Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Difference between revisions

But when it comes to familiarity, all of that wouldn't matter.

In [[Board Game]] circles, if a gaming group wind up doing this for a particular strategy, it's known as Group Think, and seems to occur when a group collectively decides on a 'best' strategy for a game, however balanced that strategy is against other strategies - The best remedy to it is simply to introduce new blood into the gaming group, or at least for some members of the group to play the game with another group and pick up some new tricks to introduce back into the gaming group suffering from it. Alternatively it could simply be a [[Game Breaker]] that wasn't discovered in play testing.

The trope for limited player use of characters/weapons/techniques in [[Video Games]] is at [[Player Preferred Pattern]]. The trope for limited locales is at [[Abridged Arena Array]].

*** Though ironically, Siegfried is generally considered to be the worst character.

* From ''[[Tekken]] 3'' onwards, Eddy/Christie has been this trope due to their easy combos, to the point where they are banned in tournaments. Earlier in the series it was usually Jack or Kazuya and in recent years it has increasingly been Mokujin due to the fact people want to show they can beat you with any character. Most people playing ''Tekken 3'' for the first time either went for Jin (he's on the box) or Yoshimitsu (he has a sword).

*** The Eddy/Christie thing was mostly applicable at ''Tekken 3'''s release, but they do have their flaws. Eddy telegraphs his attacks, follows the same pattern for 80% of his moveset and has some massively glaring weaknesses in his combos that are sometimes overlooked if you're aren't careful.

** In terms of modes, Time Attack has been around since ''Tekken 2'' but hardly anyone uses it.

* ''UFC Undisputed 3'' purports to have over 40 different fighters, good luck trying to find a match which is not against the top 4: Jose Aldo, Georges St. Pierre, Jon 'Bones' Jones or Cain Velasquez.

=== [[Mascot Fighter]] ===

** Stock seems to be the go-to game mode. No one even considers Coin Mode, everybody assumes you accidentally forgot to change the default with Time Mode and in ''Brawl'' Bonus Mode was simply removed from the game.

** Players also tend to have an irrational fear of items (lampooned when the official site sneaked in the message that "Real men use items!"), leading to the [[Memetic Mutation]] "NO ITEMS! [[Player Preferred Pattern|FOX ONLY!]] [[Abridged Arena Array|FINAL DESTINATION!]]" If you're lucky, you'll have a friend who occasionally likes to mix things up (99 stock super sudden death with high items). Mostly its complacency in the above pattern, rarely its someone who refuses to not play by personal rules.

=== First-Person Shooter ===

** The originally-informal, now-official [[Highlander]] game mode averts this a bit, because as we all know, [[There Can Only Be One]] of each class on every team, where players have to split their duties accordingly and work together efficiently. You know -- be a ''team'', like the game's ''title'' suggests. It was originally an out-of-game ruleset, but Valve eventually made it an official game mode in a patch.

** Eventually, when the game went free-to-play, the log-in interface was changed to feature a "Find Me a Game" option in addition to the traditional server list. Since the system was impartial to map, many veteran players joked the mechanic was installed to put new players on solid footing with experienced ones because "New or old, no one plays Turbine".

**** Worse yet are the servers that only play ''one part'' of Dustbowl.

** ''[[Counter-Strike]]'' has de_dust and de_dust2.

** ''[[Call of Duty]] 2'' has Toujane, Tunisia. Also notable that [[Game Breaker|almost everyone used bolt-action rifles and nothing else because of how much better they were.]]

** ''[[Modern Warfare|Call of Duty 4]]'' has Killhouse, Broadcast, Crash... there's bound to be at least one 24/7 one-map-only server for every map in the game, but those three are the most popular. Weapon variety, on the other hand, is pretty much exclusively either the final-unlocked weapons of a class (Desert Eagle, P90, etc.) or [[Running Gag|the bolt-action snipers]].

=== Mecha Games ===

* In ''[[Chrome Hounds]]'', you'll find there's always player matches at South Cemo Oil Fields (and hardly anywhere else), [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys|everyone uses funky stick mechs,]] and may [[Scrub|god have mercy on your soul if you use Heavy Gunning to drop a base.]]

=== MMORPGs ===

* While ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' battlegrounds provide more variety than usual, there is only one tactic used for each. Even if it sucks. Case in point: Warsong Gulch. Both sides run to the opposing flag (usually completely ignoring each other), take it, run back and either clash in the middle (often with both flags getting returned) or both flags end up in the opposing fortress, heavily defended for most of the battle. There is a good reason a 25 minute time limit was added to this battleground.

** Alterac Valley suffers from a similar case, turning into a rush to kill the opposing general as soon as possible. The fact that this got much harder in a recent patch didn't deter players from this procedure much.

* [[Warhammer Online]] has very vocal complaints about "bomb squads" - namely parties that guard and buff up a single (''long range'') DPS character who then solely runs through enemies spamming a short range area of effect ability that happened to have no cooldown or cast time. After 16 months of complaints about the inability to defend against it, suggestions to change the mechanics of the ability or noting that players were using a long range character to do more damage than a dedicated melée character, the game developers actually played some games and immediately issued a notification that they would nerf the mechanic in the upcoming patch. Although the mechanic has changed slightly, it is still feasible (and hated) and rumours persist of entire guilds who only accept one of the few classes who make this technique possible to avoid using any other tactics.

* This trope goes skipping hand-in-hand with elitism in [[Guild Wars]]. Don't have the skillsets or professions to match the popular cookie-cutter team builds everyone else is running? You do, but want to play your own way? Good luck finding a pick-up team for [[Bonus Dungeon|FoW]], [[Bonus Dungeon|UW]], [[Bonus Dungeon|Slavers]], or [[Bonus Dungeon|DoA]]. Your Lightbringer and Sunspear titles aren't maxxed out? Forget [[D.O.A.]] altogether unless you run your own guild. Lacking levels in other alliance titles will also get you viewed as a liability, depending on the attached skills, the mission, and the group build in question.

* In the old days, when playing ''[[Age of Empires]]'' online, any game that ''didn't'' start off in "Post-Imperial Age" (highest level of technology, every inch of the map known to every player, etc.) was doomed to languish in solitude until the game leader caved -- god help you if you ''liked'' building a civilization.

** Try and play ''[[Age of Empires II]]'' without every enemy [[Zerg Rush|rushing your base with hundreds of paladins and trebuchets]].

** Red Alert 3 players tend to pick a side (Allies, Soviets, or Japanese) and completely forget about the other two. Even worse, players will then develop a strategy that works well for them and stick to it (Allie air-power, Soviet armor, Japanese mobility) and fail to remember their other possible strategies (Allies stealth/sabotage, Soviet glass cannon/zerg rush, Japanese heavy bombardment [should be noted that their Wave Force Artillery and Shogun Battleship are two of the best because they don't yell "I'm over here" like the Athena Cannon and Aircraft Carrier or give the enemy a chance to run like the V4 rocket-launcher and Dreadnaught.])

** For that matter, the older ''Tiberian Sun'': Custom-made maps with large walls and completely flat ground, teams build bases behind the wall. No air or underground units until you pass the "gate" (the entrance in the large wall). Et cetera. Jeez.

* The vast majority of casual [[Starcraft]] games are played on "Fastest Possible" or "BGH-style" maps with lots and lots of money. Additionally, all players are now expected to choose a race - no random! Of course even the "serious" gamers fall into the rut: over the years the "most popular map" has changed: Lost Temple -> user-created Lost Temple editions -> Gaia/Azelea -> Python -> Destination. The one currently gaining popularity (possibly because it's the most balanced map made in ''years'' for almost all levels of play) is called Fighting Spirit. (Incidentally, translating the Korean name better would have called it "elan", which is way cooler.)

* [[Star Craft 2]] has a few, the most blatant is any 1v1 game between two Terran players. Expect only Marines, Siege tanks, Vikings and Medievacs. That is unless one of them knows how to use IEchoic's 2Fac2Port build which is specifically tailored to take the standard TvT build by the balls and make it that player's bitch. Protoss vs Terran has similar issues, as the Protoss player will always go Robotics Facility for Colossi and lots of Stalkers to deal with Terran bio-balls comprised of Marines and Marauders with escorting Vikings to counter the Colossi and allow the Marines to wipe out the Immortals. Zerg vs Zerg matches are usually decided by who can get a fast spawning pool and still maintain enough of an economy to outproduce the other in terms of zerglings. Innovative players have created builds that have broken the monotony of these scenarios but trying to use them outside of a tournament or higher league play will result in being harassed for cheating, or even being formally reported to Blizzard simply because most middle-to-bottom tier players, once happy with a build for any kind of match up, will tell you that not even God himself can play the game any other way.

=== Rhythm Games ===

** In ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', the gamer once again has a large array of weapon types and armor types to choose from and status effects are incredibly important. Contrary to ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' though, you probably ''will'' spend most of the endgame simply hitting things with large swords.

*** Holds true for most RPGs. Once your party reaches a high enough level, it is generally faster to smack everything with swords than to waste time casting spells or using abilities to watch the animations kick in and do nearly the same amount of damage.

* In the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games lots of people keep their starter throughout the game, even though there is the option to not use it.

** Semi-justified, as many of the starters have a solid movepool and set of stats. The idea is to assemble a strong team and most players have no reason to just ditch what is probably their strongest to begin with.

=== Puzzle Games ===

=== Wide Open Sandbox ===

** And its sister, the 7-11, offered either $50 per word or $1,100 for getting all 7 right. Almost no one ever took the former, so the latter quickly became the only option.

** In addition, players had the option of either giving or receiving clues for the Winner's Circle. Most of them opted to receive, mainly because that was the predominant convention at the time (in ''[[Password]]'', for example, the celebrity always gave clues in whatever bonus round they played), and the round was difficult enough without putting someone who's much more comfortable in the giver's chair in the receiving position.

* During the trivia sections on ''[[Double Dare 1986|Double Dare]]'', a team could "Dare" and pass the question onto their opponents if stumped, though that team could "Double Dare" and pass it back, earning the other team twice the cash if they answered it correctly. However, they could go for the "Physical Challenge", where they would play a game to earn the cash. Only one family managed to exploit the Double Dare strategy.

* In ''[[High Rollers]]'', it was ''very'' rare to see a contestant roll the dice if there was so much as a 25% chance of rolling a bad number. Even if there were tens of thousands of dollars in prizes available on the board, players immediately started passing the dice to their opponent as soon as there was a semi-decent chance that they could roll a bad number and hence lose the game.

* A couple of recurring techniques have cropped up on ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' when four contestants are required to bid on an item to determine which of them will play the next pricing game. One typical action is for a contestant to bid one dollar, in the hopes that most of the other contestants will go over the actual retail price and they'll win by default. Another trick sometimes employed by the last contestant to place a bid is to give a figure one dollar higher than what they think is the best bid, with the intent of begin just one dollar closer than their opponents.

** Sometimes, the 3rd contestant will make a one dollar bid or bid one dollar higher than the previous player if they have no idea what they are doing or just want to look like a smartass, causing the last contestant in the queue to bid one dollar higher than them, making the infamous two dollars bid.

** On the bright side, if you manage to get the price exactly right, you not only can't be beaten, but you get a $500 bonus as well. Due to the rounding rule, this is the only way to win the round if somebody bids $1 more than you.

* ''[[Family Feud]]'' players who buzz in and answer a higher valued answer than their opponent have the option to either continue answering the question with their family (play) or let the other family answer (pass). Most players will choose "play", which led to a 7-year [[Retired Game Show Element|retirement]] of the option before being brought back.