but expect to spend a lot of in-game currency even if you win. 'Office Politics' is also another choice, but the rules aren't nearly as consistent.
 * And of course, there are other forms of nonviolent Player Versus Player, known as "games".
 * Planet of Hats: Averted eight billion ways to Sunday, although this doesn't stop a lot of authors from trying to play it straight. Declining in popularity these days.
 * Platform Hell: If you want to see other people experience it, Ninja Warrior. If you want to experience it yourself, go for a tough hike or try to climb a mountain. Be careful, though; this minigame gives you only one life, and no continues unless you're lucky enough for a Mountain Rescue player to be in the area.
 * However, if you have a distress beacon item, you get a generally high chance (depending on local conditions) of getting an additional continue, but you have to restart the entire minigame.
 * Plot Armor: Averted. The plot follows character development, rather than the other way around.
 * Polluted Wasteland: Many industrial areas and several cities count, particularly during the Industrial Revolution.
 * While still common in less developed game areas, the nicer places over time have had house rules to prevent it or reduce it implemented to some greater or lesser degree.
 * Except that the rules patches just move the level somewhere else, rather than actually fixing the underlying problem.
 * Poor Communication Kills: Played straight loads of times.
 * Posthumous Character: Influential characters from early seasons can have a surprising influence on later plotlines even after they die. The Doomed Moral Victor from the Rise of Rome storyline is now (arguably) the posthumous main character. The Chessmaster from the Arabia arc and the Jerk with a Heart of Gold from the Bo Tree arc have been almost as influential, and even the Crazy Awesome Mad Scientist from the Restoration Arc (and his later counterparts in the World War I and World War II storylines) is still considered important.
 * POV Cam: Standard for all players. Due to hardware limitations, an alternate setup is not accessible at this time. (See, however, Psychic Powers and Near-Death Clairvoyance)
 * Some items, such as Skype or the Security Camera, do allow a limited form of third-person view.
 * Power Gives You Wings: Inverted -- wings give you power! Just ask any member of the "Air Force" class tree. Inverted differently by the dinosaurs, who got wings at the expense of a substantial decrease in power.
 * And Red Bull.
 * The dinosaurs may be a Double Subversion: wings may have come at a substantial decrease to their overall stats, but through Min-Maxing the winged descendants of the dinosaurs that developed that way became the only ones to survive the mass extinction event which ended their story arc, though their racial descriptor changed from 'dinosaur' to 'bird' in the process.
 * The Power of Friendship: Players will never get far into the game without making some kind of connection with other players of the same species, which opens unlimited paths, some that were previously not considered! With any luck, those connections will pay off.
 * The Power of Rock: Played straight. Usually used by the "Angsty Teen" class to get back at their Parents. Rock music was also played to get Manuel Noriega to surrender during Operation Just Cause.
 * Power Perversion Potential: My, my, my. Where do we begin? This trope was the founder of one of Real Life's first job classes.
 * At some point, humans must have realized they didn't need a partner to orgasm and could literally take matters into their own hands. Things have never been the same since.
 * Present Day, Present Time: Always.
 * Press Start to Game Over: It is possible for a character to die before starting the game, such as becoming a "Stillborn". New players can also die within only a few days of starting.
 * Press X to Die: Suicide is arguably a subversion, as you have to be deliberate about it. The vagus nerve reflex would be a straight interpretation.
 * Press X to Not Die: No on-screen indicators, and it doesn't always show up. All you got is your instincts.
 * Prestige Class: "Doctor", "Lawyer", "President".
 * "Rocket Scientist" and "Brain Surgeon" are commonly considered this.
 * YMMV on "Movie Star", depending on what you want out of a class.
 * Prequel: "Real Life Prehistoric".
 * The Promised Land: Users on third-world country servers view first-world servers as such, and try to do anything to switch over. For some, switching over brings them better gameplay, but for others, life doesn't improve that much. In the late 19th century edition of Real Life, many players tried to switch over to the United States server. How well it worked out for them varied from player to player.
 * Punk Punk: Constantly averted. Every time it looks like a Punk genre is going to take over, fate pulls a fast one and stops work on that tech tree. Steampunk / Clock Punk never got going, though they're good fun for hobbying. The only part of the world that took Ocean Punk seriously was the Caribbean area, Dieselpunk was going great at the start of the 1900s but kinda ran out of gas (although the Internal Combustion Engine was such a popular element it was adopted by other genres), and Atom Punk was considered but dropped after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl / Pripyat disasters, and Fukushima was the final nail in its coffin. The newest Punk genres slated for Tech Tree expansion are Biopunk and Cyberpunk, but we'll have to wait and see.
 * Purely Aesthetic Gender: Averted in the extreme. For instance, male characters have a weak point while female characters suffer a nasty debuff once a month. Female characters also tend to have lower starting STR scores (generally due to what some consider a design bias in skeletal structural composition), and on some servers, penalties (sometimes massive penalties) to Respect ratings. Some players claim these disadvantages are offset by increased WIS and CHA scores, but there is still controversy on this point.
 * Perhaps also subverted in the form of transgender people in that they lack most of the above characteristics (at least as long as mammals have no innate gender-changing functions) but often face severe penalties for having a Purely Aesthetic Gender.

R

 * Ragdoll Physics: Actually done right. Especially with ragdolls.
 * Random Encounters: Too many to count. Cockroaches (can be found everywhere), stray dogs and Mugger players in street levels and great white sharks in aquatic levels are just some examples.
 * Randomly Drops: The Archaeologist, Beggar, Garbage Picker, and Thief classes are almost entirely dependent on these turning up something good. The Police prestige class Drug Enforcement is too, to a degree. The Street Vendor class depends on being seen as a unique enough provider of these compared to others in his or her class. Also happens, obviously, to players searching thrift shops, junk shops, street vends, and low-price shops.
 * Random Number God:
 * Character generation, which is especially weird thanks to requiring two players to generate a new one, each from a distinct half of the player base. Stats are based on the stats of several related characters, not just to two that instigated the generation of a new character, and has some mediocrely-coded randomization in choosing stats to use for the new character (and there are a LOT of stats!). Some other tiny random changes are also implemented, giving unique new values for stats, but a lot of the time these either have no effect on gameplay or actually hinder the new character.
 * According to some, "Gender" is listed twice, once under "Mental Stats" and once under "Physical Stats". This normally wouldn't be a problem, but can really be aggravating when a system glitch sets one instance incorrectly.
 * A good number of new characters are also deleted before gameplay really begins due to a poor stat roll or problems during the later stages of character generation. All in all, Real Life character generation is really fun at first, but becomes highly inconvenient later on, and downright painful at the end.
 * The character changes after generation, and can change based on interactions within the game, as well as self-modification which occures semi-randomly. Whew... it's complicated.
 * Rasputinian Death: Trope namer. The PC Rasputin, a nasty Cleric, was poisoned, emasculated, shot, stabbed, and dumped in a river. Cause of death? Drowning. Probably. And, according to legend, he sat up while being incinerated.
 * Read the Fine Print: It's usually a good idea to carefully read and reread ANYTHING given to you to sign before you put pen to paper. Consulting with someone with some levels in contract law before signing would also be helpful in some situations.
 * Real Is Brown: It is. It's also many, many other colors, to the delight of species with color vision.
 * Reality Ensues: All the time.
 * Reality Is Unrealistic: Ironically averts this trope at times despite being the Trope Namer.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: Well, it is the plot, but discoveries and wars are almost entirely based upon players' actions.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: You will encounter them often enough that the Corrupt Politician / Obstructive Bureaucrat stereotype isn't always true. NPCs such as Parents or Teachers may qualify.
 * Reassigned to Antarctica: The Trope Namer itself offers an aversion. Like the aquatic levels, survival in and exploration of the polar regions requires a great deal of special training and equipment, and relatively few players (aside from the locals in the northern region) even attempt to do so. Such exploration, however, has had quite a few Crowning Moments of Awesome.
 * Reclusive Artist: So reclusive that there have been thousands of opinions about the artist: some consider there to only be one artist, some consider there to be multiple artists, and some think it's all a big conspiracy and the work was produced without any artist.
 * Redemption Equals Death: Since Anyone Can Die, this trope comes in straight, subverted, averted, and every other possible combination. The straight version often spawns religions.
 * Redemption Equals Sex: Reportedly played straight in many ancient religions, averted in most cases today. Still played straight in Tantric yoga and a few New Age cults.
 * Also frequently played straight in everyday life. Make-up sex is often an example.
 * Reference Overdosed: Any work you can think of is somehow encountered here.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Oh, so many, many examples...
 * Regenerating Health: Played with. Characters do, in fact, have a Healing Factor, but it can take days to years to restore them to full health, and they may permanently lose several abilities. However, certain items can drastically increase the rate of regeneration, and in addition, many players devote their time in-game to healing others. Despite this, taking major damage is a very, very bad thing in Real Life.
 * While humans have a very limited form of this, certain animals like starfish have a very robust version of this, almost to the point of full physical regeneration so long as a single aspect of them survives.
 * Retcon:
 * Amnesia and the blocking out of memories (usually of traumatic experiences), though it's handled quite differently here than in most other series.
 * Common during totalitarian regimes when "purging" a character to the extent that they simply never existed according to the players ruling at that time.
 * "The jury will disregard that and the statement will be stricken from the record."
 * "History is Written by the Winners."
 * Retro Gaming: There are tribes that live as their ancient ancestors did. Others occasionally indulge in Retro Gaming to temporarily escape their otherwise contemporary lifestyles by attending Renaissance Fairs or partaking in Civil War re-enactments.
 * The Reveal: The Earth is round! Hitler was building death camps!
 * Right Behind Me: The downfall of any player who makes a habit of badmouthing others behind their backs.
 * Rodents of Unusual Size: Capybaras.
 * Also, porcupines, beavers, and certain breeds of rabbits.
 * Actually, rabbits aren't rodents. They're lagomorphs.
 * Rule of Cool: Partially subverted by the obsessive emphasis on consistent physics, chemistry, biology, etc.--much of which turns out to be incredibly cool in itself. Of course, this serves to make the true badasses look even better.
 * Rule of Fun: Subverted. Learning to play guitar takes months of lessons and practice, shooting up friends kills them for real and is a criminal offense, fighter jets have far more controls than an 8-way stick and "fire" and "bomb" buttons and can only move forward, making whole lines of blocks doesn't make them vanish, and sports take lots of practice, require you to be in great athletic shape, and can cause more serious injuries than worn-out thumbs.
 * On the other hand this is the only reason we engage in leisure activities that don't benefit us in any concrete way.
 * Rule of Funny: As demonstrated by the Comedian and Cartoonist classes, among others.
 * Rules Lawyer: The "lawyer" prestige class is half of the Trope Namer for this. They, along with legislators and various other characters, have this as their class specialty. Some other characters just take up this ability as a hobby. This ability invokes YMMV among quite a few players; the player consensus seems to suggest that it's an annoying but necessary part of the game.
 * Rule 34: To the point where Real Life porn is a major industry. It's possibly the one universally accepted Fetish, though doubtless, some people disagree.
 * Rule 34: To the point where Real Life porn is a major industry. It's possibly the one universally accepted Fetish, though doubtless, some people disagree.

S
""Well, when the President does it that means that it is not illegal." - Richard Nixon"
 * Sanity Ball: It's mine, all mine, and you can't have it!
 * Satan: Many characters believe real life plays this trope straight, but many others believe it averts it.
 * Save Scumming: Averted, there appears to be no way to save the game at all. Unless this theory is correct and we all have unlimited save games. Nightmare Fuel alert. It also means that despite the fact you are reading All The Tropes, there are countless "you" lying dead in countless universes.
 * Scars Are Forever: Played straight for humans, at least. Many kinds of cells cannot be regenerated in vivo without becoming malignant neoplasias. Even if the cells could regenerate, there's a good chance the cells can't self-organize after a wound in order to regenerate correctly. The body resorts to healing, where it lays down fibrous tissues to hold itself together as best it can. Barring surgery, that's permanent.
 * Scenery Gorn: Any Ghost Town, abandoned theme park, or abandoned building.
 * Scenery Porn: Sets the standard for all other scenery, and most media can't hope to measure up. 126 million light receptors per eye make for some really good graphics, and the resolution cannot be beaten. Full 3D, pan, dynamic light and shadows, adjustable focus, and (with the proper upgrade equipment) zoom. And a visible spectrum of several million colors. Also has changing times of day, living landscapes, near-infinite fractals, and weather effects that are never the same twice. A specific location of Scenery Porn is the Crystal Cave.
 * The Scottish Highlands.
 * It's all over the place. It's called nature. Also, some cities are like this.
 * Schematized Prop: Many, most notably the digestive system. The reproductive system also deserves mention.
 * Schizo-Tech: Because of a lack of Product Placement, the new equipment has to be bought, resulting in people with the latest game console, a 5-year-old cell phone, a 13-year-old car, and a fridge that's older than its owner. Increasingly averted for characters that buy from companies that practice planned obsolescence. With a little careful purchasing though, one can still play this straight.
 * Thanks to Difficulty by Region, certain maps may have much much more advanced Technology Levels than others, even ones that are right next to each other (see the Korean server).
 * Science Is Bad: It becomes responsible for most of the more horrific weapons used throughout the series. This is somewhat of a derailment, for the majority of the main continuity science has been largely beneficial, it is only really in the last couple of seasons that this becomes an issue. Subverted somewhat when the most destructive weapons wind up encouraging peace via mutually assured destruction. There are also hints that lesser weapons sometimes have a similar effect, but this seems to be far less consistent. That, and it's been proven many times before in the series that science overall is a great thing when it's used for good, meaning that this trope is averted.
 * Many Religious people are also convinced that Science is Bad, for example, wrongly blaming the Theory of Evolution for various problems in society, or just being bad in general when its discoveries oppose their religion.
 * Another belief that does not specifically require Religion is a belief Science leads to an over-dependence on it or that it in some way is to the long-term detriment of themselves. Many in the Survivalist class are believers in this and a few prominent members of the Philosopher class have advocated this.
 * Schmuck Bait: Oh, so much.
 * Scoring Points: Many classes in schools and colleges use points to determine your grades. Also, credit scores.
 * Screw the Money, I Have Rules: Non-profit organizations.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Some major corporations exhibit this trope. Players of the Politician and Celebrity classes often attempt this, and just as often fail.
 * Screw the Rules, I Make Them: Common enough to be represented by an entire job class -- they're called Dictators. Politicians besides dictators may attempt this. The US Congress exempts itself from a number of laws, for example. US Presidents have been known to exempt themselves and their staff from laws.


 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Used occasionally, but frequently subverted when the character who attempts this is punished for their actions.
 * Non-violent protesters believe this and are something of a Trope Codifier here.
 * Sea Monster: Many different examples.
 * Whales, despite their Gentle Giant status.
 * And including extinct animals, we have plesiosaurs and similar creatures like the ichthyosaur and mosasaur, and Megalodon, a prehistoric shark the size of a whale. Its modern counterpart may be the Whale Shark, which is thankfully nonaggressive and feeds on plankton.
 * Indeed, so many different creatures like this existed in the past that one can argue that plesiosaurs can't have survived to the present, because the mosasaurs would've eaten them, long before the K-T extinction took down subsequent forms of reptilian Sea Monster.
 * The modern equivalent of Carcharocles megalodon might be the Whale Shark from a size perspective, but in every other respect it's basically a Great White that is... bigger.
 * Check out the miniseries Sea Monsters (from the creators of Walking with Dinosaurs) for some of the nastiest aquatic predators ever.
 * Predator X. Its teeth are each a foot long.
 * The Oarfish: an eel-like fish that can exceed fifty feet long. Harmless, but quite impressive.
 * The African country of Burundi is home to Gustave, a well-known man-eating crocodile. Gustave weighs in at approximately one ton, is approximately twenty feet in length, and has been known to eat adult hippopotami. Given the number and variety of bullet-shaped scars which cover his body, it's quite possible that he's Immune to Bullets.
 * Saltwater crocodiles can be even larger than Gustave. Large adult male saltwater crocodiles can be more than six meters long and weigh more than 2,600 lbs.
 * The Bloop, or rather, whatever made the Bloop, an ultra-low frequency underwater sound that matched the profile of a living creature, but not any specific living creature we know. If it did come from a living creature, scientists agree that it would have to be several times larger than the Blue Whale, the largest known animal on earth.
 * Ironically enough, the signal originated from a point in the South Pacific roughly 950 nautical miles from the sunken home of another large monster.
 * Tullimonstrum, a bizarre fossil invertebrate, bears a striking external resemblance to the Loch Ness Monster, except it's barely a foot long and found in North America.
 * The Coelacanth. Now, fair enough -- as fish go, they're small and rather harmless. But the fact the coelacanth has been swimming around virtually unchanged for millions and millions of years makes a lot of supposed sea-monster sightings just a little bit creepier.
 * The whole point of fishing shows like River Monsters, Hooked, and Monster Fish. Their catches range from the modest (Taimen), to the bizarre (catfishes of the Amazon), to the truly gargantuan in scale (marlins, giant catfishes, and the Mekong Giant Stingray).
 * Sequel: The Afterlife (maybe).
 * Serial Killer: A few characters seem to be this. It's the job of the Police class (an in-game moderator of sorts) to track down and imprison (perma-ban) them.
 * Series Fauxnale: The fans seem intent to believe the finale is nigh every few seasons:
 * The Great War arc (later known as World War I) was advertised as "the war to end all wars". Ninety seasons later, war episodes are as common as ever.
 * Some of the "Crazy Street Person" classes advertise it rather more frequently.
 * The Y2K storyline also served up some red herrings.
 * The date 6/6/06. There were people who actually bet on whether we would survive. Does anyone else wonder how the believers were supposed to collect their money?
 * The upcoming 2012 season seems destined to fit into here.
 * Serious Business: And how. In fact, you are expected to treat it as the most important thing ever, or you'll be considered a freak.
 * Nevertheless, there are still some who hold to the tempting view that life is just a party and parties weren't meant to last.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: This is practically required in order to get a university degree (a prestige-class Knowledge achievement that can only be unlocked through several years of level grinding). Also, some people with Asperger's syndrome may speak like this all the time, as well as in Spock Speak.
 * Sex Montage: It's happening right now, though probably not for you if you're reading this. Unless you can multitask.
 * Shifting Sand Land: North Africa, Arabia, Central Asia, Western USA, most of Australia, and a part of South America.
 * Ship Sinking: Allllll the time. Occasionally cause for a Heroic BSOD.
 * Ship Tease: Spreading rumors about characters dating each other. Prevalent in many characters' high school arcs and among the Celebrity class.
 * Short-Lived, Big Impact: Something many people doing speed runs aspire to.
 * Shout-Out: Commie Land was referenced as an "Evil Empire" after Star Wars.
 * The Chernobyl power plant has a "Zone of Exclusion," after Roadside Picnic.
 * AIDS is undetectable, except with a blood test. Hmmm...
 * Several animals are named after cartoon-character versions of themselves.
 * Show Within a Show: With a large cast of characters, it's not surprising that every major group has a large number of fictional and nonfictional novels and books. Heck, there's even a Database Within The Show that analyzes both the show and the shows within it.
 * Single Biome Planet: Averted on Earth, but most planets we know of play it straight. Even Earth played this trope straight at some points, being a Lethal Lava Land in the early prequel episodes and a Slippy-Slidey Ice World during the Ice Age.
 * The Singularity: Rumors suggest the next major expansion pack will be this, but many of the players are worried that it'll crash the server and ruin everyone's game instead, turning the solar system into cheese.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Tends to slide back and forth between arcs and also on a day-to-day basis. All characters have their own opinions on it and frequently argue, and some watchers make fanfics or mods that usually tip in one side of the scale.
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Antarctica, Siberia, the local ski resort... all there. Greenland, but not Iceland. Ironic, no?
 * The Slow Path: Generally played straight due to the "entropy" attribute in the game code that enforces this by default for all living things and even most inanimate objects. There have been attempts to change this via reverse engineering the source code, though results have been very limited.
 * The Smart Guy: Loads. Archimedes (Classical); DaVinci (Renaissance); Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Leibniz (1600's); Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Werner Von Braun ('20s, '30s, '40s and '50s); Bill Gates ('80s, early '90s); Stephen Hawking (1970s-early 2000s).
 * Somewhere a Herpetologist Is Crying: There is an Urban Legend wherein a woman keeps waking up to discover her husband's pet python is stretching itself out alongside her in bed. She calls a herpetologist to ask about the behavior, and he tells her "Get out of the house now!" (is that a Stock Phrase?): The python, he tells her, was measuring her up in preparation to eat her.
 * Sadly, most wildlife-rehabilitation facilities have had to treat turtles with cracked shells, whom some idiot tried to remove from their "little house" in ignorance of the fact that the shell is part of the animal's skeleton. A case of Television Is Trying To Kill Turtles in action.
 * Horned lizards are often called "horned toad," "horny toad", "horned frog" etc etc etc due to their similarity to the given amphibians but they are actually lizards. To make things more confusing, their scientific name, Phrynosoma, evidently means "toad-bodied" so...
 * One (The Customer is) Not Always Right tidbit had a man in a petshop try to have a staring contest with one of the pythons for ten minutes before the owner had to remind him that snakes can't blink.
 * The idea that snakes somehow possess a hypnotic gaze probably stems from a few things. The first is that snakes lack eyelids, so their unblinking stares can be kind of creepy to humans. The second comes from stories of people who witness small animals sitting very still when snakes are nearby. This is standard prey behavior with just about any possible threat, freezing up so that predators who aren't already aware of them might not notice (if that doesn't work, run). This sort of behavior may be partly responsible for the myth of the Gorgon Medusa. And while we're on the subject, snake charmers don't really charm snakes with music (since snakes don't hear things the same way we do), the snake is just following the motion of the charmer's flute and hands.
 * Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying: Pretty much every paleontologist makes at least one other paleontologist cry. Debates still rage about results, methods and data used, the validity of the science, pet theories... and honestly, that helps keep the research going. So, in a way, this trope isn't all bad.
 * Dinosaur Adventure Land in Florida had several exhibits illustrating how, as the Earth is only 6,100+ /- years old "according to the Bible," not only did humans and dinosaurs coexist; but humans (set up by God as having dominion over other animals) must have domesticated them - AND rode them like horses! The US government seized control of the museum and closed it permanently when its managers were convicted of not paying half a million in back taxes.
 * The AiG Creation Museum is a lot more careful with this issue. They merely state that man and dinosaurs lived in peace before Adam's fall. And state that after the Flood, dinosaurs went extinct at different rates, pointing out how 1) a postdiluvian world would have rapid climate change due to rapid alteration of the geological landscape by being buried under a mile and a half of water, 2) the term "dinosaur" didn't exist until 1841 and 3) the line between what was considered a mere reptile by ancients and what was considered a "dragon" varied widely by ancient culture. This, in turn, leads to the possibility that man may have contributed directly to the extinction of several dinosaur kinds. The point is, they side neither with the "Eons and Ages" crowd nor with how The Flintstones depict it; preferring to view both as inaccurate. As for the whole "domesticated them like horses" part, they are careful not to make that claim explicitly.
 * Stating that man and dinosaurs lived in peace is a 'lot' more careful than claiming man rode dinos about the place?
 * That's not a lack of research so much as turning a blind eye to research in favor of religious belief.
 * Even more worthy of note: AiG is a LOT more careful about how it manages its finances (and a lot smarter when dealing with zoning law issues).
 * One such "museum" features Christ riding a tyrannosaur with a saddle, and is presented as a historical "fact". Even if it isn't, it still should be. Because that is an awesome image.
 * The "Paleolithic" Diet, which claims to be the healthiest diet due to supposedly being based on what our ancestors evolved to eat before agriculture was invented. Since humans and their diets (not to mention life on Earth) have changed a bit in the last 8,000 years, this claim has its critics.
 * Sometimes paleontologists make other paleontologists cry. One of the biggest debates between paleontologists recently was Jack Horner versus practically the rest of paleontology over whether or not Tyrannosaurus Rex (and all other large theropods) were predators or scavengers. Horner was on the scavenger side, and uses arguments such as: The size of the animals is more conducive to scavenging (scare smaller animals from kills); their legs were designed for walking instead of running, and being so large any form of moving fast would endanger them by off-balancing their bodies; they can only use their mouths for attacking, which is dangerous; For T. rex specifically, the large olfactory lobe of the brain (meaning excellent smell) and the small size of the forelimbs (which prevented T. rex from holding prey with them), and the thick armor-piercing teeth and bone-crushing jaws (for breaking apart bones to get the marrow inside). The rest of paleontology counters with:
 * As prey size increases, generally so does predator size. Every prey species has at least one predator that can take it down.
 * Even if they couldn't run, the large theropods would have still had a brisk walking speed, and their prey wasn't designed for speed either, favoring either keen senses, armor and weapons, or herding for protection.
 * Many animals today use only their mouths to attack.
 * Tyrannosaurus also had binocular vision, a primary predatory adaptation. Many predators also use smell to track prey. The forelimbs of T. rex are also very heavily built with numerous strong muscle attachments, and they're designed to twist and pivot, which shows they could easily withstand the forces of struggling prey. As for the teeth and jaws, again modern predators show that bone-breaking isn't a scavenger-only tactic (hyenas, the master bone-breakers, hunt more than they scavenge, breaking bones allows them to extract more food from a kill).
 * Healed tyrannosaur bite marks have been found on Edmontosaurus and Triceratops bones. Since dead things don't heal, they must have escaped the tyrannosaur, showing that it actually hunted.
 * Finally, the only true vertebrate scavengers are buzzards, vultures and condors - creatures that can cover vast amounts of territory with a minimal amount of energy expenditure. No animal the size of Tyrannosaurus could live as an exclusive scavenger, as it would use too much energy searching for carrion. Tyrannosaurus also was the only large theropod alive at its time and location, so if it wasn't killing large prey nothing was. And most predators are also scavengers. They'll take whatever food is on hand, which is a must for creatures that don't have a reliable and easy food source the way herbivores do.
 * Horner has recently acknowledged that Tyrannosaurus was an "opportunistic predator" (which is what everyone else thinks to begin with) in the only scientific paper he ever wrote on this subject. (Although he did popularize the scavenger hypothesis in books and TV shows. Hell, the main reason they made Spinosaurus the Big Bad in Jurassic Park III was because Horner was so insistent on showing T. rex and Spino the way he thought they were.)
 * To put it another way, Horner wanted to challenge the general assumptions using the clout he gathered with Maiasaura and other discoveries, force other scientists to re-evaluate their positions on T-Rex and get better evidence for its nature rather than just running with assumption. In short, actual constructive Trolling.
 * Note that the debate also runs on a False Dichotomy: scavenging OR predation. In practice, most carnivores like lions, hyenas and jackals do a bit of both.
 * The BAND (Birds Are Not Dinosaurs) crowd, who also go by several variants such as ABSURD (Anything But A Small Unidentified Running Dinosaur [is the ancestor of birds]) and MANIAC (Maniraptors Are Not In Actuality Coelurosaurs), a group of professionals (mostly ornithologists who know more about modern birds than about extinct theropods) who cling to the idea that birds aren't dinosaurs as though it were their religion, even though such a "debate" should have ended more than ten years ago. They're infamous for publishing papers making highly unsupported and unscientific excuses for why birds can't be dinosaurs (supposedly getting other BANDits to get them past peer review). Indeed, going by many of their arguments, nothing could evolve into birds and evolution shouldn't occur. (Note that the BANDits are not creationists.) The unfortunate side effect of this is that even though they're little more than laughing stock among the mainstream paleontological community, their vocality means that they often get coverage by journalists and creationists who don't know any better, misleading the general public that there is still a "debate" about whether birds are dinosaurs. In fact, in recent years they have no longer been able to deny the ever-growing evidence that birds are maniraptors, and have changed their arguments from birds not being dinosaurs to all maniraptors not being dinosaurs (hence, MANIAC).
 * There's also the fact that their claims about non-avian dinosaurs are occasionally somewhat at odds with our current knowledge about them. As Brian Switek, commenting on Alan Feduccia’s book The Origin and Evolution of Birds, put it: anything relating to dinosaurs being smart, active, or dynamic is discounted, Feduccia’s model of dinosaurs more resembling the swamp-dwelling lizards thought up by early 20th century scientists (i.e. hadrosaurs are referred to as being primarily aquatic).
 * At least one BANDit has suggested that birds descended from pterosaurs. A forgivable mistake if you know nothing about dinosaurs, but anyone with even a lick of paleo-sense knows how wrong this is.
 * Somewhere an Entomologist Is Crying: Insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and myriapods all do not have jaws that open and close like vertebrates, and they do not have teeth or tongues as we do.
 * A mosquito's proboscis is not syringe-shaped and certainly not its nose.
 * An arachnid's limbs are attached to the first of their two body segments (the prosoma) and the insect's the second of their three (the thorax). They are not proportioned or configured like anything remotely resembling a human or a dog.
 * Basically, every depiction that isn't attempting to go for scientific accuracy is abysmally, embarrassingly, very obviously wrong.
 * What most people refer to as a "wild" beehive is actually a mix between an antique bee skep and a hornet's nest. Actual wild beehives look like this or this.
 * Being arachnids, scorpions have eight legs (the pincers are pedipalps, which are closer to mouthparts than anything), but good luck finding one in TVland with the right number of legs. Made all the more grating because a simple Google search would clear up this misunderstanding immediately.
 * Somewhere an Ornithologist Is Crying: Most people think hollow bones like those of birds are fragile. In reality, thanks to a complex honeycomb structure, bird bones are no more fragile than those of mammals. In the case of the now extinct dinosaurs and pterosaurs, both having pneumatic skeletons, fragility would mean death, and they obviously had quite strong yet light bones.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness: Over the past 10 000 years, we've gone from rocks and obsidian blades to ... laser-guided cluster bombs? Remotely-piloted AttackDrones? The Nuclear Option? Luckily very, very few players ever get to unlock these.
 * Speed Run: Very rare, but certain Prestige Classes such as rock stars express an intention early in their careers to "live fast and die young". Some manage it (protip: intensive research into Hookers and Blow occasionally lets you skip around two-thirds of the game!), but they usually give up when they discover the potential rewards of later levels.
 * Spikes of Doom: Averted in everyday life, though they have been used as booby traps in wars, and there are a number of plants that have thick thorns on them. There's also a creature called the Porcupine which took this and ran with it - rather literally.
 * Spin-Off: Second Life. Widely considered to suffer from severe Adaptation Decay, although its fans will argue that it's merely pragmatic.
 * Spock Speak: A required skill for the Scientist, Engineer, and Economist classes.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: What other reason could there be for the number of tropes here pertaining specifically to humans?
 * Standard Status Effects: Humans are rather vulnerable to poison, paralysis, stun, sloth, sleep, blindness, freeze, burn, berserk, confusion, lust, charm, fear, deafness, and instant death status effects. Some would say cursing can happen as well. Petrification is rare but known; see Pompeii. The silence status is almost unheard of (though speech impediments are common). Fatigue sets in after exercise and saps strength, agility, and motivation, and this status can advance to Exhaustion, which almost completely destroys the stats. Tiredness occurs after going without sleep and advances. Tiredness 1 occurs normally after going on past evening and reduces concentration and motivation. (Note: It's possible to be stuck with Tiredness 1 if a character is addicted to caffeine.) Tiredness 2 occurs upon completely missing a night's sleep, and results in further stat hits and temper also taking a hit. Sleep Deprivation, however, is when things get nasty. SD 1 inflicts Paranoia, and SD 2 finally causes hallucinations. Any further progression results in Instant Death. Depression is caused by various factors, both natural and due to outside stimuli (it's also one of the nastier debuffs caused by substance abuse), and causes huge penalties to motivation. Temper can also be affected, and PCs who get too depressed may end up suicidal.
 * Status Buff: these do occur as well though. Hyper leads to increased energy and drive, though this comes at an increasing cost of concentration, and can be bestowed through energy drinks, caffeine, and other stimuli, or it can occur naturally. Some characters also get it temporarily when nearing the end of the day. Euphoria increases the morale, concentration, and motivation stats and the condition occurs after a big success. "Afterglow" increases relationships and skilled PCs will use this to chain together big chains of successes and level up quickly.
 * Though those with the "ADD" and/or "ADHD" character trait garner severe penalties to Concentration checks, there is a chance to cause the opposite effect, "Hyperfocus", on themselves, allowing them to shut out all other influences in favor of one goal. ADD, by its very scatter-brained nature, also grants the ability of "Brainstorming", allowing the caster to come up with as many ideas as a small group of people, though many of them may be just as scatter-brained.
 * Also there is the infamous Strength Buff. It is considered illegal in many countries and has some really bad side effects. There are some other buffs for your base physical stats, and they are equally damaging. Buffs for mental stats exist only in theory.
 * Star Trek: While there is no Starfleet, there is NASA, which is a civilian agency that utilizes military personnel and attempts to explore space. It even includes a ship called Enterprise in its fleet (though it doesn't fly) and includes the phrase "Where no man has gone before" in its literature. They're still working on warp drive and teleporters though.
 * There's also the famous series of cutscenes which is named the trope.
 * Stat Meters: While not accessible by players directly, certain medical equipment allows access to monitoring these.
 * Stop Helping Me!: Parents. Sometimes this persists well into the adult arc and even the married-with-children arc for some characters.
 * Story Within a Story: Too many to list. Not that we didn't try. The list is made potentially infinite by the fact that literally, any character can create such a story.
 * Stereotypes of Chinese People: Unfortunately all too common.
 * Stripperiffic: Also known as varying degrees of "indecent exposure." The line for how little clothing can be worn without being considered "indecent" has been shifting in some countries, allowing for this trope to increase in prominence. In fact, some countries have legalized public nudity.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Even things such as whales are able to blow up. Although terrorism, war, and the debris caused by explosions show, it usually isn't fun (except for fireworks). This is thought to be how Real Life was first created.
 * Super Weight:
 * Type -1: Babies, small children, fairly old people, people with serious physical or mental handicaps, animals, plants, fungus
 * Type 0: Most people
 * Type 1: Athletes, Soldiers, Martial Artists, Police, Fire Fighters, viruses, stuntmen, certain kinds of circus freaks
 * Type 2: Robots, Cyborgs with really good prosthetics, Humans with scale-breaking intelligence (of all kinds), AIDS
 * Sweet Polly Oliver: Joan of Arc, most famously.

T

 * Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: An extremely complex web, constantly changing with technology. Factors for any military unit include firepower, mobility, survivability and dozens of niche roles. Most units are able to counter their counters as well and are highly versatile.
 * Teaser Equipment: Expensive cars, houses, jewelry, and the like will not be within your price range when you first start out. Particularly Egregious examples require that you take several levels in certain Prestige Classes to be able to afford them. Thankfully, many of these items fall into Bragging Rights Reward
 * Tech Tree: Gigantic, intricate, messy, and the structure of it isn't fully understood. It's constantly being revised and updated too.
 * Termites: Eusocial insects are known especially for their wood chewing and their huge termite mounds.
 * Theory of Narrative Causality: Usually averted. But occasionally played straight.
 * They Would Cut You Up: They used to, but now vivisection (autopsy on a living body, as opposed to dissection, where they kill you first) is usually punished quite severely.
 * Third-Person Shooter: Very much averted - the entire thing is one continuous first-person experience.
 * This Is Reality: Justified in this case.
 * That's what everyone says, real or not.
 * Throw It In: The series is an ambitious project, in that none of the actors are given scripts to memorize, and almost all of the dialogue is ad-libbed.
 * Averted, oh so strongly, with the 'Call Centre Worker' character class.
 * This Means War: Played straight quite often. Occasionally averted.
 * Timed Mission: Each human has, on average, 66.12 years to live. This time limit can be extended if you're healthy enough. Unfortunately, it's also luck based, as your time limit can be drastically reduced depending on where your character lives; for example, a character based in Africa is likely to have a lower time limit than one in Europe. Sometimes your character's time limit is unexpectedly ended by just plain unfair things, like being hit by a car.
 * Time for Plan B: Because Plan A doesn't always go off without a hitch, having a decent backup plan in reserve is a good idea.
 * Tokyo is Japan: Very common when anyone discusses the Japan server. Even residents of the Japan server tend to do this, simply because Tokyo is one of the largest areas of contiguous political and geographical influence on said server.
 * Toilet Humour: One of the first styles of humor many players encounter as well as being the oldest known type of comedy.
 * Too Awesome to Use: Money, especially amongst the upper classes.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Played straight by countless individuals, but can also happen on a larger scale, up to and including an entire species. Fan favorite moments include the Agricultural, Industrial, and Digital Revolutions. Rumor has it that North American Cockroaches are in the middle of doing this, by developing poison glands.
 * So that's what archy meant in "archy declares war".
 * Tragic Hero: Many characters suffer from their flaws or choices. Whether it's drug or alcohol addictions, anger management issues, pride, greed, ambition...
 * Travel Cool: A lot of the human race's engineering efforts yield cool machines to suit their Badass Normal style. The higher-level examples of the Cool Starship, however, have not yet been unlocked as nobody has the cash for that expansion pack yet.
 * We're working on that.
 * We haven't quite finished with the undersea exploration expansion, either.
 * Trope Maker: While it is under-recognized as a source of tropes, the fact remains that this series is, quite literally, the baseline for most any work you can name.
 * Truth in Television: Is this too meta for you?
 * Try to Fit That on A Business Card: Monarchs since the dawn of history and accomplished British citizens, among others.
 * Turned Against Their Masters: Slave rebellions.

U-V

 * Ultimate Evil: Many characters believe Satan is this.
 * Sometimes this changes amongst players in relation to other humans. During World War II, Hitler was supposed to be this. Then he killed himself, and...
 * Uncanceled: The Cuban Missile Crisis was one notable example.
 * Universe Concordance: History textbooks and Wikipedia.
 * Unobtainium: Oil, uranium, gold, diamond, and lots more (depending on what you want, where you are, and what you can give for it). An extreme case would be antimatter, which is extremely difficult to create and annihilates anything it touches into pure energy (and hence must be stored in electromagnetic fields). Nicely subverted with pure aluminum, which used to be more valuable than gold and is now used to store cheap beverages. In fact, Real Life is the Trope Namer. "Unobtainium" was first used as an alternate name for titanium by the U.S. during the Cold War arc, the largest deposits being in the Soviet Union.
 * Unreliable Narrator: To many, the mass media.
 * Subverted with two particularly famous comedic news programs, in that, thanks to their comedic nature, you'd think they weren't serious but, and perhaps somewhat depressingly they tend to be about they only truly realiable news outlet in America.
 * The Un-Reveal: We never learned the identity of Jack The Ripper.
 * Or the Zodiac Killer, or D.B. Cooper.
 * Unstable Equilibrium: Criticized as a huge balance problem. Some servers try to fight it by increasing taxes on the rich and giving it directly to the poor in theory, but in practice, the rich can easily transfer to a server of their choice using in-game money, and even when they are taxed, the money tends to trickle back into clans that they're a part of instead of the needy. The degree of Rules Lawyering in this area needs to be seen to be believed.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Brutally subverted, time and time again. Giving in to your primal rage in a modern day society always, always, makes things worse.
 * On the other hand, back in the Viking arc, there existed warriors who were well-known for using this trope to devastating effect, as well as wearing serks (a type of garment) made of bear skin. They were so notorious for this that their name lives on to this day in the word "berserk".
 * Unwinnable: Go ahead. Just try it.
 * Since all achievements are open to interpretation, winning is possible by some definitions and impossible by others.
 * Since you only get one life and no saves, you may only acquire one ending out x, x being the amount of living creatures that did, do, and will exist in Real Life.
 * As for in-game examples, the grand prize of any lottery, and doing anything politically that is both beneficial to the public and doesn't involve lining someone's pockets.
 * YMMV, but Charlie Sheen seems to be the only one winning.
 * Upper Class Twit: Paris Hilton is a notable example.
 * Urban Legend of Zelda: Dungeons & Dragons takes over your life and drives you insane (no more addictive than any other hobby). Yukon Territory of Canada and Siberia are Grim Up North (rather pleasant in spring/summer, and polar bears hang around way farther north). Also, Urban Legends, natch.
 * Useless Useful Spell: Nukes. Everyone is so afraid of automatic counterattacks for using just one that they remain stuck in the inventory.
 * Also, since they tend make the area they nuke unlivable, not to mention that counterattacks could end all life on the planet makes them even more useless.
 * Vaporware: Fusion reactors, flying cars, nanobots, etc. The slower-than-expected development of some things, though, is counterbalanced by surprise inventions like cheese, nuclear bombs, the internet and lasers. Flying cars have been completed, but they turn out to be nothing more than Awesome but Impractical gimmicks. They're still being worked on, alongside Orbital Tourism.
 * The Interstellar space expansion pack has been in development since the 1950s, funding and development issues have meant the only avaliable content is the earth orbit, the moon and whatever shuttles and probes we can afford to send. The shuttle equipment is being removed from the game pending updates, although the Mars mission pack has been put off untill the 2020s at least.
 * The 2012 event is assumed to be this, lots of speculation but no concrete evidence about details apart from it being a Kill'Em All scenario. Which is precisley why most people hope it remains Vaporware.
 * Vapour Wear: Lingerie, anything made out of Gauze. That brief fad of paper clothing back in The Sixties. And many people just don't wear anything underneath.
 * The Verse: The Universe, Trope Namer.
 * Video Game Caring Potential: Oh so much...
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: So many ways...
 * Video Game Cruelty Punishment: In many locations you will get non-standard game over mentioned above if you start killing people in broad daylight. There are many notable subversions of it.
 * Video Game Tutorial: Although most PCs don't have conscious memory, these are the first few years of play. Depending on what your character's homeland is, the School levels will be this as well.
 * Violation of Common Sense: Laws don't stop people from doing bad or completely stupid things. In fact, the Darwin Awards exist to reward blatant violations. Also most of Quantum Physics and Relativity -- evidently, the Universe doesn't bother about complying to the common sense of those insignificant little humans on their tiny pale blue bit of dust called Earth.
 * The Virus: Way too many to count; some of them are also Nightmare Fuel. Some of these tend to be Game Breaking Bugs that lead to many a Downer Ending.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: The UK and Australia have a relationship characterised by years of "hatred". But if you were to declare war on either of them, the other would respond with overwhelming force.

W
"Spring break."
 * Wacky Wayside Tribe: You'll run across more than a few of these during the game, although they'll seem more important at the time than they really turn out to be.
 * "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Elementary (or "primary") school.
 * SAT tests for English PCs.
 * Adolescence.
 * First dates, for many.
 * Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: Averted, sadly.
 * Deconstructed with child soldiers.
 * Wakeup Makeup: Ha! You wish!
 * It's possible to get eyeliner, lipliner and full lipstick tattooed on. Initially painful, and reduces makeup options later, but more and more military women find it to be worthwhile.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: Allergies.
 * It's surprising how many dictators had strange phobias. For example, Adolf Hitler was afraid of cats. This was never Exploited, though.
 * We ARE Struggling Together!: Subverted in the Libyan portion of the Arab Spring arc. The rebels started out unable to agree on the simplest things, but quickly worked out that they needed to pull together to get anything done, put their differences aside, and kicked Gadaffi out.
 * We Cannot Go on Without You: If you own a business or have a partnership, you dying or becoming incapacitated can result in the end of the business. Also, a lot of bands have broken up because of the death, incapacitation, or retirement of a single member.
 * Welcome to Corneria: Many people-oriented jobs, such as serving fast food or selling tickets at movies, involve several Stock Phrases.
 * Wham! Episode:
 * Many, but the most recent one would be the infamous 9/11 episode.
 * The World War II arc was one wham after another, ranging from the Holocaust to the Hiroshima bombings, nobody was left unaffected.
 * On a less dramatic scale, everyone has had life throw them a curveball at some point.
 * One huge Wham! Episode happened 65 million years ago when an asteroid collided with Earth, effectively ending the whole dinosaur story arc.
 * What Could Have Been: Just ask anyone.
 * What Does This Button Do?: Depending on the button, anything from "nothing" to "nuclear Armageddon, God help us all." The number of safeguards on a button is a rough (but inexact) guide to how big a thing would happen if you pushed it.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Cultural example: In most European countries rats are considered to be pests and unclean. In India there is a 600-year-old temple of clean rats, with every generation free of disease, that are friendly with people. Anthropomorphic faced animal vs. non-anthropomorphic/fuzzy animal example: Pandas have billions of dollars spent on their survival and they don't contribute greatly as a species, while other very important insects and other critically endangered species are ignored massively in comparison, even though it will actually cause big problems to see them go.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Many humans' attitudes towards animals, though generally less so with animals frequently kept as pets.
 * "What Now?" Ending: Pretty much every ending in Real Life that doesn't involve you actually dying is of this nature.
 * What the Fu Are You Doing?: Some players have a rather inflated view of their own "martial arts skills." Some end up featured in YouTube videos where they manage to nunchuk themselves in the groin or the face, or otherwise end up looking like jackasses.
 * Who Would Be Stupid Enough...?: You bet your ass someone would. (It's rumored that while the series population is continually growing, the sum of their total intelligence remains fixed.)
 * Wide Open Sandbox: The effective playing area is a single small planet that requires immense resources even to leave for a few days, so almost no one does. Thanks to the planet's transparent atmosphere, you can see immense distances into the Wide Open Sandbox; you just can't get there. May be a Broken Bridge, or the content just hasn't been added yet. Well, technically you can get there if you're willing to wait for ages. And if warp drives are ever invented, the Sandbox is effectively opened.
 * Life itself is a Wide Open Sandbox... at least after you clear the Tutorial Stage.
 * The planet is not small from the perspective of the player. It can take days, even weeks, just to circle the map and wind up where you began -- and that's only if you've maxed out your running/swimming/climbing/jumping stats.
 * The Wiki Rule: One of the more fleshed out examples.
 * Wiki Walk: Many of the more interesting conversations in life, not all of them held on controlled substances.
 * Wild Teen Party: Can you say, spring break?


 * Not to mention many that occur outside of spring break. Doing this without permission can have unpleasant results for the one responsible. (For example, it may result in receiving the "grounded" status effect.) This does not stop some people.
 * With This Herring: Everyone starts off naked, with no equipment and no skills. If you're lucky, your parents may provide you with a few items to get started, but YPMV.
 * Wizard Needs Food Badly: Although players can go weeks (it varies) without consuming food, hunger kicks in after only a few hours (it varies also).
 * Womb Level: The character design stage.
 * Word of God: Too many to count. For the abrahamaic religions, the Bible (in whole or part, the Torah). For Catholics, also the Pope (under certain circumstances) and the Orthodox church has its own less well known equivalent to the Pope. For Muslims, the Qur'an and Hadith. For still others, the voices inside their head. The difficulty of proving one knows the author(s) means that for all we know this is Word of Dante or even Fanon.
 * Word of Dante: Due to above argument over official Word of God, Science has filled this position.
 * World Half Empty/A World Half Full
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: The number of divorces testifies to the amount of people who truly believe they are in a romantic comedy.
 * Wutai: Three, actually. Thailand, China, and Japan are the Trope Codifiers. Also: many large cities in the North America region (and London) have a "Chinatown".
 * Korea and Vietnam have been getting more prominence since their war arcs ended (or put on hiatus in Korea's case). And India's becoming extremely popular these days.
 * Lima, Peru has a Chinatown of its own called the "barrio chino" or, in English, "Chinese neighbourhood".

Y-Z

 * A Year and a Day: Used in various legal situations.
 * Year Inside, Hour Outside: "I swear I was thirteen just twenty minutes ago - wait, it was twenty years? Wow. I knew The Nineties were in there somewhere but... Wow."
 * Yellow Brick Road: Depending on your beliefs, this may be played straight or subverted/averted as far as life is concerned. That being said, there are literal walkways in the world that are designed with yellow bricks, but those are just for decorative purposes as opposed to serving as roadways to special destinations.
 * You Have Researched Breathing: Subverted; you don't need to know how something works to use it, but if you want to research your bodily functions, go ahead. Played straight in the Science Class, Metal Shop, and Small-Engine Repair Shop levels and Firearms/ Driver's Licence minigames, on the ground that you may hurt yourself or others if you don't know what you're doing.
 * Well, in the Infant stage, you have to research such skills as Walking or Using Tools. There is also the Epileptic Trees that one of the first skills to be achieved is Vision.
 * You Killed My Father: Played straight with Genghis Khan, who decided to kill everyone in the Tatar clan to get his revenge after his father was killed by them. He didn't stop there. It actually became a very large story arc that affected millions and is still looked back on by many of the fanbases.
 * You Kill It, You Bought It: The implied purpose of every war in history. If those in charge claim they're fighting for something else, they're either lying or misinformed.
 * You Require More Vespene Gas: While most structures do involve certain amounts of special materials, Oil is such an important source of both Energy and Raw Materials that players have gone to ridiculous extremes to access it or deny others access to it.
 * You Suck: Inverted. You rock!
 * Zerg Rush: See here.
 * Zeerust: Some game server areas are set aside to invoke this trope, often for role-play purposes or just as an aesthetic.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Averted so far, although there has been plenty of demand for an arc about one of these. The main reasons for not writing one are trying to write an explanation for it and having to kill off millions of extras in the process.
 * Are you SURE it's been averted?
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Japan sure loves this one.