Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''Soldier:''' It's a chest-high wall, Mr. Smarty Pants. Got any more dumb ideas? Maybe we can ''crowbar'' it away? Or ''kick'' under it? Or ''gravity gun'' through it?
'''Frohman:''' Or climb over it?
'''Soldier:''' Or ''climb over'' it?
|'''''[[Concerned]]'''''}}
The phenomenon, found in countless video games, in which a seemingly trivial obstacle—such as a [[Locked Door]]—cannot be circumvented or removed with brute force, [[Statistically Speaking|no matter how powerful the player character(s) is/are]]. This is more jarring when the obstacle in question does not mark the edge of the gameworld, but rather serves to force the player into [[Follow the Plotted Line|taking a particular path]].
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=== Video Games ===
* Most [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]]s will make use of this, applied to NPCs. Just [[Shoplift and Die|threw a rock at a merchant]] and are now fleeing the entire, bizarrely powerful legion of town guards? Simply cross the magical loading-screen border between the ''Town of Generica'' and the ''Generican Prarie'' immediately bordering it on the right, and not only will you lose every last pursuer; they'll cease to exist in your reality.
* ''[[Star Trek Online]]'' has one prominent example. On the Starfleet Academy map you are not able to access the waterfront which is only seperated by literal waist-height fence. Under normal circumstances your character would even be able to jump over it. However, when the area was first released there was a bug that transported you on the other side of the fence and let you explore the area beyond it - including the Golden Gate Bridge and the normally inaccessible shuttlebay atop one of the Academy's buildings.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Guybrush in ''[[Escape from Monkey Island]]''. On Lucre Island, there's a nice little field which is closed off by nothing more than a very low, wooden fence. Guybrush refuses to cross it, saying, "I could go over there, but... I... really don't WANT to. Yeah..."
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** Also, in the dessert planet Rosa, you have to get to some ancient ruins that are visible from the city's gates. And you are forced by [[Invisible Wall|invisible walls]] and unclimbable mounds of sand to take a complicated coiling road plagued with monsters instead of just ''freakin' running in a straight line towards the ruins.''
* ''[[Syphon Filter]]'': Grate blocking subway ramp? You can't use grenades on it, only C4 will take it down, from the other side. Hedge maze in Washington Park? No, you can't climb over the hedges. Cars blocking the road? Forget about climbing over them. And outside of cutscenes, falling more than about 10 feet kills you instantly (no falling damage in between).
* In ''[[Vette!]]'', large sections of San Francisco are blocked off by insurmountable fences, some waist height (No, you can't jump over them with low gravity, either). [[Handwaved]] in the manual as being due to "earthquake damage". And if you try to jump over Lombard Street, you hit an [[Invisible Wall]].
* In the first ''The Lord of the Rings'' jump-and-run for the [[PlayStation 2]]-era consoles, insurmountable waist height fences would team up with invisible walls and insurmountable shrubbery and fallen trees to form a path as linear as the early Crash Bandicoot games.
* ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2'' lets you vault over fences and climb any house that has a flat roof. But you can't climb over crates, tables and pretty much everything else that isn't either a fence or a flat topped building.
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=== Video Games ===
* ''[[The Simpsons Game]]'' [[
* Lampshaded in the [[Everything's Deader with Zombies|Vietnam With Zombies]] ''[[Half Life]]'' mod Heart of Evil: our hero [[Running Gag|"sadly lacks the intelligence to operate" any vehicle he comes across,]] and Barney needs to be escorted to the vehicle to operate it. At one point, our hero tries to unlock a door, but it refuses to budge. Our hero "lacks the strength to open the door." Barney pounds it once with his fist, and it swings open.
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' has a commentary node (on tc_hydro) about how its conspicuous waist-high fences are a major theme of the game.
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=== Webcomics ===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100623075724/http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0266.html Parodied] in ''[[Adventurers!]]''.
** Another one from the same comic features [https://web.archive.org/web/20130615073612/http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/0047.html a chair].
* Episode [http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-07-17 #172] of the webcomic ''[[Concerned]]'' made fun of this trope as it applies to the game ''[[Half Life]] 2''.
* Parodied in [[Gold Coin Comics]], when [http://www.goldcoincomics.com/?id=56 Lance encounters a log in the road].
* There is an [https://web.archive.org/web/20131210130235/http://gprime.net/images/gifanimation/movie9.gif animated .gif] floating around the internet where someone wants to open a door. It proceeds to summon mecha, fire missiles, bash at it with oversized swords and hammers and finally drop a nuke whose explosion can be seen from space. When he is exhausted, the door finally swings open inwardly.
** The Japanese words at the start say say "Door won't open! Smash it down!!!" At the end, it says "if it doesn't work when you push it, try pulling it". Wise words, indeed.
* ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'': the one thing the [[Physical God]] Cole McGrath from ''Infamous'' can never defeat? ''[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5/27/ A chainlink fence]''.
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* Referenced in [[The Best Page in The Universe|Maddox's]] [http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=signs review of] ''[[Signs]]'':
{{quote|''"I have hind legs powerful enough to jump up 10 feet onto roof tops, the technology to conquer the non-trivial challenge of intergalactic space travel, but I'll be DAMNED if I can kick down this wooden door."''}}
* ''[[Cracked.com|Cracked]]'' Photoplasty advertises two variants in "Ads for Products That Must Exist in Video Games": [http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_273_26-ads-products-that-must-exist-in-video-games/#23 #23] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20141202191626/http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_273_26-ads-products-that-must-exist-in-video-games_p2/#16 #16].
{{reflist}}
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