Guilt-Based Gaming/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Video Game tries to play on the player's emotions when they try quitting or another "bad" course of action.

  • Straight: When you quit the game, you see Princess Velvet languishing in her prison, praying that The Hero will come rescue her soon...
  • Exaggerated: Upon quitting, a short cutscene shows Emperor Evulz using the phenomenal cosmic powers you're supposed to stop him from obtaining to remake the world in his image, laughing all the while.
  • Justified:
    • The game has no save feature, so quitting is the same as losing in effect.
    • the game doesn't quit when the player does. The characters don't want their "guardian deity" absent for too long.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted: The princess is seen in her cell, but instead of hoping The Hero comes soon she hopes he takes his time and avoids doing anything foolish.
  • Double Subverted: ...then she's informed Our Hero Gave Up and insists he would never do such a thing.
  • Parodied: Bob is playing SupaSpecialPetz and decides to take a break. His Fluffelberrikinz starts crying, begging him not to go... then abruptly threatens to hang itself if he leaves. Horrified, Bob stays put and keeps playing.
  • Deconstructed: The screen displays rows of Zeroes and Ones and tells the player it's good for them to get some fresh air and experience the real world. After all, this is just a computer game...
  • Reconstructed: ...and as the binomes wink out the emit muffled screams. Or sobs. Or shrieks. Whatever tested better worse in beta.
  • Zig Zagged: Rather than being blatant about it, the game takes a subtler tack by sprinkling in little moments and lines that take on new meaning when the player realizes their implications. However, these obviously stand out more to players who already care about the game enough to notice these details to begin with...
  • Averted: The game simply takes you back to the main menu when you quit.
  • Enforced: The game has a Real Time time limit on completion.
  • Lampshaded: Hearing Velvet complain about the Hero abandoning her, Emperor Evulz asks, "Who are you talking to?"
  • Invoked: "The scumbag behind the monitor, of course. I'm trying to guilt trip him into rescuing me."
  • Defied: "Save your breath, princess. It's all just a game to him, after all."
  • Discussed: "But I can't leave the drones alone! They look up to me!"
  • Conversed: "Man, why am I listening to a sob story from a pretend princess."
  • Played For Laughs:
  • Played For Drama: An omnipotent outsider with complete control over his subjects' happiness or lack thereof? What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic, huh?

Back to Guilt Based Gaming - maybe there you can wash the digital blood off your avatar's hands with some electro-soap and cyberwater.

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