Ascended Glitch/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: What was a glitch in the game, is recognized by the game developers and kept.

  • Straight: There is a glitch in a game which lets the player walk on walls. The sequels of this game incorporate walking on wall elements.
  • Exaggerated:
    • There is a glitch which fits so well with the game, that it becomes very common in the entire genre the game is in.
    • In the sequel, the game mechanics revolve around wall-walking.
  • Justified: The glitch was so popular among fans and the developers that they just couldn't NOT keep it.
  • Inverted: A particularly disliked mechanic is left out of future installments of the game, and from reeditions of the original, but a glitch allows it to still be used.
  • Subverted: A glitch of the game is fixed later on.
  • Double Subverted: After a popular glitch is fixed, it will be put back into game due to fan complaints.
  • Parodied:
    • A game is rendered nearly unplayable by silly, intentional glitches.
    • A puzzle game designed entirely around using "glitches" to beat what appears to be an otherwise impossible game.
  • Deconstructed:
    • The game would have been forgotten but for the fun glitches, and including them in the game is the only reason there was a sequel.
    • Someone discovers a glitch, which becomes insanely popular in the fandom; when the developers make a sequel, they attempt to include the glitch's effect as a feature. However, the glitch-as-feature has unintended side effects that render the sequel completely unplayable.
  • Reconstructed: Proceeds as the above, until someone discovers an innovative new use of the glitch which makes its inclusion in the sequel justified and saves the game from being a complete failure.
  • Zig Zagged: Based on the incredibly glitchy play, the game gets a So Bad It's Good fandom. This leads to the company making a proper sequel, which sinks because it's just an unremarkable game. Then they make another game (or an update) that replicates the crazy behaviour of the original, and everyone is much happier.
  • Averted: There is no such glitch in the game.
  • Enforced: Fan feedback motivates the designers to incorporate the glitch as a legitimate mechanic.
  • Lampshaded: "You said that wall-climbing would never catch on, but now everyone does it!"
  • Invoked: The game developer leaves a few interesting glitches in the game just to see what will happen, with the intent of including the most popular ones in any future adaptations.
  • Defied: Everyone loves the glitch, and the game is genuinely better because of it; however, the developer can't stand the idea that he let a glitch slip past, and adamantly refuses to implement any features even remotely similar to it in an attempt to hide his Old Shame. The sequel becomes a critical and commercial bomb, even though the developer wanted it to be the best game, both critically and commercially because the glitch was the main reason why there was a sequel in the first place, and removing any features even remotely related to made it lose its magic.
  • Discussed: "Remember those days when I used to climb walls in order to take short-cuts? But now you got to climb walls even to get your room's key! I miss old times."
  • Conversed: "I don't get it; when it first appeared, the wall-climbing trick was considered cheating and an incorrect way to play the game. But now, it's a standard feature. I guess the lesson about this is: Cheaters always win".
  • Played For Laughs: The game developer wanted to make a standard 2D Platformer, but due to a bizarre glitch, accidentally mixes the project with something else he was working on, which goes on to become an insanely popular RPG. The developer is hailed as an RPG genius, in spite of his attempts to explain that he never intended to make an RPG. He eventually gives in and just starts making Role Playing Games, all while grumbling under his breath about platformers.
  • Played For Drama: The game in question is a serious part of the culture that plays it, and the existence of the glitch causes rioting and fights to break out between those who believe it should stay, and those who believe it's ruining the game, and by extension, their culture. The developer who works on the game is a member of the latter group, who is eventually forced by law to include the glitch in the next revision of the game, against his better judgement.
  • Plotted A Good Waste: The developers intentionally inserted the glitch into the game as an experiment to see if the public would take a glitch well. The result was a suscess.

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