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{{trope}}
[[File:
Some games let the player [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|do things that are a bit... immoral]]. Many players are just fine with that and will gladly take advantage off it; after all, the video game is a consequence-free world, one where you can do things such as [[Grand Theft Auto|shotgun a crowd of innocent bystanders]], [[The Punisher|torture mooks for information and kill them even when they tell you what you need to know]], or [[God of War (series)|be an all-around jerk]]. After all, the exact reason most people find these games fun is because they can do horrible things with no negative effects. At worst, you'll slide toward the evil end of the game's [[Karma Meter]] and the storyline will play out differently.
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[[Hostage Spirit Link]] is a specific form of this, though in that case it is generally used to prevent you from [[A-Team Firing|madly spraying fire every time you open a door]] rather than to punish you for being cruel.
The most common subtropes are probably [[I Fought the Law and
Contrast [[Mercy Rewarded]] and [[What the Hell, Player?]], which are less overt methods of chastising you.
{{examples}}
== Action Adventure ==
* The NES ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' game lowers your health by one hit point each time you shoot an unarmed enemy.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'':
** Attacking Cuccos (and sometimes other animals, such as the pigs in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'') results in them fighting back ''in swarms''. Endless, '''invincible''' swarms. The [[Fan Nickname]] for this is the "Cucco Revenge Squad."
** In the battle mode of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures|The Legend of Zelda Four Swords Adventures]]'', this is actually a sneaky
** There's an interesting variation on this in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]]'', where you temporarily control the Cucco you've been attacking.
**
:*
▲** An interesting inversion to this trope exists in ''Twilight Princess'', where you can enter Hyrule Castle Town's market in wolf form and intentionally scare the local populace. Appears to be played straight with the guards coming to take care of you, but they are all too petrified to even attempt to attack you, and if you try to scare them even more, they run away while dropping various useful items, like rupees and similar stuff. It is odd seeing that attacking chickens/Cuccos traditionally gets you punished in the series, while [[The Joys of Torturing Mooks|terrorizing the capital city of Hyrule is]] ''[[The Joys of Torturing Mooks|rewarding]]''.
* In the NES game ''[[Nightshade]]'', you are a [[Superhero]]. You gain reputation for defeating [[
▲** In the original ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' on the NES, hitting the old man with the sword or other weapon will cause the fires to shoot at you if you are in an underground dungeon.
▲** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages|Oracle of Seasons]]'', after defeating the King Moblin, you find him in a house in Sunken City, crafting bombs. You can throw a lit bomb into his stockpile, then flee the house and watch it blow up with him inside of it. Try this repeatedly, and the third time he catches you and [[Nonstandard Game Over|traps you inside the house when it blows]].
▲* In the NES game ''[[Nightshade]]'', you are a [[Superhero]]. You gain reputation for defeating [[Mook|mooks]], and the more reputation you have, the more people will help you. Very high reputation yields such rewards as a healing booth (which you ''[[Nintendo Hard|will]]'' need). Attacking someone defenseless, however, causes your reputation to take a nose dive.
* ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' lets you fire on friendly boats and airships from your hovercraft. However, if you keep shooting at them, they'll eventually call the police on you, who will fine you. Some [[NPC]] ships are quicker to phone the cops than others... And if you maneuver quickly, you can actually ''avoid'' the police!
* In ''[[Star Fox Adventures]]'', repeatedly attacking Tricky with Krystal's staff early on has no repercussions. However, doing it too many times after he's learned the Flame command results in him attempting to set Fox on fire.
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* In the ''[[Superman]] Returns'' game, you don't have a life meter. Instead, the town does. So even though you can interact with just about everything, doing so with the intent to destroy can "reward" you with a Game Over.
** And inverted with the Bizarro side-missions, where you had to [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|destroy the city]].
* There was a ''[[Mission: Impossible]]'' game for the NES that fit this trope. If you killed a civilian, a ''helicopter flies in from nowhere'' and captures your current character, which has the same effect as killing him.
* ''[[The Goonies (video game)|The Goonies]] II'' allowed you to strike friendly characters with your fists or a hammer. If you hit certain characters, though, they refused to help you in the future.
** There's another spot, though, where the only way to get [[Last Lousy Point|the missing Magic Implement]] is to ''[[Moral Event Horizon|beat the crap out of an old lady]]'' by hitting her repeatedly.
* In ''[[Armored Core|Armored Core for Answer]]'', [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|you're allowed to take a]] [[Moral Event Horizon|mission where you]] [[Complete Monster|kill 100,000,000 people]]. If you complete that mission, you're rewarded with the mission "[[Scrappy Level|Occupation of Arteria Carpals]]", a mission where you have to defeat 4 [[A Mech by Any Other Name|NEXTs]]
* In the first ''[[Soul Reaver]]'' game (which is the second ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' game), civilians and vampire hunters will fall on their knees and worship
* Although not as severe as some of the other punishments, biting some of the larger animals (specifically the tigers and bears) in ''[[Okami]]'' will cause them to attack you.
* In ''[[Ganbare Goemon|The Legend of the Mystical Ninja]]'', attacking innocent people in towns will cause a swarm of angry guards to assault you. They will keep spawning unless you leave the area.
* In ''[[Tomb Raider]] II'', attacking the Tibetan warrior monks in the Barkhang Monastery will result in ''every single monk in the entire level'' going for Lara's blood - and it can be easily done if the player is simply trying to help the monks out in their fights against [[Big Bad|Bartoli's]] [[
* Sort of a minor one in the [[Nintendo DS]] version of ''Lego Batman'': Once you unlock Alfred as a character, he'll usually be peaceably standing around as an NPC in the batcave. You can attack him, but once you do, he'll come after you with a bat.
== Action Game ==
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* In ''[[Halo]]: Combat Evolved'', if you kill your captain in the first mission, you'll be locked inside the bridge and a squad of invincible marines will rush in to butcher you.
** In the hands of a pair of bored teenagers who played HALO too much, this becomes the ultimate boss fight.
** Throughout all of the Halo games, killing enough marines will get them to turn against you and kill you. The exception is the plot-important ones with [[Gameplay Ally Immortality]], as you can't kill
* In ''[[Call of Duty]] World At War'''s DS version, meleeing an ally will result in him returning the
* Inverted in ''[[Modern Warfare 2]]''. {{spoiler|Trying to save the civilians in the infamous No Russian scenario by killing their attackers nets you an instant game over. Likewise, trying to block their line of fire by standing in front of them will result in them just shooting you. The most you can do is not actively participate in the slaughter.}}
** In the German/Japanese version, this is all you can do. {{spoiler|Shooting the civilians nets you an instant game over, as well.}}
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** Oddly enough, you ''can'' get away with murdering the crew by proxy through using the console to spawn enemies. Make sure you use the invisibility cheat so as you're not targeted (by either side, as sometimes the crew will go crazy and start shooting you when this happens, and security can also beam in), and let them wipe everyone out. You can then proceed to finish off the enemies yourself. For the rest of that Virtual Voyager game, anyone who died will remain dead on the floor even if you leave the area and come back. Note that doing this can prevent you from getting 100% completion, so only attempt this after you have.
* ''[[Shogo: Mobile Armor Division]]'' has one. If you shoot at your commander in the opening level, he'll give the order "Kill Him," and a group of soldiers will rush you and continue to attack until you're dead.
* Somewhat utilized as a game mechanic in ''[[BioShock (series)|Bioshock]]''. Killing a Big Daddy in order to get to the Little Sister they're tasked with guarding results in the lovely image of a six year-old girl sobbing over her father figure's corpse. Kind of hard not to feel like a jackass, there. In ''[[BioShock (series)|Bioshock
* Lampshaded in ''[[Serious Sam]] 2'' in the Kleer planet. After dispatching some Kleers who are burning a giant doll of Sam on a stake, shooting the doll itself damages you and causes Sam to exclaim "I knew it. I KNEW IT!"
** Also in The Second Encounter, where one secret takes you to a miniature set of the final level of the first game. Blowing up all the scenery and props nets you some items, but if you so much as touch where the mini-you is? Instant death.
* In ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'', while not explicitly a punishment, [[
** ''[[Portal 2]]'' also inverts this with GLaDOS specifically telling you that, since the puzzle room exit does not contain an emancipation field, you '''should not''' abuse the opportunity to grant the companion cube freedom. Despite having the player expressing ''care'' more than cruelty, [[Yank the Dog's Chain|she still punishes you]] by detonating it in your arms.
{{quote|'''GLaDOS''': I think that one was about to say ''"I love you"''.}}
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** For people who are not griefing others but are tired dealing with the [[Artificial Stupidity|less than stellar survivor bots]], killing a survivor off makes the game a lot harder since now you are down one player and are more vulnerable to attacks from zombies.
* ''[[The Chronicles of Riddick]]: Escape from Butcher Bay'' [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|allowed you to kill many of the inmates you encounter]], primarily in Single Max. It becomes much more difficult in Double Max; attacking any of them that are in the vicinity of gun turrets just means the player is [[Too Dumb to Live]], but it can still be done. Triple Max really exemplifies this particular trope however: you are dropped into a small secluded room for daily exercise with an incoherent and unresponsive inmate, whom you can easily kill. Doing so results in the Butcher Bay computer announcing that you have been sentenced to death, and starts injecting kill poison into your bloodstream through your cryogenic suit.
== Four X ==
* Use one nuke in the ''[[Civilization]]'' series, and your popularity drops to [[Acceptable Targets|President Bush Jr. lows]]. Use a ''lot'' of nukes, and the global environment can collapse!
* Similarly, in ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', using a Planet Buster causes every other faction in the game to declare war on you.
** More than that, using Planet Busters (or just excessively damaging the environment in general) is a bad idea - when you hit the planet, [[Genius Loci|the Planet
** "Minor" atrocities like using nerve gas, using biological warfare, or nerve-stapling or destroying base populations, will result in the planetary council imposing trade sanctions against you, and the faction you committed the crime against will almost certainly remain your sworn enemy for the rest of the game.
* Using nuclear weapons in ''[[Rise of Nations]]'' reduces the "Armageddon Clock". Too many means the game ends in apocalypse.
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*** There is some punishment that this player found out after getting the achievement. The first day of release, player goes to get the turkey achievement. Afterward, sees that all enemies are hostile and is delighted since being a hunter with a gorilla that means easy grinding XP on the normally neutral mob packs. Get to an area with a quest NPC that is a dryad and does not offer quests as they are neutral. As well all the other normally friendly/green dryads become attackable NPCs. Was really annoying first time through and took the player a little while to figure out what happened.
** Killing normal animals (in self-defense or otherwise) in the Borean Tundra of Northrend will cover you in their blood and the usually friendly Cenarion Expedition druids in the area will attack you until it dries after 3 minutes or you wash it off in a body of water. They have no problem with you killing Scourged animals, of course.
** North of Stormwind is a secret [[Open Secret| (well, kind of)]] lodge that can only be reached via flying mount where three retired adventurers live. It has a cozy campfire, relaxing atmosphere, and a herd of adorable, fluffy sheep. And players who act like dicks and try to kill said adorable fluffy sheep are in for a surprise, as one is an automaton with a bomb that goes off should such a dick try it.
** In Drustvar, if you find the Adventurer's Society's treehouse and loot the chest inside, your title will be replaced by "Dirty Rotten Candy Thief" for an hour, for all other players to see. (It should be pretty obvious from the interior that the "Adventurer's Society" members are all children, and you just swiped their candy.) Even worse, the "loot" is pretty worthless to a high-level player (which you obviously are to even ''be'' in this map). {{spoiler|''However'', this is also key to unlocking a secret merchant; fly to [[Not-So-Safe Harbor| Anyport]], buy Gourmet Chocolates from the Pandaran vendor, then go back to the treehouse and replace the stolen candy with the Gourmet Chocolates. The Adventuring Society will show up, and one of them will sell [[Mons| Battle Pets]] that cannot be obtained anywhere else.}}
* This is always being debated within MMORPGs that have [[PvP]], as some people want everyone to be able to attack, kill and potentially 'gank' and harass anyone, while others argue that such a thing is just not fun and encourages you to be a [[Jerkass]]. The first half calls the other ''[[Care Bears]]'', the second half prefers to call the other variations of term 'mean' and 'jerk'. Also: Griefer or Troll.
** [[Internet Tough Guy]] is also getting kinda common, even if it started out meaning something different.
** ''[[
*** Though such systems often backfire
* ''[[Guild Wars]]'' used to have a reference to the "Cucco Revenge Squad" described
== Platform Game ==
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* In the ''[[Sonic Adventure]]'' series, if you severely abuse your [[Mon|Chao]], they won't listen to you or let you pick them up, and if you're ''really'' cruel, they won't eat, and will even [[Killed Off for Real|die earlier, without a chance to reincarnate.]]
* Namco's obscure platformer ''Beraboh Man'' featured a friendly robot at the end of each level who would give you power-ups and life-restoring food. You could punch it to net a series of funny messages like "OW! What are you doing?" and "You will regret hitting a friend". You will indeed if you do it too many times, because the robot ''will get pissed at you and won't show up anymore for 4-5 levels''. The game is already [[Nintendo Hard]] by itself (and almost without healing items in-game), so it's not a wise choice to "hit friends"!
* There's a truly bizarre variant in ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 2''. The Crystal Cave area is full of Reploids under enemy control; you're supposed to save them, but if you kill them instead, you ''get a 1-up''! (Maybe the life you took has been [[Death Note|added to your own]]?) On the other hand, this is hell on your rank for the mission, and they won't become helpful [[NPC
* In ''[[Lyle in Cube Sector]]'', a couple of puzzles require you to batter around a cow and a baby bird, respectively. Don't do this more than absolutely necessary, or else they will wreak horrible revenge on you.
* In the old platformer ''Elf'', aside from ubiquitous bad guys that you have to shoot, there are also cute little animals like bunnies and ducklings. Shooting them brings up messages like "boo!" and so forth. However, shoot too many of them, and once you complete the game, the beautiful girl you were trying to save has [[Broken Aesop|become really ugly]].
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* In ''[[Mole Mania]]'', at various parts in the levels, Grandpa Mole will offer to fully restores your health once per screen, if you speak to him just after getting healed, he'll get a little annoyed and tell you to get going already. Keep bugging him and he'll get increasingly agitated with you, and eventually you will piss him off to the point of hostility, resulting in a instant [[Nonstandard Game Over]].
** If you want to bug him just for the heck of it and not get a [[Game Over]], stop talking to him and leave that screen when he only responds with [[Visible Silence]], as that is the ''last'' time you can safely annoy him.
* In a game where you start by entering your name, there will always be some players who try to use a cuss word, telling the narrator to "F--- Off" or something. ''[[You Don't Know Jack]]'' has a unique way to handle such folk, it docks you 1,000 points. Then it gives you a cleaner name, but if you restart the game and do it a ''second'' time, the game remembers and docks you 50,001 points! If you push your luck further and do it again, that's it, [[Nonstandard Game Over| game over.]]
* Classic Looney Tunes game ''[[Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf]]'' has a number of levels where Daffy Duck gives the player some much-needed tutorial advice. One such level also provides the player with a stick of dynamite. Anyone with a singular comedic bone in their body will naturally place the dynamite at Daffy's feet and run for cover. All well and good, until a now-charred Daffy informs you that "there's nothing funny about blown up duck!" and that you are being put in a time-out for a whole minute, during which you have no choice but to sit and wait.
== Roguelike ==
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* In the recent remake of ''[[The Bard's Tale]],'' your character was an unmitigated bastard at times. This often came back to bite him on the rear. One town he accidentally burnt down by releasing a dragon [[Man On Fire|set him on fire]]; being Snarky with a child gets you [[Groin Attack|kicked where it counts]]; and if you [[Kick the Dog|drive off the lovable pooch]] at the start of the game, later on you have to fight an undead version of a previous enemy rather than get an ally.
** Nice is the ''slightly'' better choice the ''majority'' of the time. Of course, there's no way to find out beforehand, and a few choices make no real difference (Nice to the innkeeper = lousy room, Snarky to the innkeeper = great room; neither affects any of your stats or future events). There are a number of cases were Snarky is obviously better in the short run, but it costs you later on (a future service is more expensive, for example). Really more a [[Guide Dang It]] than anything.
* Ubiquitous in ''[[Ultima IV]]'', a RPG and possibly the video game with the most ethical depth yet (released in 1985 - sigh.) The series is between [[Big Bad
** ''[[Ultima VIII]]: Pagan'' would dispense with the whole [[Karma Meter|concept of gauging the player's morality]]. Instead, if the Avatar was ever caught stealing, causing bodily harm or committing any other misdemeanor in the city, he would [[Can't Get Away with Nuthin'|promptly]] see the town sorcerer teleport to the crime scene and ([[Ludicrous Gibs|graphically]]) blow him up. No trial, no defense, no escape. [[Cutscene Incompetence|There was absolutely nothing the player could do but accept his fate]].
*** The [[IT-HE Software]] site features two ways of nullifying him, only using the [[Good Bad Bugs|ingame physics.]]
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* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] III: Morrowind'' lets you kill any character in the game. However, killing anyone plot-relevant before you get your mission from them will make the game's main storyline impossible to complete.
** Supposedly, anyway. You can still beat the game...assuming you [[Guide Dang It|already know how]]. And the game does, at least, have the decency to tell you when you've rendered it unwinnable (or unwinnable without a strategy guide, at least.)
* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' plays this straight and also inverts this: at one point in the game, while you can refuse to save [[NPC
** It also [[
* ''[[Contact (video game)|Contact]]'' lets you go around and massacre random civilians if you so choose. You even get a sword that is specifically effective if you wish to do so! However, doing so makes you take massive hits to your [[Karma Meter]], causing otherwise-friendly NPCs to attack you on sight (or, more likely, run away because they know they don't stand a chance). However, one of the possible girlfriends likes bad boys...
* Killing children in ''[[Fallout]] 2'' brands you as a Childkiller and results in bounty hunters chasing you down. Fairly well armed bounty hunters who level with you to an extent.
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** Especially the very talkative guy standing in the diner.
** This also can help trigger the [[Nonstandard Game Over]] for this game, though this triggers by doing anything that violates the masquerade, not just actions fitting in the trope. For example, murdering people counts as a masquerade violation, but so does letting a human see you if you're playing a Nosferatu (a clan of vampires that are all physically deformed).
* In Spiderweb Software's ''[[Geneforge]]'' series of games, not only your actions, but your attitude can affect gameplay. Taking the wrong attitude in conversations with NPC can substantially affect the way that certain [[NPC
* In the primitive area on ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' you come across [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] cavemen whom you've been sent to rescue. Killing them will actually remove points from your score (the game's EXP system.)
* In ''[[Threads of Fate]]'', the {{spoiler|first}} fight against the dragon Wylaf ends when his health is halfway depleted. However, attack him beyond this point too many times, while ignoring his admonishments to drop your weapons, and he will respond by charbroiling you to a crisp in a [[Cutscene]]. Needless to say, this is an instant [[Game Over]].
* If you choose the Dark Side path in the first ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]],'' {{spoiler|more than half the crew would turn on you, forcing you to kill them.}} A cut ending specifically for Dark Sided females added an additional twist to turn it into an Everybody Dies ending {{spoiler|by having Carth show up and making a final appeal. The player could then turn on Bastila, allowing the Republic fleet to destroy the Star Forge, with Revan and Carth still aboard}}.
* In ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'', if you go around slaughtering civilians, a squad of Flaming Fist mercenaries shows up to slaughter you. They're nearly impossible for a character at your level to kill, and even if you do manage to beat them more will keep showing up later on.
** Additionally, in this one and the sequel, getting caught pickpocketing, killing [[NPC
** ''Baldur's Gate'' and its sequel are ''deeply'' unfriendly to evil characters. If you take the 'evil' option in a given quest, expect to receive a smaller reward or no reward at all. If you allow your reputation to fall into the ranges where your evil-aligned companions start complimenting you, expect prices to shoot through the roof and (at extremes) your good-aligned companions to abandon you. All of this is in addition to the above mentioned swarms of infinitely respawning guards when you let your reputation fall too low. And to add to the injury, you only have four evil-aligned characters (one only appears in the expansion) so get used to a non-full party, or squeeze in some [[Token Good Teammate]] who is at best [[Chaotic Neutral]].
*** On the other hand, Edwin, Viconia and Korgan/ {{spoiler|Sarevok}} are arguably the most powerful of their respective classes...
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** Pickpocketing in Denerim will end up with you getting a small army of guards attacking you while traveling through the city, complete with the guards mocking the "mighty Grey Wardens" for stooping so low as petty theft.
* Choosing the Closed Fist option near the end of ''[[Jade Empire]]'' results in your more morally upstanding party members turning on you. If you succeed in killing them, they're (obviously) unavailable for the rest of the game.
* Sometimes, this synchronizes perfectly with punishments for inept playing. If you simply can't handle a particular fight in ''[[Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume]]'', the main character can put allies into [[God Mode]], with the side effect of [[Deadly Upgrade|killing them at the end of the fight]]. How many battles you have used this to essentially bypass determines your ending, and it's not based on the traditional [[Karma Meter|good, neutral, and evil]], but "[[Golden Ending|good]]," [[Downer Ending|bad]]," and "[[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|worst]]."
** That's not the ''real'' punishment, though. That comes if you abuse the Plume, in which case {{spoiler|Freya gets wise to your antics and drops down from the heavens to kick your ass.}}
* ''[[Fable|Fable II]]'' has a few choices in storyline wherein you get to choose an evil option (generally going around killing people) and a good option (which is usually going around killing people, just evil ones). The evil option, such as working for the Temple of Shadows or killing a farmer or electing not to help Barnum, will ultimately create a more unpleasant world, which, of course, means less game options.
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** ''.Flow'' in particular has a rather brutal punishment for trying to beat one of the local [[Goddamn Bats]] over the head while he's drinking: Countering your attack and then outright killing you in retaliation, which forces you out of your trance, but not before a short cutscene showing Sabitsuki's decapitated and busted up corpse. Also in general it seems that angering one will anger the rest while you're still zoned in, and one in particular happens to be a Demonic Spider...
* ''[[Demon's Souls]]'' took punishment to the extreme. If the player, whether intentionally or not, attacks an NPC, the NPC will continue to fight you until you kill them (if you die, the NPC will continue to attack you after you respawn). If you kill the NPC, he/she will never come back. This is true even if the story cannot be continued without that NPC. Considering that there are no save points, or any other way to "undo" the damage, this can be [[Unwinnable by Design|literally game breaking]]. Especially cruel given the length of the game.
** Luckily, most NPCs don't aggro with one
** The Maiden in Black and Monumental seem to be the only ones needed to finish the game, and they either revive or are immortal. Deaths of other characters will deny you services, but are endurable.
* In [[Mass Effect 2]] you can choose to help either the [[Knight Errant|Justicar]] Samara or her sociopathic [[Black Widow|Ardat-Yakshi]] daughter Morinth during their [[Mexican Standoff]]. Helping one means the other dies. If the player chooses Morinth, not only are they deprived of one of a war asset and one of the most poignant scenes in [[Mass Effect 3]], but they also have to fight Morinth during the game's final stage after she's been turned into a [[Demonic Spider|banshee]] by the Reapers (and she makes no other appearances during the game).
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** Subverted in that depending on gameplay variables (namely player ability and plane), they may not be that much more difficult than the "Soldier" or "Knight" squadrons that you encounter on those mission versions, and by moderating the ratio or by playing Free Mission (only the Campaign affects the Ace Style Gauge) you can avoid the Mercenary missions altogether since your position on the gauge at the end of a mission determines the next mission's version.
* In the PC version of ''[[Star Trek]] Starfleet Academy'', firing on any Federation starbase would cause the mission to instantly abort, whereupon the instructor brands you "childish" and makes you restart the mission.
* In ''[[
** In the original ''[[
*** Which is ''[[Hilarious in Hindsight]]'' due to the fact that the creator is an atheist.
** Lets not forget the wonderous "church virus" code. Type any curse word into the game and you'll receive a message stating "same to you, buddy!" and churches start appearing at alarming rates.
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* Mostly played straight in ''[[Rollercoaster Tycoon]]''. Your [[Karma Meter|park rating]] will obviously plummet if one of your rollercoasters crashes. However, [[Never Say "Die"|getting rid of]] unhappy guests with the use water can cause your park rating to go ''up''.
** Likewise, while letting tigers or ''T. rex''es out of their cages to chase guests in ''[[Zoo Tycoon]]'' can be amusing, it'll also deep-six your zoo's rating.
*While ''[[Mastermind World Conqueror]]'' allows you to play the role of an evil criminal mastermind (the name didn't come out of nowhere), this doesn't necessarily mean that the mastermind is going to get off totally scotfree for his actions. The forces of good will choose to strike back against him and attack his supervillain lair (and will get stronger as you continue to do more and more evlil things), and in a Game Over scene...well, they win. Having said that, being attacked by the good guys is basically part of the fun.
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* ''[[The Suffering]]'' is all about this. Striving to save innocent (and not so innocent) people caught up in the monster rampage affects the game in deep ways. Basically, {{spoiler|you end up a horrible murderer...or not at the end. It's a thing}}.
** Plus, it's just easier to kill the people you're supposed to help than it is to help them. and sometimes, it's REALLY difficult.
* From ''[[Resident Evil]]'':
* During the "cabin defence" sequence in ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', if you shoot Luis (who spends good part of the level handing you medicines and flashbangs that only hurt Ganados) too much, he will (quite understandably) turn on you and kill you in a cutscene.▼
** In the original game, if you fail to respond to Rebecca screaming in time, when you ''do'' get to the room, you'll find her decapitated, mutilated corpse, and you ''still'' have to fight the Alpha Hunter you could have saved her from. But why is the "cruel" on your part? The game gives you 10 minutes to do so and getting to the room only takes literally a minute.
*** The remake is even worse. Fail to get there on time and you actually have to watch a gruesome cutscene with the Alpha Hunter killing her before it turns on you.
▲** During the "cabin
* In some survival games, one has to wonder why the [[Final Girl]] always stays to fight and never turns into a [[Dirty Coward]] who steals a car and tries to flee. Well, in ''[[Clock Tower]]'' you can actually try that; {{spoiler|the first two times you try to start the car, Jennifer hesitates - after all, she'd be leaving all her friends to die a horrible screaming death to save her own skin - but the third time, she actually gets in and floors it. Thing is, she doesn't get far; the Scissor-Man is in the back seat, shown by a nightmarish cutscene before a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].}}
* ''[[Dead Rising 3]]'' has something similar to ''Clock Tower'', but with a comical twist. {{spoiler| In chapter 7, you're ''supposed'' to have protagonist Nick make his way to the karaoke bar so he can meet up with his friends so they can all head for the plane and escape. However, if the player skips that first part and goes right to the plane - with the clear intent of abandoning his friends and leaving them to become zombie-chow - those four (now-former) friends get their just as he does, slugging him in the face and leaving ''him'' behind. And just to rub salt in the wound, the narration then reveals Los Perdidos was destroyed by an incendiary bomb, with no evidence of any survivors.}}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In most ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' games, all characters have [[Karma Meter|a stat that tracks how moral they are]]; it's generally a good idea to keep this stat high. Vampires who are low on Humanity are more prone to frenzy, where you go on a brief uncontrollable rampage, in a setting where keeping a low profile is important. It also increases the length of torpor. They also have trouble interacting with regular mortals, as their [[Uncanny Valley]] nature starts to come to the forefront. Of course, being a [[Complete Monster]] who will stoop to any atrocity will eventually drop your Humanity score to zero, which reduces the character to a mindless beast which is no longer suitable for play.
** Beyond that, certain acts are so nasty that the games have special rules built to ensure violators are punished, especially in the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]''; committing them results in ''instant'' loss of [[Karma Meter]]. The major one in both settings is diablerie, a vampire eating another vampire's soul to steal his power. In the ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' gameline ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'', committing lacuna (stealing another Promethean's vitriol, a form of [[Character Level|Experience Points]] gained by completing
** Other ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' games: For [[Werewolf: The Forsaken|werewolves]], low Harmony increases the number of triggers for [[Unstoppable Rage|Death Frenzy]] and makes dealing with spirits harder; for [[Mage: The Awakening|mages]], low Wisdom increases the power of Paradox, which as well as the inherent problems, can lead to them being targeted by fellow mages; [[Geist: The Sin Eaters|Sin-Eaters]] with low Synergy find interacting with ghosts and performing ceremonies harder, as well as having their own Geist make more and more unreasonable demands and eventually start ''possessing'' them; and for [[Changeling: The Lost|Changelings]], low Clarity results in muddled perception (as you can't tell what's real and what's fantasy), causes them to be ostracised by their peers, and makes them a bigger target for the [[The Fair Folk|True Fae]]. ... And, when coupled with high Wyrd, begins to {{spoiler|''turn them into one of the True Fae.''}}
** The ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' game ''[[Changeling: The Dreaming]]'' had Banality and Bedlam for players to worry about. Too much Banality - which, if you weren't careful, could be ''very'' easy to pick up and was kind of difficult to shed - and the Changeling would forget who they were, at least until they got an infusion of glamor (assuming it was early-stage Banality; late stages might leave the Changeling so drained of glamor that they wouldn't ever remember anything about magic or who they really were). Bedlam, on the other hand, was caused by spending too much time ''away'' from normal, mundane things and was actually more dangerous since it caused the person to become disconnected from reality of any sort. First-stage Bedlam could easily be self-medicated by wandering off to go steep in low levels of Banality for a while, but second and third-stage Bedlam were actively dangerous since they were ''much'' more difficult to treat and cure (third-stage Bedlam was, in fact, impossible to cure) and the delusions could lead to the character doing anything from trying to hug a dangerous monster, or attacking their allies,
** Meanwhile, over in [[Fan Work]] ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'', low Obligation leads to trouble interacting with [[Muggles]]. Which gets to be a ''bit'' of a problem when you consider that you need human contact to keep said [[Karma Meter]] up. Oh, and that mad science tends to be ''expensive'', so if you can't hold down a day job, no death rays for you.
* ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]'' essentially runs on this trope; killing innocents, even unintentionally, ranks up with reading the [[Brown Note|unabridged Necronomnicon]] on dinging the sanity meter. Being responsible for a massacre beats everything but seeing [[Cosmic Horror|Cthulhu himself]] when it comes to driving player character crazy.
** This is due to the fact that humanity is almost completely united under the New Earth Government, their numbers have been devastated, and they're under constant threat of extinction by alien forces. Each non-crazy human is a precious thing under those circumstances.
* There was an expansion to the pen and paper RPG, featuring a lunar colony after the enslavement of Earth by the Elder Gods. It featured a sanity loss score for "knowingly and willingly causing the extinction of the human race." That was the ''second'' highest possible sanity loss.
* Earlier editions of ''[[Dungeons
** Certain other classes, such as Clerics, also had their powers depend on a code of conduct, but these tended not to be enforced as strictly as the Paladin's.
** The [[Game Master]] might also implement other measures to keep psycho [[PC
** Tsk, tsk. The best response to rampaging PC's is to realize that 1) they are not the only adventurers in the world, 2) someone whom they have wronged can spend a lot of money to hire those willing to revenge the wrongs, 3) there are always adventurers, good aligned churches, orders of paladins, noble-minded wizards, and so on willing to respond to murderous bastards who are to quick to butcher innocent people, and 4) spells like Speak With Dead and Clairvoyance can make identifying the culprits rather easy. Good GMs make the punishment seem to come organically from the game world without needing to use game mechanics.
*** Sort of. If you don't want to have alignment change in response to character actions, don't have it in your game. Warning players that they're not playing in character or in alignment is an excellent first deterrent. A lot of players don't want to be evil. And there's also the matter of not rewarding experience points for things that aren't in character. (The flipside, though, is that in a Diabolic/Chaotic Evil campaign, the GM SHOULD reward players with XP for killing innocents, commensurate with the real risk that killing them involves).
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* In ''Glo-Ri-A'' you can rape a character in the prologue, but afterwards she ''shoots the main character dead'', and the player gets an admonition to "Play More Serious!"
** This was lampshaded in a [[Something Awful]] review: [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/hentai-game-reviews/gloria.php Negative consequences for rape in a Hentai game?! WELL I NEVER!]
* Similarly, there are a couple of points in ''[[Tsukihime]]'' where you're actually offered the choice of letting Shiki give in to his [[Dark Side]] and rape one of the girls. This will get you [[Bad End
* ''[[School Days]]''. There are ordinary and harem endings, technically, but the game became infamous for three [[Memetic Mutation|Nice Boat]] ends, to wit a [[Break the Cutie|kind and bookish character]] [[Driven to Suicide]] right in front of the main character, that same character [[Murder the Hypotenuse|murdering the hypotenuse]] [[Axe Crazy|with a hacksaw]], and said hypotenuse returning the favour with a cleaver. {{spoiler|Guess how the anime adaptation ended}}.
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* ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'' gets this way too. Even if no law enforcement is around, start attacking 'protected' targets (adults, girls, little kids) and they ''will'' spawn (not run in, spawn) and chase you.
** And if you are caught too many times, you are given detention and forced to do a short minigame.
*** [[Broken Aesop|Which is the only way]] [[
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]''. Start killing a bunch of civilians and they'll eventually send ''tanks'' after you, although it would take a long time to get to that level of law enforcement aggressiveness. Killing cops or any other person of law enforcement shoots up your wanted meter tons faster than killing innocent people.
** In ''Liberty City Stories'', the cops were much more aggressive, with fast police cars (often four at a time) that would ram you constantly, spike strips every ten seconds, and deliberate aiming at the tires (which greatly decreased your car's performance). If any cop managed to get next to your vehicle door, you were insta-busted.
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* ''[[Terraria]]'' is usually very tolerant of your evil ways, allowing you to slice bunnies and birds in half left and right. There's even a voodoo doll that lets you kill one of the NPC's at your will! {{spoiler|Throw that voodoo doll into lava, however, and you get attacked by the massive Wall Of Flesh. It will rip newer players apart, and there is literally no escape - you HAVE to kill it or die to escape.}}
** This is actually an important part of the game as {{spoiler|you have the beat the Wall of Flesh to advance into Hard Mode and spawn all the REALLY cool stuff.}} It's not so much an optional cruelty punishment as a major challenge.
* In ''[[Minecraft]]'', there is a "Reputation" system for Villagers. If you attack or kill a Villager, they will raise their trade prices. Iron Golems will also attack if you attack or kill too many Villagers.
== Other / Unsorted ==
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== Non-
=== [[
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150601034437/http://twentypercentcooler.net/data/bd/c1/bdc184d8833bb8d9e27396ca63f62af5.jpg This] ''[[My Little Pony:
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* While not technically a video game, the roleplaying system in ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' makes civilians worth negative XP.
▲* [http://twentypercentcooler.net/data/bd/c1/bdc184d8833bb8d9e27396ca63f62af5.jpg This] ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' fan comic shows what happens when the Cutie Mark Crusaders' ''Zelda'' roleplay turns on [[Memetic Mutation|Scootaloo]].
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* In ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Special Edition]]'', if the player mistreats Tails, he will retaliate. Docfuture does this by abandoning Tails in Casino Night Zone, so Tails starts using the game's hint mode to dish out passive-agressive mockery. Eventually it escalates to the point of Tails trying to kill Docfuture (though this is eventually revealed to be the result of [[More Than Mind Control|brainwashing]]).
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* Pretty much the whole point of a justice system.
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[[Category:Blame Tropes]]
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