History Main / MasterOfNone

* The [=MacAdam=] shield-shovel was meant to be an entrenching tool that could also be driven into the ground and used to protect against enemy fire. As was quickly discovered, it was far too thin and weak to protect against even small-caliber bullets, but between its unwieldy design, its weight, and the massive sight-hole in it, it made for a pretty awful shovel as well. It was the brainchild of the [[TheNeidermeyer notoriously talentless Sam Hughes]], who was also responsible for convincing Canada to adopt other failures like the [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns notoriously unreliable Ross Rifle]], and ended up being mostly turned into scrap metal before long.

** The Y-Wing was designed to be a JackOfAllStats, but by the time of ''Film/ANewHope'' it had been equaled or surpassed in all areas by the X-Wing. This is demonstrated in the Battle of Yavin, where while having a similarly-poor survival rate to the X-Wing (twice as many X-Wings were sent to battle as Y-Wings, but only two X-Wings survived to the one Y-Wing), the Y-Wings overall did much worse in the battle, every one that tried to make the trench run getting shot down shortly after entering the trench, while X-Wings managed to make the entire run down it to the exhaust port twice. This is justified in that the Y-Wing is also an artifact from [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars the Clone Wars]], and it was much more effective twenty years ago as a strike bomber. As the original trilogy indicates, time has not been kind to it.

* Some martial artists accuse UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts schools of making their students this by teaching a curriculum that covers all ranges of combat, but at a shallow level. The tension between JackOfAllStats fighters like Fedor Emelianenko and Georges St. Pierre and [[MinMax specialists]] in one or two areas like Anderson Silva and Junior Dos Santos is an ongoing spectacle in MMA.

** This was a common problem in the early PRIDE era for Japanese fighters, where many came from the Japanese "[[WorkedShoot shoot-wrestling]]"[[note]]A more realistic style of pro wrestling which emphasized full contact moves and the matches looked like actual MMA bouts [[OlderThanTheyThink before MMA was a thing]], although it was still a "work" (i.e scripted)[[/note]] ProfessionalWrestling circuit, which actually trained multiple disciplines (and were pioneers at that) such as UsefulNotes/MuayThai, UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling, UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} and UsefulNotes/{{Karate}}. However, they were not proficient in any of them and thus they could not make a difference against their opponents. The trend only changed with fighters such as Daijiro Matsui and Wrestling/KazushiSakuraba who focused in wrestling and anti-game tactics.

** A similar issue in the business world is the concept of a Conglomerate. Starting in the 1950s, numerous large corporations (as well as newly created holding companies and private-equity firms) started buying up smaller companies left and right, often with greatly differing product lines; for example, LTV ended up owning, among other things, Wilson Sporting Goods, Jones & Laughlin Steel, Chance-Vought Aircraft, and National Car Rental. In theory, such a diversified business would be able to survive any weakness in any one particular industry, but conglomerates were often put together with very little planning of how such unrelated businesses would work together, to the point that [[WeAreStrugglingTogether they either fought for resources within the company]] (such as marketing and R&D) or ended up duplicating efforts. Executives often attempted to apply a one-size-fits-all management style to very different businesses, leading to [[RightHandVersusLeftHand conflict between top executives who just bought and sold business and division managers who specialized in a particular industry]]. Most such conglomerates struggled to remain profitable and ended up broken up in the 1970s and 1980s, with individual business units merging with other companies in the same industry.
* The best cricket 'all-rounders' are greats who could get into the team as both bowler and batsmen. All too often one day teams are packed full of people who can guess which end of a bat to hold more than half the time and jog in to bowl without tripping over their shoelaces too often.
* Encyclopedias can offer info on a wide variety of topics but even online user-contributed ones like Website/TheOtherWiki only have enough depth to be a good intro for any one area. There's still no generalist substitute for textbooks and training.

* During the 1960s, multi-purpose stadiums that could accommodate both baseball and American football teams became all the rage for civic infrastructure projects. The idea seemed sound enough - why build two separate stadiums and rack up twice as much infrastructure and construction cost, especially as with the concurrent rise of American suburbia cars became the dominant form of transportation and parking lots would be needed? As it turned out, the differing infrastructure requirements for each sport (field dimensions, equipment, possibility of both teams' seasons overlapping in August-October, among others) meant the stadiums ended up doing a bad job of satisfying their requirements for both sports' teams and their fans. Starting in the late 1980s sport-specific stadiums came back into vogue; the first of the "retro-classic" ballparks for the major leagues was built in 1992 (Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore) to rave reviews. Nowadays, separate facilities are maintained for cities that host teams in multiple sports, though they'll frequently be located near each other so that they can still share things like parking facilities and nearby restaurants and bars; as of 2022, all stadiums from this era which are still in use are only the home of a single team in a single sport, the last to have hosted two teams (the venue now known as [=RingCentral=] Coliseum in Oakland, home of baseball's Athletics and football's Raiders) losing one of the two when the Raiders left for Las Vegas in 2020. That's not to say that nowadays stadiums couldn't be converted to host sporting events other than what they're designed for (e.g., the college football Pinstripe Bowl is held yearly in Yankee Stadium), but they're saved for special occasions for the most part.

* The .40 S&W handgun round was designed to the specifications of the FBI, who sought to replace their .38 Special service revolvers after a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout 1986 shootout in Miami]] in which a pair of crooks [[MadeOfIron shrugged off multiple gunshots]] before finally going down. Notably, the .40 S&W was a downgrade from the original design, the 10mm Auto, which proved to be too powerful to reliably and comfortably control due to its high recoil (remember this for later). In TheNineties, police departments across the US followed the FBI's lead and swapped out their 9mm semi-autos and older revolvers for .40 S&W guns, and it caught traction in the civilian market as a JackOfAllStats self-defense round. By the '00s, however, the .40 S&W's weaknesses grew increasingly apparent. It wasn't ''that'' much of an upgrade from 9mm, as it came with higher recoil, more expensive ammunition, and reduced ammo capacity that many shooters felt weren't justified by the slight increase in stopping power. Worse, it was quickly made apparent that many handgun designers jumped on the bandwagon simply because it was easy for them to stick .40 S&W barrels onto frames designed for the reduced pressure of 9mm, leading to [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns reliability problems]] and [[CriticalFailure "kaBooms"]]. Improvements in ballistics technology that improved the old 9mm made the .40 S&W redundant, leading the FBI to switch back to 9mm in 2018. Intended as a round that would combine a HandCannon with MoreDakka, its compromises meant that it found itself outclassed at both; shooters who want high ammo capacity and low recoil have the 9mm, while those looking for lower-caliber stopping power who aren't worried about higher recoil or lower capacity have the .357 Magnum, the .45 ACP, and, ironically, the 10mm Auto that the .40 S&W was a downgrade from, which has seen a revival since.

** Yangus in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' looks like he should be a MightyGlacier, with a build that suggests StoutStrength and an axe-wielder. He's certainly slow enough, but his damage output is average at best, and pales next to [[GlassCannon Jessica's]] [[SquishyWizard spells]] and whips, Angelo's [[ArcherArchetype bows and arrows]], and the Hero's [[HeroesPreferSwords swords]] or [[BladeOnAStick spears]]. He can get a few healing spells if you put points into Humanity, but his healing potential is limited by a small MP pool, and unlike [[MagicKnight the Hero]] and [[TheMedic Angelo]] he never gets any way to regain magic points or mitigate casting costs. He can wear some of the best armor in the game and has a massive HP pool, which qualifies him as a StoneWall, but since there's no way for him to DrawAggro he can't really [[AnAdventurerIsYou tank]] for [[GlassCannon squishier]] party members. His Axe skills will eventually give him an attack which is a guaranteed critical if it hits, and since criticals in this game ignore defense, it's particularly useful against late-game bosses, but it misses more often than it hits, so it's too unreliable to use in most cases. Early in the game he's useful in boss fights as a debuffer, although Jessica can do that as well or better. In the late game, he's mostly useful to hold on to a Sage's Stone, Rune Staff, Timbrel of Tension and Resurrection Staff and act as a secondary buffer and [[TheMedic healer]], not so much because he's particularly good at it, but because he's the only party member with nothing better to do.

* In ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'', this is Kazuma's place in the party, in opposition to his [[CripplingOverspecialization comically-overspecialized companions]]. He went with the Adventurer class, a class which can learn just about any skill imaginable, but in exchange has very bad advancement overall. Consequently, though Kazuma does have a pretty wide range of skills, most of them are either weak and undertuned, or theoretically good but not on a guy as physically unimpressive as he is (not helped by the fact that Kazuma is, on the whole, arrogant and lazy), leaving him to be a ButtMonkey far more often than not. He does improve with time, though, with many fights showing him cobbling together strategies based on his smattering of abilities.

* Though it looked impressive and would inspire much better weapons, the FG 42 rifle proved to be a disappointment as a multipurpose weapon. The automatic rifle was meant to function as both a machine gun and rifle while still being light enough for paratroopers (as the rifle was actually requested by the Luftwaffe) to carry during a combat drop. However, while it was one of the few controllable, if uncomfortable, select-fire full-power infantry rifles (just watch [[https://www.forgottenweapons.com/full-auto-fg-42-an-original-2nd-pattern-at-the-range Ian McCollum]]), the weapon suffered from numerous design flaws due to its intended role for paratroopers. As a side-effect from being light enough for airborne operations, the FG 42 had a lightweight construction that was prone to breaking apart in field usage. Furthermore, the weapon was unergonomic largely thanks to the side-mounted magazine that was difficult to reload and threw off the rifle's center of balance when the weapon is mounted on a bipod. All of these problems were worsened by its ammunition, the German military standard 7.92x57mm IS cartridges, which added additional weight and recoil while limiting ammunition capacity. Subsequently, the weapon didn't have the firepower of a squad automatic weapon, the precision of a rifle, or the portability of a submachine gun. As a result, the FG 42 was less widespread than the later [=StG=] 44, which avoids the pitfalls of the FG 42 by not sacrificing combat durability to accommodate paratroopers.

* The F-35 is widely considered this: in trying to be a JackOfAllStats while still trying to be a stealth super-plane, it quickly became apparent that it was an overly costly and ultimately redundant design. It should be noted that this aircraft is forced to be three different aircraft in one - the Air Force wants a conventional multi-role fighter, the Navy wants a carrier-based fighter with longer range, and the Marines want a VTOL aircraft to replace the AV-8B Harrier - which is especially damning given that A) every other successful multirole warplane was not deliberately designed as such (every design that tried ended up being single-role), and B) every successful ''stealth'' warplane was single-role (and almost none of them were fighters). The project's goal of "commonality" between all three services has essentially meant that every service was forced to accept compromises: a feature designed to satisfy one service requirement would have been completely unnecessary for the other two services. As such, the USAF and Marines ended up with a far heavier fighter than they required, and the Navy had to accept a plane without redundant engines. Furthermore, the desire to fulfill so many roles with one aircraft has meant that many systems have yet to be mature, despite a protracted development period. Compounding this situation is that the F-35 is simply outshone to a large degree by almost every specialist aircraft in service. It lacks the loitering capability of a close air support platform like the A-10, it is too lightly armed in some configurations to function as an air-superiority fighter or fighter bomber like the F-16 and F/A-18, and it is too expensive to use as a dedicated interceptor.

* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime'': This is the general opinion of the Pea-Nut. It has the same damage of a basic Peashooter while having the toughness of a Wall-Nut, and it costs 150 Sun, a combination of the two plants' costs. Unfortunately, Peashooter quickly gets overshadowed by other offensive plants, and it also holds for the Pea-Nut. Its damage is too lackluster to be useful, making it just a more expensive Wall-Nut. Making matters worse, after it takes enough damage, its rate of fire gets halved, making it one of the weakest offensive plants in the game.

** Yangus in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' looks like he should be a MightyGlacier, with a build that suggests StoutStrength and an axe-wielder. He's certainly slow enough, but his damage output is average at best, and pales next to [[GlassCannon Jessica's]] [[SquishyWizard spells]] and [[WhipItGood whips]], Angelo's [[ArcherArchetype bows and arrows]], and the Hero's [[HeroesPreferSwords swords]] or [[BladeOnAStick spears]]. He can get a few healing spells if you put points into Humanity, but his healing potential is limited by a small MP pool, and unlike [[MagicKnight the Hero]] and [[TheMedic Angelo]] he never gets any way to regain magic points or mitigate casting costs. He can wear some of the best armor in the game and has a massive HP pool, which qualifies him as a StoneWall, but since there's no way for him to DrawAggro he can't really [[AnAdventurerIsYou tank]] for [[GlassCannon squishier]] party members. His Axe skills will eventually give him an attack which is a guaranteed critical if it hits, and since criticals in this game ignore defense, it's particularly useful against late-game bosses, but it misses more often than it hits, so it's too unreliable to use in most cases. Early in the game he's useful in boss fights as a debuffer, although Jessica can do that as well or better. In the late game, he's mostly useful to hold on to a Sage's Stone, Rune Staff, Timbrel of Tension and Resurrection Staff and act as a secondary buffer and [[TheMedic healer]], not so much because he's particularly good at it, but because he's the only party member with nothing better to do.

* The M14 rifle was meant to be a universal replacement for the US Army's Browning M1918 squad automatic rifle, M1 Garand infantry rifle, and M3 submachine gun. On paper, it sounded like a good idea since it was based on the reliable M1 Garand rifle (although despite Springfield Armory's promises, the two weapons could ''not'' be made with the same production tooling), keeping the original design that soldiers were used to with modern amenities like a detachable magazine, and would offer much needed versatility by letting soldiers switch between precise semi-auto and suppressive full-auto fire. In practice however, it was too light to be a squad automatic weapon, too heavy to be comparable to a submachine gun, and the combination of firing a full-power rifle cartridge, using a semi-pistol-grip stock that simply wasn't designed to keep a weapon firing such rounds on-target at 700 rounds per minute, made fully automatic fire uncontrollable. The M14 was later replaced by the M16 as standard issue rifle, the M60 (and later the M249) for squad machine gun support, and shorter-barreled M16 variants for short-range combat, and the M14 itself later found a new role as a specialized marksman rifle.

* While this thankfully didn't happen with the ''player'' characters in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', it still happened with one particular type of companion: The Ranged Tank. Every class in the base game has five companions that fit into one of five roles: Melee Tank, Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Healer, and the Ranged Tank. Ranged Tanks were more about control, Burst damage, and AreaOfEffect damage rather than survivability ''or'' damage. This meant that, unlike the player counterparts, they were a MasterOfNone with their powers spread a little too thin: Unable to keep up with DPS, but unable to keep themselves alive the way a melee tank companion could due to not having as much damage mitigation. Most classes didn't bother with them unless they had to like the Jedi Knigh), or were playing the Imperial Agent/Smuggler classes (Who could burn down enemies fast enough that Kaliyo/Corso could survive casual fights). Not helping was that the AI [[ArtificialStupidity wasn't very good at controlling targets]] and AreaOfEffect attacks didn't do as much damage against single targets. This was nixed in ''Knights of the Fallen Empire'', where the player could assign any role; and companions that used ranged weaponry were made more durable when assigned to the Tank role.

** In the NES version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', the Thief has durability and damage output a slight step above the White and Black Mages, but without the casting prowess that makes those jobs viable. They also lack stealing, the main Thief utility in later games, which gives them even less to offer. In theory, they can escape from battles more effectively, but running is infamously buggy in the NES version, so while this can be used, it isn't reliable. On paper, their class change to Ninja should boost them up by giving them better weapon and armor selection and black magic, but the low-level offensive black magic the Ninja can learn is useless at that point, while the buffs are ''also'' bugged and don't work. By contrast, the Knight gains white magic, including healing spells and a buff spell that actually works in RUSE, the Master's damage output has ascended to absurdity, the Red Wizard already fills the role of a tanky black magic user that can ''also'' use white magic, and the Black Wizard can throw around more magic than the Ninja can ever dream of. The remakes did help the Ninja out a lot by fixing its skills to actually function, though it's still considered a somewhat subpar pick.

** Kimahri Ronso of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' suffers from this. His section of the sphere grid is rather small, forcing him to go through someone else's to remain useful. This was meant to allow the player to use him as a flexible character. The problem is that Kimahri doesn't do anything better than anyone else. His stats are just okay in everything (even when sent to someone else's section of the Sphere Grid), and his [[ArmorPiercingAttack piercing spears]] pale in comparison to Auron's katanas, which do the same thing but cause more damage. The Lancet ability drains HP and MP from enemies, but it's so weak that it'll probably be used only to learn enemy abilities and nothing else. Not even Kimahri's [[LimitBreak Overdrives]] are all that special; while he can use enemy attacks, the ones that do damage all only hit once, leaving him far behind everyone else's Overdrives as early as the mid-game. Even Rikku's Overdrives are far more useful than anything Kimahri can do, since Rikku's Mix Overdrive has all sorts of GameBreaker effects when applied correctly. In short, Kimahri's flexibility is unnecessary, and leaves him without a proper place in the party.

* The player's ultimate goal in ''Videogame/RakenzarnTales'' is to turn Kyuu, the main character, into a MasterOfAll. His unique class, the Arxus Rogue, is capable of learning plenty of types of physical and magical moves and wield a huge variety of weapons. However, because he's not a real fighter and suffers from EmptyLevels and NonStandardSkillLearning, a poorly handled training will turn him into this trope instead.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' shows signs of this on Chrom, at least compared to [[MasterOfAll the Avatar]]. While Chrom isn't necessarily as noticable bland thanks to his fairly decent bases, the SignatureMove of [[ArmorPiercingAttack Aet]][[LifeDrain her]] and Rightful King, raising his skill procs by 10%. However, his relatively basic kit has him somewhat underwhelming compared to characters who are more specialized or just EliteTweak to be better, leaving him with the unfortunate nickname "Chromvoy" for [[DamnedByFaintPraise his unmatched skill in accessing the Convoy in map.]]

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' shows signs of this on Chrom, at least compared to [[MasterOfAll the Avatar]]. While Chrom isn't necessarily as noticable bland thanks to his relatively decent bases, the SignatureMove of [[ArmorPiercingAttack Aet]][[LifeDrain her]] and Rightful King, raising his skill procs by 10%. However, his relatively basic kit has him relatively underwhelming compared to characters who are more specialized or just EliteTweak to be better, leaving him with the unfortunate nickname "Chromvoy" for [[DamnedByFaintPraise his unmatched skill in accessing the Convoy in map.]]

* ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'': The Diamondback was a reasonably fast anti-armor unit with decent health. However, it's not as beefy as Thors, not as hard hitting as Siege Tanks, and not as good at base raiding as Reapers and Hellions. As a result, it saw almost no use (''especially'' in the campaign) due to lack of specialization. To make things worse, it had a moderately expensive 150/150 cost and required 4 supply. Contrast the 150/125 cost and 3 supply of Siege Tanks.
*** Even in the mission where you get Diamond Backs (where you are tasked with destroying mobile trains) where the Diamond Back's niche of mobile anti armor is meant to shine, it is easier to max on siege tanks and mass them ahead of the trains.

** The ''B-Wing'' expansion forces this upon the humble Y-Wing. The Y-Wing was slower and less maneuverable than the X-Wing or especially the A-Wing, but had its niche with heavier armor and shielding and [[MightyGlacier a larger payload of missiles]], alongside being the only one of the three to have ion cannons for disabling enemy craft. Then came the B-Wing, which did everything the Y-Wing does better - faster and more maneuverable (not quite on the level of the other two, but still a noticeable improvement) with similar durability, an even larger missile payload, and not only also having ion cannons, but having ''three'' of each cannon to the Y-Wing's two. At that point the only advantage the Y-Wing has over the B-Wing is a more agreeable placement of those cannons (in-line with the nose on the Y-Wing, versus spread out across the tips of the long wings for the B-Wing), which is negligible in any cases except being at knife-fight distance from another fighter.
** In the sequel ''VideoGame/TIEFighter'', the TIE Avenger is one of the fighters obtained by the midgame. It's the ship that Vader's personal craft was the prototype for, a TIE fighter that was designed to traditional fighter standards rather than an engine with guns strapped to it. In its own levels, it's not really an example, as it performs quite well until you obtain the TIE Defender and stacks up well against an X-Wing. However, in-universe, it's considered an example of this: the Imperial combat doctrine is WeHaveReserves, where the [[FragileSpeedster standard TIE and TIE Interceptor]] excel but the Avenger is too expensive to do, while missions that ''did'' require a smaller number of more powerful fighters would use the Defender instead, since the Defender is one of the greatest space-superiority vessels ever made while the Avenger is only decent. It says something that there were fewer Avengers made than Defenders, even though the Defender is the more expensive one.

* The .40 S&W handgun round was designed to the specifications of the FBI, who sought to replace their .38 Special service revolvers after a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout 1986 shootout in Miami]] in which a pair of crooks [[MadeOfIron shrugged off multiple gunshots]] before finally going down. Notably, the .40 S&W was a downgrade from the original design, the 10mm Auto, which proved to be too powerful to reliably and comfortably control due to its high recoil (remember this for later). In TheNineties, police departments across the US followed the FBI's lead and swapped out their 9mm semi-autos and older revolvers for .40 S&W guns, and it caught traction in the civilian market as a JackOfAllStats self-defense round. By the '00s, however, the .40 S&W's weaknesses grew increasingly apparent. It wasn't ''that'' much of an upgrade from 9mm, it came with higher recoil, more expensive ammunition, and reduced ammo capacity that many shooters felt weren't justified by the slight increase in stopping power, and many .40 S&W handguns were built on frames designed for the reduced pressure of 9mm rounds, leading to [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns reliability problems]] and [[CriticalFailure "kaBooms"]]. Improvements in ballistics technology that improved the old 9mm made the .40 S&W redundant, leading the FBI to switch back to 9mm in 2018. Intended as a round that would combine a HandCannon with MoreDakka, its compromises meant that it found itself outclassed at both; shooters who want high ammo capacity and low recoil have the 9mm, while those looking for lower-caliber stopping power who aren't worried about recoil have the .357 Magnum, the .45 ACP, and, ironically, the 10mm Auto that the .40 S&W was a downgrade from, which has seen a revival since.

** Ken in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' is considered one of the worst party members for this exact reason: His Lightning magic and physical skills are single-target only, and doesn't deal too much damage. He is tied with [[SquishyWizard Yukari]] as the best healer, but Yukari also brings powerful Wind magic, which, excluding the protagonist, only she can use. Meanwhile, the other Lightning using party member, Akihiko, is stronger than Ken in both magic and physical damage. While Ken does have unique skills in Light based OneHitKill skills, [[UselessUsefulSpell good luck hitting enemies with them]].

*** Humans in earlier editions also frequently fell into this. They could play any class and lacked a LevelCap, but they had no bonuses or unique abilities whatsoever. Even assuming you weren't playing in one of the many groups that {{house rule}}d out [[ScrappyMechanic racial class restrictions and level caps]], there was no reason to play a human unless it was the only possible option, since no matter what, they'd be outclassed by races that possessed actual advantages.

* The [[TierInducedScrappy much-hated]] M3 Lee in ''VideoGame/{{World of Tanks}}'' suffers from this status. This tier 4 medium tank has only the [[FixedForwardFacingWeapon hull-mounted gun]] as a usable weapon (very much like a tank destroyer) while its turret is unusable. Subsequently, this tank cannot fulfill the roles of either a tank destroyer or a medium tank. The positioning of its gun means that the tank must turn its entire body, making it too cumbersome for aggressive flanking attacks suitable for mediums. Furthermore, it still retains the unusable turret that can be shot at and is highly visible, preventing it from successfully ambushing foes like a tank destroyer. Coupled with the fact that it has mediocre penetration, armor, speed, and agility (at best) the M3's inability to fulfill a specific role sufficiently makes it one of the worst tanks in the game.

** The tragedy is compounded by several of the rare Brig of War's basic stats, such as cargo space, cannon count, and crew size being matched by the extremely common Frigate, with only a few small differences in speed and agility to differentiate the two. Similarly, this is why traders rarely take Barques out into the water; they're a little faster and a little more agile than some of their peers, but their weight of cannon is so average and their cargo capacity is so light by contrast that merchant players usually pick up something either ultralight for smuggling runs (such as the Pinnace) or something massive and decently armed for bulk shipments (such as the Merchantman). [[TierInducedScrappy And no one likes Fluyts]].

* Though it looked impressive and would inspire much better weapons, the FG 42 rifle proved to be a disappointment as a multipurpose weapon. The automatic rifle was meant to function as both a machine gun and rifle while still being light enough for paratroopers (as the rifle was actually requested by the Luftwaffe) to carry during a combat drop. However, while it was one of the few controllable, if uncomfortable, select-fire full-power infantry rifles (just watch [[https://www.forgottenweapons.com/full-auto-fg-42-an-original-2nd-pattern-at-the-range Ian McCollum]]), the weapon suffered from numerous design flaws due to its intended role for paratroopers. As a side-effect from being light enough for airborne operations, the FG 42 had a lightweight construction that was prone to breaking apart in field usage. Furthermore, the weapon was unergonomic for any position but prone on the bipod as the side-mounted magazine threw off the rifle's center of balance. All of these problems were worsened by its ammunition, the German military standard 7.92x57mm IS cartridges, which added additional weight and recoil while limiting ammunition capacity. Subsequently, the weapon didn't have the firepower of a squad automatic weapon, the precision of a rifle, or the portability of a submachine gun. As a result, the FG 42 was less widespread than the later [=StG=] 44, which avoids the pitfalls of the FG 42 by not sacrificing combat durability to accommodate paratroopers.

** FOr example, the two basic strategies a company can follow are those of ''cost leader'' and ''differentiator''. Being a cost leader is all about efficiency and minimizing costs; you're essentially doing the same as the competition, but you're doing it cheaper so you can undercut their prices. Differentiators focus on "doing things differently" or offering something the competition doesn't, which lets you get away with having higher prices. Companies that pursue neither strategy end up "between the chairs" - their products are neither particularly good nor particularly cheap, so why would you buy them? Same principle applies to going after ''broad'' vs. ''niche'' markets.[[note]]''Broad differentiators'' - "which have pursued their differentiation strategy in a way that has allowed them to lower their cost structure at the same time" - may exist, at least in theory, but they're rare exceptions and they ''will'' fall into this trope if they ever lose their edge. High risk, high reward.[[/note]]

** Many of Gen 1/Gen 2 Pokémon have fell into this as newer Pokémon have higher and more specialized stat spreads, and what used to be a JackOfAllStats in Gen 1 is this trope nowadays. Compare Poliwrath (balanced but low stats, highest stat is a Defense of 85, abilities are very basic) with Celesteela (balanced but higher stats - by 25 points in average, high Special Attack of 107 and Beast Boost to boost any stat upon getting a KO).

** {{Red Mage}}s in most games after the first tend to lose effectiveness very quickly. While they can use swords as well as cast both black and white magic, the spells they learn are never as powerful as dedicated black or white mages, their armor level is just okay, and their damage output is outdone by multiple other classes. Not to mention, since ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'', games that use a job system also typically give you the ability to switch to different ones, meaning the Red Mage's advantage of being potentially useful in any situation doesn't really matter when you can simply switch to something actively specialized for that situation. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' even taunts you by not only making the Red Mage's skills more expensive to learn than their counterparts, but by making their final ability (which is [[MagikarpPower the only reason to be training a Red Mage]]) be the most expensive in the game at 999 Battle Points.
** In the NES version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', the Thief has durability and damage output a slight step above the White and Black Mages, but without the casting prowess that makes those jobs viable. They also lack stealing, the main Thief utility in later games, which gives them even less to offer. In theory, they can escape from battles more effectively, but running is infamously buggy in the NES version, so while this can be used, it isn't reliable. On paper, their class change to Ninja should boost them up by giving them better weapon and armor selection and black magic, but the low-level offensive black magic the Ninja can learn is basically useless at that point, while the buffs are ''also'' bugged and don't work. By contrast, the Knight gains white magic, including healing spells and a buff spell that actually works in RUSE, the Master's damage output has ascended to absurdity, the Red Wizard already fills the role of a tanky black magic user that can ''also'' use white magic, and the Black Wizard can throw around more magic than the Ninja can ever dream of. The remakes did help the Ninja out a lot by fixing its skills to actually function, though it's still considered a somewhat subpar pick.

** And long before that, ''VideoGame/DragonQuestII'' gave us the Prince of Cannock, a MagicKnight eclipsed in magic by [[SquishyWizard the Princess of Moonbrooke]] with a scant few unique cleric spells, and even more so physically and equip-wise by [[TheHero the Prince of Lorasia]].

** Rab in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'' is this. He can deal physical damage with claws, but his strength is weak. He can heal, but his heal stat is weak compared to the healer. He has some buffs, but not nearly as many buffs as the healer. He has a lot of debuffs, but debuff success rate is dependent on the magic damage stat, which is not nearly as high as the black mage in the party, who also has a lot of debuffs. He has a lot damage spells, but once again his magic damage stat is not as high as the black mage. If you feed him a lot of stat seeds he has the potential to be the most versatile character in the game, but in general anything he can do another character can do better.
* The player's ultimate goal in ''Videogame/RakenzarnTales'' is to turn Kyuu, the main character, into a MasterOfAll. His unique class, the Arxus Rogue, is capable of learning plenty of types of physical and magical moves and wield a huge variety of weapons. However, due to the fact that he's not a real fighter and suffers from EmptyLevels and NonStandardSkillLearning, a poorly handled training will turn him into this trope instead.

** Poor Boudica. The Rider class is meant to be a CriticalHitClass, and Boudica has a Quick-and-Arts focused deck to generate stars. Unfortunately, she also has a StoneWall-style stat layout and terrible offense even for her rarity, so mostly she just sucks up all those stars for herself and then does three crits that barely scratch the enemy. This defensive focus would have potential, especially combined with her Battle Continuation to survive hits that'd kill her... except that she's in competition with Georgios, who is ''also'' a tanky Rider with Battle Continuation, but he has a self-heal, a defense increase that also forces enemies to target him, the ability to do some damage through Ascalon, and he's a whole star rating lower. Like Siegfried, she has a focus on killing a specific enemy type (Romans), but while dragons are semi-common and Lancer dragons do appear occasionally, Roman enemies are pretty rare and basically only ''one'' of them (Summer Nero) is a caster, so it just boosts her damage from "awful" to "still bad." Finally, her Noble Phantasm is a party-wide defense buff which also increases attack when upgraded, which is similar to Mash's Lord Camelot... except Mash is better than Boudica in just about every way, and despite being a star rating higher at full power, she has 0 cost, so Boudica is essentially a budget version of someone she's more expensive than. Things changed after the release of Romulus=Quirinus (a character with the ability to inflict "Roman" as a status effect), and thanks to Mash getting a nerf in the second arc of the game, Boudica is now viewed more favorably than in the game's initial launch.

** ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII Black Ops II]]'' fixes the pistol issue from the previous game by only starting you with two handguns and giving them specific, opposite roles to fill (the Five-Seven is high-capacity with a fast rate of fire, low recoil, and quick but consistent damage drop-off; the Tac-45 is low-capacity, fires more slowly with heavier recoil, but its max-damage range reaches much farther before a very sudden drop-off), so this instead befalls the later Executioner for the reason that it's trying to fit into multiple roles at once. As a revolver that fires {{shotgun s|AreJustBetter}}hells, it's meant to combine the quick switch-time and movement speed of a handgun with the raw power and spread of a shotgun. Unfortunately, it happens to be trying this in a series that A) already gives pistols ridiculously-high damage at close range (both the aforementioned pistols deal as much damage at their max-damage range as the FAL OSW, the second-strongest assault rifle in the game, which is enough to kill in two shots) and B) [[ShortRangeShotgun hates shotguns with a burning passion]], so the shotgun benefits ultimately come at the cost of basically every other worthwhile attribute. While it does deal one-shot kills at point-blank range, the damage falls off so quickly that you need almost the entire five-shot cylinder for a single kill past about four feet (a distance where even the primary shotguns never need more than two unless you outright miss a shot); much further than that and the pellets [[ArbitraryWeaponRange disappear entirely]], removing the ability to [[SniperPistol weakly plink away at an enemy to annoy them]] like the other pistols. If you are within the range to land that one shot kill, you are probably in range to knife the enemy instead. On top of that, its spread is actually too ''tight'' for its intended range, so glancing blows on a target who slips off the screen in a quarter of a second because you're literally touching them will deal next to no damage. All this also comes packaged with the standard revolver downside that, until you manage to grind out the Fast Mags attachment to get a speedloader, you're stuck reloading each individual shell painfully slowly.

* Competitive ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' circles assign this to the Pyro class -- Pyros are among the least seen classes because their abilities, while considerable, are simply overshadowed by the other choices available to a 6-man team. Pyros move at average speed and excel at short range, but the [[FragileSpeedster Scout]] is both faster and more agile, and deals damage in bigger chunks. It's a good defensive class in close quarters, but the [[MightyGlacier Heavy]] has better range, more health, and deals more damage. Spy checking, airblasting, Ubercharge denial, and sentry defense, its remaining important uses, simply don't account for much competitive playtime due to the lack of need or lack of acceptance of the role. Even its last remaining ability, damage over time (something only a select few other classes can inflict with specific weapons -- the Pyro can do it with any of their primary weapons, a good deal of their secondaries, and even one or two melee weapons), isn't all that helpful anymore, as every other update over the first four or five years introduced another easy-to-use weapon or ability to extinguish someone that a Pyro has set on fire. Ironically, this puts the Pyro (considered one of the classes requiring the least thinking to play) together with the Spy (considered the class requiring the ''most'' thinking to play) in the bottom of the competitive class tier -- neither class' abilities play into a match strongly enough to justify their regular inclusion in a 6 vs. 6 skirmish. They are strong in competitive 9v9 Highlander (where only one of each class is allowed per team), however. You will want to deprive the enemy Ubercharge or kill the enemy Pyro before pushing in with your own Ubercharge first, as a defensive Pyro can utterly shut down an Uber push, especially if he receives an Ubercharge himself.
* The Balance-class ships in space battles in ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefrontII'' (i.e., X-Wing, TIE Fighter, ARC-170 and Droid Starfighter/Vulture Droid). Anyone who knows what they're doing will immediately get in a Bomber-class ship (Y-Wing, TIE Bomber, V-Wing and CIS Strike Bomber) and go for the high-scoring capital ship vital systems. This may also be combined with a quick stop within the enemy capital ship to wreak havoc inside, in which case the heavily-armored Bombers, especially with a co-pilot to assist, are ideal (even over Transports, who can insert an entire team into the enemy capital ship and let them respawn there until the transport is destroyed, but are even slower, more ungainly, ''and'' less durable than Bombers - without pulling off two or three other players to escort them instead of actively contributing to the battle, it's essentially two to five free kills for whoever manages to spot them along the way). If all of the vital systems are destroyed and the match still isn't over, the only real option is to get in a Fighter-class ship (A-Wing, TIE Interceptor, Republic Starfighter and Droid Tri-fighter) and kill enemies ship-to-ship. The Balance-class ships don't have the raw payload of Bombers to be even slightly effective against capital ships and are far less effective at ship-to-ship combat than Fighters. The only possible, ''concrete'' advantage Balance ships have against Fighters is that they can attack enemies within the range of the opposing capital ship's automated defenses if those haven't been disabled yet - mildly annoying for a Balance ship and beneath notice for a Bomber, but a lightly-armored Fighter that gets in range of them will get pasted in one shot.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': [[PrestigeClass Tri-Form Kheldians]] can easily fall into this trap if the player spreads their enhancement slots too thin rather than choosing to make certain powers better at the price of others.
* Back in the day, this was a huge problem for hybrids in Creator/BlizzardEntertainment's ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' (the "Vanilla" game, 2004-2007, rereleasess as ''Classic'' in 2019), especially in PlayerVersusEnvironment gameplay. Druids made for completely awful tanks, physical DPS, magic DPS and were also slightly subpar in healing. Shaman could heal okay, but again, didn't deal much damage. Paladins also had an unimpressive damage output, and weren't good at soaking up damage, but they had the best buffs in the game, didn't need to use totems, and were arguably the best single target healers. The ''Burning Crusade'' expansion took care of most of the deficiencies until basically they became specialized and differentiated from the basic healer, the priest. Now, the 'pure' classes like the Mage, Warlock and Rogue are frustrated that they do not add much versatility, and they do not always excel over the supposed 'master of none' classes.

** Blizzard finally prevented this with ''Mists of Pandaria'' by ripping out the talent system completely. You now pick your role which specializes you immediately. The few talents left to choose from are "situational" abilities that players may or may not need. This of course prompted cries of TheyChangedItNowItSucks. Supporters of this new post-talent system say you can choose 6 (out of a total of 18) very useful skills, as opposed to 12-14 (out of 50+) kinda-sorta useful skills. As an added bonus, the skills in each tier of the Mists of Pandaria talent tree often change a core skill in different ways. For example, the first tier of Hunter talents, unlocked at level 15, all change the Disengage skill (you leap backwards to get out of your enemy's range). There's Posthaste (temporarily increase running speed after you Disengage), Narrow Escape (trap nearby enemies when you Disengage) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimaera (reduces the cooldown on Disengage, allowing you to use it more often).
** In ''Warlords of Draenor'', Blizzard changed the secondary stats on items, and added "Versatility", a stat which basically means a small % boost to damage, healing and defense. To keep versatility from becoming OneStatToRuleThemAll, its effect is weaker than other stats, but this made versatility the least desirable stat for raiders. As each of the roles (DPS, healer, tank) only cares about one of the three benefits that versatility grants, it was better to focus on other stats that granted a specific bonus.
* The Assassin Class in ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline''. He sucks at [=PvP=], isn't that useful in [=WoE=], can hardly beat any boss monster and pretty much his only specialty is grinding alone in {{P|layerVersusEnvironment}}vE. Only that other classes such as the Hunter are ''much'' better at that, too. At least it used to be that way. With newer updates, the Assassin gained effectiveness. His rebirth class, the Assassin Cross, is the complete opposite and has been accused of being overpowered quite often.

*** Certain official {{NPC}}s tend to become this. Most of the time, when trying to mix two classes, players prefer to either use a prestige class like [[MagicKnight Eldritch Knight]] to advance both, or use one class to mimic the other (for instance, a Cloistered Cleric with the Trickery domain can fill in for a Rogue pretty well). The designers took longer to figure this out. A quick look through the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Campaign Setting'' reveals a multitude of characters with builds like Jezz the Lame - as a drow Rogue 6/Sorcerer 6, he's considered CR 14, despite possessing no spells above third-level, a Sneak Attack that deals 3d6 damage, and only thirty-six hit points. Storm Silverhand, though, is the absolute reigning queen of this. The [[InformedAbility formidable]] Bard of Shadowdale is a Chosen of Mystra Rogue 1/Fighter 4/Bard 8/Sorcerer 12/Harper Scout 3 - in layman's terms, a character with a CR equal to many an EldritchAbomination, who would probably get eaten by a bog-standard beholder. Even later on in the edition's life, many sample characters in the second Dungeon Master's Guide were something like Fighter 5/Sorcerer 5, when Fighter 1/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight 3 (which isn't even close to the best MagicKnight build one could make) would be better in just about every way.

*** The soulknife was in a similar boat to the monk. Its primary class feature was summoning a magic weapon that upgraded itself as the soulknife levelled, but it scaled poorly compared to other summoned weapons, weapons crafted by an artificer or wizard, or even weapons simply bought. As a pure combat character, it was too lightly-armored and its attacks were too weak to contest a fighter. It gained limited PsychicPowers, but had almost nothing to do with them compared to a psychic warrior. Its overall fighting style leaned towards mobility, but its Bladewind was based on standing still, and it could throw its mind blade, but only once per turn, meaning no FlechetteStorm. As a sneaky character, it didn't have enough skill points or the right abilities to fill the role of a rogue. It had Psychic Strike for burst damage and sneak attacks, but this was too cumbersome for straightforward combat and too weak to be used for assassination. It had Knife to the Soul for stat damage to weaken casters or lobotomize warriors, but its damage was too low to avoid the problem of either class simply taking the hit and reducing the soulknife to hamburger meat. The result was a class that pulled in every direction and failed at all of them, with even its primary class feature being outdone by, of all things, an alternate class feature for the psychic warrior (which was also tougher, harder-hitting, and infinitely more versatile).
*** The bard in 3.0 fell pretty hard into this. In straightforward combat, it was scarcely better than a SquishyWizard, with similar base attack, hit points, and weapons to the rogue, but no BackStab. As a skill-oriented character, it possessed a strong list, but only four skill points to spend them on (of which two had to go to Perform and Concentration to make songs and spells work) and few congruent class features. As a caster, it was limited to 6th-level spells, cast in the worst possible way, couldn't wear armor, had no unique spells, and advanced slowly. Its main unique trait, bardsong, pointed them to the role of party support, but its actual effects ranged from gimmicky to totally inconsequential. Being a caster was good, but compared to a sorcerer of the same level, the 3.0 bard had basically no functional advantages. 3.5 [[BalanceBuff largely pulled the bard out of this]], giving it some extra skill points and new spells, reworking several bardsongs, adding new features, and giving it a fair bit of splatbook support, which allowed the bard to find a niche as [[TheFace a social-skills juggernaut]] and a DifficultButAwesome buffer and indirect caster.

*** The arcane trickster prestige class ran into similar issues. It was meant to be a mixture of a rogue and a caster, but its requirements (+2d6 Sneak Attack and at least 3rd-level arcane spells) meant you would have to be, at minimum, a Wizard 5/Rogue 3 to get into it, which meant [[EarlyGameHell spending eight levels as a crappy mixture before you could qualify]]. While it did advance Sneak Attack and casting, being a caster meant no armor, which was worse when it also had wizard HD and base attack, so using that sneak attack in combat was not easy. While it gained the ability to use its skills at range, this was torpedoed by the fact that it also dropped skill points per level from 8 to 4, meaning you couldn't advance a lot of your rogue skills. And while it gained the Impromptu Sneak Attack ability, it was incredibly limited in usage and an Improved Invisibility spell could do basically the same thing for nowhere near the effort. The only real bright spot was being able to use Sneak Attack to boost the damage of certain spells (damage that might make up for losing three caster levels), and even in that regard, the later unseen seer class basically did the same thing but better.

*** The Expert class is a fairly deliberate example of this. It's capable of treating any ten skills as class skills, meaning it can train itself for just about any job. However, the Expert lacks other class features and its stats are mediocre, meaning that while it can train in any skill, it's no better at that skill than another class that simply starts with it. And on top of that, the Factotum and Savant classes treat ''all'' skills as class skills, so even mixing and matching skillsets from other classes isn't worth it. Few really complain about this, though, as the Expert [[JokeCharacter isn't intended to represent an actual adventurer]]; it's meant to be taken by well-trained [=NPCs=] that have enough unique skills to [[{{Muggles}} not be commoners]] but still don't fit any of the classic classes.

*** The pre-revision ranger is generally seen as this--not as good with weapons as a fighter, not as good at scouting and sneaking as a rogue, not as good at casting and nature stuff as a druid, and not as versatile as a bard. The revised Unearthed Arcana ranger is considerably better in just about every way, thankfully.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has a couple of units that fall under this, although it's fully possible for an entire army to become this if point allocation is stretched too thin. The rule of thumb is that if you absolutely need to fulfil a specific role like taking out an enemy's vehicles, it's better to dedicate a specialist squad or unit to that task; trying to load all of your squads with some level of anti-vehicular firepower is expensive, generally not as effective, and will leave you outmatched and outnumbered in the face of combined arms tactics. That being said, there's nothing wrong with attaching some versatility wherever possible, although this is heavily dependent on how each unit is to be deployed.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pandemic}}'' has one role literally called The Generalist, which has five actions instead of the usual four, and no special powers.

** In ''V'', this befalls several civs whose abilities don't synergize well, resulting in them being not as good at other civs with a more focused win condition. The Byzantine Empire is a fine example; it has two early unique units and a Religion that they can choose extra abilities for, but both early warfare and Religion development tie up a lot of resources in the early game, meaning Byzantium will pretty much have to give up on at least one (and making them mediocre against full-conquest civs like the Huns or Assyria, and full-Religion civs like the Celts or Ethiopia).

** Thane Krios is probably the worst case, as gameplay-wise he brings ''nothing'' exceptional to the table. He's a sniper, but Garrus and DLC character Zaeed will already have that covered and are more durable to boot, and [[spoiler:Legion]] comes later in the game yet can use the [[DiscOneNuke Widow Sniper Rifle]]. Biotically, Miranda and Samara will also have Warp or Throw already, in addition to being more versatile and/or effective to the point that [[spoiler:Thane is one of the "bad" choices for the biotic bubble during the SuicideMission]]. His Loyalty Power, Shredder Ammo, provides a damage boost against organic targets, ''but'' is useless against protected targets, which is ''everything'' on higher difficulty settings, and in any case the player's better off using ''any'' other ammo type except [[AnIcePerson Cryo.]] Since [[spoiler:there's literally no specialist use for him during the final mission, not even as a backup option,]] he's basically just a warm body to fill out the roster.

* ''Fanfic/TheRaggedEdges'' features the character of Kaz Grin, a MauveShirt [[WrongGenreSavvy under the belief]] that he is TheGenericGuy and if he doesn't find a cool persona, [[RedShirt he will die]]. Unfortunately for him, being TheGenericGuy, his overall skillset can best be described as "resplendent mediocrity," and since pretty much all of his personas require some level of specializing, none stick. He tries to be a suave talker and [[CasanovaWannabe gets punched]], he tries to be a ColdSniper and [[ATeamFiring misses every shot]], he tries to be a tactician and can't plan, he tries to be a BoisterousBruiser and can't fight. His only actual skills are that, being a DirtyCoward, he has some self-taught skill at field medicine and stealth, but even then, the group has actual stealth operatives and medics.

* ''Fanfic/FateStarryNight'': Aside from his sky-high Servant compatibility, Ritsuka isn't a master in any of his crafts and is repeatedly punished for it. His magical sensitivity is untrained and he can't follow ambient energy without the help of others. He also can't teach Shirou anything due to only knowing the bare essentials. He needs to follow a recipe to come anywhere near EMIYA's level of cooking and even the martial arts he shows off are an improvised MMA style cobbled together from the basics of different disciplines. [[spoiler:And it shows when Souichirou [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomps him]] in hand-to-hand combat.]]

** Similarly, there's Jenny, a rogue/bard/sorcerer. A bard is already sort of a combo of a rogue and a sorcerer, so she's basically got a whole bunch of very small, mostly redundant bonuses (not to mention an abysmal Base Attack).

* Possibly the ultimate example of this in warfare is the British implementation of the battlecruiser. Ideally, it was supposed to be [[FragileSpeedster faster than the more powerful ships, and more powerful than the faster ships]], but the problem was that they often had [[GlassCannon way too much firepower and were way too big and expensive to justify only using against light/unarmored ships, all the while lacking sufficient armour]] to be employed in pitched battle against other capital ships. Even more so, the constant advancement of technology during the war meant that battleships, [[LightningBruiser armor and all, rapidly caught up in speed]].

** An example: The two basic strategies a company can follow are those of ''cost leader'' and ''differentiator''. Being a cost leader is all about efficiency and minimizing costs; you're essentially doing the same as the competition, but you're doing it cheaper so you can undercut their prices. Differentiators focus on "doing things differently" or offering something the competition doesn't, which lets you get away with having higher prices. Companies that pursue neither strategy end up "between the chairs" - their products are neither particularly good nor particularly cheap, so why would you buy them? Same principle applies to going after ''broad'' vs. ''niche'' markets.[[note]]Note that ''broad differentiators'' - "which have pursued their differentiation strategy in a way that has allowed them to lower their cost structure at the same time" - may exist, at least in theory, but they're rare exceptions and they ''will'' fall into this trope if they ever lose their edge. High risk, high reward.[[/note]]

* UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball: Some footballers became known for being "Utility Players"; versatile enough to play multiple positions, but not skilled enough at a particular position to become a regular starter. The most famous example happens to be Manchester United fan-favorite John O'Shea: while he was merely a decent squad player in Sir Alex Ferguson's legendary United teams, his versatility and diverse skill set allowed him to play center back, right back, left back, defensive midfielder, and even '''goalkeeper''' (no, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79NLmSokD2I we are not kidding]]). Nowadays, the most well-known utility players include Man United's Daley Blind and Liverpool's James Milner.

** Similarly, the M9 bayonet, currently issued to the US Army, is a knife bayonet that supposedly doubles as a camping utility. The design is horrible in melee combat and in camping usefulness, to the point that actual veterans preferred having a [[https://www.forgottenweapons.com/a-new-enfield-for-a-new-war-the-no4-mki/#comment-3656755 dedicated bayonet and camping toolset separately]].

** The [[UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} Steam Machine]] microconsole came out on November 10, 2015 with the Steam Controller, which was designed to work for games both with keyboard & mouse controls and gamepad controls to allow the machine to play a wider range of games. To do this, the D-pad and right analog stick found on other gamepads were replaced with two trackpads. The problem was that, on the keyboard and mouse end, the trackpads never matched the precision of a mouse nor could the controller match the number of buttons on a keyboard, while for gamepad controls the two trackpads were an awkward substitute for what they replaced due to their large size, flatness, and lack of tactile feedback, compared to the smaller and more tactile D-pad and analog stick; even some of its innovations (e.g. programmable buttons, including ones on the back of the controller that can be hit by fingers you otherwise never use on a gamepad and the ability to set different functions to half- and full pulls of the triggers) came at the cost of other features players would have liked (no legacy support for [=DirectInput=], so the controller needs a lot of setup to emulate keyboard and mouse controls for any game from before circa December 2005, and flat-out doesn't work if the game in question requires a gamepad). As a result, the gamepad did not catch on as well as its developer Creator/{{Valve}} had hoped, with Steam Controllers only contributing to 2.5%[[note]]around 1.5 million of the 60 million controllers[[/note]] of the gamepads linked to Steam. Due to both the Steam Machine's failure (much like the majority of microconsoles as listed above) and the Steam Controller's lack of popularity amongst PC gamers, the gamepad was discontinued on November 26, 2019, around four years after its release date.

* Similarly, {{Flying Car}}s have faced problems in this vein that prevent them from being anything other than CoolButInefficient. Designs have been around since 1917's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_Autoplane Curtiss Autoplane]], followed by [[https://www.ecosophia.net/progress-and-amnesia/ a considerable amount]] of other models. All of them have run into the same problems: traits a car needs for success, like an engine optimized for torque or heavy weight to grip the road, are different from ones an airplane needs, like an engine optimized for speed and light weight to more easily take off.

* While fans of [=SUVs=] consider the cars JackOfAllStats equally at home in the wilds and in urban environments, detractors often opine that the vehicle type is too domesticated for actual off-road duty while simultaneously being too big, too heavy and too fuel-hungry to make for a decent city car. They have, however, discovered a niche in suburban towns, where they often don't need to travel far (somewhat negating their fuel issues), and their size is useful for carrying lots of kids and their school/sporting equipment around - basically a "cooler" replacement for minivans.
* Similarly, hybrid bicycles. While they are popular among more casual riders, detractors argue that they tend to be much less durable off-road than a mountain bike and sacrifice a lot of the advantages a road bike has on the road (namely speed, light weight, and drop handlebars). Even for general commuting/in-city riding many people prefer a flat-handlebar road bike to a hybrid.

** ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII Black Ops II]]'' fixes the pistol issue from the previous game by only starting you with two handguns and giving them specific, opposite roles to fill (the Five-Seven is high-capacity with a fast rate of fire, low recoil, and quick but consistent damage drop-off; the Tac-45 is low-capacity, fires more slowly with heavier recoil, but its max-damage range reaches much farther before a very sudden drop-off), so this instead befalls the later Executioner for the reason that it's trying to fit into multiple roles at once. As a revolver that fires {{shotgun s|AreJustBetter}}hells, it's meant to combine the quick switch-time and movement speed of a handgun with the raw power and spread of a shotgun. Unfortunately, it happens to be trying this in a series that A) already gives pistols ridiculously-high damage at close range (both the aforementioned pistols deal as much damage at their max-damage range as the FAL OSW, the second-strongest assault rifle in the game, which is enough to kill in two shots) and B) [[ShortRangeShotgun hates shotguns with a burning passion]], so the shotgun benefits ultimately come at the cost of basically every other worthwhile attribute. While it does deal one-shot kills at point-blank range, the damage falls off so quickly that you need almost the entire five-shot cylinder for a single kill past about four feet (a distance where even the primary shotguns never need more than two unless you outright miss a shot); much further than that and the pellets [[ArbitraryWeaponange disappear entirely]], removing the ability to [[SniperPistol weakly plink away at an enemy to annoy them]] like the other pistols. If you are within the range to land that one shot kill, you are probably in range to knife the enemy instead. On top of that, its spread is actually too ''tight'' for its intended range, so glancing blows on a target who slips off the screen in a quarter of a second because you're literally touching them will deal next to no damage. All this also comes packaged with the standard revolver downside that, until you manage to grind out the Fast Mags attachment to get a speedloader, you're stuck reloading each individual shell painfully slowly.

** ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII Black Ops II]]'' fixes the pistol issue from the previous game by only starting you with two handguns and giving them specific, opposite roles to fill (the Five-Seven is high-capacity with a fast rate of fire, low recoil, and quick but consistent damage drop-off; the Tac-45 is low-capacity, fires more slowly with heavier recoil, but its max-damage range reaches much farther before a very sudden drop-off), so this instead befalls the later Executioner for the reason that it's trying to fit into multiple roles at once. As a revolver that fires {{shotgun s|AreJustBetter}}hells, it's meant to combine the quick switch-time and movement speed of a handgun with the raw power and spread of a shotgun. Unfortunately, it happens to be trying this in a series that A) already gives pistols ridiculously-high damage at close range (both the aforementioned pistols deal as much damage at their max-damage range as the FAL OSW, the second-strongest assault rifle in the game, which is enough to kill in two shots) and B) [[ShortRangeShotgun hates shotguns with a burning passion]], so the shotgun benefits ultimately come at the cost of basically every other worthwhile attribute. While it does deal one-shot kills at point-blank range, the damage falls off so quickly that you need almost the entire five-shot cylinder for a single kill past about four feet (a distance where even the primary shotguns never need more than two unless you outright miss a shot); much further than that and the pellets [[ArbitraryMaximumRange disappear entirely]], removing the ability to [[SniperPistol weakly plink away at an enemy to annoy them]] like the other pistols. If you are within the range to land that one shot kill, you are probably in range to knife the enemy instead. On top of that, its spread is actually too ''tight'' for its intended range, so glancing blows on a target who slips off the screen in a quarter of a second because you're literally touching them will deal next to no damage. All this also comes packaged with the standard revolver downside that, until you manage to grind out the Fast Mags attachment to get a speedloader, you're stuck reloading each individual shell painfully slowly.