History SeriousBusiness / Videogames

** In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield Sword and Shield]]'', competitive Pokémon battle is a major thing in the Galar region that it is treated the same way sports are in RealLife, complete with TV coverage, packed stadiums, corporate sponsorships, and trainers wearing numbered uniforms like atheletes.

** It's not just in-universe, either. Fans of the {{Metagame}} treat it as SeriousBusiness, spending about as much time choosing which Pokemon to use, breeding/catching, raising and training their teams as some do with real animals. Selective breeding is done, sometimes through several generations, to get the right stats, nature ,ability and moveset, and exact numbers of wild Pokemon are fought to perfectly EV train (EV=Effort Values,the experience numbers that go up each time a Pokemon battles but aren't linked to XP, the points that gain levels) the Pokemon. Then held items and berries are added in. Metagamers also frequently use computer software to find just when to hatch an egg or catch a wild Pokemon to get a flawless or near flawless specimen, often shiny. The entire thing can take many hours to complete. The game itself has an entire community that has built rules and holds competitions aside from the official Nintendo ones and has even grouped the Pokemon into tiers of usefulness. And Arceus forbid anyone be revealed to be a hacker or using hacked Pokemon. Shortcuts with Rare Candies or VideoGame/GameShark codes are a surefire way to have your team slaughtered as well. Anyone who isn't totally devoted doesn't really stand much of a chance in competitive battling, as it doesn't matter if your team is all level 100 if you haven't taken the time to build your team properly. It's caused a bit of BrokenBase between hardcore competitive battlers and more casual gamers and turned some metagamers into the StopHavingFunGuys. Game Freak has countered this in the Sixth Generation by letting [=EVs=] be viewed and increased by way of Super Training. Obviously, the StopHavingFunGuys didn't really take this lying down, viewing the change as dumbing things down for the casuals.

** Sun and Moon even has one in universe about, of all things, Seaking:

** Archaeological evidence in the game's universe shows that Pokémon battling is thousands of years old, predating most other forms of warfare. The bigger surprise is that they actually ''didn't'' invent guns. The FantasyGunControl is ''invoked'' in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite''. In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' we get our first major glimpse into the [[ShowWithinAShow media]] of the Pokemon world where Pokémon supplant all weapons in conventional fiction storylines. For instance - in a bank heist movie, the cops and robbers use Pokémon instead of guns.

--> Trainers who are crazy for Seaking are divided into horn enthusiasts and fin enthusiasts. The two groups do not get along well.

--->Their world was veiled in darkness.
--->But now, as [[spoiler:monkey]] love blossoms and grows
--->a [[spoiler:monkey-full]] future surely lies ahead.
--->This is their home.
--->They will protect it.
--->Now, and always.

* Played with by ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' - soccer is frequently treated as Serious Business, yet our protagonist Endou tends to continually insist that soccer should ideally be, above all, a fun and enjoyable sport (it's a bit of a BerserkButton for him if anyone uses soccer for evil purposes, which is usually what the villains are doing). Even when there's an AlienInvasion trying to take over Japan using soccer to demonstrate their power. And then there's ''Inazuma Eleven GO'', which takes place in a future where Japan has degenerated into somewhat of a dystopia precisely because everybody takes soccer way too seriously. Save for the protagonists who are trying to turn things around.

--->'''Zaeed''': What could be more important than Zaeed Massani not getting bested by some ''fucking kids' game''?!\\
'''Shepard''': You really want one of those plushy toys.\\
'''Zaeed''': Goddamn right, I do!

-->'''Shepard''': ''[reading off the tag on the hamster cage]'' ...has no place on a military vessel and - oooh, ''that is so not okay!''

* In the ''Franchise/ProfessorLayton'' series, puzzles are serious business.

* The bonus-chapter of ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' parodies that: In this AlternateUniverse, everything revolves about the game ''Tin Pin Slammer'', which is actually just a tiny little mini-game in the main storyline. In this AlternateUniverse however, ''Tin Pin Slammer'''s power is so great, it actually "managed" to make Neku become an hopeless optimist, instead of an IneffectualLoner. (Count the times Neku's only two smiling Cut-scene-sprites are used in the main storyline. Now count how often they are used in the bonus chapter) Optimist-Neku also parodies the protagonists of shows like ''Anime/YuGiOh'', by holding monologues a lá "Oh Tin Pin, how happy you make our world!" or "All these different people can only be united by one thing: ''TIN PIN SLAMMER!!''"

** There's also people who will gladly point out any errors you make regarding details in a video game, its characters, or anything else you got wrong, even if you later admitted you flubbed up or 300+ other people already commented on the same mistakes. Some people will just point out the mistakes while others will question your sexuality or if you're even a true fan. Better hope you get the details right the first time!

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', masks are Serious F-ing Business. The entire culture of Termina seems obsessed with masks, and they also have a huge mask-themed festival every year where everyone wears masks. In fact, a traveling salesman who sells ''only'' masks comes around for the occasion. There is even a bar in Termina that, instead of a membership card, requires all customers to wear a cow mask for service. Then there is the couple's mask, which is extremely important as it is needed for two people to get married. If something happens to the mask, ''they don't get married''! The most serious example of all is Majora's Mask itself, which was crafted centuries ago by a tribe of, most likely, dark wizards to be used in ancient hexing rituals by invoking the power of the sinister, malevolent, demonic god, Majora. When the skull kid wears this mask, it takes control of him and causes the moon to fall on Termina, killing everyone in sight! Yeah, that's no Halloween costume. Although, technically, Termina is a mirror of Hyrule, so there might be a reason why everybody obsess over masks. But considering how many magical masks there are they might have a good reason.

In ''VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams'', dreamer boy Elliot Edwards goes all [[EmoTeen emo]] after he loses a basketball game. This is often [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in various parodies.

** Before them, there was ''VideoGame/MegaRace,'' released in 1993. The futuristic rail shooter/racing game is framed as a virtual-reality game show, with you as the contestant. How serious is this show? There is a meter on your dashboard to keep track of the viewer ratings you're pulling in for the show, and letting it run out gets you kicked off. The company hosting the show is free to build their tracks anywhere they please, and silence anyone that protests. The ''Mega Race'' show is broadcast on giant [=TVs=] mounted on everything, from buildings to billboards, and even on giant flying robots to ensure that EVERYONE is watching ''Mega Race'', no matter where they are or what they're doing.

* ''[[VideoGame/JakAndDaxter Jak X]]'' gives us Combat Racing. Sound like a good thing to watch on your day off? It brings in more than its home city's ''entire yearly budget''. Crime lords are willing to ''kill'' to ensure their bets pay off. And according to G.T. Blitz, it could become ''bigger''. Sure, it's not as basic as [[Franchise/YuGiOh a card game]], but come on, a sport based around driving in circles shooting people is this big?
** [[VideoGame/TwistedMetal Yes]].
*** Well, ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'' seems to be serious business for Calypso, just because he's a MagnificentBastard. It's serious for the competitors because Calypso's a LiteralGenie who'll grant them a wish if they win. It's serious for everyone else because there's a chance they'll get gunned down by crazed clowns in ice cream trucks.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'', [[TraumaInn Innkeeping]] is serious business. One of the sideplots involves this organization called the Syndicate of Pubs, Inns and Taverns ([[FunWithAcronyms SPIT]]) that regulates every inn in (almost) every town to make sure they're up to scratch. Every year, they hold a competition called the [[PunnyName Innys]] for the best inn in the land, with the main judge being the KING. The innkeeper who wins this award earns a ''massive'' gold trophy and earns the title of [[{{Pun}} Inn]]Credible [[HurricaneOfPuns Inn]]tertainor. One of the main characters, Er[[PunnyName inn]], comes from a long line of Inncredible Inntertainers and is expected to continue this proud tradition. When her innkeeping friends discover this, ''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny they start bowing at her feet]].'' If this isn't SeriousBusiness, then the fact that there's an Innkeeping MAFIA ''definitely'' is.

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry''. Bananas: SERIOUS DAMN BUSINESS! Every time the Kongs' banana horde gets stolen, it results in a violent RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Less so in later games like ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'', which portray the bananas as having various magic powers that ''would'' be pretty useful when trying to TakeOverTheWorld.

** During the ''Citadel'' DLC, [[PsychoForHire Zaeed]] becomes obsessed with winning a stuffed toy from a claw game for a kid. ''Really'' obsessed. And prone to cursing the game out when he loses. Later he and Garrus are planning home security for Shepard's apartment: laser trip wires to smash a glass feature and cut an intruder to ribbons, setting a spa to boil if anyone but Shepard uses it, a coffee maker that explodes. And them first hoping Shepard does not find out then warning of a code s/he has to input, then run like hell.

* In ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks]]'', trains are Serious Business. You begin the game as a train engineer apprentice on graduation day, a ceremony that involves the princess essentially ''knighting'' engineers. It gets pretty ridiculous soon after, where part of a track disappears and the characters are at a total loss as to how to proceed, even though it turns out the place you're trying to go to is a trivially short cave away (apparently no one's heard of ''walking'' anywhere). Partly justified in-universe as the train tracks turn out to be a CosmicKeystone that keeps the SealedEvilInACan imprisoned.

* In ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap]]'', nearly everyone you meet -- regardless of whether they're in deadly peril or even already dead -- is eager to "fuse Kinstones" with Link: match up broken halves of supposedly luck-altering ceramic circles, which Link finds in bushes and under rocks. Admittedly a successfully fused Kinstone usually ''does'' place a new treasure chest somewhere or open a new path, which might justify the almost universal interest... if anyone besides Link ever went looking for the results of successful fusion.

* ''{{Need for Speed}}: Underground'' and ''Underground 2'' started off giving street racers enough money to buy import sports cars, but ''Most Wanted'' 2005 and ''Carbon'' finally went to over-the-top extremes showing quite a bit of street racers with enough gold to buy German supercars ''won from street racing alone!''

* Played with by ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' - soccer is frequently treated as Serious Business, yet our protagonist Endou tends to continually insist that soccer should ideally be, above all, a fun and enjoyable sport. Even when there's an AlienInvasion trying to take over Japan using soccer to demonstrate their power. And then there's ''Inazuma Eleven GO'', which takes place in a future where Japan has degenerated into somewhat of a dystopia precisely because everybody takes soccer way too seriously. Save for the protagonists who are trying to turn things around.

** For that matter, [[RunningGag Cardboard Boxes]]. From [[MetalGearSolid Natasha's waxing eloquently on the history of cardboard]], to [[MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Naked Snake's feelings of true happiness when inside the box.]]

** It's not just in-universe, either. Fans of the {{Metagame}} treat it as SeriousBusiness, spending about as much time choosing which Pokemon to use, breeding/catching, raising and training their teams as some do with real animals. Selective breeding is done, sometimes through several generations, to get the right stats, nature ,ability and moveset, and exact numbers of wild Pokemon are fought to perfectly EV train (EV=Effort Values,the experience numbers that go up each time a Pokemon battles but aren't linked to XP, the points that gain levels) the Pokemon. Then held items and berries are added in. Metagamers also frequently use computer software to find just when to hatch an egg or catch a wild Pokemon to get a flawless or near flawless specimen, often shiny. The entire thing can take many hours to complete. The game itself has an entire community that has built rules and holds competitions aside from the official Nintendo ones and has even grouped the Pokemon into tiers of usefulness. And Arceus forbid anyone be revealed to be a hacker or using hacked Pokemon. Shortcuts with Rare Candies or VideoGame/GameShark codes are a surefire way to have your team slaughtered as well. Anyone who isn't totally devoted doesn't really stand much of a chance in competitive battling, as it doesn't matter if your team is all level 100 if you haven't taken the time to build your team properly. It's caused a bit of BrokenBase between hardcore competitive battlers and more casual gamers and turned some metagamers into the StopHavingFunGuys. Game Freak has countered this in the Sixth Generation by letting EVs be viewed and increased by way of Super Training. Obviously, the StopHavingFunGuys didn't really take this lying down, viewing the change as dumbing things down for the casuals.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'', [[TraumaInn Innkeeping]] is serious business. One of the sideplots involves this organization called the Syndicate of Pubs, Inns and Taverns that regulates every inn in (almost) every town to make sure they're up to scratch. Every year, they hold a competition called the [[PunnyName Innys]] for the best inn in the land, with the main judge being the KING. The innkeeper who wins this award earns a ''massive'' gold trophy and earns the title of [[{{Pun}} Inn]]Credible [[HurricaneOfPuns Inn]]tertainor. One of the main characters, Er[[PunnyName inn]], comes from a long line of Inncredible Inntertainers and is expected to continue this proud tradition. When her innkeeping friends discover this, ''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny they start bowing at her feet]].'' If this isn't SeriousBusiness, then the fact that there's an Innkeeping MAFIA ''definitely'' is.

** It's not just in-universe, either. Fans of the {{Metagame}} treat it as SeriousBusiness, spending about as much time choosing which Pokemon to use, breeding/catching, raising and training their teams as some do with real animals. Selective breeding is done, sometimes through several generations, to get the right stats, nature ,ability and moveset, and exact numbers of wild Pokemon are fought to perfectly EV train (EV=Effort Values,the experience numbers that go up each time a Pokemon battles but aren't linked to XP, the points that gain levels) the Pokemon. Then held items and berries are added in. Metagamers also frequently use computer software to find just when to hatch an egg or catch a wild Pokemon to get a flawless or near flawless specimen, often shiny. The entire thing can take many hours to complete. The game itself has an entire community that has built rules and holds competitions aside from the official Nintendo ones and has even grouped the Pokemon into tiers of usefulness. And Arceus forbid anyone be revealed to be a hacker or using hacked Pokemon. Shortcuts with Rare Candies or VideoGame/GameShark codes are a surefire way to have your team slaughtered as well. Anyone who isn't totally devoted doesn't really stand much of a chance in competitive battling, as it doesn't matter if your team is all level 100 if you haven't taken the time to build your team properly. It's caused a bit of BrokenBase between hardcore competitive battlers and more casual gamers and turned some metagamers into the StopHavingFunGuys.

* Everyone in ''VideoGame/YuGiOhCapsuleMonsterColiseum'' takes Capsule Monsters just as seriously as Duel Monsters, especially where Seto Kaiba's concerned.