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Obvious Rule Patch: Difference between revisions
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** Additionally, in Chinese Go, the "superko" rule is there to prevent the rare triple ko, an infinite loop that can still occur in Japanese Go. Nobody's tried to "patch" Eternal Life, an infinite loop that's so rare it's not worth considering.
** An even better example is the ''komi'' rule. Since black moves first, it often begins with ''sente'', where the player makes a series of moves the opponent must defend against. The rule gives white somewhere between a 4.5 and 7.5 point advantage in most tournaments.
* Examples in [[
** The most recent major rule change in chess was allowing a pawn to move two squares on its first move. It was soon noticed that this allowed a pawn to "slip past" an enemy pawn which would otherwise have been able to capture it. Since the two-square rule was only meant to make the game faster and not to alter strategy, the ''en passant'' rule was introduced to patch the hole: if a pawn slips past another like this, the opposing pawn gets one chance to capture it anyway. (The option must be exercised immediately or lost.) Unavoidably, the two-square rule ''has'' changed chess, but ''en passant'' has helped to limit this.
*** The funny thing is that anyone strategically-minded enough to be changing the rules of chess should have noticed right away that this allowed a pawn to move such that adjacent pawns have no possibility of capturing them.
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** And speaking of pawn promotion, that's another rule which is now specified very carefully to avoid certain abuses -- such as remaining a pawn or promoting to an ''enemy'' piece. Yes, there are positions where those options are good, although it's vanishingly unlikely that they'd ever occur. See [[wikipedia:Joke chess problem#Offbeat interpretations of the rules of chess|here]] for an example of when promoting to an enemy piece is more beneficial.
** There's [http://books.google.com/books?id=IopUJv7-_NYC&pg=PA173&dq=%22three+king+circus%22&cd=2#v=onepage&q=%22three%20king%20circus%22&f=false one story] where a student promoted his pawn to a king because his teacher, George Koltanowski, had forgotten to mention this was illegal. George says he responded by [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|checkmating both kings at once]].
* In [[
** Another situation arrived relatively recently in shogi professional matches. The rule used to be that if a player caused a repetition of moves three times in a row, the game would be considered a draw. (This would happen through one player dropping a piece, a sacrifice occurring, and then an endless cycle of sacrificing and replacing the same piece.) However, one shogi professional found that he could avoid this rule by switching the type of piece he played every other move, so that the repetition did not occur three times in a row. Under those rules, there was nothing that could be done and play continued with the same moves being made until the defending player finally got fed up and tried something else, allowing the instigator to go on and win. The rules were hastily changed so that if an exact same board position (including pieces in hand) happens four times, regardless of sequence, then it's an automatic draw. (Note that this is different from perpetual check, which results in an auto-loss for the instigator.)
* In Japanese [[Mahjong]], players need at least 1 yaku to win a hand. The Tanyao yaku is particularly easy to get with open (containing called discards from other players) hands. This has caused many players to call tiles left and right in order to finish their hand with Tanyao as their only yaku for a pitiful point value, much to the annoyance of any opponents denied a bigger scoring opportunity as a result. This has led to a controversial [[House Rules|House Rule]] known as "kuitan nashi" which only allows Tanyao on closed hands.
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** Also, the "Archfiend" cards, an issue resulting from [[Bowdlerize|bowdlerization]] of card names. In the Japanese version, several cards used the word "demon" in their names, and this word was changed into a bunch of different words in the initial American releases: "Demon's Summon" became "Summoned Skull", "Demon's Axe" became "Axe of Despair", and so on. This worked fine until a series of cards that dealt with "demon" cards started to come out, so a ruling had to be issued to declare "Archfiend" as a "special category of card" which included all the cards that had "demon" in the Japanese name. From then on, "demon" would always be translated as "archfiend".
** With the recent release of Xyz Monsters, there was a brief period where there were very few written rules about how they actually work - one key problem was the fact that the monster used for Xyz Summoning stayed on the field until "detached" by an effect. Fine, but when does "leave the field" effects trigger? [[Word of God]] said when detached, and ''all hell broke loose''. Two already powerful cards got so absurdly broken that a copy could easily fetch well over 100 dollars. Konami quickly made an rule change: These cards ''never'' trigger their effects because they aren't treated as cards anymore. It's just as weird as it sounds.
* The DCI banned / restricted lists from ''[[Magic:
** The Urza Block is particularly infamous for producing massively overpowered cards and card combinations, to the point that one card [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=8841 Memory Jar] was banned ''before it was even released'', after it was realized just a bit too late what could be done with it.
*** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the series' own Unglued and Unhinged expansions, with cards like [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=9771 Look At Me, I'm The DCI!], which featured current Head Designer Mark Rosewater's stick-figure drawing of a blindfolded figure picking what to ban by throwing darts at cards pinned to a dartboard. Other Unglued cards have 'errata' printed on the card.
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*** Before [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=131 Time Walk] was released, it was phrased "Target opponent loses next turn", which itself needed to be rewritten after people started misinterpreting it as "[[Game Over]], you lose". (It's still massively overpowered though.)
** The standard Constructed Deck construction rules of today (at least 60 cards, no more than 4 copies of any non-basic card) are a major obvious rules patch. Originally, the only rule was a minimum of 20 cards per player in the game, theoretically allowing for decks that could win on the first turn nearly 100% of the time (assuming somebody willing to hunt down the requisite number of rare cards to make them work).
** Speaking of [[Magic:
*** Note that only the Colossus and Proggy actually avoid hitting the graveyard; the other 6 simply don't stay there for very long, meaning that aforementioned shenanigans are still possible, albeit a bit more difficult.
*** Similarly, some creatures have abilities that only trigger "if you cast [the creature] from your hand" to prevent reanimation shenanigans.
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** Originally, the Wizard class could "charm" a monster by discarding their whole hand. Munchkin players being what they are, they immediately began "discarding their whole hands" when they had nothing in them. Later editions specify a minimum of three cards.
* The [[Dragonball Z]] CCG used the show's [[Power Levels]] as a gameplay element, with two characters' current power levels compared on a chart during attacks, and damage dealt accordingly. However, because the numbers for the power levels stayed relatively accurate to the show (wherein, by the end of the series, characters had to go out of their way to ''not'' blow up the Earth during their battles), the chart used had to be updated constantly. Still, eventually it became obvious that some characters (especially from early sets) were flat out useless in physical combat even against common cards in later sets, so the chart was eventually abandoned and replaced with a calculation system that didn't particularly make much more sense, but at least kept the game more interesting.
* In the early days of the [[Pokémon (
** Later on, Fossil Cards, which are a different class of cards that can be played on the field like Basic Pokémon, count as a Knocked Out Pokémon when their Hit Points are depleted. Previously, they were simply discarded with no other penalty. This was because Fossil cards were rarely used for their intended purpose, which was to evolve them into usable Pokémon. Instead, they were treated as walls while the players charged up their Pokémon from the (normally) unattackable Bench. When the [[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
*** Note that each of these new rules only indirectly block these loopholes. It seems Nintendo tries its very hardest not to ban anything or to directly address exploits.
** One from the game's early days was the "Mewtwo Mulligan Deck" - a deck that simply had one copy of the original Mewtwo card and Psychic energy filling out the other 59 cards. Starting a hand without a Basic Pokemon (only a 1/60 chance) allowed the user to declare a mulligan, allowing them to draw another seven cards, and forced the other player to draw another card. This would keep going until the MMD user could either force a loss by running the other player out of draws before the game even began, or got their Mewtwo out and could use its power (to become immune to all damage) to stall the opponent out. A patch was put in to make the extra draw for the opposing player optional.
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== Game Shows ==
* The [[Bonus Round]] on ''[[Chain Reaction (TV series)|Chain Reaction]]'' offered a $10,000 top prize for guessing nine words which were described one word at a time. Initially, the score would light up the one for the first word, then half of each zero for the second through ninth words. After the first week of this rule, where $100 was the highest bonus round win, the scoring format was changed.
* ''[[The Hollywood Squares]]'' was mostly a simple tic-tac-toe game involving celebrities. Unlike tic-tac-toe, in the case of a "cat's game" where nobody can get three in a row, a contestant has to get the correct answer to claim the final square, and (unlike with other squares) can't claim it by means of the opponent getting the wrong answer. <ref>(''[[The Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour]]''.)</ref> This led to a [[Funny Moment]] in 1999 where, with only one square (Gilbert Gottfried) unclaimed, the contestants went through '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHmXw49t_v0 nine questions]''' before one was finally answered correctly, with the panelists shouting "[[You Fool!]]" at every wrong answer as a [[Running Gag]].
* On ''[[Jeopardy
** The original Fleming era let all contestants keep of all of their winnings. When the show was brought back in 1984 with Alex Trebek, this was changed so that only the winner kept their score. Second and third place initially received parting gifts, but since 2001 were given $2,000 and $1,000 respectively. The reason for this change was that some contestants on the Fleming era would [[Complacent Gaming Syndrome|stop playing]] if they thought they won enough money, or if another contestant built a significant lead. By offering full winnings only to first place, there's more incentive to strive for a win.
* ''[[Password]] Plus'' briefly disallowed the use of antonyms in describing the password. After it was discovered that some words just can't be described with a one-word clue that ''isn't'' an antonym, this rule was reverted.
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** Should the number 1 be counted as a [[wikipedia:Prime number|prime number]]? There's a case to be made either way, and in fact it was widely considered prime until quite recently, per the classic definition ("a number whose only factors are itself and 1"). But 1 doesn't act like a prime in most of the ways we need primes to act; in particular, it has to be left out if we want the [[wikipedia:Fundamental theorem of arithmetic|Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic]] to work. Thus we now define primality in ways that are less intuitive but exclude 1, such as "a number with exactly two factors" (and hence, 0 is right out).
* The [[Discworld]]'s Assassin's Guild Diary has School Rule 16: "No boy is to keep a crocodile in his room." Followed by rules 16a to 16j to counter various forms of [[Loophole Abuse]], from the obvious ("16a. No boy is to keep an alligator or any large amphibious reptile in his room"; "16c. Nor in the cellar.") to the outlandish ("16h. No boy is to convert to Offlerism without permission in writing from the Head Master." [Offler is the Discworld's Crocodile God])
** According to [[Discworld
*** Which, when they added "Read boys for girls" as a note to the list, led to this:
{{quote| School Rule No.145 : No boy is to enter the room of any girl.<br />
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School Rule No.148 : Regardless of how persuaded he feels, Jelks Minor in Form IV is a boy.<br />
School Rule No.149 : Arguing over the wording of school rules is forbidden. }}
** This is surely a [[Historical In-Joke]] referring to Lord Byron. He wanted to keep a dog when he was at Cambridge, but school rules forbid it. He inspected the rules carefully and found there was nothing prohibiting [[Everything's Worse
* In 2008 when the State of Nebraska tried to implement a [[wikipedia:Safe-haven law|Safe Haven Law]] it neglected to notice that its definition of "children" included anyone 18 or younger which resulted in 36 teenage children being driven in from out of state and abandoned at Nebraska hospitals. The law was patched to exclude older children later that year.
* In 2010, the polar bear was granted the status of Threatened under the Endangered Species Act...with a rider attached by Secretary of the Interior stating that the bear's new status couldn't be used to sue oil companies or greenhouse gas emitters (arguably, the two biggest threats to the species). The environmental activist organizations that had planned to do just that were not amused.
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* In most ''D&D''-like games, you can't wear more than one or two magical items of a certain "slot" and benefit from all their powers. While it makes sense that you can't wear multiple pairs of, say, boots, there's no reason for the usual "two rings, one amulet" rule other than balance issues. This is usually justified with a contrived excuse that the magic items will interfere with each other. Even though you can often wear a helmet, armor, and a neck slot item, or gloves, bracers, possibly armor (which probably has gauntlets of some sort included), and a ring.
** In the Fourth Edition, shields count as taking up the magic items arms slot ''and'' a wielding-in-hand slot. It means you can't use bracers+shield or two shields and get the magical effects of both.
* Construction rules in ''[[
** There was also an instance where Battle Armor riding on an Omni Mech can be shot off of the 'mech by shots that land on the torso. Doesn't seem too bad, but given that there is no weight penalty for carrying Battle Armor, the [[Human Shield|Battle Armor were always the first to take hits]], and [[Mundane Utility|the 'mech's torso wouldn't begin to take damage until all the Battle Armor were shot off]]... it's understandable why the next rulebook created fixed locations for each Battle Armor.
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'': ''A [[Commissar]] (of any rank) will never [[Ate His Gun|execute]] [[Suicide
** "Under no circumstances can any [necron] make more than one teleport move in a single turn... There are no exceptions to this, no matter how clever your logic."
** "Please note that it is ''not'' possible to master-craft grenades!" <ref> However, ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'' has an item (and ''Space Marine'' a Perk) that disagrees with that rather blatantly.</ref>
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* In ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'', the Batrider hero has a skill, "Sticky Napalm", that amplifies damage from the Batrider on its victims. Players took advantage of this by building the constant DPS aura item Radiance, which turned Batrider into a real damage-dealer. Apparently Icefrog disagreed, as he proceeded to change Sticky Napalm so that Radiance could not (normally) trigger the bonus damage any more.
** ''DotA'' also has an item called "Kelen's Dagger" that allows teleportation of one's own hero. So, it's even possible to teleport yourself into terrain that you cannot escape from, except by using Kelen's Dagger again once the cooldown ends. Two heroes are forbidden from using Kelen's at all. One of them has an ability to swap positions with another hero, and the other who can hook a hero and reel them in to be right next to him. Either of them could trap an enemy hero (or even a friend, if they were traitorous) into a small patch of terrain that said hero might be stuck in for the entire game, unless the other hero happened to also have bought the Dagger.
* Starting in version 1.3, ''[[
** ''Iji'' has a few things like this in the later versions. When it became possible to win the game without killing anyone, this necessitated the player not fighting one of the bosses, because the only way to get by {{spoiler|is to kill him}}. The solution? {{spoiler|Have a new character help you by one-shotting him. However, this would mean that a pacifist runthrough on the first couple of levels would be much faster than previous runthroughs, and the developer, Daniel Remar, wanted speedruns to be fair between versions. So 10 minutes are added to your overall time because Iji waits around for 10 minutes to give your helper a head start.}}
** In a later update, it doesn't count as a kill if you reflect an enemy's fire back into them with a force field weapon. Previously, "pacifist" players would gather dropped power-ups by stocking up on health, moving right next to enemies, and catching rockets with the main character's face for the [[Splash Damage]].
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* In ''[[Half Life|Half Life: Episode One]]'' when Gordon {{spoiler|gets the super-charged gravity gun again}}, any use of it causes all other weapons to vaporize, just like the previous game. The problem is, Alyx is also with you and can kill enemies, causing them to drop their weapons. When they do, the weapons still vaporize for pretty much no reason, almost as if they only held together because [[No Ontological Inertia|a Combine soldier was holding it]].
* In [[Final Fantasy XI]], you gain tactical points (TP) each time you hit an enemy, the amount varying based on the delay of your weapon (higher = more TP per hit). You have to have at least 100% TP (of a 300% cap) in order to perform a weapon skill. This sounds reasonable, except very early on, weapon skills that hit multiple times gave full TP return per hit, leading to being able to perform these weapon skills back-to-back with no need to accumulate TP in the mean time assuming you used a special type of otherwise useless weapon with almost no damage rating and max delay. [[Square Enix]] patched this very quickly so that only the first hit (first two when you're dual-wielding) give full TP, and subsequent hits only give 1%.
** Don't forget [[That One Boss|Absolute Virtue]], who is for all intents and purposes totally invincible due to his ability to use the most powerful abilities of every job, as well as cast high-level black magic that players don't even have access to instantaneously and frequently, wiping out alliances of players in seconds. Every time a method is discovered to defeat him, Square-Enix will immediately squash it by [[New Powers
*** When players killed him by attacking him from areas he couldn't fight back, the developers gave him the ability to draw players to him if they got too far away.
*** Later on, the devs were pressured into rethinking the absurd difficulty of some of their bosses after some bad publicity involving an [[Bladder of Steel|18-hour-long fight against a different monster]], so they lowered the HP of both that boss and Absolute Virtue and forced them to despawn if not defeated within two hours. Players discovered that a legion of Dark Knights using a combination of the job ability Souleater [[Cast From Hit Points|(consumes HP to increase damage dealt)]] and Blood Weapon (restores HP equal to melee damage inflicted), he could be bumrushed into defeat. Within days, a patch was made that gave Absolute Virtue (and ONLY Absolute Virtue - other monsters that had previously been defeated with this method were totally untouched) increasing resistance to Souleater damage, making it useless.
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** The Witch in the sequel had received a buff for Realism VS mode after people complained that the Witch was too easy for survivors to kill. Now Witches in Realism VS cannot be instantly killed with a head shot.
** When Survival mode was introduced in Left 4 Dead, people abused exploits and glitches in the maps by placing themselves in areas that the zombies could not "see" them at (players that are "off" the map are considered non existent by zombies), thus they could earn gold meals too easily. While some of the maps were patched to plug up the exploits, many others did not get detected. The sequel upgraded the AI Director to detect cheating in Survival mode where it will spawn Spitter acid onto a player that is not in the map or are in some spot that the zombies can't reach them and if the player avoids this check, the AI Director will just outright damage players until they get back to playing fair.
* In ''[[
** The Spy can turn invisible during which he is not able to use any of his attacks but originally he could still taunt while invisible. When the Sniper/Spy update gave him a taunt that could instant kill enemies, taunting while invisible was quickly edited out.
* ''[[
** Mario Kart Wii created a new problem with the bikes. Players quickly found out that popping a wheelie gives a small boost in speed and if it was done enough anywhere, they could boost so much that they can stay ahead of players that didn't do the same or were using a kart (karts can't wheelie). In theory, bikes are supposed to lose a ton of speed if they are bumped into while popping a wheelie but this rarely happened in the hands of skilled players. Mario Kart 7 got rid of bikes entirely due to this.
** The Fake Item Box, which is supposed to fool players by thinking it's a real item box, had been in the Mario Kart series for decades, but it was removed in Mario Kart 7. This was mainly due to the item working a bit too well where players can place the fake box inside real item boxes all the time and basically be guaranteed a player would always fall for it and since it was a big box, it could also be used on narrow paths or before jumps so players could never avoid it at all compared to a smaller item like a banana peel. The fake box became completely useless in Mario Kart DS due to players being able to spot it on the map on the bottom screen and with Mario Kart 7 using the map screen again, the fake box would be useless. With all the reasons listed above, it's understandable why Mario Kart 7 got rid of the item.
* ''[[Prototype (
* Due to the infamous amount of infinite combos and glitches that dominnated competitive play for ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 2]]'', Capcom's made a point of patching infinite combos out of ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]''.
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