History Main / NoPlotNoProblem

* ''Film/{{Baraka}}'' is, quite simply, '''the''' incarnation of this trope, in its most highly distilled form. In his review Creator/RogerEbert said it should be the presentation on the "golden record" of the next spacecraft to go outside the solar system, as it is essentially a wordless montage of Earth's greatest sights and sounds. That Ebert included it in his list of the greatest movies ever made is proof-positive that it succeeded with aplomb.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is notable for its success without any single-player component at all for years, until the introduction of a single-player training mode in 2010. An ever-expanding story that went from the ExcusePlot of "Two corporations run the world and employ mercenary teams when they need to apply force" has expanded on the ''[=TF2=]'' website to forge personal links between the characters and create an AlternateHistory that includes bitter dispute among the powerful family behind those corporations and Australia becoming a world power through mastery of {{Unobtainium}} and [[MundaneMadeAwesome gravel]]. None of all this has any bearing on the game itself -- other than introducing new guns -- which pretty much remains plotless.
** Until the introduction of ''Mann Vs Machine'' mode, which dialed things up to the unprecedented new world of ExcusePlot! (Mr. Grey wants Mr. Hale's stockpile of radioactive gold; defend a factory from Grey's MoneySpider robots)

* Many "resource simulation" games, like ''VideoGame/SimCity'' or ''VideoGame/RollercoasterTycoon'', will begin with a blank slate.
** In the case of ''[=SimCity=]'', creator Will Wright came up with the term "software toy" for his ''Sim'' creations: since you can do anything you like and the "game" doesn't really tell you whether you've "won" or "lost", it's more like a toy (a Franchise/{{LEGO}} set comes to mind) than a game. To be sure, you can be doing "better" or "worse," but then, toys have that function too (e.g., when your LEGO construction falls apart or breaks or just doesn't look right to you).

* ''*Corpus Callosum'' by Michael Snow is mostly composed of a tracking shot across an impossibly long segment of an office building where elements repeat, surreal happenings occur and early 3D effects are experimented with. Occasionally, we are shown a family's living room where objects disappear and similarly odd events occur to the family members. None of the characters are given any names or characterisation as they function more as extensions of the environment. We can hear a director giving instructions at various points and the fourth wall is regularly played with or broken.

* ''VideoGame/ThePedestrian'' is about a black image of a person navigating drawings.

** Worms are trying to kill each other with nasty weapons. Why? Who knows? More to the point, who cares?
** Amusingly enough, if one sits on the menu screen for long enough in almost any of the games, the background music reveals itself to be an incredibly long intro to a voiced ballad. Sung by Bjorn Lynne, both versions (Wormsong and Wormsong 2003) detail a single event of mortal combat in the near-eternal cycles of wormy war. Still no real plot for the actual game, though.

Compare HighConcept, PlayTheGameSkipTheStory, PornWithoutPlot, and RandomEventsPlot. Contrast with ExcusePlot, which is when a game ''does'' have a plot, if one that is just an excuse for the gameplay- these games don't even have that, focusing solely on the gameplay.

* ''Manga/FuanNoTane'' consists entirely of just little individual snippets showing [[SurrealHorror strange creepy things happening]], with no explanation, conclusions, or reoccurring characters.

* A lot of instrumental music that just features an abstract title ("First Symphony, "Concert For Orchestra", "Music/ToccataAndFugueInDMinor") and no explanation of a central theme.

* ''Pinball/SpaceRiders'' suggests something about futuristic motorcycles racing in a futuristic city with an [[HoodOrnamentHottie attractive blonde in the back,]] but nothing resembling an actual story.
* The various ''Pinball/{{Playboy}}'' pinballs eschew any pretense of a plot and go straight for the {{Fanservice}}. Doubly so with [[Pinball/PlayboyStern Stern's game]], which supports fully nude Playmates as an operator option.

* While ''[[Pinball/PinBot Pin*Bot]]'' and ''[[Pinball/TheMachineBrideOfPinBot The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot]]'' at least ''tried'' to have a story, ''[[Pinball/JackBot Jack*Bot]]'' gives up and just throws some casino stuff at you.

* There isn't even any attempt to explain what's going on in ''[[Pinball/{{ACDC}} AC/DC]]''. When a game begins, the player is simply asked to pick a song, then shoot for certain things on the playfield. It doesn't even have a premise like with ''Pinball/{{Metallica}}'' where the band members are characters--the only audio in the game are the music, sound effects pertaining to what's been shot, and a few quick and sparse voice clips of some unknown character unrelated to anything.
* ''Pinball/TheBeatles''' premise begins and ends at "it's [[TheSixties the mid-'60s]] and Music/{{the Beatles}} are sweeping America". There is no real plot to speak of.
* ''Pinball/GunsNRosesJerseyJack'' is themed around [[Music/GunsNRoses the band]]'s touring circuit and has no real plot, with the various Album Modes briefly delving into different scenarios loosely inspired by the band's music.
* ''Pinball/LedZeppelin'' has no real story, aside from the implied premise of helping the band attain success (as seen in song modes, where the goal is to get as many gold and platinum records as possible, and in the heavy emphasis on concert footage on the display).

* TabletopGame/{{Chess}}, TabletopGame/{{Checkers}}, TabletopGame/{{Go}}, and other ancient board games--they have the themes of "warfare", "strategy", and "outwitting your opponent", but no actual plot to speak of.
* In an interesting aversion, Chaturanga, the precursor to modern chess, has a "setting" in South Asia (presumably India) and is named for a battle in the epic ''Mahabharata''.

* The first European set of ''Toys/FlickToStickBungees'' figures completely lacks a plot. The succeeding set, Bionic Bungees, adds a plot involving some people on a safari who discover the Bungees in the wild and observe their behavior.

* ''WesternAnimation/PigtailRag'' is a ShortFilm by Shawn Siegel that has no real plot. It stars an anthropomorphic pig leaving his apartment building, jumping into a poster at a travel agency and meeting a lady pig at an outdoor concert. That's pretty much it.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* While ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' has an ExcusePlot, probably the majority of [[GameMod custom maps and full-game "megawads"]] entirely lack a plot or even a defined setting. Many of them actually ''mock the very idea'' of a plot in a Doom wad in their readme files.
** John Carmack, who was the lead programmer on the game, once commented that “Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It’s expected to be there, but it’s not that important.”
** Downplayed with [[VideoGame/Doom2016 the 2016 game]]. Within the game, there ''is'' a plot, but it's [[ExcusePlot still pretty thin]]. [[AllThereInTheManual Within the Codex]], however, is a plethora of information on the history of the characters, the UAC, the monsters, and even the Doom Slayer himself. Fully averted with ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' which has a more engaging story and puts an extra focus on fleshing out the series lore.

* ''Videogame/{{Splitgate}}'' in its current form as of September 2021 simply has no plot explaining why the various power-armored (or casually-clothed) sorts are shooting at each other through portals. The devs have stated before it's some manner of competitive sport, however, but have not yet elaborated.
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is notable for its success without any single-player component at all for years, until the introduction of a single-player training mode in 2010. An ever-expanding story that went from the ExcusePlot of "Two corporations run the world and employ mercenary teams when they need to apply force" has expanded on the ''[=TF2=]'' website to forge personal links between the characters and create an AlternateHistory that includes bitter dispute among the powerful family behind those corporations and Australia becoming a world power through mastery of {{Unobtainium}} and [[MundaneMadeAwesome gravel]]. None of all this has any bearing on the game itself - other than introducing new guns - which pretty much remains plotless.

%%* ''VideoGame/{{Trackmania}}''
%%* ''VideoGame/SanFranciscoRush''

* The ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series didn't even have a plot to speak of besides Nintendo toys coming to life and fighting until ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', which had [[FourLinesAllWaiting a proper storyline]] of Nintendo characters resisting an interdimensional army invasion across multiple fronts. Then Creator/MasahiroSakurai was dismayed that people could just go watch the cutscenes of ''Brawl''[='=]s story mode on Website/YouTube, so on the next go-around he wrote ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate''[='=]s story mode with the ExcusePlot that an evil ball of light makes a WorldWreckingWave that kills every video game character that is not in the game and transforms their disembodied souls into {{evil knockoff}}s of the playable roster for no apparent reason, so off you go killing knockoffs and [[GottaCatchThemAll collecting the liberated souls]] on your way to the evil ball of light; the amount of cutscenes during your adventure can be counted on one hand. In fact, Sakurai's reluctance to develop a plot-heavy Adventure Mode after that of ''Brawl'' led to said mode being ditched altogether for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'', not even having a fully story-free version like that of ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee Melee]]''.
* The first ''VideoGame/ChaosFaction'' game had no plot whatsoever other than 'just beat the crap out of your opponents.' ''Chaos Faction 2'' had a [[ExcusePlot miniscule subplot]] revolving around the BigBad, Vortigon, returning, but it too focused much more on the actual combat, other than the stage-specific scenarios.

* ''Friction'' is an rare case of the gory action kind. There's not a semblance of a plot or even anything to believably discern a plot from. Pressing start immediately drops you into the game without any intro cutscene, the PlayerCharacter is never seen, the stages don't have names, there's no dialogue or voice-acting besides the enemy soldiers' dying grunts, and finishing merely gets you a slideshow of all the enemy models followed by credits.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': AvertedTrope by multiplayer missions, which take place in locations Shepard visits in-game (before the expansions, at least) and involve parties of [[MauveShirt side characters]] helping with the war effort. They even get mentioned in (and have some impact on) the single-player campaign, and with a DLC you can even meet and overhear some of the participants talking about them.

* ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'', ''VideoGame/{{Asteroids}}'', and ''VideoGame/GeometryWars'' have no plot attached to them.

* ''VideoGame/CrimzonClover'', despite bearing many of the staples of a modern arcade BulletHell shooter (such as a finite number of stages), has absolutely no plot, even if you check the manual. This trope continues into its UsefulNotes/{{arcade|Game}} and {{UsefulNotes/Steam}} UpdatedRerelease.

* ''VideoGame/{{Galaxian}}'': And to an even larger extent, ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'' and its descendants. To this day, there is confusion as to who the Galaxians are. The original game strongly suggests that it's TheFederation which your ship (called a Galaxip) presumably represents. But PopCultureOsmosis has suggested that the Galaxians are the alien invaders. And is ''Galaga'' a sequel or a remake/reimagining? Are any of the ''Galaxian''/''Galaga'' games even related to each other in story? Does ''Galaxian'' share a universe with ''Videogame/{{Gorf}}'' (which has a Galaxian stage)? or ''VideoGame/PacMan'' (which has a Galaxian flagship as one of the bonus items)? Eventually Namco did some CanonWelding by creating the UGSF Series, which [[AllThereInTheManual gave some backstory information]] and confirmed that Galaga was a sequel to Galaxian.f
* ''Videogame/{{Phoenix}}'' gives no explanation for the premise in the arcade version. The manual for the Atari 2600 port, does create a reason for why the phoenix birds are hostile (something they clearly were not in Myth/GreekMythology) and why there are so many of them (traditional mythololgy is consistent on there being only one phoenix at any time). Radioactive fallout fell on the phoenix's nest causing them to mutate and multiply.

* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' has no real story or backstory to the game aside from player fanon. There's just you, your space program, a ton of rocket parts, a solar system filled with planets and moons, and an endless supply of eager would-be rocket jockeys.
* ''VideoGame/ConwaysGameOfLife'' has neither a plot nor an objective. You simply draw on the grid, press play, and then sit back and watch how the Life universe evolves.

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'':
** Abandons all plots so that players can pick one of several heroes of the franchise. Some of which are centuries apart in the ''Castlevania'' timeline.
** The menu is the pages of a book, and there are equipment hotspots that are books. There is a very light excuse plot that Dracula is taking over the book and the other Castlevania heroes, including Dracula [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow himself]] have to stop him... but it's an arcade-style game, and WordOfGod states there is no plot.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'': While the series has lately gone for more complex stories, it started out without any single one.

* ''VideoGame/RollingSky'': Swipe along the screen to make the ball you’re controlling avoid pitfalls & traps. The App Store description has something about conquering the world, but that was never mentioned again. Interestingly, its InNameOnly sequel is an ''inversion''. See below for more details.

** This also occurred in ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo Puyo Puyo Tetris]]'' and its sequel, which use a set of characters themed on each of the Tetrimino pieces unique to these games. The seven of them make up the crew of the Starship Tetra; their meeting up with the ''Puyo Puyo'' characters become the games' inciting incidents.
* Unlike its prequel, as seen above, ''Rolling Sky 2'' attempts to have some kind of plot in each level. Some stories include: a puppet trying to escape from his master (Fate), a young boy dreaming about following a star to another planet (Starry Dream & Puzzle), said boy getting sucked into a portal & exploring Ancient Egypt (Pharaohs), two thieves falling in love while stealing a treasure chest (Theft & Theft Prequel), & a clown traveling in a world full of instruments while transforming into a conductor ({{WesternAnimation/Fantasia}})
** One of the levels, Jazz, has the least amount of plot, playing this trope straight.

* ''Animation/TheMindsEye'' series. Its primary purpose was to showcase animation technology and talent of the early '90s, and it is composed of clips of computer animation from hundreds of animators, so there was very little thought given to any sort of plot. The sequences act just like the segments from ''Fantasia'' above (set to electronic music, of course), but there are a few attempts at a story. Both ''The Mind's Eye'' and ''Beyond the Mind's Eye'' feature whole sequences that have a self-contained story because the story was already planned out by the studios who submitted them. ''The Gate to the Mind's Eye'' attempts to form a coherent story, but it's largely lost [[AllThereInTheManual if you don't read the box or DVD case]].

* ''Pinball/GunsNRosesJerseyJack'' is themed around [[Music/GunNRoses the band]]'s touring circuit and has no real plot, with the various Album Modes briefly delving into different scenarios loosely inspired by the band's music.

** Downplayed with [[VideoGame/Doom2016 the 2016 game]]. Within the game, there ''is'' a plot, but it's [[ExcusePlot still pretty thin]]. [[AllThereInTheManual Within the Codex]], however, is a plethora of information on the history of the characters, the UAC, the monsters, and even the Doom Slayer himself. Fully averted with VideoGame/DoomEternal which has a more engaging story and puts an extra focus on fleshing out the series lore.

* ''VideoGame/{{Breakout}}'' was originally seen by players as a variation on pong. With the sequel ''Super Breakout'', the box illustration depicted a man in a spacesuit deflecting a sort of energy ball at forcefield bricks. Even at the time, players had a hard time being convinced that a game like ''Breakout'' could represent a hazardous outer space adventure. But then along came ''Arkanoid'' which was basically an evolved version of ''Breakout'' where your paddle really is a spaceship and you can blast bricks with lasers via a powerup.

* There is no mention in-game in ''Pocket Rumble'', or anything on the description pages where the game can be legally downloaded, of its story or even a premise. You are given 8 characters, ColorCodedForYourConvenience, to fight against other people, and that's about it. Even the single-player mode is completely devoid of plot, consisting of your selected character going up against every character in the roster (including [[MirrorMatch themselves]]) in a fixed order followed by [[AWinnerIsYou a shot congratulating the player]] and then the credits.

* The ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series didn't even have a plot to speak of besides Nintendo toys coming to life and fighting until ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', which had [[FourLinesAllWaiting a proper storyline]] of Nintendo characters resisting an interdimensional army invasion across multiple fronts. Then Creator/MasahiroSakurai was dismayed that people could just go watch the cutscenes of ''Brawl''[='=]s story mode on Website/YouTube, so on the next go-around he wrote ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate''[='=]s story mode with the ExcusePlot that an evil ball of light makes a WorldWreckingWave that kills every video game character that is not in the game and transforms their disembodied souls into {{evil knockoff}}s of the playable roster for no apparent reason, so off you go killing knockoffs and [[GottaCatchThemAll collecting the liberated souls]] on your way to the evil ball of light; the amount of cutscenes during your adventure can be counted on one hand.

-->--'''WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}}'''

In the days of RetroGaming, limited processing power restricted the amount of storytelling a game designer could employ, so by necessity many games of the era were either this or an ExcusePlot that relied on AllThereInTheManual and / or environmental storytelling. Today, much of the big money in video game production is aimed at big blockbuster-style story experiences, so this is more likely to be the aim of smaller productions or other games with a limited scope. Sports, puzzle and racing games are also common exceptions to this rule even in the AAA space because of how limiting the gameplay can be on any story they're trying to tell (but some have pulled it off).

* ''VideoGame/TheGameOfLife'' has neither a plot nor an objective. You simply draw on the grid, press play, and then sit back and watch how the Life universe evolves.

* ''VideoGame/{{Downwell}}'' : The protagonist jumps down the well for seemingly no reason.

* ''VideoGame/{{Antichamber}}'': Has no narrative. Just a [[{{Minimalism}} minimalist]] series of hallways full of puzzles, wry observations on the current situation and how it relates to life written on the walls, and AlienGeometries.

* ''VideoGame/EnglishCountryTune'' is an abstract puzzle game, where you control a square and do various tasks on cubic, (apparently) floating structures.

* ''VideoGame/FallGuysUltimateKnockout'' appears to be a GameShow of some sort, but it gives no explanation for its content beyond that. Just slap on a wacky outfit and jump into a 50-to-60-player free-for-all tournament, orchestrated by... someone. It doesn't give any clues as to why all the competitors are bulky bean-people, either, though the fans have plenty of theories.

* There's no story given in ''VideoGame/TheFloorIsJelly'', not even on its official website or development blog. Just you jumping around in a very bouncy world.

* ''VideoGame/{{Galaxian}}'': And to an even larger extent, ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'' and its descendants. To this day, there is confusion as to who the Galaxians are. The original game strongly suggests that it's TheFederation which your ship (called a Galaxip) presumably represents. But PopCultureOsmosis has suggested that the Galaxians are the alien invaders. And is ''Galaga'' a sequel or a remake/reimagining? Are any of the ''Galaxian''/''Galaga'' games even related to each other in story? Does ''Galaxian'' share a universe with ''Videogame/{{Gorf}}'' (which has a Galaxian stage)? or ''VideoGame/PacMan'' (which has a Galaxian flagship as one of the bonus items)? Eventually Namco did some CanonWelding by creating the UGSF Series, which [[AllThereInTheManual gave some backstory information]] and confirmed that Galaga was a sequel to Galaxian.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''[='s=] multiplayer maps avert this. They are all {{canon}} in some way or another.
** The multiplayer from ''VideoGame/Halo4'' onward averts it further: it's justified as combat exercises carried out in the advanced starship ''Infinity'' and various other special facilities. The maps are even used in the story-oriented ''Spartan Ops'', and some maps made specifically for Forge are even said to be real locations picked for the potential "War Games" mapmakers could use in them.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': AvertedTrope by multiplayer missions, which take place in locations Shepard visits in-game (before the expansions, at least) and involve parties of [[MauveShirt side characters]] helping with the war effort. They even get mentioned in (and have some impact on) the single-player campaign, and with a DLC you can even meet and overhear some of the participants talking about them.

* While most ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games have an ExcusePlot at the very least, ''VideoGame/PokemonDash'' and the second ''VideoGame/PokemonTrozei'' game don't even have that. ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' has the usual Professor handing out starter Pokémon, but that's pretty much all the story you get--no reason is ever given for why there are Pokémon in the real world, or why the Valor, Mystic, and Instinct teams are endlessly fighting to control gyms.

* ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'': While the series has a vibrant universe and quirky (though often one-dimensional) characters, and most games have a story mode with a mostly-coherent plot, there have been exceptions where there is no plot at all:
** ''Puyo Puyo'' for the MSX/FDS/Famicom, which most of its gameplay is just the Marathon mode, like ''Tetris''.
** ''Nazo Puyo'' 1 and 2 had objective-based puzzles with nothing else really going on.
** ''Puyo Puyo Champions'' is a heavily multiplayer-focused game. There's battling with AI, local and online multiplayer, but that's about it. Even with 24 playable characters, with some either [[TheBusCameBack returning after years of absence]] or [[AscendedExtra appearing in the main games for the first time]] after being exclusive to the mobile game ''Puyo Puyo Quest'', there is no in-universe explanation as for why they're there.

* PuzzleGame: ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Bejeweled}}'' - at least, the first game. The later games revolved a CaptainErsatz of Franchise/IndianaJones solving puzzles to win back his girlfriend, uncover treasures, and defeat villains.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}'': while ''VideoGame/Rayman2TheGreatEscape'' and ''VideoGame/Rayman3HoodlumHavoc'' have elaborate plots, ''VideoGame/Rayman1'', ''VideoGame/RaymanOrigins'' and ''VideoGame/RaymanLegends'' just briefly tell you that the world is in danger and then you're off joyfully jumping around jungles, forests, BandLand and a giant Mexican kitchen.

* ''VideoGame/SonicDash''. You run, jump, duck, kill enemies, collect rings, and occasionally fight a boss.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMonkeyBall'': With the exception of "Banana Blitz", the Challenge Mode of each game is basically your monkey is hungry and wants to get bananas by navigating [[NintendoHard deviously designed obstacle courses]] [[SphereFactor inside a clear plastic ball.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' traditionally lacks a plot. The closest it has to an actual canon is ''Videogame/PuyoPuyo Tetris'', and even then it's obviously a crossover with another game, one that uses new characters to represent ''Tetris''. And even then, they're technically ''Puyo Puyo'' characters since they don't appear in any other game.

* ''VideoGame/WreckingCrew'': This game is about two {{Palette Swap}}ped brothers walking around demolishing walls while a foreman and some monsters try to get in their way. Not even the manual tries to explain why.

* Both works by Nakayama Masaaki, ''Manga/FuanNoTane'' and ''Manga/PTSDRadio'', are just little individual snippets showing [[SurrealHorror strange creepy things happening]], with no explanation, conclusions, or reoccurring characters.

** The menu is the pages of a book, and there are equipment hotspots that are books. There is a very light excuse plot that Dracula is taking over the book and the other Castlevania heroes, including Dracula [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow himself]] have to stop him... but it's an arcade-style game, and WordOfGod states there is no plot.

* Nearly the entirety of Literature/ARebours
consists of Des Esseintes furnishing his home in accordance with his aesthetic tastes and his thoughts on religion, art, philosophy, literature, and more.

* Nearly the entirety of Literature/AgainstNature consists of Des Esseintes furnishing his home in accordance with his aesthetic tastes and his thoughts on religion, art, philosophy, literature, and more.

** ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter2004'': As the first game, it lacks a real story and all you have to do in the story are quests unrelated to each other. The closest thing to a plot is your slaying of the Monoblos that is treated as surpassing the retired Kokoto Chief in hunting ability, but even that hardly impacts your experience if you don't pay attention to the dialogues. The UpdatedRerelease ''Monster Hunter G'' and portable adaptation ''Monster Hunter Freedom/Portable'' are likewise devoid of any real plot