39,327
edits
The Most Dangerous Video Game: Difference between revisions
update links
m (clean up) |
(update links) |
||
Line 30:
* This trope has been used often in terrible straight-to-rental movies, particularly in the 90's. Specific examples are difficult to pinpoint because they are all equally forgettable.
** ''Brainscan'' is probably one of the more memorable ones: It starts off as a surprisingly effective thriller about a kid buying a product that supposedly uses hypnosis to make the in-game experiences more realistic, before discovering that he may be affecting the real world by playing the game. Then, just as it looks like the movie could be a b-classic, it introduces an incredibly lame "video game demon", and quickly goes down-hill.
** Another was called ''Arcade''; about its only memorable feature was the villain played by John de Lancie, who also portrayed [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Q]] on ''[[Star Trek]]''.
** De Lancie also played the scientist/creator in ''Evolver'', another mid-90's flick about a [[Robot Buddy]] that takes VR combat way too seriously.
* ''How to Make a Monster'' had a video game coming to life after [[Lightning Can Do Anything|a lightning strike]]. It then starts killing its developers by animating an animatronic suit based off the game. It's only stopped when one junior developer dons a virtual reality suit of her own, which somehow allows her to destroy it in the real world too.
* The Bollywood film ''Ra-One'' has the titular video game villain (programmed to be "undefeatable") come to life because [[
* In ''[[Maximum Overdrive]]'' a man is mesmerized by an arcade cabinet, which fatally electrocutes him when he touches it.
* In a sense, ''[[Tron]]'' was one of the earlier movies to pull this off. It wasn't the game itself sucking you in, but the MCP used several "game programs" (disc battles, the jai-alai looking arena, Space Paranoids, Light Cycles, the *tanks*) to help keep control over still-semi-free programs. Quinn simply got zapped into the computer world ''and'' stuck in the deadly games. ''[[Tron: Legacy]]'' took it a step further, in that {{spoiler|CLU}} became just a dick that enjoyed making others fight to the death, program, user or otherwise.
Line 57:
== [[Real Life]] ==
* The first recorded death while playing a video game was with ''Berzerk'' - a man got a heart attack while playing it.
* There are many media accounts of gamers dying after playing for absurdly long periods without rest, especially in Asia. The deaths were mostly caused by the physical stress of such a long continuous session rather than any property of the games themselves. This goes back to 1981-82, when two teenagers died very shortly after posting high scores in the arcade game ''[[Berzerk]]''. Even more common are reports of health issues stemming from the same practices, which have prompted game companies and service providers to institute [[Anti-Poopsocking]] changes.
* There have been cases of online game players fighting or killing each other in real life over virtual property, though the players themselves were usually as much to blame as the service providers.
== [[Urban Legends]] ==
* ''[[Polybius]]'', an (entirely fictional) arcade game of American youth and urban lore that's become ubiquitous thanks to the Internet. The game, so the story goes, is a ''[[Tempest (video game)|Tempest]]'' knock-off that appeared in Portland arcades in 1981. The children who played it suffered from all three of the symptoms detailed above before [[Driven to Suicide|killing themselves]] in the middle of the night. The game disappeared shortly afterward, as suddenly as it had come - in some tellings, wheeled away by mysterious [[The Men in Black|men in black]]. Someone actually decided to make a [[Defictionalization|Polybius game]], purposely simulating elements found in the mythology (subliminal messages, supernatural things, and so on). Of course, they can be toggled on and off. [http://www.sinnesloschen.com/1.php See it here].
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The titular nameless game in ''[[Nanashi no Game]]''.
* The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' video game ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
* [[Parody|Parodied]] in the indie game ''[[Ben There, Dan That!]]''.
* In the game ''[[Kid Chameleon]]'', the new Virtual Reality arcade game on the block turns deadly, and actively tries to kill the players. Kid Chameleon tries to beat the game at its own game, presumably to save the people the game has already beaten. [[Nintendo Hard|It won't be easy.]]
Line 83:
** Pokémon is a very frequent subject of these sorts of stories. Another example is [http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Tarnished_Silver Tarnished Silver] and its sequel [http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Audible Audible], which use [[Missing No]]., the Unown, and events from the protagonist's past to screw with his life and/or health.
* Stories of haunted / evil video games are a fairly common type of Internet meme. Games from ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' to ''[[Wolfenstein (2009 video game)|Wolfenstein]]'' and ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' have gotten this treatment.
* Parodied, to great effect, by [[
* ''[[Sonic R]]'' has the myth of Tails Doll. Tails Doll was an unlockable character with an appearance that many considered to be creepy (though some just find him [[Nightmare Retardant|cute]]). According to a number of [[Creepypasta]]s, upon meeting certain conditions (usually tagging Super Sonic with Tails Doll on a specific track), Tails Doll would break into the real world and violently murder the player.
** Although [http://www.tdworshippers.proboards.com some believers in the doll think he's good].
Line 90:
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Homestuck]]'' and '' '''how.''' '' We have Sburb, a game that brings about the apocalypse when played. It also uses [[Time Travel]] to [[Stable Time Loop|cause itself to come into being]] as well as force its players to play, meaning the destruction is predetermined and inevitable.
** It gets worse from there. {{spoiler|Sburb is necessary for the creation of other universes - meaning the players are forced to sacrifice their civilization to bring about a new universe. IF their game is not a "null session," meaning it is predetermined to fail, making the sacrifice completely senseless. And unfortunately, null sessions more numerous than the successful ones.}}
** Averted with a void session, which cannot cause an apocalypse.
Line 100:
* ''[[Megas XLR]]'': Coop comes into possession of what appears to be an old video game cartridge, but it's actually an intergalactic ''prison'' housing many dangerous alien criminals. When Coop finally finds a game console that it fits into (or rather one that he can hit it hard enough to fit into), he accidentally releases them and spends the episode putting them back in.
* ''SinisteRRR'' from ''[[We Are the Strange]]'' is an evil arcade game that (possibly) acts as {{spoiler|a watchdog and alarm for the [[Big Bad]]}} and later {{spoiler|transforms into a [[Humongous Mecha]] who proceeds to kill off all but 3 of the main cast}}.
* In ''[[The Fairly
* In ''[[DC Super Friends]]'', the Joker turns Cyborg's room into one of these.
Line 108:
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:The Most Dangerous Video Game]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Most Dangerous Video Game, The}}
| |||