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{{trope}}
[[File:
▲[[File:rsz_vg_cats_chicks_9005.jpg|link=VG Cats (Webcomic)|right|Attack the [[The Legend of Zelda (Video Game)|Cucco]] at your own peril.]]
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 (
▲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 (Video Game)|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.
At least, that's how it usually is. Sometimes, a game will allow you to be cruel, but will make sure that you get your comeuppance for doing so. Were you laughing gleefully while chaingunning your [[Redshirt Army|fellow soldiers]]? You probably won't be when the rest of them [[The Dog Bites Back|turn against you]] and fill you with bullets. Were you butchering unarmed scientists who were [[Punch Clock Villain|just doing their jobs?]] You may have been amused, but [[James Bond|MI6]] wasn't - [[Nonstandard Game Over|mission failed]]. Did you stab that passing [[Innocent Bystander]] to death? Turns out he had critical information, and now [[Unwinnable|you can't finish the game]].
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This is what often keeps games from getting [[Banned in China|Banned In Germany]], leading to a mere 18+ rating in most cases.
[[Hostage Spirit Link]] is a specific form of this, though in that case it is generally used to prevent you from [[A
The most common subtropes are probably [[I Fought the Law
Contrast [[Mercy Rewarded]] and [[What the Hell, Player?]], which are less overt methods of chastising you.
{{examples|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:
** In the battle mode of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
** 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 [[
* ''[[Beyond Good
▲** 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 ''[[
▲** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games (Video Game)|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 and 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 (Video Game)|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.
** Although you can use that to your advantage to save on Grubtub use. (Not that you really need to; you can stop collecting them ever again stupidly early without that trick and still have enough to finish.)
* 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 (
** 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
* 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 ==
* ''[[The Warriors (
== Adventure Game ==
* In ''[[Nancy Drew (
** For that matter, doing cruel things in the games (especially to Nancy) almost ''always'' gives you a game over. This is inverted in ''Danger by Design'', where you can get someone fired but are merely given a [[Bittersweet Ending]], and in ''Legend of the Crystal Skull'' where you are ''required'' to do some rather mean things to a poor shopkeeper in order to complete the game.
* ''[[
* This is basically the whole point of the computer game based on [[Harlan Ellison]]'s ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]''. Doing the right thing is the ''only'' way to win.
* Attempt too viciously to get into Katrina Gibson's pants in ''[[Snatcher]]'' and she will throw you out.
* In ''[[Little Big Adventure]]'' 2, you are able to go into the kindergarten and attack small children. However, the moment you leave, their older brothers will be waiting outside to take turns in beating you up.
* [[Green
** It's worse than that. Slaying a human will strip ALL of them away from you, as a warning that you just crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]]. This is guaranteed to make the game [[Unwinnable]] if you've managed to progress that far. Oddly enough, you can get rid of one of the guards blocking your way underground permanently by giving him enough [[Fantastic Drug|poisonous berries (well, actually more like alcoholic berries)]], and that won't strip you of your points.
* ''[[King's Quest]]'', especially the early ones, was sneaky. Taking the violent option when a peaceful one was available [[Last Lousy Point|cost you completion points]]. Led to a lot of [[Guide Dang It]], as the non-violent path (that gave full points) was often more difficult.
** ''[[King's Quest II]]'' especially follows this trope, as typing in "kill monk" while you are in the church results in the game telling you that [[No Fourth Wall|"Anyone who would kill a man of the cloth doesn't deserve to play this game. Therefore, we will end it."]] You then immediately drop dead. The [[AGD Interactive]] [[Fan Remake]] of the game subverts this, as {{spoiler|the monk is recharacterized as the leader of a werewolf cult whom you ''have'' to kill to complete the game.}}
* In the [[
** Lowering the baby down the well and then leaving the screen would kill you. The game doesn't even bother with an explanation, it's just so disgusted with you that it won't let you play any more. Throwing the baby in the lake does not have this consequence, but only because he's an amazingly skilled swimmer for his age.
* In [[Deja Vu]], shooting any person besides one specific NPC results in either the cops [[Nonstandard Game Over|hauling you off]] or your intended victim being faster on the draw.
== First Person Shooter ==
* In ''[[
** Shooting the scientists, but not killing them completely, may cause them to shoot you with the [[AKA
*** The easier difficulty settings in ''GoldenEye'' allow you to 'accidentally' (heh heh heh) kill some civilians and scientists and not fail. Thus, wound a scientist, wait for him to pull his powerful gun, and then kill him. Sometimes this allows you to swipe grenades.
** More amusingly, in ''Soldier of Fortune 2'', doing likewise will cause John Mullins to ''[[Hostage Spirit Link|spontaneously die]]''.
*** It may have been a bug, but killing too many women in ''Soldier of Fortune'' would cause all their death sounds to start looping incessantly, sounding like hell itself.
** Same goes with ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'' and ''Wolfenstein 2009''.
* In ''[[Marathon
* Security guards in ''[[Half Life]]'' will attack you if you start killing them. In both expansion packs to the original ''[[Half Life]]'', killing friendlies before the game proper starts (during the training course in Opposing Force or during the prologue in Blue Shift) results in immediate [[Nonstandard Game Over]].
{{quote|
STATUS: Awaiting court-martial }}
* ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3'' has soldiers and maintenance workers in the first area that you cannot harm, but if you keep shooting them, a turret appears and the ship's AI warns you to cease fire. Shooting more or shooting the turret will cause it to fire at you. Wreck it, and a stronger one appears. Wreck that one and an even stronger one appears that will instantly kill you, can't be destroyed, and you can't dodge its attack.
* ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'' would cause immediate mission failure if you killed civilians or even killed ''monkeys'' (citing you for "excessive simian casualties", a ''[[
** Also, don't {{spoiler|shoot Bruno's corpse. Although if you do, you'll probably figure out a twist coming later...}}
* ''[[Call of Juarez]]'' prevents you from corpse-beating (shooting or hitting dead enemies), and even causes an immediate game over if you somehow manage to do it. This is actually plot-relevant, as at the very end of the game, the [[Big Bad]] only ''appears'' to be dead after the first time you fight him; he returns for more shortly afterwards. The Video Game Cruelty Punishment prevents you from shooting him in the head while he's down and making him dead for real.
* While Duke Nukem can kill lap-dancers in ''[[
* ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'' is a bit more lenient than most: you can "accidentally" kill one or two of your teammates during a firefight before the rest gun you down, but if there are no enemies nearby when you kill a teammate, you're as good as dead.
* In ''SWAT 3'', your fellow officers will immediately shoot you if you kill any of them.
** In [[SWAT 4]], you can fail the mission by shooting ''the bad guys'' too much or without warning.
* If you shoot an instructor in ''America's Army,'' it teleports you to a Leavenworth jail cell in a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].
* 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.}}
* And in the first Modern Warfare game, there's a point in one mission ({{spoiler|the one that flashbacks to 15 years ago}}) where you encounter a wild dog, which your partner tells you to simply avoid. If you decide to take "[[Shoot the Dog]]" too literally here, well...the end result is the dog's pack swarming you, like the Cucco Revenge Squad only with '''ANGRY DOGS'''. While a little luck and a little skill will see you and the Captain through, it's just a pointless waste of time and risk. Your partner berates you as such if you survive.
* In ''[[Star Trek Elite Force]]'' [[Wide Open Sandbox|Virtual Voyager mode]], you ''can'' go on a [[Kill
** 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
* Somewhat utilized as a game mechanic in ''[[
* Lampshaded in ''[[
** 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 (
** ''[[
{{quote|
* ''Redneck Rampage'' has you end each level by hitting your brother with a crowbar. Shooting him instead has the game kill you a few seconds later.
* Killing any innocent programs in ''[[
* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' does not have any system in place for people who intentionally harm and team kill other players, but some 3rd party servers have modded systems in place where any intentional friendly fire is reversed back to the shooter, making the player hurt himself instead of his target and other servers will instantly kick or ban players who try to grief others this way. Depending on the griefer, they will try to get themselves killed anyway to hurt the team.
** 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
** 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.
** In a very blatant example, in ''[[Superpower]]'' using (along with the nuclear armed AI nations) too many nukes results in not a cool explosion scene, but a [[Nonstandard Game Over|game over message]] saying you will get no cool explosion scene because [[Anvilicious|making the earth uninhabitable for human life is not an accomplishment]].
*** That seems similar to the nonstandard game over of the game ''Balance of Power'' (a RISK-esque political game where you play the US or the USSR for political influence. Whatever one player does, the other player can challenge in the UN, and escalate tension. The idea is that one of you two will eventually back out (and lose prestige). However, this can lead to a nonstandard gameover with the message "You have triggered a nuclear war, and no, there is no animated gif of a mushroom cloud. We do not reward failure". This also happens if tensions are too high and an accidental nuclear war triggers.
* In ''[[
== Grand Strategy ==
* Games produced by Paradox Interactive actively encourage you to be ruthless and kill people.
** In the Europa Universalis III there is the 'raze' option, by which you could order your armies to raze a territory. Doing so drastically lowers taxation and production income in the province for years, as well lowering the territory's manpower contribution for years to come. When colonising the new world, and Africa, the player is encouraged to commit genocide on the native peoples rather than have to deal with them continually raiding and destroying one's colonies. This is pretty much the ''only'' way to colonise places like the Philippines and the American plains.
** In Victoria II there pop up numerous events concerning the spread of nationalism and nationalist leader-figures. Some are terrorists and revolutionaries; others are poets and artists. You must choose between imprisoning them, or executing them. Likewise, you are given periodic choices between purging sections of your officer corps of (potentially) revolutionary officers or leaving them be. In both cases there are not-inconsiderable penalties for letting them live, not least of which being that said officers may well lead their divisions against you in an uprising.
*** Generally speaking, you are encouraged to democratise and lay the foundations of a welfare state rather than risk the widespread revolts or revolutions that come with consolidating power in the hands of the monarchy. But it is perfectly possible to go through the game without changing a single policy and simply kill every rebel and revolutionary that rises to oppose you - and there will be a
== MMORPG ==
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' ([[Follow the Leader|and probably quite a few other games]]) used to have a thing called Dishonorable Kills. If you killed a player of much lower level than you or an [[NPC]] marked as a civilian, you would be given a dishonorable kill, which would affect your rank. This got removed a couple years ago though.
** In fairness it should be pointed out that Blizzard encourages a certain amount of this by including achievements for killing certain NPC members of enemy factions a lot of the time other NPCs get caught in the cross-fire.
** In the ''Wrath of the Lich King'' expansion, there's an achievement you can get by killing fifteen turkeys in three minutes, and there are only a few places where there are enough of them to make it possible. Completing this achievement causes all turkeys and many other formerly nonaggressive creatures to become hostile to you and flocks of enraged turkeys will occasionally spawn and attempt to peck you to death. Fortunately ([[Crowning Moment of Funny|or not]]), the effect is temporary, and it's nearly impossible for them to kill a character who's of a sufficient level to belong in the zone.
*** 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.
* This is always being debated within MMORPGs that have [[Pv P]], 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.▼
** 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 [[
** [[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 ==
* ''[[
* In the ''[[
* 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
* 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]].
* In the second ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' game, you can 'accidentally' hit civilians once without repercussion, but ''killing'' them gets the Guard on your ass. Trying the same thing on wastelanders in the third game just gets you shot at and occasionally killed.
* One level in ''[[Super Mario World (
* In ''[[Conquest of the Crystal Palace]]'', you can try to buy stuff from Kim's shop when you're low on gold. Do it too many times, however, and she'll get mad at you and throw you out.
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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 ==
* ''[[Nethack]]'' gives characters pet dogs or cats at the start of the game. Killing your own pet has results that vary from a severe loss of luck (yes, this is a stat in the game, albeit a hidden one) to the wrath of your god, to... on rare occasion, in the case of genuinely accidental deaths, the possibility of nothing at all. (On the other hand, ''sacrificing'' your pet's corpse on a god's altar WILL piss your god off.) ''Eating'' your pet is also a very bad idea...
** Likewise, [[I'm a Humanitarian|cannibalism]] is a big no-no to non-orc or caveman characters. As well as the karma hit, the game sneakily modifies your character with a hidden ability that turns all monsters in the game from 'unreasonably aggressive' to 'horrifying unappeasable zerg swarm'. Murder of a friendly human ([[What Measure Is a Non
*** Ironically, this is a ''good'' thing if you're Chaotic - then the demons summoned will be friendly, and there's a chance one of them might be a Boss from the end game, whom you now won't have to fight. [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]].
** The "eating a former pet's corpse is a bad idea" only applies if it's a little/large/dog or kitten/housecat/large cat, even if they weren't pets at all. You can eat your formet pet giant just fine for the strength raise, but that wild and vicious housepet? Off-limits, or you're screwed.
* ''Spelunky'' Shopkeepers will fight back with ''shotguns'' if you start murdering them and/or robbing their stores.
** [[Hair
* ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'' pulls this off nicely. You can pick up items from an in-dungeon store and, even if you have no money, attempt to run off with it. Players assume that they can make it to the next floor up with their items and get away scott free, thereby making the game easier by saving money. What you then realize in short order is that the shop keeper you attacked has wicked high HP, moves twice for every one move you make, and has attacks that can KO a Lvl 100 Pokémon in a short amount of time. Assuming you survive the one (hint: you won't) there will then be a sea of them respawning for every six steps you take, meaning that you will NOT make it to the stairs. For trying to steal, you are thus beaten and wake up (having been knocked out cold) back at your base, with half your items and ALL of your money stolen from you in retribution. The items that you retain are turned into Plain Seeds.
** Though there are several ways of making it out with the loot: in the first games, by having a party member wait next to the stairs and then switching the lead to them, and in the other games by making your party wait in a safe place and using certain items that would teleport you to the stairs.
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== Role Playing Game ==
* Exploring in ''[[Might and Magic]]'' 2 you can stumble across a peaceful goblin village... and choose to attack. To prove to the player that it's not always good to kill goblins, it would load as many as the game could handle.
* In the recent remake of ''[[
** 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
*** The [[IT-HE Software]] site features two ways of nullifying him, only using the [[Good Bad Bugs|ingame physics.]]
* In the ''[[Shadowrun]]'' game released on the SNES, attacking an [[Innocent Bystander]] causes the game to punish you by taking karma points, which are needed to build up your stats. Attacking a dog will ''kill'' you (that's your totem animal).
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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.)
* ''[[
** It also [[
* ''[[Contact (
* 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.
** And then they gain lethal armor and firepower. You have to kill at least ''two'' children before you are declared a Childkiller.
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*** This is somewhat of an aversion because being good triggered the Talon Company encounter and evil the Regulator encounter. Both encounters consist of three easily killed NPCs that carry fairly valuable equipment. Basically, you get free money under the guise of an ambush.
** Also in ''[[Fallout 3]]'', doing blatantly evil things will often close off potentially lucrative quests.
** In [[Fallout: New Vegas]], doing bad things to members of any of the faction will cause that faction to turn against you. While it's not such a big deal if you piss off any of the smaller towns or gangs, if you anger the more important ones, you'll get very well-armed hit squads chasing you.
*** Which, at least after the first time, confers the same free loot benefit as in Fallout 3.
* The first ''[[Suikoden]]'' gives you the option to execute many of your captured enemies. Of course, with one exception ({{spoiler|Kraze}}) said enemies are part of the [[
* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'': Going around randomly shooting people in Santa Monica isn't so much fun any more should your bullets hit one of the invincible vampires.
** 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 ''[[
* 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 ''[[
** 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.
** A lesser example involves NPCs. Kill someone to buy their house at a lower price, and you'll end up making less money than if you just bought it fair and square.
* ''[[Persona 4]]'' actually tries to induce [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]] with Nanako, your [[The Cutie|adorable]] cousin, with her "I love you, Big Bro!" [[Squee]]! Then of course, she is {{spoiler|kidnapped by Namatame and taken into the TV world. After you rescue her, she apparently dies}}. The punishment comes from the fact that even though you really, [[Kick the Son of
** In both Persona 3 and 4, while the player is given the option to be complete assholes during Social Links, it's pretty much never a good idea since breaking relationships will inhibit your progress in the dungeons since the [[Relationship Values]] have a major impact on the development of your Personae. If you try to play the character as an anti-social Jerkass, chances are you won't get far.
*** This is before getting into trying to cheat on your current love interest in ''Persona 3''.
* ''[[Yume Nikki]]'' and most of the fangames associated with it gives you some kind of killing implement to use as you desire. But try using them on the wrong NPC or the [[Goddamn Bats]] and you'll probably find yourself screwed over in some manner. Some might even be [[Demonic Spiders]] in disguise who proceed to outrun you, forcing you back to the nexus.
** ''.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...
* ''[[
** 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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== Shoot Em Up ==
* In ''[[Star Fox (
* In ''[[Raiden Fighters]]'', you can uncover fairies that, when collected, yield 100,000 points each. You can also shoot them, and if you shoot a fairy enough, she ''will'' die, resulting in a [[What the Hell, Player?|"KILLED THE FAIRY!" message]] and a mere 10-point bonus; that's 99,990 points lost. It's very easy to do by accident.
* In ''[[Trouble Witches]]'', if you [[Stop Poking Me|poke the shopkeepers too much]], they get annoyed with you and boot you from the store.
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* ''[[Trauma Center]]''. Whoo, we have a tough case here. From what you can see, your job is to fight some strange malicious virus that's somehow looks like a vector graphic version of aliens from [[Space Invaders]]. But here's the thing: that's the only thing you'll be killing through the whole game(s). You can try hurting the patients you're treating, but it will only result in a bad rating for your stage. Oh, and Angie and Val will scowl you pretty badly, which is something you will ''not'' want these two cuties to do. At some point of the game, you may realize that this series just... leaves no room for cruelty!
** On the other hand, if you wanted to get higher scores, you had to let the viruses wreck havoc inside your patients, so you could rack up points treating the lesions, wait until the viruses attack again, rinse and repeat for higher and higher scores. Instead of, you know, killing the viruses. So it's a mixed bag.
* The first ''[[Wing Commander (
* In ''[[Harvest Moon]] DS'', if your animal dies for any reason (even old age), then your friendship with the townspeople drop a lot. To make it even more interesting, killing animals is required to marry the Witch Princess.
** The games also allow you to give nasty things to the townspeople, like weeds or bugs. Their friendship meters drop accordingly. Do this to much to your wife or husband and (s)he'll divorce your sorry ass.
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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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*** Not to mention that if you ''do'' blow up the transport, the rebel ''still'' reveals that he knows you're a spy, and calls you a heartless murderer before turning on you anyway.
*** You don't even need to do that, depending on the version. As the leader is waiting for you to open fire... [[Take a Third Option]]; ''fire at him''. A quick and lucky pilot can frag at least one rebel, maybe two or even three of them. Then you just need to dance with them a bit until [[The Cavalry]] arrives.
* Mostly played straight in ''[[
** 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.
== Stealth Based Game ==
* In ''[[
** The sequel doesn't make you lose synchronization, but instead sticks with the "kill three and you lose" rule.
*** This inadvertently nullifies the Video Game Cruelty Punishment, as the player can simply kill two civilians, and then wait a while for the effect to reset, or kill a guard to have it reset immediately. This means that the player could kill the annoying civilians who harass you during missions with no penalty.
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** ''[[Metal Gear]]'' on the NES and MSX allows the character to shoot hostages. All of these {{spoiler|except [[The Mole]]}} reduce Snake's rank, which translates to lowered health and ammo capacity.
*** This can actually make the game [[Unwinnable]] since you need to be at top rank to gain access to certain radio contacts who will then leave vital weapons and equipment for you to pick up. Certain hostages are also related to said contacts, and killing them breaks off their contact with you, also making the game unwinnable.
** In the first ''Metal Gear Solid'', attacking Meryl gets you an [[Armor
* In the first two ''[[Splinter Cell]]'' games, killing a civilian or other innocent would cause you to immediately fail the mission. This was averted and in ''Splinter Cell 3'', where you could massacre whoever you wanted (including civilians and even U.S. National Guard soldiers) and the mission would still continue on as normal (although [[Mission Control]] will berate you for going [[Ax Crazy]], and you receive a 0% score at the end). In ''Splinter Cell 4'', killing civilians and security guards affected your [[Karma Meter]], which (if you did it a lot) could get you a Bad Ending or even a mission failure.
== Survival Horror ==
* In ''[[
** In some places, particularly Maximillian's chapter, there are entirely normal human servants milling around the house, tending to various things. Some of them are actually bonethieves, monsters who [[Body Horror|burrow into human bodies]] and control them from within but don't change their outward appearance. Later in the chapter, when they start attacking you, it's easy to tell them apart, but if the player tries to make things easier on themselves by killing the bonethieves as a preventative measure, that sanity goes down real fast.
*** Think about it for a second; you're killing all the household servants because you're convinced some of them are actually terrible monsters, that just happen to perfectly resemble normal servants. [[Fridge Brilliance|Sounds like something a lunatic would do, doesn't it?]]
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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 (Video Game)|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 ''[[
** Beyond that, certain acts are so nasty that the games have special rules built to ensure violators are punished, especially in the ''[[
** Other ''[[
** The ''[[
** Meanwhile, over in [[Fan Work]] ''[[
* ''[[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).
* ''[[Dead Inside]]'' has this as part of the whole point of the game, the game is designed specifically to discourage the usual Tabletop RPG standard of "kill them all and take their stuff", the PCs are (by default assumption) people who are, for various reasons lacking most of their souls, doing bad stuff (especially killing people) in this setting can result in losing the rest of your soul and becoming one of [[The Heartless]]. Conversely, doing good things, helping people, being courageous and optimistic, and whatnot helps regenerate soul-energy, which can be forged into a new, complete soul, which is pretty much the default goal of the game.
* Built into the system of ''[[Dark Heresy]]'', where especially cruel and immoral actions (and keep in mind this is cruel and immoral by ''[[Dark Heresy]]'''s standards; we're in 'wanton slaughter of innocents [[For the Evulz]]' or [[Deal
** Of course, this being ''[[Dark Heresy]]'', there are a number of other ways to get Corruption Points unintentionally as well; odds are 95% of Corruption Points will come about as a result of failing Will Saves or similar (such as being a Psyker) unintentionally. Being cruel and evil on top of that just adds a lot of grease to the ol' slippery slope.
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* In the tutorial level of ''[[Second Sight]]'', there is one room that contains an Assault Rifle in contrast to the training weapons that you are supposed to use. You can pick the gun up and start shooting people, but then they'll send everyone after to take you down. Then you'll get lectured by [[The Voice]].
** In any of the level where you have a partner, you can shoot them to death yourself and they won't fire back. But the level instantly ends and you are once again lectured by [[The Voice]]. You get the same effect if you leave them to die, just with a different speech.
* In ''[[Star Wars: Bounty Hunter]]'', shooting random civilians will detract from your score, surprisingly.
* [[
** To a lesser and more immediate extent, if Roll is with you on [[Mega Man Legends 2]] and you try to Use the grabber on her, she slaps you, ''actually causing damage''.
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== Visual Novel ==
* This is actually somewhat more common in eroge than many suspect. Games without a [[Tenchi Solution|harem ending]] will often box you into a lonely bad ending if you spend too much time philandering and playing the field.
* ''Tokimeki Check-In'' allows you to rape one of the female leads, but doing so gives you an immediate [[Bad End]]. In two separate instances, you can watch her get raped without intervening, and while you get away with this, it has repercussions. In the first instance, you won't be able to progress her plotline thereafter (although you can pursue another girl's plotline), and in the second instance you won't be able to progress the plotline of the girls who ''raped her'' (Ayame's already lost to you at this point, even if she wasn't raped the first time).
* ''[[Three Sisters Story]]'' will punish you for sleeping with more than one of the titular sisters, or for sleeping with any other girl in the game without a condom. Moreover, if you rape one of the girls instead of letting her admit that she's a lesbian, she'll kill herself in front of you.
* 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 ''[[
* ''[[
== Wide Open Sandbox ==
* ''[[Bully (
** 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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* In ''[[Crackdown]]'', you will immediately draw aggro (and a lot of gunfire) from Peacekeepers (police) if you shoot them or any civilians. Hitting them with your car reduces your Driving stat. It's entirely possible to have the cops ''and'' the gangsters [[Everything Trying to Kill You|pissed at you at the same time]].
** In fact, one particular racing mission ''specifically'' requires the player to drive at top speed through an artificially congested area, making it impossible ''not'' to run over pedestrians or Peacekeepers, at which point the game spawns far more Peacekeepers than usual. The point of the race then becomes surviving long enough to get to the final checkpoint.
* In ''[[
** [[One
* ''[[Elite]]'' lets you blow up friendly ships and even steal their cargo from the wreckage. However, such acts of piracy earn you a legal status of "Fugitive", which means that every police ship and bounty hunter in the game will attack you on sight. And attacking a [[Space Station]] is near suicidal, as you will quickly find yourself facing the planet's [[Bolivian Army Ending|entire fleet of police vessels]].
* In ''[[The Godfather (
* Killing civilians in ''[[Mercenaries]]'' costs you money and makes every faction (except [[The Mafiya]] in the first game) think less of you. Of course, if one activates [[God Mode]], they can simply run around destroying everything until they're broke.
* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' has a potentially frustrating "mission" that requires you to take your cows out to pasture. Along the way, some of these cows will wander off, or get stuck on rocks and trees and just ''will not'' return to the herd. This obviously becomes frustrating, and you may want to take it out on the cow in question by putting a slug between its eyes. However, even though you OWN the cows and have 14 other ones in the herd, the game fails you for bringing any harm to them whatsoever.
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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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** Amusingly, they show up in places they shouldn't even have access to, including the final mission on ''Deadworld'', an evil alternate universe populated by the undead.
* In ''[[Half Minute Hero]]'', if you try to short-change the Time Goddess in "Hero 30", she takes away all of your equipment after a set time, making it near impossible to clear the level.
* In ''[[
** In the NCAA Football series, there is an actual penalty for doing so: you will lose sportsmanship points if you do things considered unsporting, like running up the score or going for it on fourth down instead of punting when you have the lead.
* If you shoot your teammate in the Midway arcade game ''Vindicators'' (or its "Midway Arcade Treasures" version), your fuel and points will be transferred to them with each hit, until you die.
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* In ''Paperboy'', if you damage a customer's house, they will cancel their subscription. If you lose enough customers, it gives you a [[Nonstandard Game Over]] screen with the words "Paperboy Fired".
* Almost all the cards one can play in ''[[The Fateof The World]]'' comes with some downside, the if you caught doing all but one of the Black Ops cards (which include everything from funding terrorists, to spreading viruses, to releasing a rogue AI) you instantly lose the game.
* An inversion occurs in the ''Aftermath'' expansion pack for ''[[Command
== Non-Video Game Examples ==
* [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 (Animation)|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:Video Game Rewards]]
[[Category:Blame Tropes]]
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