Line #28 Main/WinToExit


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7	->''"Adventurers Beware: Do not begin unless you intend to finish.\
8	The exciting consequences of the game will vanish only when a player reaches Jumanji and calls out its name."''
9	-->-- ''Film/{{Jumanji}}''
10
11	A character is trapped in a game, and the only way to escape is to win. A HolodeckMalfunction may be involved.
12
13	The graphics of the videogame in question are usually either implausibly realistic or laughably primitive compared to those available in the real world at the time, depending on [[PacManFever how out of touch the producers are]].
14
15	SisterTrope to TrappedInTVLand, and a SubTrope of YourMindMakesItReal and DreamEmergencyExit; almost always a feature of TheMostDangerousVideoGame. Overlaps with DeepImmersionGaming in some ways. The main difference is that whereas DeepImmersionGaming is basically a variant form of an ImagineSpot, this trope involves the game becoming very real. Anyone trapped in a PortalBook may find themselves facing a variant of this (finish the story to exit).
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17	----
18	!!Examples:
19	[[foldercontrol]]
20
21	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
22	* ''Anime/BaldrForceEXEResolution'' is made of this trope.
23	* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Ichigo in the Fullbring arc gets trapped in Yukio's video game dimension fighting Ginjo Kugo.
24	* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' had Greed Island, where the only way to pause the game was to advance your objectives by a certain amount. There are people who have actually settled down to live in the gameworld because they couldn't get that LastLousyPoint that they needed to escape.
25	* ''Anime/NegimaSecondSeason'': In ''Negima!? neo'', due to a mischievous fairy, Negi and friends are trapped in Chisame's video game.
26	* ''Manga/ToLoveRu'' has the characters get stuck in an RPG during the Trouble Quest arc. Later on, they voluntarily place themselves in a board game.
27	* An episode of ''Anime/TheTowerOfDruaga'' features a direct throwback to the [[VideoGame/TheTowerOfDruaga game by the same name]]. Jil's party encounters the original 40 floor tower from the game buried inside the now much larger tower. Jil enters it and must be controlled like a video game character with a nearby console. He's trapped inside the original tower (and is constant respawned every time he dies in the GuideDangIt game) until they can manage to maneuver him through all 40 floors.
28	* Supposedly, this was the case in the "Legendary Heroes" arc of ''Anime/YuGiOh'', where defeating the game would release Kaiba, Yugi, Jonouchi, Mokuba, and Mai from the virtual reality world; however, the villains kept trying to change that, both by sending a team of Mooks to unplug the VR pods and by rigging the game itself to make it ''much'' harder (they ultimately failed on ''both'' fronts; Honda and Anzu successfully guarded the pods in the real world long enough for Yugi and his entourage to defeat the villains' avatar in the virtual world and escape.)
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
32	* ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'': In the [[Recap/BoBoiBoyS1E7GameOn 7th episode]], Adu Du traps [=BoBoiBoy=] and Gopal into the [[FictionalVideoGame Papa Zola video game]] they were playing, and Probe, who's inside the game as well to give them trouble, tells them that they have to beat the game to get out, much to Adu Du's chagrin.
33	* In Season 10 episode 23 of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'', Big M. traps the Supermen in a video game. A sign within the game informs them that they must win the game to escape; otherwise, they'll be trapped there forever.
34	* ''Animation/{{Mechamato}}'': When Deep inserts a Zilator 1 game into Bitbobeep's disc player, the robot sucks Amato and [=MechaBot=] into the game. Under the control of the game's programming, Bitbobeep can only release them once they beat the game, with Deep and Pian playing them from outside.
35	* In the ''Animation/MotuPatlu'' episode "The Game", Motu accidentally gets himself and others trapped in a game Dr. Jhatka was inventing, and they have to win the game to get out.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Comic Books]]
39	%%* There was this short series where this trope was inverted. Memory fails me, but the gist of it was, a super-hacker was forced to play against an AI in an old videogame. The AI rigged the game so there was absolutely no way it could ever lose... problem was, the game was fixed so the only way to end it was ''losing''...%%This example has been commented out for not identifying the work from which it originates. Do not uncomment it without adding the work.
40	* Happens to Ellie Dee is an issue of ''Cherry Comics''. She ends up derezzing the video game's main character by having sex with him.
41	* The "VR in Deep Trouble" issue of ''ComicBook/SaturdayMorningAdventures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' has the Turtles trapped in a virtual reality game designed by Donatello after lightning fries the emergency kill switch, so they have to capture the flag guarded by their RoguesGallery in order to leave before the game crashes. Ultimately, [[spoiler:Michelangelo wins the game by figuring out that he didn't ''need'' to fight the villains, so he outmaneuvers them and grabs the flag]].
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Fan Works]]
45	* Sort of, in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached''. Although the Vasyn quest takes place across several real worlds, [[spoiler:it all turns out to be a giant live-action quasi-game engineered by Jeft]]. He fixes things so that after Shag and Varx discover the truth, they still cannot pull the four out; the computer ice in between them and the return program won't melt until they bring the third piece of the Vasyn back to C'hou. But by then things have changed so considerably that they can't rescue the four anyway...
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
49	* ''Anime/DetectiveConanFilm06ThePhantomOfBakerStreet'': Due to HolodeckMalfunction, at least one of the 50 children in the Virtual Console "Cocoon" need to win to exit, or else their brains will be literally fried.
50	* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCyberChase'': After being beamed into a game based on them, the gang had to play through all ten levels (clearing each one by finding a hidden box of Scooby Snacks), only being able to leave once they beat the game. Beating the game also deleted the living computer virus they'd been dealing with.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
54	* ''Film/{{Arcade}}'' features a video arcade named [[MeaningfulName "Dante's Inferno"]], where a new virtual reality arcade game called, boringly enough, ''Arcade'' is being tested. If you lose, you're trapped inside the game. Turns out the game is PoweredByAForsakenChild. Also, [[spoiler:by winning, the protagonist ends up releasing a SealedEvilInACan (in the revised ending). NiceJobBreakingItHero]].
55	* In ''Film/TheBeach'', Leonardo Di Caprio goes crazy and imagines the world as a blocky videogame.
56	* In ''Film/TheDungeonmaster'', the hero and his girlfriend get pulled into a computer game. If the hero wins the game, they'll both be freed. If they lose, he forfeits his girlfriend's soul.
57	* Almost all of ''Film/{{Existenz}}'' takes place in a virtual reality gameworld with assassins stalking the main characters. It's only after the heroine exposes [[spoiler:her partner]] as an operative who was sent to kill her all along and kills him instead that the game slowly unravels and she wakes up for real.
58	* In ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'', Spencer gets stoned and sucked into a game and is promptly killed by Freddy and his custom "Power Glove".
59	* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'', this is what the team realizes they have to do in order to escape Fisher's mind once they learn his subconscious has been militarized. Only by incepting Fisher and making him achieve catharsis can the team avoid being "killed" by the projections.
60	* All versions of ''Franchise/{{Jumanji}}'' have this trope in effect.
61	** The original film, ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', features a board game, not a video game, but the concept is the same. Rolling the dice results in the heroes having to deal with [[EscapedAnimalRampage animals running amuck all over town,]] [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame a big game hunter interested in taking a human trophy,]] [[ManEatingPlant a fast growing plant with a humongous appetite]] that also shoots poison darts. Once a player gets the winning roll of the dice, everything goes back to normal as if nothing happened.
62	** In ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'', four teens are sucked into a video game version of Jumanji, and have to complete the game in order to exit.
63	* In ''Film/{{Nerve}}'', groups of teenagers enter a "truth-or-dare"-styled game on their smart-phones. However, the players must win the game or else they will lose everything. For those who attempt to report the game to the police, they have "snitched" in the game, causing them to become a prisoner to the game unless they win.
64	* In the ''Film/{{Nightmares}}'' [[AnthologyFilm segment]] ''Bishop of Battle'', J. J. Cooney is trapped inside the eponymous video game, after failing to complete level 13 the game becomes real.
65	* The game in ''Film/SpyKids3DGameOver'' requires this.
66	* In ''Film/StayAlive2006'', a group of beta testers realize that they are slowly dying off one by one in the exact same fashion that their avatars in the game they are testing die. It is later revealed that playing this game summons the ghost of a sociopathic killer who delights in killing you in the most horrendous ways possible.
67	* Inverted in one Film/SyfyChannelOriginalMovie in which a malfunction causes the video game boss to animate the motion-capture exoskeleton in the real world and go on a murderous rampage.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Literature]]
71	* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' side-story ''The Ellimist Chronicles'', Toomin's mind is kept alive by an entity known as Father that has absorbed the minds of many dead people. Toomin is forced to play games that he has no chance of winning against Father's extensive knowledge until [[spoiler:he wins a game based on creativity (Father has no real creativity and can only mimic what he has seen and heard). After defeating Father at music, Toomin begins to grow too intelligent for Father and defeats him]].
72	* In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', the Arrandas visit a theme park and go to see something called "The Nightmare Machine", a sim purportedly using mind-scanning and HardLight technology to [[IKnowWhatYouFear bring visitors' fears to life]]. It would start with relatively minor things and progress to worse fears, and the visitor won if they could make it through their worst without bailing out. Of course, they get trapped in it, the FailsafeFailure doesn't work, and the kids finally realize they have to just [[FaceYourFears skip to their worst fear]] -- [[spoiler:one of them dying and leaving the other alone]]. It then ends and they're both able to walk out of it.
73	* A rare boardgame example occurs in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' when Harry, Ron, and Hermione [[HumanChess take the part of pieces on a chessboard]] and win to get to the next test protecting the stone. Ron masterminds a victory for our heroes' side, but actually has to allow himself to be captured to allow Harry to make the checkmating move. Fortunately, this does not prove to be fatal, only knocking him out -- although Ron actually had no way to know this at the time.
74	* In ''Literature/HeirApparent'', the main character is playing a virtual reality game at a sort of VR arcade, and becomes unable to quit when anti-videogame protesters damage the equipment -- interestingly, it has the opposite message from most trapped-in-a-videogame stories (i.e., instead of being harmful, videogames are harmless fun and the people who think they're evil are misguided and possibly even dangerous).
75	* The Jumanji game works this way in the ''Literature/{{Jumanji}}'' series.
76	* In the Creator/PiersAnthony novel ''Killobyte'', the protagonists become stuck in a virtual reality {{MMORPG}} due to the interference of a hacker.
77	* In ''Literature/LabyrinthOfReflections'' trilogy, the Deep program puts a person into a state of hypnosis, during which he or she will perceive a poorly rendered image on the screen as reality. The first person to use this was a man who randomly found the Deep program online and ran it. The program played a ten-second fractal-like video, after which the man started up ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''. To his horror, he found himself walking the corridors, shooting weapons, fighting monsters. No matter what he tried, he could not get himself to "awaken". After many hours of playing, he finally beat the game, at which point his subconsciousness allowed him to "exit". He found a nearly broken keyboard and his own bloody hands (his own blood).
78	* ''Literature/MagicalGirlRaisingProject'': In the ''Restart'' arc, sixteen magical girls are trapped in a VR game designed to test their aptitude as magical girls. They spend three days within the game ([[YearInsideHourOutside which is essentially nothing in the real world]]), then 3 days in the real world so as to not forget what they have. While they could just hang around in the safe starting area indefinitely, in order to permanently escape they must defeat the Evil King, so they set out to defeat monsters and clear the areas to make their way to the final dungeon. [[YourMindMakesItReal Of course, death in the game means death in real life]], and they're not allowed to contact others for help. [[spoiler:The win condition is a bit more complicated than beating a final boss however, as one of the players is the Evil King, and their goal is to kill the other 15 players, which is unknown to anyone else. Ultimately the Evil King is exposed and kills herself, but not before all but 3 other players die.]]
79	* In ''Literature/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', the cast gets trapped in a DatingSim and Mahiro (cast as the PlayerCharacter) has to choose a girlfriend by the end of the school year.
80	* This is how the action gets started in ''Literature/{{Otherland}}''. Kids around the world end up in mysterious comas, and the protagonists start to suspect that it has something to do with an online playground. Then they get caught themselves, and it becomes apparent that they only way to escape from the virtual world is to solve its mysteries (and possibly destroy it from the inside). The story contains no moralism whatsoever on computers and computer games; TheMetaverse is simply another arena for human virtues and vices to take place.
81	* In ''Literature/RedDwarf'', the video game Better Than Life is essentially a LotusEaterMachine; only by rejecting the perfect universe offered by the game can players "win" and be allowed to exit. ([[Series/RedDwarf The series]]' version is harmless to anyone but Rimmer, and can be exited at will; the novels [[DarkerAndEdgier change it]] from an expensive toy to a lethal FantasticDrug.)
82	* The basic plot of the first arc of ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'': everyone's minds are trapped in an MMORPG, and the equipment is set up so that dying in the game kills you in real life. However, if a player, ''any'' player, manages to beat the boss of Floor 100, then everyone goes free. [[spoiler:Ends up played with when the protagonist manages to free everyone after floor 75 instead by uncovering the identity of the game master and beating him in a duel.]]
83	* ''Literature/{{Zathura}}'', from the same author as ''Jumanji''.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
87	* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'':
88	** Subverted in "[[Recap/AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason1TheTaleOfThePinballWizard The Tale of The Pinball Wizard]]". A kid gets trapped in a pinball game, and he believes that to escape, he needs to win. Turns out, he's not quite so lucky, and it's implied that he's trapped there forever.
89	** In "[[Recap/AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason4TheTaleOfTheRenegadeVirus The Tale of the Renegade Virus]]", a VR game goes awry and if the main character doesn't beat it, the virus will literally invade his brain and take him over.
90	* ''Series/EstateOfPanic'': The show's winner is the only one seen actually leaving the house. Three of the losers are left trapped in the rooms, and the other three are escorted to some unknown place in the mansion by the butler.
91	* ''Series/Exit2013'' and the [[Series/{{Dero}} Japanese show that inspired it]] are game shows where teams have to solve challenges to move onto the next room or be "killed" by that particular room's death trap. They of course aren't killed but the show likes to pretend they are.
92	* The ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode "[[Recap/FarscapeS04E07JohnQuixote John Quixote]]" has VR "game blobs". Dying inside of the game only returns you to the start of the level. The real problem was getting out of the game, as the exit trigger had been sabotaged. Chiana does mention, though, that brain damage resulting from the games is not unheard of.
93	* ''Series/Goosebumps1995'': In "[[Recap/Goosebumps1995S3E10TheHauntedHouseGame The Haunted House Game]]", two kids are sucked into a magical board game inside a creepy abandoned house. The only way to get out is to win the game while [[TheGamePlaysYou not getting killed]].
94	* ''Series/Thelibrarians2014'': The episode "And the [[ExpospeakGag Point of Salvation]]" has a twist on this. The Librarians are trapped in a GroundhogDayLoop created by a malfunctioning magic-powered computer; eventually it turns out that the malfunctioning computer is overwriting reality with video game tropes, and Ezekiel is stuck in an EscortMission to get the other three out alive. Interestingly, [[spoiler:he only has to get ''them'' out. If he himself dies in the attempt, it's fine as far as the game is concerned. He accepts that and performs a HeroicSacrifice. Luckily, Cassandra is able to "restore" him, although he loses all memory (and CharacterDevelopment) of the events]].
95	* The HalloweenEpisode for ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel'', titled "[[Recap/PowerRangersNinjaSteelS01E21GraveRobber Grave Robber]]", sees the five main Rangers trapped playing a Halloween-themed board game the episode is named for, controlled by the antagonistic GameShowHost Cosmo Royale. In a slight subversion of the trope, the Rangers play the game in reality but are repeatedly drawn inside the game's world to fight monsters they had already defeated (this subverts ClipShow by using footage from the Sentai, ''Series/ShurikenSentaiNinninger'', that had not been adapted into the Ninja Steel episodes its episodes resulted in). They escape when the SixthRanger, Levi the Gold Ranger, counters Cosmo's [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem Screw the Rules, I Make Them!]] with his own [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules My Rules Are Not Your Rules]], shooting and destroying the magical hourglass that had trapped the Rangers in the game (and making everyone wonder why they didn't just try [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim that]] to begin with).
96	* ''Series/RedDwarf'' has the episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVBackToReality Back to Reality]]", in which the crew think they've just been booted out of a game for dying, but have actually survived and are now suffering a hallucination which is designed to make them suicidal. Their hallucinating behaviour maps into real-world actions well enough that they almost kill themselves simultaneously in both worlds before the ship's computer pulls off a literal DeusExMachina.
97	* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S8E6Avatar Avatar]]" features Teal'c having to fight his way out of a virtual combat scenario. His subconscious, unfortunately, keeps making his job harder. The game resets the scenario every time he loses, and adapts so that he can't rely on information gained from the previous run. It has a built-in safety exit (getting to the elevator ends the scenario), but since Teal'c considered giving up equivalent to losing, the game will not let him escape without winning. ''Also,'' because part of him believes the Goa'uld will never really be defeated, the game [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard keeps cheating]] every time he should have won. Cardiac arrest would have eventually killed him in reality. The only saving grace is that the simulation can't move beyond the "base attack" scenario, so after Teal'c takes out two otherwise invincible [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]], two Goa'uld moles, ''and'' dismantles the self-destruct in time (with some help from Daniel after he joined the game), the game finally recognizes he won.
98	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
99	** Subverted in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E10MoveAlongHome Move Along Home]]". After being cheated by Quark, a group of aliens from the Gamma Quadrant decide to show him "an honest game" that involves four playing pieces trying to make it "home" down a tiered board. Meanwhile, Sisko, Dax, Kira, and Bashir find themselves in a maze-like series of rooms, with strange puzzles and scenarios in each room and a figure of one of the aliens telling them to "move along home." They (as well as Quark) quickly realize that the four crew members are trapped in the game and assume that this trope is in effect. After several narrow escapes, they reach the last room- a shaking, cliff-filled cave. As they cross, [[spoiler:they fall and rematerialize in Quark's, where the aliens say that Quark has lost and laugh when they discover the terror of the "players" -- after all, it was only a game]].
100	** Inverted with "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E10OurManBashir Our Man Bashir]]", in which several crew members, to save their lives after a TeleporterAccident, are turned into holodeck characters in a program Bashir is playing -- Bashir has to keep them alive and specifically ''not'' win, as if the program ends, they will also die. At the last minute, when Bashir has reached the final scene and can't stall the program anymore, he goes OffTheRails and deliberately ''loses,'' invoking a NonstandardGameOver that the program hadn't accounted for, confusing it long enough to save both himself and his friends. ([[spoiler:Specifically, he had his heroic protagonist pull a massive FaceHeelTurn and activate the villain's EarthShatteringKaboom device himself, something that the game's dev team obviously did not think of.]])
101	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
102	** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E12TheRoyale The Royale]]" has Riker, Data and Worf stuck in an alien simulation of a casino, based on a (bad) book. They manage to escape by gambling and winning enough money to pose as foreign investors, buy the casino and then leave (which was the ending of the book).
103	** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E8AFistfulOfDatas A Fistful of Datas]]", the only way the holodeck would shut down is if Worf, Troi, and Alexander were able to win a wild west shootout. As the name suggests, it's a shootout against copies of Data, with all his android abilities to make them superior to any living opponent.
104	* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' gets into the act with "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E24WorstCaseScenario Worst Case Scenario]]", in which it turns out that [[FaceHeelTurn Seska]] has [[HolodeckMalfunction reprogrammed one of Tuvok's programs]] to [[EverythingTryingToKillYou kill Tuvok and Tom Paris]]. Janeway helps out by playing DeusExMachina.
105	* ''Series/TodaysSpecial'': Thanks to Waldo's "automatic wishing machine", the gang gets trapped in an 80's era video game called Monkey Maze. Averted in that they fail to make their way through but escape by wishing to be on the moon instead.
106	* ''Series/TrappedGameShow'' has six contestants competing to see who will win the game and escape a tower.
107	* An episode of ''Series/Warehouse13'' has Fargo from ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' program a virtual reality game and use an Artifact to help make it more real. The artifact caused players to become trapped in the game which manifested their greatest fears. They couldn't get out until those fears were conquered.
108	* In the ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds1988'' episode "Totally Real", the loser of the VR game lost his life. This turned out to be the entire point of the simulator's design.
109	* ''Series/TheXFiles'': The episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS07E13FirstPersonShooter First-Person Shooter]]" is built of this trope. One guy who is an ace of a gamer and an exquisite programmer doesn't make it. Mulder almost loses, but Scully saves his butt.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
113	* Used for the Climax of the ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' adventure module, "[[http://grfiles.game-host.org/2e_files/toyswbtoys.zip Toys Will Be Toys]]".
114	* ''TabletopGame/TheSplinter'' runs on this. Players are only allowed out of the game if they complete their objective and, if a Player's Avatar dies, the Player dies on Earthside. This isn't a side effect of the VR technology being used, rather it's because the Mega Corp. in control of the VR technology will give you an immediate lethal injection if you lose.
115	[[/folder]]
116
117	[[folder:Video Games]]
118	* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations:'' After the events of ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Brotherhood]],'' [[spoiler:Desmond is trapped in the Animus, his mind shattered. He must complete the game's missions to piece his consciousness back together.]]
119	* In ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'', the protagonist has a reoccurring nightmare where he and others must climb a slowly collapsing tower of blocks. Anyone who falls off the tower or is killed by a trap or a falling block [[YourMindMakesItReal dies in the waking world]], and the only way to wake up is to either get to a sanctuary and wait until morning or make it to the very top of the tower.
120	* This is the premise of ''VideoGame/DeathEndReQuest''; female protagonist Shina Ninomiya is trapped in an unfinished, buggy MMORPG and must defeat Heaven's Messenger to trigger the game's ending and return to her body. [[spoiler:It's ultimately Subverted; every party member except Shina (who are real people playing the roles of [=NPCs=]) dies in the last area but are rescued by [[BenevolentBoss Werner Glock]]. Shina defeats Heaven's Messenger alone but, as she is DeadAllAlong, simply disappears until her data is recovered for the ''real'' final battles.]]
121	* In ''VideoGame/DiceyDungeons'', the contestants are put on an ImmoralRealityShow hosted by LadyLuck herself, and must fight through a dungeon full of monsters and get to the end, where they must spin the wheel to win whatever their heart's greatest desire is. They just have to not land on [[LuckBasedMission the single whammy spot on it]], but this being a game ran by Lady Luck means the wheel lands on the whammy every time. [[spoiler:The intended way to win the game is for the contestants to reject the game and its prizes and rebel against Lady Luck using ThePowerOfFriendship.]]
122	* The "Tranquility Lane" simulation in ''VideoGame/Fallout3''. The only way directly presented to you to exit the scenario is to play along with the Overseer's increasingly evil and sadistic games with the other inhabitants of the simulation, until he's satisfied and lets you leave, but keeps the others around to play with for eternity. [[spoiler:There's another way to exit with good Karma, though, if you hack the simulator from inside and change the scenario to one where [[MercyKill a Chinese invasion kills everybody]].]]
123	* In the backstory to ''VideoGame/Gamer2'', an NPC says Hailey needs to do this to escape the virtual-reality machine. However, she ends up escaping by killing the AI who's keeping the game world running.
124	* Inverted in ''VideoGame/{{Gateway}}''. There is a Virtual Reality casino that is actually a ruse set up by the BigBad, who intends the player to always win and keep playing -- therefore, the player must force themselves to lose. [[spoiler:Folding in poker does the trick.]]
125	* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfJinYong'' sees you being inexplicably transported into the works of Creator/JinYong, meet various characters from the novels, must re-live the events of Jin Yong's stories and complete a martial arts tournament in order to return to the real world.
126	* The base setting of ''VideoGame/KidChameleon'', where the game boss of a new arcade in town has kidnapped several other players that have played it and it's up to [[HeroProtagonist you]] to enter the game and put an end to it.
127	* An optional side-quest in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' involves some SchmuckBait in the form of an alien artifact. Opening it traps you with the prison's occupant whose mind is trapped inside, and whose body died long ago. However, ''your'' body is currently unoccupied. He challenges you to a game of riddles to see who gets dibs on the body. Of course, the Brotherhood of Shadow GameMod cranks this one up with a similar artifact. The Brotherhood wants the PlayerCharacter as the avatar of their HiveMind, but first must conquer your mind to do it. Cue ''two'' massively trippy rounds of BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind.
128	* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Mobile'', with the flimsiest of justifications.
129	* In ''VideoGame/MoonRemixRPGAdventure'' the protagonist is sucked into a videogame and told to save its resident god, with the implication that he'll be free once he wins. [[spoiler:However, you cannot possibly beat the final boss, and in fact, by choosing to try again, you get the bad ending where the protagonist remains trapped in the game. Ultimately, the main character (and you) can only exit the game by choosing the most obvious solution: [[AntiEscapismAesop not playing anymore]].]]
130	* ''VideoGame/NeoQuest II'', but the entire game is a simulation of a computer, with bosses being viruses and the like...
131	* ''VideoGame/OneShot'' has its title for a reason. In its initial release, closing the game before it's finished would [[PressXToDie result in Niko's death]]. The game would actually [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou modify your computer]] so that it could only be finished once. [[spoiler:Averted as of version 1.003, in which the player is given a second chance if they do kill Niko this way. The updated re-release removed this death-by-closing mechanic, instead saving the player's progress. However, Niko still feels uneasy with each closure of the game.]]
132	* In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', there's a dungeon based entirely on blocky classic Dragon Warrior-type graphics... since the characters are going inside the collective subconscious as represented by television and dealing with people's internal imaginations, comforts, and insecurities, this is pretty justified. That its [[ThatOneBoss Boss Battle]] allows for a ShoutOut to the Game-play style of the first two ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games is the cherry on the cheesecake.
133	* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingMobile'' has this, thanks to Ratchet and Clank being trapped inside a Secret Agent Clank vid-comic. Unfortunately, achieving this is also the plot of the vid-comic's own villain too.
134	* ''VideoGame/YuGiOhTheFalseboundKingdom'' subverts this. You beat the VR game's main villain about a third of the way through, only for the creator of the game to take over, delete the villain, and attack you from behind. In order to actually win, you need to break out of the game and [[{{Cyberspace}} enter the computer itself]].
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Webcomics]]
138	* Played with in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': At the end of a successful [[TheGamePlaysYou Sburb]] session, the players are allowed exit [[spoiler:into a brand new universe they created during the game.]] However, [[spoiler:the Trolls' exit door was destroyed by the BigBad, trapping them in the game.]]
139	* {{Subverted\|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/LsEmpire''. They thought that beating the game would get Geminiman out, but it didn't. [[TakeAThirdOption So Dimentio just used his dimensional magic to free him off-screen]].
140	* ''Webcomic/UndeadFriend'': The main characters are stuck in the ''Undead Friend'' game and the only way out is to win, the alternative being erased from existence.
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Web Videos]]
144	* ''WebVideo/JonTron'' subverts this in the ''Joe and Mac Retrospective'' video.
145	-->'''Jacques:''' Jon, how did we escape?\
146	'''Jon:''' I just left.\
147	'''Jacques:''' That seems too easy...\
148	'''Jon:''' I just left.
149	* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' tackles this just like in Canon, only here the reason behind why Kayaba locked everyone in the game is fleshed out more. [[spoiler:It's because ''Sword Art Online'' was actually ChristmasRushed out the gate by Kayaba at the orders of the developers: ''{{Creator/Bethesda}}'', and that because of ExhaustionInducedIdiocy Kayaba accidentally programmed in a [[GameBreakingBug glitch]] that only killed '''some''' of the Players when their Avatars died, and him locking everyone in the game was just a bid to "[[IMeantToDoThat make it all part of a Master Plan]] [[SnowballLie instead of an ever-spiraling series of events he's long since lost control of]]", and that he was holding the gamers hostage in order to keep the cops off his back long enough to try and figure a way out of the mess he now found himself in.]]
150	[[/folder]]
151
152	[[folder:Western Animation]]
153	* The ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatiansTheSeries'' episode "Virtual Lucky" has Cruella and the dogs trapped in a video game, with Lucky having to defeat Cruella in every stage before they could escape.
154	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In one episode, Jimmy shows off an invention that allows you to go inside of video games. The only way to exit is to win, although Jimmy is planning to fix that. Jimmy and Sheen both go into an Ultralord video game, but end up being trapped due Carl messing the controls, not realizing that Jimmy and Carl are actually in the game.
155	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': The episode "[[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS2E29TheGame The Game]]" is centered around Dodj or Darr, a game that forces its players to do humiliating or dangerous challenges, even if they leave the board alone. As Gumball states, "You don't win. You ''survive.''"
156	* In the ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' episode "[[Recap/DannyPhantomS1E12TeacherOfTheYear Teacher of the Year]]", the protagonists have to prevent Technus from winning a computer game and thereby escaping to the internet; however, they still need to progress through several levels to catch up with him. Bizarrely, "access to the World Wide Web" [[PacManFever is the actual reward for winning the game]].
157	* In ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', the gizmo that turns real objects into video game objects breaks after letting DW and Quackerjack in, so they must beat the game to reach the default "exit door".
158	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' once does a plot of this sort as a result of one of Timmy's wishes. Bizarrely, he ''specifically asks'' for "a game you can't wish yourself out of", for no apparent reason other than so this trope can happen (the concept of wishing oneself out of a video game being utterly meaningless in any other context). Unusually for this trope, it's perfectly possible to leave the game by quitting, but none of them actually do this because Timmy can't warn the other players and he won't abandon them.
159	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'' has Johnny, Dukey, and his sisters getting trapped in a {{Phonymon}} game, and the only way out is to win a tournament.
160	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': This is how the comic book world works in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E6PowerPonies Power Ponies]]".
161	* This is the central idea behind ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' -- the heroes are periodically trapped in the User's games, and must win in order to both escape and prevent the game cube from damaging the sector of the city it had landed on.
162	[[/folder]]
163
164	[[folder:Real Life]]
165	* Corn mazes, hedge mazes, and similar labyrinths typically are difficult to get out of except through finding the proper exits. Some mazes can stretch over [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_maze entire farm fields and potentially take hours to solve.]]
166	* DownplayedTrope by Rensenware. Rensenware was a Ransomware, a type of malware that holds your files in a HostageSituation until you comply to their demands. The demand Rensenware did to release your files? Score 200 million points in ''VideoGame/TouhouSeirensenUndefinedFantasticObject'' in [[HarderThanHard Lunatic Mode]]. While it is not hazardous, you still have to win to get your files back. The author, Kangjun Heo (허강준; alias "0x00000FF"), actually wrote Rensenware as a joke program within the ''Touhou'' fandom, but as his joke went too far to the point of even locking himself out of his own computer and gaining a bit of unwanted attention when Rensenware ended up in the wild, Heo issued an apology and released both a decryptor and part of the source code with the malicious payload removed.
167	[[/folder]]

Context Main / WinToExit