User:Otherone/Computer and video game stereotypes

The following is a list of stereotypes popular in video games

Protagonist Stereotypes

"The One"

In many video games, especially fantasy RPG's, one character, which is almost always the player, is a special person, usually male, that the world is doomed without. The person is separately special from any other person in their universe, either from divine intervention, a scientific or chemical accident (or non-accidental enhancement or creation, in the case of robots), supernatural events before birth, contact with a special item, or some other special event. Heavy burdens are often placed in this character's hands, most stereotypically the fate of the character's universe, though this may vary. The person is usually given supernatural powers, whether physical or mental, or the ability to wield a powerful weapon that a normal man would never be able to wield (see Powerful Artifacts section below). The character is also usually the one who must end up saving his/her universe, or beat the main enemy, who he and he alone can only beat. Oftentimes, "the one" will actually be part of a whole mystic race/tribe/species, but he/she is the only surviving member.

Seen in: Indigo Prophecy, Kingdom Hearts series, Red Faction, Fallout 2, Halo series, Xenogears, Xenosaga, Final Fantasy series, Chrono Trigger,The Matrix

Silent Protagonist

Main article: Silent protagonist

Made popular in the 1980s and 1990s, many games' protagonists are completely silent, without any dialogue in the game at all. This is not limited to voiced speech, as games before voice acting usually had the character speak through speech bubbles. Characters may speak not a single word throughout the entire game, or their entire series. Silent characters usually convey their feelings to the player in some other form, such as thought bubbles, facial expressions, or hand gestures. Other characters in the game talk to the main protagonist without expecting a response, or in some cases, act as though the characters have given a response that the player has some how not heard. Two of the most famous silent protagonists are Link from The Legend of Zelda series and Crono from Chrono Trigger. To this day, Link has never spoken a word in any of his games (with the exception of some monologue in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link such as "I found a mirror under the table"), even in his modern ones, although he does make nonverbal vocalizations when injured or exerting himself. Another famous example is Mario from the Super Mario series who has little to say in most of his games (the exception is the Mario and Luigi series where he says one or two words, also he does deliver some one-liners, such as 'It's-a-me, Mario!', 'Let's-a go!', 'Momma Mia!', or 'That's-so nice!', in Super Mario 64 and New Super Mario Bros).

Sometimes this technique is used to prevent a break from the immersion of a game. In games where roleplaying is a key factor, game developers leave the protagonist silent in order to prevent the character's personality from getting in the way of the player's personality. This is the reason many modern games leave main protagonists silent, including Claude from Grand Theft Auto III, and Gordon Freeman from Half-Life and Half-Life 2.

Seen in: The Legend of Zelda (Link)), Medal of Honor: Frontline (Jimmy "James" Patterson), Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (Mike Powell), Metroid series (Samus Aran) with the exception of Metroid Fusion and Metroid Other M, The Pokémon series (Red, Gold, Kris, Brendan, May, or whatever the player names him/her), Doom (Doomguy), Chrono Trigger (Crono), Chrono Cross (Serge), Golden Sun (Isaac), Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Felix), Ace Combat (Mobius 1, Blaze, Cipher) and Chell (portal series)

The Clever Hero

The hero can come up with on the fly solutions too many problems while having to deal with fatigue and battle stress. The solutions may be quite romantic and complex despite not needing to be. A prime example of this is the 007 games where drawn-out solutions are actually rewarded. The hero may also be a very clever MacGyver-esque tinkerer when it comes to combining objects.

Seen in: Most prominently the 007 series of games, Timesplitters: Future Perfect, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Thief: The Dark Project, and numerous point and click adventure series including The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, the King's Quest series, Sam & Max Hit the Road,

The Love Interest

In many games there is always some sort of love interest for the lead character, be it by flirting, or the sharing of a common goal or interest. In Metal Gear Solid, the hero Solid Snake can always be heard flirting with Mei Ling (who saves the game at your request) over radio; he also meets Meryl Silverburgh early on, who by the end of the game has created some sort of love struck friction between herself and Snake. In the game series Final Fantasy almost all the main characters have some sort of love interest with one of the other characters.

Seen in: Most Final Fantasy games, Metal Gear Solid, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Kingdom Hearts 2.

"Last of their kind"

Often, one of the main characters, usually the protagonist, "chosen one", or "damsel in distress" is the last surviving member of their race, tribe, or species, the only one left after virtually all of the others were destroyed in some great cataclysm. Frequently, this character ends up with a whole horde of villains out to kill him/her on his/her tail, which is always the group responsible for killing the character's kin. This character also virtually always ends up being a love interest for one of the other main characters, and frequently has special, magical, and/or mystical abilities. This character is often female, but is sometimes a male. Also, sometimes it is revealed that the character is actually not even the last of their kind (Fire Emblem, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords).

Examples: Krystal (Star Fox series), Cosmo (Sonic X), Knuckles (Sonic The Hedgehog series), Lyn (Fire Emblem (Game Boy Advance)), Aerith (Final Fantasy VII), Saphira (Eragon), Spire (Metroid Prime: Hunters), the various Ryus in the Breath of fire series, Jedi Exile (believed to be the last Jedi), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Doomguy (In the first Doom, he is the only survivor on Phobos, Master Chief (believed to be the last Spartan), Halo Series, Solid Snake .

Female characters

Though Samus Aran of the Nintendo franchise Metroid (1986) was the first female protagonist (excepting non-humanoids such as Ms. Pac-Man), she was largely portrayed wearing her (then) gender masking powersuit. Thus, the first obviously female protagonist was Alis in Phantasy Star (1987). Since Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider series, female videogame characters have frequently been criticized for their habit of having unrealistically perfect figures, often combined with revealing and impractical clothing.

Playboy, in light of the growing sex appeal in video games, has released three volumes of its "Girls of Gaming" series in which it displays popular video game female characters naked.

Seen in: King's Quest IV, Resident Evil (series), Colonel's Bequest, Soul Calibur II, the Dead or Alive (video game series), Tomb Raider, many role-playing games, Kameo: Elements of Power.

The Lone Wolf

In many games the main character is on his own and has no allies (except for maybe a second player). Even if it takes place during a war (especially among FPS or RPGs from the 90s) any NPC allies do not do anything to help the player aside from giving a mission or advice, even if they shoot at the enemy, they rarely hit or do any good, and are often all killed by the end of the level.

Many series have tried to remedy this problem by adding allied computers that play integral parts in games. For more info see 1000 to 1 Odds.

Seen in: Almost every FPS, Scrolling shooter, Shmup, or RPG from the 90s and early 21st century. Several examples include games from the Doom series, Medal of Honor series, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, R-Type, Metroid series, Red Faction, Geist, Halo, Halo 2, Serious Sam series, Max Payne.

Villain and Antagonist Stereotypes

The Rogue AI

The main antagonist in many cyberpunk and sci-fi games is often an artificial intelligence or more accurately, an artificial consciousness, which turns against its organic creators, either inadvertently like the supercomputer HAL in the movie 2001: a Space Odyssey, due to a catch-22 in the system's programming, or the AI could go rogue due to an un-intended consequence of modifying the underlying programming. Other computers make misguided attempts to correct humanity's mistakes, often delivering an inappropriately severe punishment in the process. Sometimes due to lack of maintenance, the AI's hardware is physically falling apart and consequently causing the data integrity to deteriorate in parallel.

Seen in: System Shock games (SHODAN), Marathon games (Durandal), I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (Allied Mastercomputer), Portal (GLaDOS)

The megalomaniac

The main antagonist in many games seeks world domination, and it is the task of the hero to disrupt his plans and defeat him. Often, it is this enemy who abducts the 'damsel in distress' mentioned above.

Seen in: Mario games (Bowser), Sonic the Hedgehog games (Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik), Mega Man Classic (infamous Dr. Wily) Fallout (The Master), Star Fox games (Andross), Final Fantasy series

Villains who will not quit

Many game series have one top "bad guy" or villain. This villain is incredibly persistent and continues to cause trouble in one way or another for the good guys despite having their diabolical plans derailed countless times before. During the game, enemies may try at every turn to stop the protagonist's attempts at destroying his plans, even if the situation slowly turns from bad to hopeless. Even after the protagonist has obviously thwarted the villain's evil plans, many enemies simply seek to destroy the protagonist for revenge or so that they may not trouble them in future situations. These villains are often the bosses who carry out "multiple forms", transforming into stages more decrepid and desperate than the previous, trying to cling on to their remaining power to either save their plans or destroy the protagonist. Aversely, the villain may put all his power into stopping the protagonist and continually get stronger and stronger as he transforms, which may or may not cause the downfall of his plan. Despite their pitiful states, villains who do not quit often brag about the futility of the player's actions until the very end.

The villain is usually the aforementioned "megalomaniac".

Seen in: Mario games (Bowser), Sonic the Hedgehog games (Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik), Mega Man Classic (Dr. Wily), Mega Man X (the reploid Sigma), the James Bond game series (multiple villains), Resident Evil 2 (William Birkin or the Tyrant), Resident Evil 3 (Nemesis), Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Alexia Ashford).

The 'villain is a doctor' / 'mysterious plague' scenario

In almost every game where the primary villain is a described as a doctor or geneticist, or anything about a 'mysterious plague' is mentioned, the villain will be conducting experiments on human beings, usually to turn them into enemies that are harder to kill. These plotlines predict each other; if there is a mysterious plague, the villain will turn out to be a doctor. If the villain is a doctor, he will generally be trying to create a mysterious plague.

Seen in: Snatcher (where the villain, protagonist, and love interest are doctors), Far Cry, Red Faction, The House of the Dead, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Resident Evil, Kingdom Hearts (Xehanort), Heretic 2, Doom 3

Bosses

Main article: Boss (video games)

In many games (especially platform games), the hero will always seem smaller, weaker, have less skills and abilities and look plainer. Bosses and minibosses will always be grandiose, look more impressive, have the upper hand in strength and ability; setting up a David vs. Golaith-esque battle. But in the end, it is always the hero who walks home with a few bruises and the end boss will lie in ruin. When defeated, some bosses will explode, especially in 2-D games (Mega Man series). Many bosses are also only vulnerable to a particular few weapons available to the player, when struck in a particular location, also known as the "weak spot" (Sonic the Hedgehog series), or at certain times in a preprogrammed or semirandom sequence of attacks (Metroid series). In role-playing games, bosses often inexplicably change into stronger forms after being "killed" for the first time (Final Fantasy); while others will use their last breath to summon an even more powerful boss to ruin your victory (Fire Emblem series). In first-person shooter games, the boss usually has a large number of hitpoints (an extreme example is the Cyberdemon from Doom, who has 40 times as much health as the player) and powerful attacks, but is defeatable due to weak artificial intelligence, dodgeable attacks, or a gimmick (Doom 3, Metroid series, see also Trick Boss). In many first person shooters, on later (or final) levels, you can hear the boss laughing (Doom 3). If a boss fight takes place in a cave, dungeon or the like, the boss will most likely be a massive creature (a dragon, wyvern or the like) and defeating it will cause said cave/dungeon/etc to collapse (Metroid series). A parody can be found in Spider Man 2, when Spider Man meets up with a villain in a thrift store who then grows an outrageously huge health bar, but who can be defeated in only one punch. With some of the bosses, the boss will be invincible to all the weaponry in your inventory, and the only way it can be beaten is to either use the boss's own weapon against itself (Super Metroid, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes), or it is positioned near a super-weapon which is the only thing that can defeat the boss. (Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime: Hunters, Resident Evil 3)

Seen in: First-person shooters, platform games, fighting games, shoot 'em up games, role-playing games, adventure games.

Enemy Clichés

Mindless Enemies

Often in games, especially FPSs and RPGs, the enemy henchmen or even the main protagonist himself may show little or no personality whatsoever. Enemies may show little or no fear, guilt, sadness or any other emotion during the battle. Often, the enemy henchmen will charge fearlessly into battle without fear or objection to the order given, even if the order seems suicidal. Soldiers will usually not note on their fallen comrades but instead will continue to fight on as if they has never even seen it happening. (An exception is Halo: Combat Evolved where soldiers often shout out lines such as "They got Bob!", and minor enemies will run away in fear if they see their allies killed nearby.) Soldiers are usually nameless clones sent out for the sole purpose that the main character will kill them. A notable exception to this rule is Metal Gear Solid, where Johnny Sasaki (named after someone on the staff) is not only given a name and personality, but a history. As well, in most older FPSs and a few newer RTSs, characters and troops do not talk much at all, except for the occasional phrase shouted by them ("Get the intruder", "Kill him!", and especially in RTSs some form of "Roger that" or "Affirmative"). In earlier games where enemy voice acting was impossible, enemies did not talk at all except for the occasional grunt or shout when being shot at or killed.

Seen in: Almost every game genre including FPSs, RPGs, RTSs, adventure games, platform games, and (especially) arcade games.

Nameless Soldiers

In almost every shooting game (with the exception of a few games like Metal Gear Solid 2), enemies are nameless soldiers recruited from an unknown location despite a lack of population in that area (for example, a standing army somehow recruited on Mars).

Seen in: Almost every FPS with the exception of a few games, Doom, Goldeneye 007, Command & Conquer, Quake, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

ADD afflicted Enemies

Enemies have a short attention span: 30 seconds after you disappear they will go back to acting like nothing ever happened. They don't bother checking dark shadowy areas and often neglect obvious hiding places such as lockers unless they actually know you're in there (Metal Gear Solid 2).

Alien and Monster Invaders

Many games involving invading alien races, or some form of invading creature, generally, depict the aliens as savage, technologically superior, and far more numerous than the defending human armies. The earliest and most emblematic example is the influential 1978 game Space Invaders, in which the player is forced to fight endless waves of aliens and delay inevitable defeat; winning is impossible.

In many instances, the alien armies are composed of multiple races, each wielding its own battle tactics, weaponry, and statistics. These races may sometimes be at odds with each other, creating internal conflict in addition to the main conflict with the player.

Seen in: Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 (The Covenant), Area 51, Resident Evil, StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo, The Final Fantasy series, Half-Life, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Supporting Character Stereotypes

The "Damsel in Distress"

The Damsel in Distress is the female character (usually a princess) who, in many video games and especially the role-playing game genre, is abducted, and whom the player character must retrieve in order to progress in or complete the game.

Seen in: Mario games (Pauline, Princess Peach or Princess Daisy), Final Fantasy VIII, Star Fox Adventures (Krystal), Dragon's Lair, The Legend of Zelda series (Princess Zelda), Shadow of the Colossus, Sonic the Hedgehog series (Amy Rose or Cream the Rabbit)

Note that sometimes the 'saving the damsel' plot is not the main objective of the game, but only a side quest. Rescuing the person will not complete the game, but will allow continuing the game. Note also that some rescue quests do not always involve women, but also children, friends or an important person. Sometimes (as in Tales of Symphonia) this character is abducted several times.

There are also a few instances when the roles are reversed and the damsel ends up rescuing the hero character(s) instead. For example, Jill of the Jungle inverted this cliché by having the female protagonist save a prince. The Nintendo DS game Super Princess Peach is a prime example, where longtime videogame damsel-in-distress Princess Peach must rescue the captured Mario. Sometimes, the damsel in distress decides to not ever be defenseless, and goes through a period of training and self-discovery to join her former rescuers as more or less part of the team: clear examples are Elaine Marley who escaped before Guybrush rescued her (Secret of Monkey Island); Yuri Sakazaki from Art of Fighting, who becomes the first female pupil of her father and older brother's katate dojo; and both Priscilla the Troubadour and Ninian the Dancer from Fire Emblem, who aren't full fighters (thought Priscilla can use Anima magic after promoted) but use either staves (Priscilla) or dances and magical rings (Ninian) to aid their allies. Something similar occurs in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Seen in: The Dig (in some part of the game, the female protagonist will be abducted by an alien beast), Conquests of Camelot (King Arthur must rescue his 3 knights), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (Sophia Hapgood is abducted or lost 3 or 4 times), Heart of China (the female protagonist is rescued in the beginning, and follows the protagonist ever since, and later rescues the protagonist)

The doppelgänger

The use of doppelgängers of the main character in video games has enjoyed a surge of popularity, and was included in two consecutive games of the Metroid series. In this cliché, the main character must fight an evil twin of themselves; usually the double was created from the original by some evil means, but there are cases where the doppelgänger always existed. One of the most famous early examples is the last boss of Zelda II, which is Link's own shadow. It should also be noted that doppelgängers do not always share everything in common with the original such as Wario and Dark Samus who only have the same looks (not moves etc.) as their counterparts. Occasionally a doppelgänger will frame the main character for a crime of some sort (or the main character will be mistaken for them early on in the game).

Examples of famous doppelgängers include Wario, Waluigi, Shadow the Hedgehog, SA-X, Evil Ryu, Vergil, and Dark Samus.

Early examples of this use can be found in: Mega Man, Zelda II, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and Rocket Knight Adventures.

Seen in: Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Sonic Adventure 2, Ragnarok Online, Street Fighter Zero, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Prince of Persia, Guild Wars, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 3, Kingdom Hearts, Secret of Evermore, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Super Mario Sunshine, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Hitman series and Skies of Arcadia.

The bad girl

Often found in RPGs, the bad girl is a female adversary who is a young beautiful woman, and often acts or dresses seductively; this often makes her a fan-favorite, especially amongst young adult males. The bad girl will often act very evil, and will be one of the main subordinates of the game's boss; however, the character is not truly evil, and before the end of the game, will have a change of heart and help the player, usually by sacrificing herself.

Seen in: Skies of Arcadia (Belleza), Mega Man X: Command Mission (Ferham), Kameo: Elements of Power (Kalus), Final Fantasy VIII (Edea), Final Fantasy IX (Beatrix), Sonic Adventure 2 (Rouge the Bat), Max Payne 2 (Mona Sax), Grandia 2 (Millennia), Quest For Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness (Katrina), The Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (Kaileena), Devil May Cry (Trish), Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening (Lady), .

The treacherous supporting character

In several games, a character who has assisted the main protagonist turns out to be a traitor to the hero and his supporting party. This treachery is most often revealed or carried out near the end of the game. A notable exception is Final Fantasy IV's Kain Highwind, who betrays the party and then returns to it, twice. Another recent example lies in the Mega Man X: Command Mission videogame, where Shadow, and much later Spider, turn out to be traitors to your team. This also comes as a shock in the first Resident Evil, when Albert Wesker reveals his loyalties to the Umbrella Corporation (which he, later on in the series, betrays for another company).

Seen in: Portal 1 & 2 Syphon Filter, Metal Gear Solid, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Baldur's Gate II, Jak II, Final Fantasy IV, Far Cry, Tales of Symphonia, Half-Life 2.

Dual identity

In many games a character that is either close to the hero, or someone else of great importance, will in many instances turn out to be someone else. For example, in Metal Gear Solid, the man Solid Snake has been thinking of as his old friend Master Miller and has been contacting by CODEC turns out to be Liquid Snake, Solid Snake's arch-nemesis. In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past the sorcerer Agahnim turns out to be the villain Ganon, and in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the (supposedly male) character Sheik turns out to be Zelda herself. In Final Fantasy VII, the playable character Cait Sith turns out to be in the employ of Shin-Ra, a massive corporation which the heroes are in conflict with.

Seen in: Metal Gear Solid, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VII

The dark knight

Often found in RPGs, the dark knight is an adversary who follows a strict code of honor, like a knight or samurai, who serves the main antagonist of the game. The dark knight is not evil, but is an enemy by circumstance of their loyalty to the main enemy, as opposed to an armor clad menace like the black knight archetype. Usually the dark knight has a good heart, and would likely never serve a tyrant, but end up loyal to one for various reasons, including:

• Owing a debt of servitude
• Swearing loyalty to a crown when it showed no signs of villainy, but later became corrupted
• Seeking some form of ideal for the greater good that the villain was promising; for example, establishing a utopia for an oppressed people in the form of a benevolent monarchy, which decays into a brutal dictatorship
• The character is a mercenary or other hired help in the service of the main antagonist

The dark knight is often a tragic character, as their sense of honor — a normally good trait — dictates that they serve their evil master; they either die at the hands of the protagonist, or realize too late the evil that is apparent and sacrifice themselves in a crucial moment to help the player. In some cases, the dark knight will realize the evil, and decide that their loyalty should lie elsewhere; after this revelation, the dark knight may join the player to defeat the villain. Arguably, the most famous of the dark knights is Final Fantasy IV's Cecil Harvey, the main protagonist of the game whose position at the beginning of the game was "dark knight", before converting to a "paladin".

Seen in: Many Final Fantasy games (Cecil-IV, Leo-VI, Steiner-IX), Skies of Arcadia (Gregorio), Mega Man X: Command Mission (Scarface), Legend of Dragoon (Lloyd), Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (the Black Knight), Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 3 (Nelo Angelo/Vergil)

NPC Clichés

All NPC’s Repeat Themselves

NPCs who are not enemies tend to just stand there, looking, or walking forward and back. These characters may not take notice of anything around them, like threats presented by either enemies or the character himself. These characters may not move from their spot, or their patrol route, for all eternity. Those which can talk to the player will usually just say the same thing again, and again. Repeatedly talking to a character will usually never get a person to say anything different, though on special secret occasions it might. Interestingly, some NPCs will have information related to the game console ("To save, press button X!"), but not know what that information means. Many times after you’ve left the area and reentered it, the NPC’s and will have forgotten your presence, allowing you to retry certain failed puzzles or reattempt to distract a guard.

All NPC’s Look Similar

All NPC characters in games (especially old ones) look alike (for example the shopkeepers in Baldur's Gate). The NPC’s may look exactly the same, or may be very similar, save for a change in hair, clothing, etc.

Hidden characters

Commonly in fighter games and RPGs there are hidden characters to be found or unlocked via quests or other achievements. Usually they are modifications of existing characters and/or extremely powerful. Most of the time, these hidden characters are designed as special rewards more than plot points and will, generally, play no part in the story, thus, the game is unaffected if you do not unlock them. Many times, especially in fighting games, they have the exact same movement styles and attacks as another fighter but are just clever re-skinnings of the character.

Seen in: Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy, Soul Calibur II, Super Smash Bros. series.

Health & Stamina

Injury, damage, and stamina

Usually living beings suffering injury and machines taking damage does not in any way impede their ability to fight, move, cast spells etc. Characters can act in exactly the same capacity no matter whether they are in full health or nearly dead. No matter what part of the body is hit, the damage taken is exactly the same. If a character has been seriously injured, death may be caused by the most minor further injury. For example in most first-person shooters a human can be killed by repeated shots in the foot or hand. Exceptions can most often be found in strategy games and tactical shooters. Sometimes, most common in RPGs, enemies will become stronger soon before they die making the last few hits more challenging.

Similarly, even if the character has been running for ages, performing acrobatic jumps, and performing otherwise mind-boggling physical feats, they show no sign of fatigue or even break a sweat. An example is Prince of Persia, where the Prince continues to perform amazing acrobatic jumps while not tiring down. In Half-life 1, Gordon Freeman can go on to fight aliens and troops in intense and tiring combat for days on end without any rest or sleep. The Elder Scrolls series of games is a notable exception, where any strenuous activity such as running or fighting will drain a fatigue bar that can be replenished by resting or sleeping. Characters in the game Eternal Darkness will also show signs of fatigue (and eventually slow down significantly) if the play makes them run for too long.

In several platforming games, there is also a condition aptly named "post-damage invincibility". This comes at the result of the player character receiving damage or injury from coming into physical contact with an "enemy" character or mistakingly running into a harmful trap (such as spikes or fire). Post-damage Invincibility exists to facilitate gameplay after losing points and is evidenced by the sprite "blinking" or "flashing". During this time, the character is invulnerable until the "blinking" wears off.

Seen in: First-person shooters, platform games, fighting games, shoot 'em up games, role-playing games

Hygiene and Bodily Functions

In many games, the characters find no need to maintain personal hygine or even a few bodily functions. Almost every game created has neglected to address the characters state of bodily odor (as characters usually never shower in game), their state of clothes, their urge to use the bathroom, or any other necessary upkeep. This would obviously be especially important for characters who are active and actively participate in dangerous and fatiging stunts and actions. As a result, most games mechanics nor characters discuss these events. Many game characters do not need to apply deoderant every day or seem to sweat one drop. As in most games, houses and other living structures will probably lack the objects needed for these processes anyway (many buildings in video games lack bathrooms, and many other rooms as well). The urge never seems to come up in many games to use the bathroom, even if games take place over a series of days or months at a time.

Furry dress code

Games that feature cartoonish furry characters must follow specific dress codes. Males wear next to nothing, usually limited to shoes, gloves, hats, some accessories, pants or a shirt; to distinguish certain characters by job, they may wear uniforms—that is, police uniforms, army fatigues, flight jackets, and lab coats. Pants and a shirt are never worn at the same time, though. Females are usually fully clothed although females with no breasts may go topless, but they usually have long hair or wear a skirt to show they are a girl. Sometimes, females (monsters and animals, in particular) will not be wearing clothes but will have coverings that appear as natural parts of their bodies or natural body markings to cover them (or they may simply feature anamotomical differences.)

Seen in: Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Donkey Kong

Conversely, in games with "realistic" furry characters, the characters are treated like humans, and wear normal clothes. Although it varies based on the game, the males will often be fully clothed, while females will be scantily dressed, or wear skin tight outfits, in keeping with the female characters cliché. "Realistic" furries also tend to have very human-like anatomies, so body shape is another clear indication of the character's gender.

Seen in: Star Fox Adventures, Star Fox: Assault, Star Fox Command, Breath of Fire, Final Fantasy IX, Sly Cooper

For general role-playing game clichés, see Role-playing game clichés.

Computer and video game item clichés refer to items that are consistent within computer and video game development. Many known object and item clichés are crates, toilets, and exploding barrels. Some of the clichés below are perhaps not genuine clichés as they are caused by technological or programming complexity limitations. This is likely due to programming and memory constraints and scope of the game, so as to focus on playability rather than realism.

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Objects and props

Crates/blocks

Crates are a familiar item in many video games particularly first-person shooters such as Half-Life. They often contain items which the player can use in the game. They might be breakable (like in Half-Life and the Sonic Adventure series) or movable to solve puzzles (like in The Legend of Zelda).

In the Crash Bandicoot series, crates are primarily used to hold wumpa fruit.

The games Soul Reaver and Tomb Raider were derided by some players for overuse of movable-block puzzles. Interestingly, one of the oldest puzzle games is Sokoban, which consists entirely of movable-block puzzles.

Other uses of the crate include obstructing the player from taking alternate paths or leaving the map; providing the player with "stairs" to reach another level on the map; and providing players with cover where there are no natural obstructions (such as a cargo bay in Halo: Combat Evolved). Sometimes, crates are arranged in sprawling mazes like in the famous Doom level Containment Area.

In many first-person shooters, crates are inexplicably bulletproof, or explosive.

No matter how large a breakable crate is, it is usually either completely empty or contains only small objects. Crates that contains ammo or health pick-ups, even large ones, only contain one or a few packs of ammo or health. In most first-person shooters crates are also impossible to lift, and either impossible or very difficult to move, no matter how empty; Half-Life 2 is a notable exception to this.

Crates have been criticized as a cheap and unimaginative substitute for real architecture. In 2000, Old Man Murray introduced the satirical "Crate Review System" to rate games based on the "start to crate" (StC) time: the shorter the gameplay time until the first crate is spotted, the worse the game. They wrote, for example:

Heretic 2 starts you off staring right at a large crate. ... It's observably, undeniably bad. It's as if the lead designer arrived at work on day one, sat down at his desk, sharpened a pencil, threw up his hands and said "well, I can't think of anything."

The cliched use of crates was mentioned in The Matrix: Path of Neo during the first practice level where Neo mutters "Crates, how original.". Various other games also include self-referential humorous references to crates, such as SiN Episodes: Emergence, where shipping procedures read on the dock include ‘Packing: When in doubt, use a crate’. The game does indeed include an immense number of crates in illogical locations.

The PC game Star Trek: Elite Force II featured a secret area accessible only by using 5 crates scattered throughout a sewer level. The secret area contained a monster made entirely of crates. Despite the cliché of the indestructible crate, the crate monster was vulnerable to normal weapons.

Usually crates will not have any pallet below them nor any other visible way of lifting them, leaving it completely unclear how the crates were moved there in the first place.

Seen in: Too many games to count!

Pieces of string

In point-and-click adventure games, the player often has to collect pieces of string or rope. Rope is also a component often used to solve puzzles in interactive fiction games.

• In Sam & Max Hit the Road, Sam points out "You always need a large piece of string in games like this."
• In Escape from Monkey Island, Guybrush meets his future self, who gives him several items (all of which are only used in this particular puzzle), including a rope, to which Guybrush says "Hmm, a rope. That could be useful".
• The first part of the three-part text adventure Knight Orc is devoted to collecting enough pieces of string to form a rope which can get you across a chasm.
• In the Fallout Series, it is possible to buy, sell, and find rope nearly everywhere, though it doesn't take a very prominent part in the gameplay.

Metal bars

Long metal bars or simply crowbars are also common in point-and-click adventure games in order to break and open things. In Monkey Island 2, a crowbar is found near the end of the story and it proves to be quite useful. Other games that feature generally metal bars used for prying and (in contrast to other items) are used more than twice. It is also notable that the crowbar served the same purpose in the popular FPS Half-Life, which is unusual for a game of its genre (usually in an FPS, a crowbar is more likely to be used as a weapon than as a tool).

Seen in: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle , Manhunter, Beneath a Steel Sky, Day of the Tentacle, Ghosthunter etc.

Toilets

In several games, mostly of the FPS genre, there is a section that will either take the player to or through a washroom. An early example of this is seen at the end of Jet Set Willy. In Sierra adventures, like Larry 1, Space Quest II etc., the player will visit a washroom and obtain hints or items. In Police Quest, the player must visit the departments toilets everytime he must change his police uniform.

In GoldenEye 007 the player can kill a man who is in a washroom stall in the second mission. In Medal of Honor: Frontline there is a mission where the player can kill a very surprised German while he's in the bathroom. In Silent Hill 2, Prey and Indigo Prophecy, the character starts out in a washroom. Many games have a feature where the player could walk up to the toilets or urinals and try to use them. Sometimes, before the ushering in of better hardware, the developers would add sound events to the urinal or toilet bowl to make the game seem more interactive. Examples of this can be seen in Duke Nukem 3D, where use of a urinal not only evokes a sound effect and a comment from Duke, but also increases his health by several points. Some games, namely Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, even go as far as requiring the player to go down the toilet to reach the next area (parodying the use of Warp Pipes in Mario platformers). One level in the Mock 2 joke level pack for Doom actually involved being teleported into a man's rectum, going down the toilet, and fighting "shit and piss demons" in the pipes. Banjo-Kazooie required gamers to venture down a toilet smeared with fecal stains and sporting crude noises called Loggo. Baten Kaitos has a restroom area in the Imperial palace where the player can find toilets, items and even a guard looking at what appears to be a nudie mag. In the game Boogerman, the toilet is an integral part of the gameplay as it transports the hero to various areas; a toilet in a secret area of Earthworm Jim's first level also served as a teleporter. In Final Fantasy VI, characters could use the toilet in the Imperial capital (using the wounded/weakened sprite). In train level TimeSplitters: Future Perfect a female guard can be heard on the toilet saying "It's like giving birth!" Another instance in this game is when the player enters a restroom on the same mission; the advisor says "This is hardly the time!" In the GameCube version of Resident Evil, there is a point where Jill Valentine drains a bathtub to find a dead body in it, which immediately causes her to vomit in the toilet. In Conker's Bad Fur Day Conker must battle the Great Mighty Poo in an area that turns out to be a giant toilet, flusher and all. Additionally, a multi-player stage features a washroom area where normal weapons are replaced with a urine stream. In Resident Evil 4, the player can blast a Ganados standing in front of the urinal; investigating the urinal afterwards gives a comment that the Ganados retain enough humanity to use the restroom. Adventure game Maniac Mansion features a bathroom complete with toilet. When the phrase "USE TOILET" is entered, the characters say to the player "I'd like a little more privacy for that!". In Hitman, toilets are often used to grab diguises from lone people. It should also be noted, in the early feature notes of Battlefield 2142 it was stated as one of the features being: Usable toilets on the battlefield. Why such a note was included is yet unknown

Seen in: Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, GoldenEye 007, Duke Nukem 3D, Banjo-Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Final Fantasy VI, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, Earthworm Jim, DOOM III, Resident Evil (GameCube version), Conker's Bad Fur Day, Resident Evil 4, Indigo Prophecy, Maniac Mansion,Hitman, Redneck Rampage Rides Again

Exploding barrels

In many first-person shooters and the occasional RTS, exploding barrels are frequently seen. These objects can take out large groups of enemies after being shot at by the player. The barrels are more often than not marked with a hazard warning symbol and are colored red. They might also be fire extinguishers or compressed gas canisters. Sometimes, they are an obstacle or hazard to a player under attack by enemy fire. However the enemy very frequently ignores the danger and even uses it as cover occasionally. (The abundance of explosive barrels in Half-Life 2 was humorously "explained" in one issue of the web comic Concerned.)

In a similar way, throughout the Diablo franchise there are barrels which block the way, and which when destroyed can also explode doing damage, or uncover minor amounts of treasure. The exploding ones are particularly daunting seeing as they cannot be identified from the non-exploding ones. When triggered, they frequently create a domino effect that in turn makes other nearby barrels explode causing much more damage than the initial one.

In the Donkey Kong Country games, the barrels (marked with prominent "TNT" lettering) must be thrown in order to have them explode. They can destroy a large number of blockades and enemies within a small area.

Seen in: Battlefield 2, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Crash Bandicoot, Nox, Half-Life series, Doom series, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, Medal of Honor series, Call of Duty 2, Commandos series, Diablo series, Donkey Kong Country series, Fable, Resident Evil: Nemesis, Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Perfect Dark, Perfect Dark Zero, Black, F.E.A.R. (computer game), Star Fox Adventures, Enter The Matrix, many James Bond video games.

Where did it hide that?

Many games rely on health potions, mana potions or some sort of item like food, meat, soda, ammo and weapons. Many times when playing in a role-playing game for example, the hero will often find items dropped by a mob when it has been slain, even though it would seem impossible for that creature to hide that hunk of meat, pizza, can of soda or huge axe anywhere. The same applies for the characters themselves — although they have an inventory that can hold many weapons and/or items which can be switched at will, it would be impossible to realistically hold that many items and still do battle. (See hammerspace) Most first person shooters allow the player to carry huge amounts of heavy ammunition as well as several large weapons unhampered. Shooters aiming for more realism, such as Halo and especially World War II themed games, tend to limit the weight and number of weapons player can carry at once, and some like Deus Ex and Resident Evil 4 go as far as to use a Tetris like inventory for the player to pick his items.

In many comic point-and-click adventure games will satirize this very rule, showing the player character trying to fit an object in his coat. A famous example of this appears in the Monkey Island series, where Guybrush Threepwood is seen storing various items by stuffing them into his pants. Another spoof appears in the 2004 game The Bard's Tale, where the bard kills a wolf near the beginning of the game and it drops a massive pile of treasure, much to the surprise and consternation of the narrator. Baten Kaitos also pokes fun at this, stating early in the game that "You can't get money just by killing monsters."

A notable exception to this is the Zone of the Enders series where high end large robots called Orbital Frames possess a vector trap which compresses space and makes it capable of carrying pieces of equipment that are sometimes several times larger than the orbital frames like Jehuty's "Vector Cannon"

Seen in: Almost all of adventure games and role-playing games

Health packs, ammo and armor

Found mainly in first-person shooters, health packs, ammunition and body armor are found lying around in places you would not generally find them; for example, a new weapon might be found hovering a foot off the ground in the middle of a road. Health packs can heal near-fatal wounds instantaneously, even during a heated battle, with no need for stitches or periods of convalescence; sometimes, even more ridiculously, so can food (which is also found lying on the floor or, even odder, hidden in crates, trash cans, or the oil drums that don't explode), or in the case of the Max Payne games, painkillers. Likewise, armor and ammunition take effect instantly; it takes no time to pick them up.

A common occurrence in games featuring firearms is weapon magazines behaving unrealistically; when the weapon is reloaded after being partly emptied, the player almost always keeps the ammunition that remained in the discarded magazine without taking any time to remove it. This is not true in Battlefield 1942 however - if you fire 1 bullet then reload, you lose the rest of the magazine. In addition, enemies can shoot an unlimited amount of projectiles but the hero has limited shells. Yet, if he actually gets his enemy's weapon, it is loaded to the maximum and the amount of projectiles decreases normally as he uses it. Additionally, while almost all firearms have a limited supply of ammo, and flashlights frequently run on very short limited batteries, chainsaws always have an unlimited supply of fuel.

These clichés are generally avoided only by the most realistic tactical first-person shooters. In Operation Flashpoint, injuries can only be patched up via medics or MASHes to reduce their negative effects on soldier performance, and soldiers are never fully healed. In the Rainbow Six series of games, injuries last all mission, and the death of an operative is permanent. In both game series, magazine ammunition is tracked correctly, and reloading will select the magazine with the most remaining ammunition.

One Size Fits All

All clothing, armor, weapons, and anything else to be worn by the player is one size fits all. In single player games, clothing vendors may only advertise one size of clothing, which will all fit the player perfectly. The store does not take into account that there would be other customers besides the player who would need clothes. In online games, this is even more important, as there would be other real-life players who need the same clothes, yet the same rules apply. All types of clothing, armor, and everything else need only be bought from the same vendor for the same price as (presumably) the same size. This can be seen in World of Warcraft, where the same shirt can fit both a tiny Dwarf and a monstrous Tauren. In Diablo II, a set of plate mail can be taken off a heavy Barbarian and put onto a slim Sorceress.

Seen in: Prominently in MMORPG's, World of Warcraft, Diablo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City