Thriving Ghost Town/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A town (usually in an RPG video game) has far fewer people than it should, based on its size and productivity

  • Straight: A man goes to a town, revealed to have a population of 1000, but only 10 people are seen and interacted with.
  • Exaggerated: A man goes to a town, revealed to have a population of 6 million, but only one or two people are seen and interacted with.
  • Justified: Only a few people are allowed outside the town buildings?
    • Or the game only shows parts of the town relevant to your quest.
    • Thanks to everyone in the town being multiple, there are only 10 people visible at any time, but every body holds an average of 100 different consciousnesses.
  • Inverted: A man goes to a town, revealed to have a population of 10, and somehow has 1000 people to interact with.
  • Subverted: A man goes to a town, revealed to have a population of 40, and 40 people appear.
  • Double Subverted: But then you find out many of them are visitors, and 35 of them visibly leave.
  • Parodied: A town claims to have 1000 residents, but only has 10... who attempt to disguise this via Paper Thin Disguises and various hats, running around pretending to be different individuals.
  • Deconstructed: ???
  • Reconstructed: ???
  • Zig Zagged: Some towns have the appropriate amount of people, some don't.
  • Averted: A town has a appropriate amount of visible, interactive people based on its size.
  • Enforced: "We can't afford to put in all these characters in the game! Only put in some of them."
  • Lampshaded: "WHERE IS EVERYBODY?!"
  • Invoked: ???
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: ???
  • Played For Drama: ???

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