History Main / RewardingInactivity

[[quoteright:215:[[Webcomic/{{Narbonic}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/narbonic-010301and_unremarkable-crop.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:215:[[INeedAFreakingDrink Superintelligence in action]].]]

* If you think of ''VideoGame/{{The Game|2008}}'', you lose. Thus by not playing it, you win. By the way, you just lost The Game.

* ''Videogame/{{Earthbound|1994}}'':

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'': One of the bosses, [[spoiler:The End]], dies of old age (should the player wait too long before resuming the game mid-battle, or change the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2's internal clock), Snake will feel guilty for letting him down, since the guy's dying wish was to fight him. Zero will also comment that Snake's mission is "not a game."
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', one of Genis' "Dependent" title is obtained by finishing a battle with him doing absolutely nothing.

* A UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis ''[[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]]'' game had Barney complete the level himself if you didn't touch anything for awhile.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' fangame ''The Genius Of Sappheiros'' makes it possible to recruit Byakuren [[DiscOneNuke at the beginning of the game]] by heading to the Myouren Shrine and waiting an hour.

* ''VideoGames/LooneyTunesDuckAmuck'' splits access to its various minigames roughly in half -- you either poke and prod Daffy and his environment until you find something to do, or you idle around with the DS console until something happens.

* ''VideoGame/WarioLand'':
** ''VideoGame/WarioLandII'': One of the hidden paths requires you to have Wario sleep in, by simply not pressing a button to wake him up at the start of the first level. After a few seconds (thirty seconds if this your first time playing the level), the stage ends and you get the new story.
** ''VideoGame/WarioWareTwisted'' features a microgame where you aren't supposed to create any input through the motion sensor. This is hard when it comes up in a normal game, but easy to do in the dedicated album mode (just set the console down for a few minutes).
** ''VideoGame/WarioWareTouched'': One of the microgame themes requires you to use the mic. Since nearly every game in the theme can be beaten just by blowing into the mic all the time, they'll occasionally be replaced (even if you're playing the single-game mode in the album!) with a tightrope-walking game that requires you to make no detectable noise at all.

* ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'', ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Dark Forces: Mysteries Of The Sith]]'', ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', and ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' all feature fights where you're supposed to do nothing but defend until your opponent gives up. Fighting back results in failure (or blocking off the best ending).
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', Cecil's class change pits him with his Dark Knight alter ego. The idea is that Cecil must not reject or destroy his dark self violently, meaning he has to stay on guard until the shadow recedes on it own. This can be considered GameplayAndStoryIntegration as well, because the Dark Knight uses an ability that damages the user, eventually destroying itself.
** In the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance re-release, Cecil is given some extra Paladin tasks to do in the BonusDungeon. One of them is standing guard in front of a door. No matter what kind of interesting, profitable, threatening or otherwise just plain funky things happen in front of you, you fail the quest if you step away.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', one of the boss battles is Gogo the mimic who performs whatever attack you do. To win, you have to do nothing. For extra pressure to attack, the battle also takes place after an underwater dungeon with a time limit which continues counting down during the boss battle...
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'', the quest to obtain the ranger job requires you to deal with the Old Sabertooth... by simply waiting for it to die. You can kill it, and it isn't even particularly hard, but it has to be allowed to die peacefully of old age for you to actually complete the quest.
* In the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', the game had a fatigue system that reduced your EXP gains if you played a long time. It was possible to play enough to the point where you got ''no'' experience points. The intent was to discourage people from playing the game without taking a break, but it wasn't well received. When the game got rebooted, the fatigue system was inverted; instead of reducing experience gains, you would get a boost in experience points if you logged out while in a sanctuary. The system was basically the same, but it rewarded players for taking a break rather than trying to push them to do it
* There's the famous example from ''Videogame/{{Earthbound}}'' where you have to stand motionless in front of a waterfall for three minutes to proceed. In this one LP of the game on Youtube, when the player got up to that part of the game, the video description said it all: "Three minutes of nothing. Now is the time to make yourself a sandwich."

* For some ''Videogame/{{Pokemon}}'', choosing ''not'' to evolve at the "normal" times opens up new avenues of possibility. Pokemon earlier in an evolution line learn moves earlier, or learn moves that later evolutions can't learn at all.
** Also in ''Videogame/{{Pokemon}}'', the door to Regice's chamber in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' and its remakes is unlocked by reading a braille message, which tells you to stand there for two minutes.
** In Gen VI, not evolving a Pokemon that evolves via level gives it bonus exp once it has reached the normal evolving level

* The developers of ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' added "day job rewards" as an AntiPoopSocking measure. When you log off in certain areas of the game, you gain a temporary power. The longer you are logged off there, the better the power.
** ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' also features several badges that are rewards for basically just being in a particular zone for a long enough time. It's possible to acquire those badges just by entering the zone, finding a safe spot, and walking away from your computer.
** Similarly, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' gives you a temporary experience bonus for logging off in an inn or allied city.

* One of the notes in ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonMagicalMelody'' is acquired by not moving the character for quite some time.

* In the breakout game ''Ricochet'' (one of the earlier versions) there was a level that played itself out perfectly if you simply released the ball without moving the ship. If you changed the position of the ship at all before releasing the ball, you had to play the whole screen yourself, and probably wouldn't get all of the blocks.

* Required in one part of ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory.'' You have to simply wait until Bowser's back is healed before proceeding. The game even suggests that you enjoy a cup of tea while doing so.
** Subverted in that there's a cheat code you can input to greatly speed up the process but [[GuideDangIt finding it or even knowing it exists is another matter entirely]].

* The Easy-difficulty [=CPUs=] in ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' games will sometimes make your job very easy. A rather impressive demonstration can be seen [[http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=m6PxRwgjzZw here]].

* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'':

* ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' has a very interesting example of this. [[spoiler:At the start of the game, when Pagan Min tells you to stay and enjoy the crab rangoon while he goes to torture a prisoner, you can choose to do just that instead of escaping. Wait in the room for about 13 minutes and you will get a secret ending where he takes you to where you were supposed to scatter your mother's ashes - your whole goal of coming back to Kyrat in the first place - and CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot.]]

* If you think of The Game, you lose. Thus by not playing it, you win.
** By the way, you just lost The Game.
* ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'' adds relics to an offline bank each day you don't play, to a maximum of 250. Each match you play gives you 20 relics from the bank, 10 if only 50 remain in bank, and 5 from 25 onwards.
** There's also a trophy for recreating the controller failure during their E3 demo. When you get to the point in the game which they were demonstrating, simply put your controller down and do nothing for 30 seconds to recieve it.

* In ''VideoGame/RealmGrinder'', doing absolutely nothing at the start of a run for 5 minutes awards you the "Need a Headstart?" Trophy.
** Being an IdleGame, progress will eventually come to letting the game play on it's own. The Undead and Drow factions both have upgrades that only work while idling/offline.

** ''VideoGame/WarioWareTwisted'' also featured a microgame where you weren't supposed to create any input through the motion sensor. This is hard when it comes up in a normal game, but easy to do in the dedicated album mode (just set the console down for a few minutes).

* ''VideoGame/WarioLand''
** One of the hidden paths in ''VideoGame/WarioLand 2'' requires you to have Wario sleep in, by simply not pressing a button to wake him up at the start of the first level. After a few seconds (thirty seconds if this your first time playing the level), the stage ends and you get the new story.
** One of the microgame themes in ''VideoGame/WarioWare Touched'' requires you to use the mic. Since nearly every game in the theme can be beaten just by blowing into the mic all the time, they'll occasionally be replaced (even if you're playing the single-game mode in the album!) with a tightrope-walking game that requires you to make no detectable noise at all.
** ''VideoGame/WarioWare Twisted!'' also featured a microgame where you weren't supposed to create any input through the motion sensor. This is hard when it comes up in a normal game, but easy to do in the dedicated album mode (just set the console down for a few minutes).

* ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' has a very interesting example of this. [[spoiler:At the start of the game, when Pagan Min tells you to stay and enjoy the crab rangoon, you can choose to do just that instead of escaping. Wait in the room for about 13 minutes and you will get a secret ending where he takes you to where you were supposed to scatter your mother's ashes - your whole goal of coming back to Kyrat in the first place - and CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot if you had acted like a normal person rather than a video game character.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', Cecil's class change pits him with his Dark Knight alter ego. The idea is that Cecil must not reject or destroy his dark self violently, meaning he has to stay on guard until the shadow recedes on it own.

* Unintentionally introduced in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' with RandomlyDrops. The originally had no way of telling if the player is actually, well, playing. This spawned a plethora of ''idling servers'' with small maps with AFK-monitoring disabled so the player can then minimize the game and do whatever else he wants while still enjoying the same chance to get new items as an active player. Eventually the system changed so once you get a drop, you can't get another one until you acknowledge it in your menu.

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' One of the bosses [[spoiler:The End]] dies of old age (should the player wait too long before resuming the game mid-battle, or change the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2's internal clock), Snake will feel guilty for letting him down, since The guy's dying wish was to fight him. Zero will also comment that Snake's mission is "not a game."

* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'', the [[AxCrazy Bloodthirster]] Greater Daemon takes persistent damage whenever it ''isn't'' engaged in close combat! In the campaign mode, because of the 'Thirster's rather [[ArtificialStupidity boneheaded AI]], all you need to do to kill it is to have it chase one unit in a circle while another unit opens fire, and [[WeWait wait for it to]] [[CriticalExistenceFailure crumble away]]. Seriously.

* The Easy-difficulty [=CPUs=] in VideoGame/MarioParty games will sometimes make your job very easy. A rather impressive demonstration can be seen [[http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=m6PxRwgjzZw here]].

** In the ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' stage on ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', one of the microgames that may pop up is to stand still and do nothing. However, stomping over this trope with steel-shod boots, it's sometimes better to suck down any punishment handed out for failing the Microgame... by landing some seriously heavy hits on your static opponents, since even the AI tries to follow the game's instruction to stay still. ''Falcon '''PUNCH!'''''

* The ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' mod ''Half Quake Amen'' had a part where you have to wait in some place that's supposed to be a train station of sorts for about ''20 minutes''. Appropriately enough, said part is called ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Patience]]''.