Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Difference between revisions
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[[File:flamethrower-boat.jpg|link=Real Life|frame|*sigh* If only...]]
Considering how, between [[Kill It with Fire]] and [[Incendiary Exponent]], fire has a habit of being portrayed as undistilled [[Rule of Cool]], flamethrowers in [[Video Games]] have an odd habit of being [[Awesome but Impractical]] at best. This tends to be down to a combination of [[Convection, Schmonvection]], [[Critical Existence Failure]] and a variant of [[Short-Range Shotgun]]; game [[Fire-Breathing Weapon|flamethrowers]] tend to have a very, VERY short range, a narrow area of effect and do slow damage over time with very little disabling effect (or the disabling effect requires enough sustained fire you may as well use an instant-damage weapon), in many cases the effect is very temporary as well and wears off soon after. In a similar issue to [[Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud]] there's a bad tendency to assume the dangerous part is the visible one. The lethality of a flamethrowers isn't from its burning, it comes from carbon monoxide poisoning: [[Nightmare Fuel|A victim can still breath, but his blood can't transmit the oxygen]]. Carbon monoxide extends far beyond the visible flame, particular in trenches.
This is in part because they tend to be based on Hollywood-style gas flamethrowers rather than real ones; typically their fuel acts like pressurized gas rather than burning liquid, creating a long flame rather than an arcing stream. Game limitations mean the flamethrower's typical use (destroying
There are also additional issues, for instance, burning enemies frequently [[Infernal Retaliation|damage you when close]], yet the Flamethrower requires enemies to be close to use it (bonus points if [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|other enemies are not damaged by the flames]]). Also, games (especially Sci-Fi ones) frequently put you up against mechanical enemies and make fire useless against them, yet even the weakest pistol can do some damage; this is hugely unrealistic, since flamethrowers are dangerous to vehicles for the same reason molotovs are; the fire and smoke can easily cause the engine to overheat or choke, burn or melt most circuit boards, and cause immense discomfort for any crew. Finally flame propagation effects are very rare in games, so fire instantly dissipates in places that would be a fatal inferno in seconds in [[Real Life]], not to mention that fuel itself rarely acts like napalm, slicks of intensely burning glue that coat every surface fired at.
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