History Main / LongGame

* Nintendo is a practitioner of this trope, other gaming companies base their sales on really inflated hype, fan discussions, claims of graphic power and the idea of releasing games for "Hardcore audiences" while Nintendo keeps producing games aimed to the general population while using slightly outdated technology more notable for the combination of gadgets themselves, still, they have managed to stay at the front of the gaming world for 30+ years based on their safe practices.
** Most notably, during the WiiU generation the gaming press repeatedly hammered down Nintendo's reputation claiming they were in deep financial trouble when in reality they were allegedly bigger than Playstation and Xbox combined. This stems from the fact that the gaming press flat out ignored the large amount of exclusive games sold for the WiiU (more than Playstation despite the differences in console sales)and the gigantic market share of the 3DS, which is the console that truly dominated that generation. But instead of joining the bragging competition Nintendo just let it slide as they are conscious of their image and take measures to make sure their fanbase doesn't become too heated up, even leading to chat practices that are outdated an limited by design.

** Is to note how Nintendo used radically different practices back in the day, during the NES era Nintendo was famous for tug-ish practices like demanding stores to sell only their videogames under threat of blacklisting, charging really big fees to allow third party companies to release games on their systems and their aggressive marketing campaigns focused on how cool, modern an powerful their systems were, most "Hardcore" companies of today are using practices Nintendo abandoned long ago, deeming them unsuitable for the long game and many companies have sunk by trying to be the coolest and most hardcore thing ever, with SEGA being the most notorious case.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': Doctor Strange has been running one for a ''long'' time (Huginn and Muninn use the term at one point), aided by both his longevity and the fact that he's a time traveller ''and'' a seer. To put this long game in perspective, this story's truly massive GambitPileup/ChildOfTheStorm (see its page - yes, ''[[UpToEleven page]]'' - for details) is implied to be only a ''small'' part of what he's up to. The final chapter of Book I finally confirms that he's been working to stop Thanos. Chapter 20 of the sequel reveals how old he is: [[spoiler: 500,000 or more, probably. He actually stopped bothering to count around 100,000.]]

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': Doctor Strange has been running one for a ''long'' time (Huginn and Muninn use the term at one point), aided by both his longevity and the fact that he's a time traveller ''and'' a seer. To put this long game in perspective, this story's truly massive GambitPileup (see that page for details) is implied to be only a ''small'' part of what he's up to. The final chapter of Book I finally confirms that he's been working to stop Thanos. Chapter 20 of the sequel reveals how old he is: [[spoiler: 500,000 or more, probably. He actually stopped bothering to count around 100,000.]]

* Another famous example was the revenge plot of UsefulNotes/The47Ronin of Japan. After their daimyo had committed {{seppuku}} in disgrace, the Emperor forbade them from seeking vengeance against the man who'd caused it. Thus, over the course of a year, debased themselves and made it ''appear'' as though they were abiding by that decision. The country was torn over whether they had acted dishonorably by violating the Emperor's decree, or honorably for their display of UndyingLoyalty.

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'': After gaining a new Chaos Emerald and his full power, Mammoth Mogul realizes that no matter how successful his schemes were or powerful he would get, [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin Sonic always seems to able to stop him]]. So, being TheAgeless, he decides to wait it out, resuming his plans of conquest after Sonic either died of natural causes or simply grew too old to stop him.

* Pretty much the protagonists' entire plot in ''LightNovel/MaoyuuMaouYuusha''. Maou realized that after a long period of total war, it didn't matter who won or what peace treaty was signed, the sudden loss of a large consumption market would result is a catastrophic economic collapse that would completely destroy both kingdoms. So when the Hero arrives to assassinate her in the first volume, she instead explains this and recruits him. The series chronicles their elaborate long con of trying to slow the war machine of both sides to the point peace is economically feasible.

Often overlaps with (and is confused with) XanatosGambit. However, a Long Game is distinct because it requires a large amount of time to complete, and does not require the failure contingency that defines a XanatosGambit. Elements of TimeAbyss are also common. GambitRoulette may occur if the writer can't justify how the planners pull off such a long term {{plan}}. Can be made easy if the planner is {{Immortal|ity}}.

On TV, if we see the early stages of the plan, expect it to be an InnocuouslyImportantEpisode.

Not to be confused with a game that is very long.

** In "[[Recap/CentralParkS1E3HatLuncheon Hat Luncheon]]", Helen meets a former maid named Lucy who waited 28 years for their employer to leave everything to her.

* A major one appears in ''Series/PowerRangerBeastMorphers''. [[spoiler:Following his defeat at the end of ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'', computer virus Venjix hid away for nearly a decade (in real time) until he was revived as Evox [[NiceJobBreakingItHero by an experiment of Nate's]]. He then waited patiently until the Morph-X towers were built before resurfacing and launch his master plan to take over the Morphing Grid]].

* Normally we'd like to [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment steer clear of politics]], but there's a clear case where someone has {{invoked|Trope}} it by name: pundit/blogger Andrew Sullivan famously (and supportively!) believes that UsefulNotes/BarackObama's policies are part of a political "long game," and even wrote a ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers Newsweek]]'' [[http://www.newsweek.com/andrew-sullivan-how-obamas-long-game-will-outsmart-his-critics-64177 cover story]] entitled "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Obama's Long Game]]". Whether this is true is [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment not something we will discuss]]; we merely point out that Sullivan (and a few others, mostly following him) have invoked the trope in explaining Obama's somewhat peculiar political style.

* Harry Potter has learned to plan this way in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13034223/1/A-Discordant-Note A Discordant Note]]'', being over six hundred years old by the time he arrives in Westeros. Likewise, his slave/mistress Adrastia Zabini plans to have Harry rule the entirety of Westeros through a combination of subtly guiding his descendants and convincing Harry her plans are necessary/convenient.

** He actually set the entire thing in motion when he did not disagree when an acquaintance called Ocean the greatest thief in the world during a conversationwith Le Marque and Toulour. This led to Toulour's need to prove himself to his mentor and set the game in motion with Ocean's crew.

* In the ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' series:
** The Second Foundationers are playing a long game to re-establish the Galactic Empire over the course of a thousand years.
** [[spoiler:R. Daneel Olivaw]] is playing an even longer game, spanning over twenty thousand years, to secure humanity's future.

** [[MilestoneCelebration The 50th anniversary special]], “The Day of the Doctor”, includes one of these by the Doctor himself to fix [[MyGreatestFailure his biggest regret throughout the revival series]]: the genocide of his own species. His long game is giving [[TheNthDoctor his first incarnation]] the foundations of a series of calculations that would put his home planet, Gallifrey, in a ParallelUniverse as an alternative to outright destroying it. He develops these calculations over “hundreds and hundreds” of years throughout all of his lives, apparently as far as his thirteenth incarnation (Twelfth Doctor). [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome They then all come together simultaneously to carry out those calculations and successfully save the planet while still saving the rest of reality too.]] [[TearJerker Unfortunately, Doctors 9 through 11 (though only past 11, before the events of the special) are forced to lose their memories of saving Gallifrey, keeping the trauma they carried over the past years intact.]]

* Nintendo is a practitioner of this trope, other gaming companies base their sales on really inflated hype, fan discussions, claims of graphic power and the idea of releasing games for "Hardcore gamers" while Nintendo keeps producing games aimed to the general population while using slightly outdated technology more notable for the combinations themselves, still, they have managed to stay at the front of the gaming world for 30+ years based on their safe practices.
Most notably, during the WiiU generation the gaming press repeatedly hammered down Nintendo's reputation claiming they were in deep financial trouble when in reality they were allegedly bigger than Playstation and Xbox combined. This stems from the fact that the gaming press flat out ignored the large amount of exclusive games sold for the WiiU (more than Playstation despite the differences in console sales)and the gigantic market share of the 3DS, which truly dominated that generation.
Nowadays the big companies keep burning their franchises with constant releases that are hyped and hyped until the public gets tired and pursues the new shinny thing while Nintendo keeps shuffling releases between it's many long lived and well sold franchises that can easily be milked for other 30+ years.
If anything, the fans complain about the lack of games for certain franchises as Nintendo is not milking them enough.

* Creator/VernorVinge's ''Literature/ZonesOfThought'': In ''The Children of the Sky'' Ravna's overly narrow focus on her Long Game of developing technology to prepare for the arrival of the [[EldritchAbomination Blight's fleet]], to the exclusion of developing medical technology that would help the humans trapped in the medieval-level Tines World with her, is what ultimately allows [[spoiler:Nevil Storherte]] to paint her as a dangerous lunatic and wrest political control from her. This works mostly because Ravna is the only surviving human to have faced the Blight firsthand, so she knows how dangerous it is; to everyone else, her Long Game simply doesn't make sense.

* Another famous example was the revenge plot of UsefulNotes/The47Ronin of Japan. After their daimyo had committed {{UsefulNotes/Seppuku}} in disgrace, the Emperor forbade them from seeking vengeance against the man who'd caused it. Thus, over the course of a year, debased themselves and made it ''appear'' as though they were abiding by that decision. The country was torn over whether they had acted dishonorably by violating the Emperor's decree, or honorably for their display of UndyingLoyalty.

* ''FanFic/WishCarefully'': Instead of trying to battle the Death Eaters after Dumbledore's death, Harry and his friends decide to do the next best thing: leave Magical England to Voldemort and his forces to do as they please, and leave to build their own nation elsewhere. Within a few generations, the Death Eater-run Magical England is in a death spiral due to the resulting economic collapse of the working class population leaving the country and the flaws of Pureblood supremacist ideology leading to GenerationalMagicDecline, while Harry and his friends and allies are prospering on their nation of exiles in the Pacific. Lucius himself, though not repentant for his actions, curses how collectively short-sighted they were, and the end of the story reveals that everyone is so desperate for some sort of solution [[spoiler:is plotting Voldemort's death]].

* ''FanFic/WishCarefully'': Instead of trying to battle the Death Eaters after Dumbledore's death, Harry and his friends decide to do the next best thing: leave Magical England to Voldemort and his forces to do as they please, and leave to build their own nation elsewhere. Within a few generations, Death-Eater England is in a death spiral due to Pureblood ideology, while Harry and his friends are prospering on a tropical island. [[spoiler: Lucius himself, though not repentant for his actions, is plotting Voldemort's death]].