Real Life/Tropes A-E: Difference between revisions
→C: +snark
(→C) |
Haggishunter (talk | contribs) (→C: +snark) |
||
| (5 intermediate revisions by one other user not shown) | |||
Line 80:
** Water. The sheer abundance of water in all players and species has led many players to believe no species can exist without it. Then there's the fact that so little can actually be used, since most is either in the air, or mixed with salt. Wars are also fought over this, primarily for access to it.
** Photosynthesis. It's a massive handwave (plants can make food out of nothing but water, light, and carbon dioxide? Come on...), but it allows the existence of intelligent life, as well as creating an excuse for lush green [[Scenery Porn]].
** Nuclear material is a very interesting version of this trope. In some cases, it's effectively inert and entirely legal to possess, like most common grades of uranium. In certain forms, it's something you need have certain Prestige Classes to get anywhere near, use, or access, not to mention special skills and armor. While some of it's more obvious uses are well known, it still has many uses that still theoretical or unknown.
* [[Arc Number]]: A lot. [[Rule of Three|3]], [[Four Is Death|4]], 7, 12, [[Thirteen Is Unlucky|13]], [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|42]], [[108]], and [[Number of the Beast|666]] pop up the most often. The most important number of all might be 10, given that most counting systems are based on that one (probably because the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|handiest]] counting aid available to humans is their fingers).
* [[Arc Words]]: "Weapons of mass destruction" was the most recent. The 2008 season finale was a "Financial Crisis" miniarc that carried over to the next season, with the next big arc beginning in late 2010, the "Arab Spring".
Line 195 ⟶ 196:
* [[Catgirl]]: Averted, except in the Comic Convention levels.
* [[Celeb Crush]]: The majority of the cast of the [[Harry Potter]] movies have fans with crushes and have since the first film.
** In general, teenage girls will moon dreamily over [[Teen Idol|teen idols]] such as the [[Jonas Brothers]], [[Justin Bieber]] and [[Taylor Lautner]]. Likewise, the heart<ref>or at least, ''some'' organ [[Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?|lower than the head]]</ref> of many a teen boy has been captured by the likes of [[Taylor Swift]], [[Selena Gomez]] and [[Miley Cyrus]]. In both cases, this can lead to [[Fan Dumb]].
*** Oh dear Lord, [[Taylor Swift]]. In 2010, some guys at Auburn launched a website called "A Hug From Taylor Swift", which aimed to get [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly that.]] Taylor found the website, and proceeded to put them through [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxBSpHji2oo four] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo6HuSCBZu4&feature=related rounds] of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVtlDvh74H8&feature=relmfu challenges] if they really wanted one. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcIr6y1VduU&feature=related They] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiG5gs2TFEY&feature=related aced] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuTyNoY22Gg&feature=related them.] Challenge four was to gather up people, get them to an auditorium and lead them in karaoke. After they [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7p_BCIX-rw&feature=relmfu did], she popped up and gave them their hugs. And kisses. And concert tickets. And put on a bonus concert to boot.
** Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby as well, to the point it was parodied by [[Looney Tunes]]. Porky hired chicken crooners based on each of them to make the hens lay eggs.
Line 235 ⟶ 236:
* [[Cool Car]]: More in some places than others.
* [[Cool Train]]: Particularly popular in Europe and Japan, and formerly or sometimes in North America.
* [[Cool Plane]]: So many
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: All over the place. An overt and well-known example is the Enron story arc. However, very frequently averted as well.
* [[Cosmic Horror Story]]: Server-ruining events like ''a black hole moving toward solar system'' can occur at any moment and none of us can figure out how to avoid it.
Line 268 ⟶ 269:
** AIDS
** Sex is a physical activity. [[Out with a Bang|It's pretty likely that at least one individual has died from exhaustion as a result of overdoing it.]]
** Autoerotic
*** Obituary, nothing. Try convincing the guy's insurance company his death was an accident...
* [[Death of the Author]]: Friedrich Nietzsche took this approach to
* [[Death Is Dramatic]]: Normally averted. Most players die quickly, suddenly, and unexpectedly. And most deaths happen in a few ways.
* [[Death Takes a Holiday]]: Averted very, very hard. Death is so busy that if it went AWOL for even ''one day'', people would notice.
** At the end of the day, that is. People rewarded for their assistance in the processing of corpses might catch on by noon, and their decision to inform others of this fact to other players might result in most everyone knowing not long after that.
** Longer life expectancies have led to problems like overcrowded hospitals and a large portion of the population in developed countries
* [[Death Throws]]: Played straight with depressing frequency in high-speed vehicle crashes. Fairly easy to avert with a safety device known as a seat belt.
* [[Death World]]: Almost all of the Universe, with the exception of a tiny planet, orbiting an insignificant star in an unexceptional galaxy, called Earth. Even on Earth, it used to be played straight, though [[Humanity Is Superior|humans are the most powerful]] ([[Humans Are the Real Monsters|and dangerous]]) part of [[Real Life]] on Earth these days. Some
** Your Mileage May Vary on what you consider uninhabitable, though. [[Bizarre Alien Biology|Especially if]] [[Starfish Aliens|you aren't from Earth.]]
* [[Deconstructed Trope]]: Almost [[Deconstructor Fleet|every single trope]].
Line 283 ⟶ 284:
* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: The World War Two arc was resolved via [[Superweapon Surprise]]. This was foreshadowed via dramatic irony when {{spoiler|[[The Professor|Rutherford]] made his statement that [[Tempting Fate|only fools could think that harnessing atomic power would ever be a possibility]]}}. Some of the codenames were somewhat [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|"inspired"]].
** Some also claim that literal examples (i.e. divine interventions) have happened.
* [[Development Hell]]: The much-speculated [[World War III]] Arc.
** Human spaceflight, after an initial foray to the Moon, has been stalled in low Earth orbit for 40 seasons, with returning to the Moon and on to Mars delayed ''at least'' another 15-20 seasons. Robotic space exploration, however, has been [[All the Tropes Made of Win]] since the beginning.
* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: No matter what you do, real life has rules for it.
** Particularly impressive is the way that every single area is uniquely rendered.
** Sadly a surprising number of things are arbitrarily ruled as impossible. As a result, people have created alternate rule sets which are lumped together under the genera of "fiction." Although often what was thought impossible turns out not to be, as [[Science Marches On]].
** There ''are'' a few surrounding the apparent incongruity between Quantum Mechanics and Relativity.
* [[Dialogue Tree]]: A very important aspect. What you say to other players very much influences [[Relationship Values|the way they act towards you]] - the possibilities are endless! But be wary of the other player's personality, so you don't pick the wrong options. For example, speaking like a baby to another baby might make him/her like you, but if you say that to a particularly grumpy short man, the result will be very different.
Line 298 ⟶ 299:
** It's very difficult to live in the Arctic Circle, and it's even more difficult to stay in or even get anywhere close to Antarctica, though you can visit the place for a while thanks to compensatory technology.
** And it's impossible to live anywhere outside Earth [[Expansion Pack World|without advanced technology that is either extremely expensive or so far not available]]. Still, you can visit nearby places like the Moon for short amounts of time. Living there is another matter.
* [[Difficulty Spike]]: Trying to level from poor to the middle class, as well as from middle class to rich. To further compact this problem, governments
* [[Disc One Final Dungeon]]: College. The seeming final-ness goes especially to schools of law, medicine, and pharmacy or universities that have great prestige.
** Actually, for many high
* [[Disc One Nuke]]: Child Prodigies tend to have high intelligence stats that make certain aspects of life a breeze.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Played straight with far too many law codes, typically erring toward either excessive or mild punishments as a whole. Also a common consequence of zero-tolerance policies, which intentionally remove human judgment from their application.
** The Pakistan region has become infamous for its Blasphemy Law that kills players for speaking against the hypothetical author.
** Arguably, Japan. They sided with [[Those Wacky Nazis|the wrong people]], [[Obligatory War Crime Scene|raped every part of Asia they set foot on]] (most of east and southeast Asia) and ended up getting nuked. [[Crosses the Line Twice|Twice.]] Not to mention the 1995 Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 Sendai earthquake.
** Players with
* [[Doing In the Wizard]]: Has become incredibly common in the last two hundred seasons, or so, with science [[retcon]]ning various miracles.
* [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]]: Eras of backstory are often demarcated in terms of wars and conflict. They may be tragic, but also very memorable and interesting (perhaps because most students of the backstory do not spend a great deal of time discussing the suffering of [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|soldiers and war victims]]).
* [[Don't Touch It, You Idiot!]]: If you disobey safety precautions, you're likely to find out the hard way why they were there in the first place.
* [[Doomed Hometown]]: In any region with an ongoing war, this happens to
* [[Doomsday Clock]]: It stands at 5 minutes to 12 as of 2009, and has done so for several years. This has happened in many previous arcs as well. Seems that the end of the world happens often, and none of the characters notice.
** As of January 16, 2010, the Doomsday Clock went back a minute, signaling that humans are that much further from destruction, in the opinion of those running the Doomsday Clock.
* [[Door Dumb]]: Just wait around for a while at a door that can be opened by pushing but not pulling, or vice-versa, and chances are you'll see this trope in action sooner or later.
* [[Downer Ending]]: Happens so often that the possibility of it happening to you borders on [[Nightmare Fuel]].
* [[Down the Drain]]: Occasionally subverted by deep sea diving tours. In general, it's harder to survive the water levels than the surface levels.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: It happens. If you're feeling tempted, please log off
* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]: Played straight, often there are no hints at all that a character is going to be killed off. Indeed, many characters were unexpectedly and anticlimactically killed off, and some accuse this
* [[Dropped a Bridget On Him]]: Rare, but it can happen, much to the amusement of those not actually involved.
* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: Depends on the drug. Inverted for most users. Subverted for most of the rest - turns out that the problem is the person rather than the drugs. (See also: [[Must Have Caffeine]].)
Line 322 ⟶ 323:
** Granted, Your Mileage May Vary on what you'd count as a drug.
* [[Dynamic Loading]]: Elevators, commercial flights, and public transportation are all examples of this trope.
** Although hopefully, it doesn't get ''too'' dynamic, as hostile NPCs will still occasionally spawn in these areas.
== E ==
Line 337 ⟶ 338:
* [[Earth Is a Battlefield]]: As far as we can tell, since before people learned to read.
* [[Easy Sex Change]]: Brutally averted. In fact, it's made much harder than necessary.
** So far, the results of attempting this with the current tech tree are generally at the [[Purely Aesthetic Gender]] level, and that's for the attempts that go well. Making a further taking of this trope to its more logical conclusion is going to take some more time, though some argue, at least for humans, that working around some of the design and structural problems are [[Beyond the Impossible]], though some remain more optimistic.
* [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: Averted, with the help of over 100 different elements and potentially infinite combinations (and everyone has a completely unique, customized chemical [[Character Sheet]]!) Ancient Greece arc notwithstanding, water, air, and earth are not elements, they are mixtures, and fire is a ''process,'' not a substance.
* [[Emergency Broadcast]]: Usually a few every day at some places throughout the world, whether system tests or warnings of actual disasters.
* [[Empathic Environment]]: Inverted for players with Seasonal Affective Disorder.
* [[Empathic Weapon]]: Inverted for players who have the gunny or hoplophile traits.
* [[The Empire]]: There have been quite a few over the course of the show, most notably Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantium,ottoman,Mongolia, Spain, France,Great Britain, Russia, China, and Japan. However, Russia's power was severely set back at the end of the Cold War arc. In recent years, the writers seem to have been setting up China (once again) as the new Empire.
** Seems somewhat of a biased interpretation... all of the empires mentioned except for Mongolia are those that are a precursor to the present ruling one. China has been a major empire before, and so have you omitted Achaemenid Persia, Sassanid Persia, the Abbasids, the Ottomans... but the current rulers don't want you to know about those...
*** And Austria?
*** What about the Incans, Mayans, Aztecs, Egyptians, Mauryans, and Macedonians (and then Alexander's empire)?
*** And Germany, don't forget
* [[Empty Cop Threat]]: If you run afoul of the wrong cops. Or the right ones.
* [[Endless Game]]: It just keeps going and going. Individual characters, however, do not get endless
** According to most Experts in the physicist and/or religion classes, the game will eventually stop and the servers shut down altogether. However, the game has been going [[Understatement|quite a while already]], and shows no obvious signs of stopping any time soon.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: Happens all the time in politics.
Line 363 ⟶ 365:
* [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]]: A type of mostly hairless primate rules the Earth.
** [[Subverted Trope|But they're apes, not monkeys.]]
* [[Everything's Better with Penguins]]: There are many penguins in
* [[Everything's Better with Spinning]]: The wheel seems to be the [[Ur Example]] here.
** The subtrope [[When Things Spin, Science Happens]] has been particularly common in the last few hundred seasons. In fact, the mere presence of a centrifuge is often sufficient to communicate to the viewer that a scene is taking place in a science lab.
* [[Everything's Deader with Zombies]]: There's a form of protest called "Zombie Walks." Played straight with the Hallow'een in-game event
Line 370 ⟶ 372:
* [[Evil Debt Collector]]: Most debt collectors seem this way to players, although they may be more of a [[Punch Clock Villain]] in reality.
** But played straight for players with the [[Stockholm Syndrome|"Stockholm Syndrome"]] or "Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome" flaws.
* [[Evolutionary Levels]]: Shockingly averted. "Evolution" seems to describe the process by which species adjust to outside influences to maximize survival, as opposed to a process by which living beings get bigger, smarter, and more powerful over time that can be measured by "levels". An unheard
* [[Expansion Pack World]]: The uninhabited continent of Antarctica was retconned onto the bottom of the map to allow for a better budgeted, more dramatic remount of the popular "Race to the Pole" [[Tournament Arc]]. And the second half of the 20th century saw the addition of the new "Earth Orbit" and "Moon" regions as part of the accessible world. Of course, the much
** Though billions of other Daystars have been seen, thousands visible by just looking away from the planetary surface at night, the present version of [[Real Life]] is limited to only one. The "Interstellar Travel" expansion in which they're included is presently quite a few shelves out of reach; the much punier "Mars" expansion is already proving to be a big deal to get. Fortunately, the present Daystar subscription will last for another couple of billion years before it expires.
** Several grass species were adapted into wheat, rice, and maize. A selection of early primates
** Some religions also believe humans are reincarnations of past lives.
** A common rumor is that the Mars and
** Many players speculate [[The Multiverse|we may one day connect with other copies of this game.]]
* [[Explosive Stupidity]]: When it comes to handling explosive devices and/or volatile substances, there's very little margin for error. Being careless while doing so is a surefire way to get a game over.
* [[Expospeak]]: History, biology, and physics classes all show a lot of
* [[Eye Scream]]: Happens enough to make some players want to wear protective eyewear 24/7.
| |||