The Artifact: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'''s catchphrase "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!", came about because when it first premiered, there was already a television program called ''Saturday Night Live'' that aired on ABC, so the show was called ''NBC's Saturday Night'' during its first season.

* Depending on who you ask, Yeoman Rand's [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|slow fade]] from ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' during the first season was an example of this. She was originally supposed to be Kirk's love interest on ship, but it was soon decided that it would be better if he didn't have one, and without anything for her to do they phased her out to the point that she [[Demoted to Extra|only appears in the background of one scene, without any lines]], in "The Conscience of the King". This decision may have been helped along by the severe drug and alcohol addiction Grace Lee Whitney had at the time, which William Shatner and others claim was the main reason Rand was dropped.

* [[The Movie]] of ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'' introduced the engine Lady as a sort of [[MacGuffin Girl]] keeping the magical bond between the Engines' world and the real world alive, but this magical bond is not only never mentioned in any other version, but Shining Time Station and the Messrs. Conductor have since been phased out entirely. Nevertheless, Lady continued to appear in a few stories released shortly after the film, despite having lost the one thing that made her special and interesting. She disappeared after she'd appeared in enough stories to justify the toys to kids who didn't see the movie.

* When ''[[Sex and the City]]'' began, almost every episode had a [[Montage]] of extras speaking directly to the camera in various settings, all supposedly answering Carrie's questions for her column and related to the episode's theme. As the characters began to develop and evolve to the point that they could carry the plot well enough by themselves, this narrative was no longer necessary to keep the audience's attention, and they were phased out slowly over the course of the second season.

* ''[[Exalted]]'' was originally written as a pre-history for the [[Old World of Darkness]]; strong hints of this remained all throughout 1st edition, until that train of thought was pretty much abandoned for 2nd edition. This is why the 1st edition Lunars [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse|took more than a few elements from the Garou]] ([[Fanon Discontinuity|much to the displeasure of fans]]), Sidereals occasionally had to deal with [[Mage: The Ascension|Paradox]], and the Underworld was ruled by [[Wraith: The Oblivion|Deathlords]] and the Neverborn, who were paradoxically called "Malfeans" as well when Malfeas was a [[Our Demons Are Different|Yozi]] instead.

** Then again, 2nd Ed keeps throwing in artifacts, or quite possibly the odd [[Shout-Out]] - the new Infernal Exalted take their Caste names from [[Demon: The Fallen|the Houses of the Fallen]].

** It's been The Artifact since the switch to Third. In Second, an ability check was made by rolling a D20 and trying to roll less than your ability score. In addition, there were mechanical differences which made all ability scores different rather than having breaks at every even number. In Third, the ability scores could have been replaced almost entirely with ability modifiers, transforming a stat line into something like: Str +2, Dx +1, etc. (''True20'' and ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' 3rd edition, based on d20 Open Content, did just that.) Almost no mechanics would be changed, and most of those would be simplified, and modifying creatures or changing sizes would be a cinch. This sort of statline is quite common in other games.

** Alignment flirts with this. Many players have felt it was irrelevant for years before, especially during the days of Advanced D&D. At the time, other games were coming out which ignored alignment altogether or grossly redesigned it, and they weren't suffering for a lack of moral categories to put characters into. Alignment also was easily abused by some players, with some game masters putting paladins or other "must be good" characters into situations where one aspect of their vows ''must'' be broken and then punishing them. ("You helped the slaves escape; that's not lawful, so it's a chaotic violation of your paladinhood and...why are you leaving?") Players, too, would abuse the heck out of it, often by being blatant jerkasses to everyone at the table and saying it was just playing their alignment. Then Third went and added in a lot of mechanics which depended on alignment, many of them doing little more than giving min-maxers an excuse to write "true neutral" down and then do whatever they were going to do anyway.

** Also, the blue slash over the TER in DECKMASTER is a simple pen mark that no one noticed on the master until it was too late. Technically, the millions of MtG cards printed over nearly 20 years are all misprints.

* Spell cards in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game]]'' made a lot more sense back when it was focused mostly on fantasy elements with a pinch of science fiction instead of the other way around.

 

 

** This is very prominent in ''[[EverQuest]]''. As the expansion packs mount up, old world content is increasingly useless - it's now possible to get armor dropped from random monsters better than the stuff you had to go through extensive questing to get back in the old days. Many zones, especially dungeons, lie abandoned for various reasons. Sometimes Sony reworks a dungeon to increase the level (this was notably done to Splitpaw and Cazic-Thule). However, since Everquest isn't designed well for solo play, people all [[Complacent Gaming Syndrome|hunt in the same few zones]] since all the other players are there, rendering most of the ''game'' an artifact.

*** ''[[EverQuest]] 2'' doesn't have it quite as bad. For one thing, there are fewer outdoor zones, and thus nothing to be "reliced". Also, Sony frequently "de-heroics" zones - a "heroic" zone being geared for groups, while a non-heroic zone can be handled by a solo player. Still, some formerly high end dungeons like Solusek's Eye now have little point to them. Also, [[Level Grinding|leveling]] is so easy now that the low end dungeons just aren't necessary anymore, as a player could gain five levels in less time than it would take him to find a group.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' has managed to avert this for the most part. The original series of missions, despite technically being the easiest, is still arguably the most important lore wise. Many of the missions intended to be difficult are level capped low enough that you cannot out level them. Some of them can be soloed by some classes, but it isn't substantially easier for a high level player to do so then a character actually at the level cap.

* Fighting games do use this trope every now and then. ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' is one of the bigger offenders in this in which as for any character that's from series' such as [[Fatal Fury]] and [[Art of Fighting]] that weren't [[Demoted to Extra]] got this. Terry Bogard, despite his iconic reputation in ''SNK'', has been accused of being "just there" lately over the years just to appease older fans. (In which some think that's the real reason why the [[Ship Tease]] with him and Blue Mary isn't done so much anymore.) There is also Mai Shiranui whom nowadays they just use her eternally unrequited love for Andy Bogard as an excuse for her to even be there due to her popularity.

* ''[[Persona 4]]'' has a couple of minor details carried over from [[Persona 3|its predecessor]]. First, some enemies on the map look like the "Maya" enemies from ''3'' (the game makes it clear that shadows transform when you get into a fight with them). Second, maxing out a social link triggers a note that you have forged an unbreakable bond. This was an important point in ''3'', where social links that weren't maxed would break after a certain amount of time. Now it's just congratulatory.

* In the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series, [[Video Game Lives|lives]] have been more or less [[Meaningless Lives|completely pointless]] since ''[[Super Mario 64]]'', since it and every game after it allow you to save after every level. Not to mention how the series seems to have become increasingly obsessed with giving you dozens and dozens of the damned things. Most likely, the only reason they're still around is because without lives, coins and 1-Up Mushrooms would become useless, dramatically altering the gameplay of the series.

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' characters in the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' franchise. Initially, ''Kingdom Hearts'' was marketed on the basis of being crossover of [[Disney]] and ''Final Fantasy'', but with each new games, Final Fantasy's roles get [[Demoted to Extra|smaller and smaller.]] In fact, in the last game released in the series ([[Birth By Sleep]]), [[Final Fantasy VII|Zack]] was the only character featured from a Final Fantasy'' game. At this point, these characters are only included as a [[Fan Service]].

** That said, the Disney elements have also taken ever more of a back seat to [[Kingdom Hearts]]' own (very ''[[Final Fantasy]]''-esque) mythology and plotlines. By this point, Disney villains are almost never more than [[Mini Boss|Minibosses]], who understand the metaplot even less than the heroes, and exist only to be manipulated by the real bad guys.

** This may have been true years ago, but starting around strip [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1780 1780] the comic has introduced a lot of exposition on AnthroPCs in general, and featured the ones in the cast (particularly Momo) more often. One might say that they are an ''aversion'' of The Artifact and of [[Shoo Out the Clowns]], in that they started out as weird elements nobody commented on, and then turned into an integral part of the "post-singularity" Science-Fiction setting.

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', the author has been quoted to no longer enjoy several of the earlier gags, especially the hammers. Hammers were sacrificed for good, in exchange for a handful of [[Character Development]], setting development and [[Plot]] points.

* Even though Fred finds ways to keep him important to the plot, pretty much anything involving Largo from ''[[Megatokyo]]'' has felt like this ever since Rodney Caston was forced out of the creative partnership.

* Spark from ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' dates back to the strip's early Gag Per Day days. He has adapted better than most artifacts do, but he still feels out of place in the post-[[Cerebus Syndrome]] [[Fan Nickname|Deeganverse]].

* ''[[Homestuck]]'' has a lot of these, mainly due to how quickly the narative evolves. [[Inventory Management Puzzle|Sylladices]] once played a major role in the story (the first third or so of Act One consisted entirely of John messing around with his sylladex), but are now rarely ever given much thought, the exception being the late-Act Five subplot with Liv Tyler and the Courtyard Droll handling John's Wallet Modus and [[Yin-Yang Bomb|its contents]]. A similar fate has befallen [[Item Crafting|punch card alchemy]]; the process became significantly more streamlined when Dave figured out how to upgrade the equipment, so much of the messing-around John needed to do with it early on promptly became irrelevant. Act 6 seems to be bringing these things back into play, at least for a time.

[[Category:Continuity Tropes]]

[[Category:Characters and Casting]]