Crippling Overspecialization: Difference between revisions

This is usually a result of game balance. After all, if tanks are effective enough against other tanks ''and'' infantry, then why build anything else? Additionally, until recently, most units in games were depicted with only one weapon. A few might've had a second gun used for attacking enemy fliers, but that was about it.

 

People who do this for [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] are suffering from [[Poor Predictable Rock]].

 

 

Don't confuse "having a weakness" or "not being the best at everything" or even "not being quite good enough" as being this trope. Don't be tempted to list something because it failed in some way unless you can point a finger at its crippling specialty!

** Hilariously, Ranma often make a point of adhering to their rules and restrictions just so he can learn their style properly, and then incorporate their strengths into his "Anything-Goes" school. Not to mention the satisfaction of beating them at their own game. He only occasionally bend or break the rules after he learns what he's supposed to do. This caveat is to excuse his standard 'beat the crap out of them without regard for their crazy martial art' that starts most [[Martial Arts and Crafts]] episodes.

** Averted with Martial Arts Tea Ceremony. Despite having an unusual restriction (the combatants must be kneeling at all times, [[Charles Atlas Superpower|even when running at incredible speeds]]), the Martial Tea Ceremony masters are actually capable of beating the crap out of Ranma. The actual story battle has him facing a younger opponent though.

* {{spoiler|Wonderwiess}} of ''[[Bleach (Manga)|Bleach]]'' was made for the purpose of using this trope. Giving up speech, intelligence, memory and reasoning so as to have the ability to seal {{spoiler|Ryujinjakka's flames}}.

** Fortunately, his target does not fall into this trope, {{spoiler|having been around long enough to [[Combat Pragmatist|know]] [[Old Master|better]]. Yamamoto may have the strongest zanpakuto, but he ''didn't'' limit himself to it , choosing instead to fight the unfortunate Arrancar with his bare hands, and winning with ease.}}

* In 4th Edition ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'', one has the option of using a significant number of their starting stat points to boost a single score to 18 (potentially a 20 if the character gets a bonus to that score from race). However, this costs such a prohibitive number of points that all the rest of that character's stats will be Below Par, at the very best. Since defenses and secondary abilities of powers are often based on scores not directly related to a class' primary attack stat, this usually leaves a character open to attack. And since many feats have ability score prerequisites, the choicest of these will often be out of reach of a character who has overspecialized a single stat.

** Note that this can be entirely nullified by having a well-balanced group. (ie. a bard with maxed Charisma and terrible defenses in a group with many tanks/strikers will never get attacked if the group remembers to keep her in the back/center)

*** D&D's unofficial Tier System reinforces this fact. The Top Tier classes can either learn every spell of their paradigm they come across, have access to their entire spell lists by default, or can replicate any spell in the game. (The Cleric and Druid can also function as melee on top of all that, hence the [[Co D Zilla]] term in the metagame). The Tier Two classes are equal to the tier ones in raw power, but lack the versatility of their counterparts. As the tier thread puts it: "''If the Tier 1 classes are countries with 10,000 nuclear weapons in their arsenal, these guys are countries with 10 nukes. Still dangerous and world shattering, but not in quite so many ways.''"

** In 4e, the selection of attack powers available at each level - and this applies to several fighting and magic using classes - can differ between direct attacks that affect one opponent (the sin qua non of the "striker") and area of affect attacks (bursts and blasts) that can damage many targets. The latter tend to do less damage and may not have as good a hit chance as the former. Without a mix, a character can be vulnerable to either solo monsters or minions.

** This is actually common among heavily endangered species- species with a strong degree of specialization are very, very sensitive to any disruptions in their environment, and any changes can be devastating for them. See the giant panda below.

* The people the world considers to be geniuses tend to suffer from this to varying degrees. History is rife with stories of great artists and intellectuals all suffering due to having a phenomenal grasp of the subjects they are gifted in, while having a weak grasp in areas that are essential to master for the sake of functioning normally from day-to-day.

* [[World War Two]] German tank destroyers (Mainly the Elefant, the others had hull MGs or a roof MG) were highly effective as mobile artillery and killing tanks but had no turret and early versions had no machine guns... meaning (as Soviet infantry soon demonstrated) that if you could get close to one you could even climb on it perfectly safely and then plant explosives or do whatever you wanted, and they had no way of getting you off except popping out and trying to shoot you with personal weapons.

** German tank design in general was overspecialized. You had your Panthers, your Tigers, your Ferdinand artillery unit, which often meant complex mechanical systems and no compatibility between one type and another, so repairs were not efficient. The Soviet Union averted this by focusing primarily on the all-round T-34 tank, which was cheap to build and easy to maintain and operate, not to mention much more mobile in the Russian Winter than your average Panzer.

** Agricultural experts (at a couple of Australian universities, at least, haven't heard about the matter in an international context) have gone on record stating that almost all staple food crops -- corn, wheat, sugar, etc. -- are in roughly the same position. Since most large scale growers buy the cheapest seeds they can, the vast majority of growers end up using the same crops, leaving a serious risk of not only a virulent strain coming along and devastating crops, but also, should the [[Global Warming]] situation go as badly as people fear, the environmental conditions for growing these common strains becoming too precarious to support wide-scale growing. We could face a global-scale famine before a more resilient strain of seed is found, grown en-masse (after all, seeds don't just come out of thin air!<ref>Unless an enterprising company were to genetically engineer new varieties of GMO crops that can grow in harsher environments. Unfortunately, that course of action is expensive and limited to the developed world, so...</ref>) and distributed.

** Similarly, this trope is part of two different hypotheses explaining colony collapse disorder, i.e. the sudden die-off of honeybee colonies. According to the first hypothesis, centuries of selecting bees for useful traits (producing more honey, pollinating certain plants more efficiently) has reduced genetic diversity within commercial bee populations, leaving them vulnerable to pathogens. In the second one, feeding bees a diet of pollen from just one species of plant (i.e. one of the commercial food crops) leaves them with a less healthy immune system than feeding them pollen from several different plant species.

** For example, Shinya Aoki and Demian Maia are considered extremely high-level grapplers, and Melvin Manhoef is a high-grade (offensive, anyway) kickboxer who's considered devastatingly potent in stand-up... unfortunately, this isn't pure grappling or kickboxing.

** The thing is, the "keep the fight where you want it" bit pretty much requires learning the opposite of the techniques useful in the situation you're trying to keep in. You're going to end up on the ground very quickly if you don't know much grappling (as most techniques to get a man to the ground where grappling is more useful are in themselves grappling based), and if you're no good at striking, chances are you'll be beaten to a bloody pulp before you can get anywhere near the ground where striking is less useful.

** UFC fighter Cody [[Mc Kenzie]] is a unique in a sense not that he's a high-level grappler but all but two of his wins come from the same hold (a guillotine choke.) On a similar note Bellator fighter Giva Silva received the nickname "The Arm Collector" because 13 of his 17 wins have come via armbar.

* While it's usually averted in the sport of roller derby (most blockers can also jam in a pinch, and most jammers can throw a good hit,) happens from time to time. Some jammers are fast and agile enough to get through the pack without any help at all, [[Fragile Speedster|but if they get so much as a love tap,]] [[Glass Cannon|they go down hard.]]

* Many sole proprietorships and independent businesses - particularly those in retail.

* Pure gaming machines have gone extinct, with every current game console supporting other functions such as DVD or Blu-ray playback, internet browsing etc.

* True for almost all animals from an evolutionary standpoint. Many animals tend to specialize in adapting to their particular environment (e.g. Australia has an unusually high number of unique animals due to multiple habitats that are separated from each other - Costa Rica is similar), and if anything alters that environment, that animal could die off rapidly, while more generically adapted animals (scroungers in particular, such as rats) will make it through all but the most catastrophic environmental alterations. But after the change, the available animals will begin to fill the now abandoned niches, such as when mammals took over after the massive die-out of the dinosaurs.

* Rules in a survival situation are this trope. They are the first thing to go out the window in a survival situation. "There are no rules in love and war" is a popular saying for a reason - the victors get to live and pass on their genetic code. The losers ''die''.

** Combat Rules are great in tournament martial arts, fencing, boxing, etc - however if you're jumped in an alley or your life is threatened on your way to your car, expecting to defend yourself while keeping to tournament/practice rules is foolhardy if not suicidal.

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: Roman Legionnaires were trained to fight as a cohesive unit, not as individuals. While this strategy worked them quite well most of the time, it hit a massive snag during the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. The thick woods and rough terrain of the region forced the Romans to split into smaller groups, which enabled the Germanic tribesmen, who were better fighters individually, to overwhelm and defeat them. The defeat proved to be psychologically devastating for Rome, bringing an abrupt halt to its then-relentless expansion.

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:Crippling Overspecialization]]