History SeriousBusiness / Videogames

* In the more recent ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games, some sort of minigame, usually a collectible card game, is played worldwide. In the most blatant cases, it's possible to challenge someone to a match [[TakeYourTime in the middle of a battle or other disaster]].
** Especially blatant in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX X]]''. In the former after [[spoiler:time has been compressed,]] you can still find members of the card-gaming club from Balamb Garden in the blasted wasteland that is left, and in the latter you can use the save-crystal deep inside of Sin to go play Blitzball.
*** The combination of blitzball being Serious Business and a growing distrust in the Church of Yevon means that you can still play Blitzball after the Church has declared your party guilty of murdering a Maester, treason, practicing witchcraft without a license, jaywalking and every other ecclesiastical crime Bevelle could find. One of the Luca Goers even comments that treason means ''nothing'' in the sphere pool.
*** Blitzball's serious business status is {{Justified}} by characters in game. What with Sin threatening all life on Spira every decade or so, most people have very little to look forward to in life. Blitzball technology is one of the only things that Sin does not purge back to the dark ages, making it a convenient distraction from the CrapsackWorld of the setting. So yeah, people take it pretty seriously.
** You get this poem in ''X-2'' after completing a certain side-quest. [[spoiler:involving monkeys]].

* 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 obsesses over masks. But considering how many magical masks there are they might have a good reason.

** It's not just in-universe, either. Fans of the {{Metagame}} treat it as Serious Business, 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 Pokémon 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 Pokémon 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.

** It's not just in-universe, either. Fans of the {{Metagame}} treat it as Serious Business, 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 Pokémon 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 Pokémon 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.

* The bonus-chapter of ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' parodies this: 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!!''"

* Video Games in general tend to be this. Go into just about any video game themed message forum. You're bound to see some pretty heated debates over which console system is better, which genre-specific game is better (this is especially true of JRPG's), etc.
** Website/YouTube videos that show someone playing a video game will generate similar responses. Playing games is such a serious business that there will be at least one comment that says the person playing sucks, the person playing is [[StopHavingFunGuys is doing it wrong]], or how they (the person commenting) can do so much better than the guy in the video.
** Likewise, well known video game critics, journalists, and analysts are treated as either people who know what it takes to set things right in the video game industry or people that are just paid to troll everyone.
** 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 [[NoTrueScotsman if you're even a true fan]]. Better hope you get the details right the first time!
** Online play in general can tend to be this. Some have played so many matches and put in so many hours that it's reasonably not just their job but their whole lives. This can go further depending on who they play with and against, as well as style of play.
** In [=MMORPGs=], some players take competitive play like [=PvP=] and Guild battles, as well as Raids ''very, very'' seriously.
** e-Sports. They're slowly approaching the same level of SB as regular sports.

* The LBX, which are part model kits and part functioning robots, in ''VideoGame/DanballSenki''. For what are supposedly kids' toys, top of the art tech is dedicated to them, completed with AceCustom and SuperPrototype. And almost everything is solved through LBX battle, including an assassination.

** In ''Apollo Justice'', {{stage magic|ian}}.

* In the fan-made RPG ''VideoGame/{{Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden}}'', basketball is Serious Business. In the dystopian TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, basketball has been outlawed after a "Chaos Dunk" destroyed New York, and almost every basketball player in the world was killed in "The Great B-Ball Purge". Hilarious if only because of how serious everyone is about it, and surprisingly fun to boot.

* Averted in ''VisualNovel/{{Canvas 2}}''. Only the artists themselves and a few others take the world of painting that seriously.

* In ''Kiseki'' series, there are several characters who are quite serious in something that they really loves.
** Rean Schwarzer -- Hot springs
** Elliot Craig -- Music perfomance. He can be pretty scary when it comes to do the music right as seen in Cold Steel I.
** Crow Armbrust -- Artistic performance. Seeing the normally laid-back Crow so serious about making the concert a hit is really funny as seen in Cold Steel I. [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel IV'', when the Class VII arrives in Crossbell for a mission and are in need of a distraction, he's able to create a performance worthy of Arc en Ciel in the span of a few days together with Elliot.]]
** Aurelia Le Guin -- With everything. As she says, 'The World is a Battlefield' and considering what a Blood Knight she is, she takes everything she does with a gusto.
** Tio Plato -- Mishy, the mascot character of Michelam Wonderland. Her room is full of MWL merchandise (and later some Kagemaru goods), her room decoration scene is all about her love of cat-related things, at one point she give Sully a lecture on the importance of Mishy and the one question she absolutely has to ask a fortune-teller is 'how compatible are Mishy and I?'.
** Ries Argent -- Food. Even as a little girl she could tell you which brand of chocolate had the best ratio of taste to cost... and yes, that can totally be calculated mathematically. She can be seen eating during [[spoiler: Olivert's wedding in Cold Steel IV.]]

** Kamat, the Legend4, used his/her influence to build an army.
** Dr. Disc was so determined to defend his title of Legend3 in the first game that he kidnapped Cody's love interest, who was Disc's own daughter.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''{{VideoGame/Space Quest III|ThePiratesOfPestulon}}'' and ''{{VideoGame/Space Quest V|TheNextMutation}}'', where the Gippazoid Novelty Company sends a [[Film/TheTerminator robot assassin]] after player character Roger Wilco because of a heinous crime he committed in ''{{VideoGame/Space Quest II|VohaulsRevenge}}'': failing to pay for a mail-ordered whistle ([[SeriesContinuityError which was free at the time, even]]). If you're wondering what kind of company would do this, they are also responsible for [[VideoGame/SpaceQuestITheSarienEncounter a slot machine that kills you if you get the wrong match]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Summon Night}}'''s ''Swordcraft Story'' subseries treats weapon crafting like this. Apparently, it's considered dishonorable for a Craftknight to fight with a weapon made by someone else, even in life or death situations.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'':
** In the fan-made spin-off ''Touhou Soccer'', the ''Touhou'' cast will unleash their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kofnEdB8Blc world-shattering attacks]] for the sake off scoring a few goals.

** Canon material gives us ''Double Spoiler'', where Aya and Hatate have an epic duel over... who has the better newspaper.

* While court trials are SeriousBusiness in real life, the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' games elevate this to a new level with how over the top their cases get. And while being a lawyer is quite a respectable career in real life, they're practically superstars in the gameverse.

** Phoenix's assistant/sidekick Maya considers anything she's interested in to be SeriousBusiness. The sad part is, she usually finds at least one other person who wholeheartedly agrees with her, leaving Phoenix to wonder if he's the OnlySaneMan.

* 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, ''they start bowing at her feet.'' If this isn't SeriousBusiness, then the fact that there's an Innkeeping MAFIA ''definitely'' is.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dustforce}}'' is SeriousBusiness: The Game. Your main characters are ninja janitors in a world where excessive filth can turn people, animals, and random objects into monsters.

*** The combination of blitzball being SeriousBusiness and a growing distrust in the Church of Yevon means that you can still play Blitzball after the Church has declared your party guilty of murdering a Maester, treason, practicing witchcraft without a license, jaywalking and every other ecclesiastical crime Bevelle could find. One of the Luca Goers even comments that treason means ''nothing'' in the sphere pool.

* In ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', the wildly popular character [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Missile]] is a Pomeranian who gives an epic speech on how being a dog is SeriousBusiness. [[spoiler:He then proceeds to save people's lives.]]

--> "Fighting is '''SeriousBusiness'''"

** 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 Pokémon 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 Pokémon 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.

* Apparently the boys and girls of the ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' franchise are very much aware that they're playing a PUZZLE GAME and it's SeriousBusiness to them. Because apparently, if you lose, you die. Mostly. ''Any'' puzzle game with a storyline can have this happen. Just finish ''VideoGame/PanelDePon'' with at least one loss on your record and ''watch''.

* To at least one character in ''VideoGame/SuikodenIII'', bathhouses are SeriousBusiness. He even has a rival.

* In ''Kiseki'' series, there are few characters who are quite serious in something that they really loves.

** Elliot Craig -- Music perfomance. He can be pretty scary when it comes to do the music right.

** Tio Plato -- Mishy.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' battles are so important in its world that people, including kids as young as 10, are allowed to wander around, doing nothing but Pokémon matches.
** In the [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Generation IV games]], it is revealed that a Pokémon (Arceus) ''created the universe''. [[OlympusMons And you can catch it!]]
** The ''Pokémon TCG'' games for Game Boy take this trope to a ridiculous extent, creating a civilization apparently based around trading and battling with Pokémon cards.
** The [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue first generation]] ''Pokémon'' games featured many characters who didn't speak of Pokémon or the geography of their native town. One guy said something along the lines of "What? Are you expecting me to talk about Pokémon? Not everyone does that, you know."
*** The anime, various mangas, and the games themselves to a lesser extent, also show Pokémon being used for other tasks that have nothing to do with battling. Fighting, Ground and Rock Pokémon are used in construction tasks that involve heavy lifting and/or digging into the ground, Fire Pokémon are involved in glassblowing and blacksmithing, Water Pokémon are used in firefighting, Poison Pokémon serve as living garbage disposals, Electric Pokémon are used to provide backup sources of energy when the main power in a building goes out.
** 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.
*** Firearms have appeared in the anime. It's just that the DoesNotLikeGuns trope applies to the MoralGuardians in the United States, so those episodes generally did not get dubbed.
** 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 Pokémon 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 Pokémon 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.
** ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGo Go]]'' takes this [[UpToEleven to new levels]] with arguments over whatever team one is on, people actively catching Pokémon ''during the night'', '''''and even snatching other people's phones just for the concept of catching a legendary.'''''
** ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Sun and Moon]]'' even has one in universe about, of all things, Seaking:
--->Trainers who are crazy for Seaking are divided into horn enthusiasts and fin enthusiasts. The two groups do not get along well.
** In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield Sword and Shield]]'', competitive Pokémon battles is a major thing in the Galar region that it is treated the same way sports are in RealLife, complete with TV coverage for Gym Battles, packed stadiums, corporate sponsorships, and trainers wearing numbered uniforms like athletes. And the local villain team, Team Yell, are [[LoonyFan obnoxious]] {{fan|boy}}s of one of the rival characters, with their goals being obstructing anyone else's chances of becoming Champion, which means they are the equivalent of RealLife FootballHooligans.
* Similarly, in ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' series, the entire world revolves around the [=NetNavis=], glorified sentient computer programs, and their fighting; there's classes in the public elementary school about fighting viruses with your Navi, and such oddities can be found online as coffee shops and in the sixth a fish stick vendor where you spend "real" ingame money on treats for these Navis. The series alternates between treating Navis other than Mega Man and Bass [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman as sentient or not]]. Though technically, in regards to the virus battling classes, the state of online networks in the ''Battle Network'' world does actually make viral infections serious business: utilities and appliances getting shut down, information getting stolen, vandalism, etc. So having Virus Battling classes there amounts to basic self-defense courses here... but the coffee and fish sticks are still pretty silly.
** Saving the world often involved ''logging into a computer'' or ''surfing the Internet''. Some of the games tried to amp up the danger factor by introducing a final boss whose power had a direct effect on humans, but in the end, logging in and running an anti-virus program ("virus busting") was all it took to defeat it.

* In the more recent ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games, some sort of minigame, usually a collectible card game, is played worldwide. In the most blatant cases, it's possible to challenge someone to a match [[TakeYourTime in the middle of a battle or other disaster]].
** Especially blatant in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX X]]''. In the former after [[spoiler:time has been compressed,]] you can still find members of the card-gaming club from Balamb Garden in the blasted wasteland that is left, and in the latter you can use the save-crystal deep inside of Sin to go play Blitzball.
*** The combination of blitzball being SeriousBusiness and a growing distrust in the Church of Yevon means that you can still play Blitzball after the Church has declared your party guilty of murdering a Maester, treason, practicing witchcraft without a license, jaywalking and every other ecclesiastical crime Bevelle could find. One of the Luca Goers even comments that treason means ''nothing'' in the sphere pool.
*** Blitzball's serious business status is {{Justified}} by characters in game. What with Sin threatening all life on Spira every decade or so, most people have very little to look forward to in life. Blitzball technology is one of the only things that Sin does not purge back to the dark ages, making it a convenient distraction from the CrapsackWorld of the setting. So yeah, people take it pretty seriously.
** You get this poem in ''X-2'' after completing a certain side-quest. [[spoiler:involving monkeys]].
--->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.

* ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedUnderground'' and ''Underground 2'' started off giving street racers enough money to buy import sports cars, but ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted 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!''
** On the other hand, ''Most Wanted'' 2005 seems to take place in a world where no other crime ever happens ''ever'', so the police can afford to send dozens if not hundreds of cruisers, heavy [=SUVs=], helicopters, and ''specialized Corvettes for an anti-street racing unit'' after you (and only you) in a single chase. It seems without poverty, hunger, disease, or violent crime of any kind, there's just more money going around.
* While court trials are SeriousBusiness in real life, the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' games elevate this to a new level with how over the top their cases get. And while being a lawyer is quite a respectable career in real life, they're practically superstars in the gameverse.
** The hotbed of murder and intrigue that is the [[ShowWithinAShow children's television]] industry of ''VisualNovel/{{Phoenix Wright|AceAttorney}}''. Deadly serious business.
** Spirit Mediums, too, seem to take it a little too far. But what mother wouldn't [[spoiler:be an accomplice in a murder framing her niece just so her daughter can be the family's successor?]]
** Phoenix's assistant/sidekick Maya considers anything she's interested in to be SeriousBusiness. The sad part is, she usually finds at least one other person who wholeheartedly agrees with her, leaving Phoenix to wonder if he's the OnlySaneMan.
** In ''Apollo Justice'', {{stage magic|ian}}.
** Also, Apollo tends to be tired in the morning because he was up all night shouting at the top of his lungs so that his OBJECTIONS are extra impressive. That's dedication, man.
** Manfred von Karma takes the serious business of being a prosecutor UpToEleven. He is so obsessed with having and maintaining a perfect record (i.e. a 100% conviction rate, regardless of whether any of them were actually guilty or not) that he [[spoiler: murders a defense attorney over a penalty]]. And in case that wasn't enough, he also took the man's son under his wing and trained him to be a prosecutor every bit as cold and obsessed with winning as he was.
** Everyone in the courtroom (including the main character) react to holes in their story being pointed out as if they had been physically struck.
** Miles Edgeworth takes his love for the ''[[ShowWithinAShow Steel Samurai]]'' series very seriously, to the point where, after seeing a Steel Samurai theatre performance and finding out that the titular hero was played by [[TheDitz Larry Butz]], he acts like Larry just murdered his dog.
* Similarly, ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'' achieves this not by making serious business out of something trivial (lifesaving surgery really ''is'' serious business) but by taking its seriousness way over the top.
* ''VideoGame/OsuTatakaeOuendan'': Never, ever let anyone tell you that male cheerleading is not the most epically serious thing you can imagine. OSU, BITCHES.
** ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'': Cheerleading is so important that there's a top secret organization dedicated to dispatching highly trained cheerleading agents in response to emergency situations.
* The rather unknown party game ''Poy Poy'' treats throwing stuff at each other like the biggest thing ever. Okay, said stuff is things like big rocks and rockets but still...

* The bonus-chapter of ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' parodies this: 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!!''"
** The reason an important party member was absent for Week Three is because he fled to this alternate universe and wouldn't leave because ''he was having too much fun playing Tin Pin Slammer''. And this guy [[spoiler: is essentially ''god''.]]
* In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'', the virtual reality mech sim "Burning PT" is rather popular, enough that the championship match Ryusei participates in is held in a packed stadium.
** Never mind the fact that the whole thing was a GovernmentConspiracy to discover [[strike:Newtypes]] Psychodrivers in the first place.
* ''VideoGame/{{Nintendogs}}'': hundreds of people will turn up to watch dog competitions multiple times per day, every day, and are clearly paying to attend each time since how else would the generous prizes be funded?
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'':
** In the fan-made spin-off ''Touhou Soccer'', the ''Touhou'' cast will unleash their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kofnEdB8Blc world-shattering attacks]] for the sake off scoring a few goals.
*** Mima doesn't have legs. That gives her an excuse to use magic. But really, that's an indestructible soccer ball...
** Canon material gives us ''Double Spoiler'', where Aya and Hatate have an epic duel over... who has the better newspaper.
** [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly Faith]] is serious business.
* Apparently the boys and girls of the ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' franchise are very much aware that they're playing a PUZZLE GAME and it's SeriousBusiness to them. Because apparently, if you lose, you die. Mostly. ''Any'' puzzle game with a storyline can have this happen. Just finish ''VideoGame/PanelDePon'' with at least one loss on your record and ''watch''.
* In the later games of the ''VideoGame/{{Tony Hawk|sProSkater}}'' series, the ones with actual stories, this is a given, but ''Tony Hawk's American Wasteland'' takes the cake. First off, skating is a means of expression that Da Vinci himself could never fully comprehend. Second, it also gives you superhuman strength, speed, and jumping... power and allows you to ''slow the passage of time around you''. Well, if you undergo the TrainingFromHell provided by OldMaster Master Zen, that is. Not only do the Black Widowz, the most powerful gang in Los Angeles, rule the streets with skating, but the fearsome Skate Club domestic terrorist group uses their moves to ''level entire buildings''.
** Somewhat humorously, though, it's made pretty clear that BMX (which you can also do in the game) is really not that big a deal; the guy who teaches it to you is a spastic nobody who pays ''you'' to get lessons from him.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/AvalonCode'', where the Judgment Link, a sacred ritual for purifying monsters, is played as a sport.
* ''VideoGame/JakX'' 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?
* 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.
** 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? Between every race, you get cutscenes showing giant TV monitors mounted to just about everything, from buildings to billboards to ''satellites in orbit over the planet'' to ensure that EVERYONE is watching ''Mega Race'', no matter where they are. The company hosting the show has enough clout that they can build tracks for this show anywhere, and it's implied by the game's host that the company silences anyone who tries to protest. And just to drive home the point, there's a meter on your dashboard showing the ratings you're pulling in; you're encouraged to keep that meter full, with the host tossing in the implied threat of you getting booted off if you let it run out.
* Apparently in Artix Entertainment's Sci-fi RPG ''VideoGame/{{Mechquest}}'', piloting giant robots is such serious business that your characters actually GO TO SCHOOL FOR IT. Although how important the school is doesn't seem to be explored...
** Which means, for the most part you're just blowing up other Mecha with your mecha. The whole "university" thing seems to be more of an ExcusePlot than anything else, but DAMN if it isn't an awesome one.
** However, if you think about it, it makes sense: There are many dangers in space that can come to the planet and destroy it, using this mecha technology, like pirates, dimensional aberrations, crazy fanatics, [[spoiler: a giant evil organization with hundreds of years that has a armada strong enough to seize a planet in few days]], and some cute bear ghost. So a school like that is actually a logical option, if you need something to backup the useless [[spoiler: sabotaged]] armada of your planet.

* ''VideoGame/KirbySqueakSquad'': In-Universe Example: Kirby's cake was stolen. [[ExcusePlot There's your story]]. Now go [[RoaringRampageofRevenge get your cake back]].
* In the ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' series, puzzles are serious business.
** It made a bit of sense in the first game, where the citizens of the village were all [[spoiler: robots]] who were [[spoiler: programmed]] to be obsessed with puzzles. Why excellent puzzle-solving ability is proof that you are worthy to [[spoiler: take care of the old mayor's daughter]] is another matter. Even if it is somewhat justified, early on in the game, ''someone was just killed'' and someone gives you a puzzle to solve.
** In the third game, Layton apparently has a reputation for being a whiz at puzzles, and ''a few'' of the puzzles you get in that game are from people who challenge him to see if he's really all that. However, that only explains some of them, and it's still kind of HandWave-y.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': If ''VideoGame/MarioStrikers'' or ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' are anything to go by, Mario and his friends seem to take sports and parties really, ''really'' seriously. To the point they have to wear full BATTLE ARMOR in ''VideoGame/MarioStrikers''. Heck, their losing animations in any of the sports games has them reacting strongly and taking it ''very'' personally, as if it's the end of the world.

* To at least one character in ''VideoGame/SuikodenIII'', bathhouses are SeriousBusiness. He even has a rival.
* Averted in ''VisualNovel/{{Canvas 2}}''. Only the artists themselves and a few others take the world of painting that seriously.
* ''VideoGame/{{Meteos}}''. It's a puzzle game with little colored blocks falling down, and you have to match them so they launch into the sky, and before they fill the screen. The story? Those things are meteors that are actively destroying planets, and sending them back is the only way to survive. One of the endings does a double inversion of this trope though: [[spoiler: After meteo is destroyed, the remaining planets decide to play Meteos as a simple sport. The denizens of the planets are very serious about this sport, though.]]
* 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.

* In the ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' series (especially ''VideoGame/DeadRising2''), many of the psychopaths (i.e. crazed human killers and the bosses of the game) are people who take their jobs ''very'' seriously. This ranges from a mailman who carries around a shotgun and continues to deliver mail during the zombie apocalypse to a crazed cannibalistic chef who attacks you with a frying pan and kitchen knives, to a mall security guard who hangs a man for "stealing food" during the zombie outbreak.
** These aren't just average Joes who thought that the end of the world was no reason not to clock in to work. These are people who saw people eating people, which then in turn got back up and ate other people. These guys aren't just determined mailmen and hard-working mall-cops. These are normal people who witness the apocalypse firsthand and went batshit insane because of it.
** Certain psychopaths avert this. The Vietnam Vet had a flashback when his granddaughter was eaten, and thought everyone was either vietcong (zombies) or civilians to be interrogated (humans). He returns to normal after you defeat him, apparently now aware of what he had done, and seems genuinely sorry for it. Those who suffer traumatic experiences in wars do tend to have flashbacks that overtake their personalities, and it can get quite serious with them.
* Lampshaded by Poppy in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'':
--> "Fighting is '''SeriousBusiness'''"
** For context, Runterra's equivalent of the United Nations runs a GladiatorGames tournament that resolves major political issues in place of devastating wars that may involve {{Fantastic Nuke}}s.
* In ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', the wildly popular character [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Missile]] is a Pomeranian who gives an epic speech on how being a dog is SeriousBusiness. [[spoiler:He then proceeds to save people's lives.]]
* The LBX, which are part model kits and part functioning robots, in ''VideoGame/DanballSenki''. For what are supposedly kids' toys, top of the art tech is dedicated to them, completed with AceCustom and SuperPrototype. And almost everything is solved through LBX battle, including an assassination.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dustforce}}'' is SeriousBusiness: The Game. Your main characters are ninja janitors in a world where excessive filth can turn people, animals, and random objects into monsters.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'': [[TheNeedForMead Mead]] in Skyrim is serious enough that there's a budding criminal empire based around it.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'':
** 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.
--->'''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!
** During the party, Zaeed 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.
** From the same DLC, what finally makes Shepard say "ItsPersonal"? The villain attempting to throw out Shepard's space hamster. S/he can't believe that his/her squadmates aren't saying anything, but eventually assumes they're just dumbstruck at the audacity.
--->'''Shepard:''' ''[reading off the tag on the hamster cage]'' ...has no place on a military vessel and -- oooh, ''that is so not okay!''
** [[LiteralMinded EDI]] talks about assigning specialists to maximize efficiency. While in the second game, this was important in the final mission, EDI is doing it at a '''party.''' And Kaidan is too judgmental to be the "mingling" specialist.
** [[CommunicationsOfficer Samantha Traynor]] takes her space-chess game very seriously. She even has a rival she meets, complete with [[EyedScreen cheesy camera shots]], TrashTalk, and electrocution.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda:'' PlayedForLaughs when Ryder learns someone's found some ice-cream in the supply stores, they immediately demand to know where it is, before waxing poetic on it, so much so they unnerve a hardened resistance fighter.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts'' has female special forces. For a series that attempts to be realistic some fans care very much about this, not able to overlook RuleOfCool and AcceptableBreaksFromReality like they can with other aspects of the game. (And apparently ignoring the fact that the game is set in the near future, when female Special Forces might well have become a reality.)
** The series as a whole has quite a few elements that is very serious, from becoming god like online to perks, weapons, attachments, additions and removals, and what is considered cheating or unfair. The Commando class with certain perks in particular being a particularly contested issue, as was quickscoping, to the point Creator/SarahMichelleGellar brings it up in ''VideoGame/NaziZombies.''
* In ''VideoGame/{{Robopon}}'', Dr. Zero tries to kill Cody several times throughout the games, usually by siccing robots on him or attempting to blow him up.
** Kamat, the Legend4, used his/her influence to build an army.
** Dr. Disc was so determined to defend his title of Legend3 in the first game that he kidnapped Cody's love interest, who was Disc's own daughter.
* In ''VideoGame/SoccerSpirits'', Soccer is the most important game in the galaxy.
* Everyone in ''VideoGame/YuGiOhCapsuleMonsterColiseum'' takes Capsule Monsters just as seriously as Duel Monsters, especially where Seto Kaiba's concerned.
* In ''VideoGame/AirfixDogfighter'', the game is set in a human house and the characters are two factions of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WW2]] scale models that wage war between each other. Both sides of the conflict treat this as if it was an actual real-life war, with them referring to individual rooms as strategic territories with serious-sounding names.
* 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.
* ''VideoGame/LoveNikkiDressUpQueen'' takes place in Miraland, a world where all conflicts--including those of international importance--are resolved through fashion competitions. The "Nine-Day War" mentioned in the game is not a traditional war, but a fashion show where stylists competed to see who was worthy of inheriting the late King Sayet's (himself a legendary fashion designer) three greatest designs. One of the winners was Queen Elle of Pigeon Kingdom, who has been using the power of the two designs she won to rule her own kingdom as a tyrant.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''{{VideoGame/Space Quest III|ThePiratesOfPestulon}}'' and ''{{VideoGame/Space Quest V|TheNextMutation}}'', where the Gippazoid Novelty Company sends a [[Film/TheTerminator robot assassin]] after player character Roger Wilco because of a heinous crime he committed in ''{{VideoGame/Space Quest II|VohaulsRevenge}}'': failing to pay for a mail-ordered whistle ([[SeriesContinuityError which was free at the time, even]]). If you're wondering what kind of company would do this, they are also responsible for [[VideoGame/SpaceQuestITheSarienEncounter a slot machine that kills you if you get the wrong match]].
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'': If you decide to involve yourself with the mini-game Gwent, it can really come over as this. Innkeepers, shopkeepers and blacksmiths will immediately lay down their work whenever you invite them to a game of Gwent, while even important people such as nobility, druids and military commanders fanatically play the game. Unfortunately, the criminal underworld is also very interested in Gwent, being perfectly willing to murder people to get their hands on rare cards.
* In Kiseki series, there are few characters who are quite serious in something that they really loves.
** Rean Schwarzer - Hot springs
** Elliot Craig - Music perfomance. He can be pretty scary when it comes to do the music right.
** Crow Armbrust - Artistic performance. Seeing the normally laid-back Crow so serious about making the concert a hit is really funny as seen in Cold Steel I. [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel IV'', when the Class VII arrives in Crossbell for a mission and are in need of a distraction, he's able to create a performance worthy of Arc en Ciel in the span of a few days together with Elliot.]]
** Aurelia Le Guin - With everything. As she says, 'The World is a Battlefield' and considering what a Blood Knight she is, she takes everything she does with a gusto.
** Tio Plato - Mishy.
* In ''VideoGame/YoNoid2EnterTheVoid'', Pizza is this for the residents of the Void. They act like it's the EndOfAnAge now that there's no pizza anymore.

*** Blitzball's serious business status is {{Justified}} by characters in game. What with Sin threatening all life on Spira every decade or so, most people have very little to look forward to in life. Blitzball is just about the only distraction from the CrapsackWorld of the setting. So yeah, people take it pretty seriously.
** You get this poem in ''X-2'' after completing a certain side-quest. [[spoiler: involving monkeys]].

* ''VideoGame/CustomRobo''. Who'd think [[Anime/KidouTenshiAngelicLayer people fighting with robotic dolls]] would be big enough to have interscholastic and national tournaments and a black market dealing in illegal custom robo parts? Sometimes, you can challenge any old folk on the street with a custom robo cube in their hand, [[TakeYourTime and challenge them repeatedly before going off to a big tournament]] or some other plot-mandated event.

* In ''Franchise/{{Trails}}'', there are few characters who are quite serious in something that they really loves.

* In ''Franchise/Trails'', there are few characters who are quite serious in something that they really loves.

** Crow Armbrust - Artistic performance. Seeing the normally laid-back Crow so serious about making the concert a hit is really funny. [[spoiler:In ''Cold Steel IV'', when the Class VII arrives in Crossbell for a mission and are in need of a distraction, he's able to create a performance worthy of Arc en Ciel in the span of a few days together with Elliot.]]

''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': If ''VideoGame/MarioStrikers'' or ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' are anything to go by, Mario and his friends seem to take sports and parties really, ''really'' seriously. To the point they have to wear full BATTLE ARMOR in ''VideoGame/MarioStrikers''. Heck, their losing animations in any of the sports games has them reacting strongly and taking it ''very'' personally, as if it's the end of the world.

** Miles Edgeworth takes his love for the ''[[ShowWithinAShow Steel Samurai]]'' series very seriously, to the point where, after seeing a Steel Samurai theater performance and finding out that the titular hero was played by [[TheDitz Larry Butz]], he acts like Larry just murdered his dog.

** In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield Sword and Shield]]'', competitive Pokémon battles is a major thing in the Galar region that it is treated the same way sports are in RealLife, complete with TV coverage for Gym Battles, packed stadiums, corporate sponsorships, and trainers wearing numbered uniforms like athletes. And the local villain team, Team Yell, are obnoxious {{fan|boy}}s of one of the rival characters, with their goals being obstructing anyone else's chances of becoming Champion, which means they are the equvilant of RealLife FootballHooligans.

** In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield Sword and Shield]]'', competitive Pokémon battles is a major thing in the Galar region that it is treated the same way sports are in RealLife, complete with TV coverage for Gym Battles, packed stadiums, corporate sponsorships, and trainers wearing numbered uniforms like athletes. And the local villain team, Team Yell, are obnoxious {{fan|boy}}s of one of the rival characters, with their goals being obstructing anyone else's chances of becoming Champion.

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