Game Tropes

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Games are an age old way of passing time with friends and fleecing strangers for money

Types of Games

• Arcade Games: The original Video Games.
• Board Games: From Monopoly to chess, the classic test of skill and wits between friends and foes alike.
  • Euro Game: A recent style in board gaming, first becoming widely popular with the mid-1990s success of The Settlers of Catan.
  • War Games: Board games that attempt to simulate realistic military conflict. Many are infamous for having Loads and Loads of Rules (and cardboard counters). Advanced Squad Leader is probably the most famous example.
• Card Games: From poker to Magic: The Gathering, a way to win money and while away the empty hours.
  • Collectible Card Games are a recently popular variant.
  • Poker is a particularly famous card game.
• Parlor Games: The oldest genre of social games, requiring no special equipment.
• Pinball: The longest-running form of Arcade game.
• Role Playing Games: The most diverse and unusual new game genre of the last century, these include both Tabletop and Video Game RPGs in various formats, from D&D to MMORPG.
• Tabletop Games: Whether you are role-playing an ancient mage or a fighter pilot for the Zarlon empire, these allow you to sit among friends and act out your fantasies. Dungeons and Dragons is the Ur Example.
• Tabletop Miniatures: The intersection of Board Games and Collectible Card Games, featuring Hero Clix, Mechwarrior, Mage Knight and others. They often employ Turn Based Strategy.
• Strategy Game: Games that require strategy or tactics to win.
  • Construction and Management Games
  • Turn-Based Strategy: An ancient type of game made popular again.
  • Real Time Strategy: A more modern incarnation of the strategy game.
• Video Games: The most recent revolution, and certainly most popular. Video games throw you into enthralling or addictive worlds where you forget yourself for a brief period. Any of the above categories can be translated to this format. Originating with Arcade Games, subgenres include Text, Adventure, PC/Console, MUDs, MMORPGs, RTS, FPS, and more.
  • Older Than the NES

Games by Origin

• Japanese Games

Tropes common to games in general:

• Action Initiative
• Area of Effect
• Choose Your Own Adventure
• Crazy People Play Chess
• Deep-Immersion Gaming
• Diagonal Speed Boost
• Diminishing Returns for Balance
• Extra Turn
• Fake Balance
• Fake Difficulty
• Fake Longevity
• Fake Skill
• Joke Character
  • Lethal Joke Character
• Kingmaker Scenario
  • X Must Not Win
• Kwyjibo
• Let's Mock the Monsters
• Loads and Loads of Rules
• Luck Manipulation Mechanic
• Master Console
• New Rules as the Plot Demands
• No Export for You
• No Plot, No Problem
• Not the Intended Use
• Obvious Rule Patch
• Player Archetypes
• Power Equals Rarity
• Promotional Powerless Piece of Garbage
• Sanity Meter
• Scavenger Hunt
• Sliding Scale of Objective vs. Subjective Games
• Smart People Play Chess
• Splash Damage
• Splash Damage Abuse
• Square Race Round Class
• Surprise Checkmate
• Variable Player Goals
• Variant Chess
• You Fail Statistics Forever