History Main / StatisticallySpeaking

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* Both Marvel and DC have made various efforts to quantify the abilities of their heroes with specific numbers or bands of ability. These numbers are at best guidelines in practice, and how strong a given character actually is invariably depends on the needs of the scene.

* The Website/SCPFoundation uses the concept of a "Hume" when discussing {{Reality Warper}}s; essentially, every realm in the Foundation's world has a baseline Hume level describing their degree of reality, and whatever has a higher Hume level than the surrounding area can alter it freely (and vice versa.) Individuals classified as reality warpers, in addition to having heightened Hume levels, also emit suppression fields that lower the Hume levels around them. Despite this system being in place, the wiki's NegativeContinuity and general disdain towards power scaling means that while Humes are a good tool for quantifying a single SCP's containment difficulty in specific scenarios, they aren't particularly great for balancing such [=SCPs=] relative to each other. Perhaps because of this trope, modern articles also shy away from using exact numbers unless they're arbitrarily high or low to demonstrate an anomaly's effects, the only known constant being that extremely low ambient Hume levels [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3001 are a threat to regular matter as their Hume levels will equalize and promptly fade from existence]].

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* Inverted in ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'': the player character is normally very powerful, breaking wood and iron items alike with ease. His melee damage, however, is very low, and needs upgrading before it can get to the same level of strength. Justified because the setting is the fantasy world of a serial killer and DreamLogic is king.

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* Every ''Franchise/KamenRider'' show since 2000 has published statistics for every Rider in each of their forms, describing their punching and kicking power in tons, their maximum jump height in meters, and how many seconds it takes them to run 100 meters. These numbers are seemingly chosen by drawing them out of a hat, and virtually never have any relevance to anything the characters can do in the show. Usually, the stats’ numbers relative to each other will reflect an an advantage that one form or character is supposed to have over another in the same show (i.e. the MidSeasonUpgrade will have bigger numbers than the base form and the SuperMode will go even higher), but by and large everyone is as strong/fast/agile as whatever any given scene needs them to be. And the numbers become absolute nonsense in the context of crossovers between characters from different seasons.

* Every ''Franchise/KamenRider'' show since 2000 has published statistics for every Rider in each of their forms, describing their punching and kicking power in tons, their maximum jump height in meters, and how many seconds it takes them to run 100 meters. These numbers are seemingly chosen by drawing them out of a hat, and virtually never have any relevance to anything the characters can do in the show.

** 4th edition and on makes attributes linear in effect, meaning that someone with 18 strength is no longer four times stronger than someone with 10 strength, but rather "+4" stronger on d20 rolls (and thus, 20 percentage points more likely to succeed at a task). This resolves a lot of the issues with trying to represent characters with very high stats, making characters with very high stats much more human.

-->''"[[TemptingFate How hard can it be? Just light them and throw.]]"''

* Games by Black Isle Studios were among the first to kick this trope square in the nuts with ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'', as every skill and ability has multiple applications, including checks made during dialogue, special interactions, and clues that the game can drop in your direction for characters able to notice them. The first two ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games also have the opposite effect if you use Intelligence as a [[DumpStat dump stat]], leaving you with a character who is effectively brain-damaged. All your dialogue options for the entire game are replaced with suitably dim-witted alternatives and certain non-player characters actually recognise that you will be totally incapable of following simple instructions and so will complete important quests for you!
** The dumbness is downplayed in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout New Vegas}}'' where the Courier is not nearly dumb enough to be counted as brain damage... expect when talking to very smart characters (which makes it seem to just be an act).

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A particularly counterintuitive bit of GameplayAndStorySegregation, it includes everything from strength (though it does explain carrying [[ImprobableWeaponUser improbable weapons]]), speed/dexterity (No SuperSpeed for ''you''), intelligence (can't have the mage see through the EvilPlan, can we?) and HP (You literally have the HP to survive a flamethrower in the face, but can't even get near measly CutScene flames [[CutsceneIncompetence without intense pain]]).

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', new conversation options are opened thanks to your Cunning attribute. There is, of course, a Coercion skill. Apparently lopping off enemy heads can make you ''really, really'' good at convincing people. But would ''you'' argue with someone who can turn a fire-breathing dragon into a scaly [[TooSoon John the Baptist impersonator?]]

So you've been diligently leveling up, using {{Upgrade Artifact}}s, and equipping items to make your strength, magic, and HP stronger and greater, but for some reason you ''still'' can't [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence lift the tree blocking your path]]! Especially jarring if you manage to increase it [[OverNineThousand from 10 to 9,001]], but the only quantifiable change is damage dealt to enemies.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'': the player character is normally very powerful, breaking wood and iron items alike with ease. His melee damage, however, is very low, and needs upgrading before it can get to the same level of strength.

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* Every ''Franchise/KamenRider'' show since 2000 has published statistics for every Rider in each of their forms, describing their punching and kicking power in tons, their maximum jump height in meters, and how many seconds it takes them to run 100 meters. These numbers are seemingly chosen by drawing them out of a hat, and virtually never have any relevance to anything the characters can do in the show.

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* Averted in ''VideoGame/ChampionsOnline''. The amount of strength your character has DOES determine how physically strong you are. A character with minimal strength can barely lift a bench or a mailbox, where as a character that has 300 or more strength could easily pick up and toss cars, tanks, or pretty much anything not nailed to the ground. {{Champions}} uses a logarithmic scale for strength; a Strength of 300 is actually enough to lift, oh, a smallish mountain range. If the online game really lets you do that, that's impressive.

* Black Isle took this approach when making ''[[BaldursGate Baldur's Gate]]'', which many considered the first computer game to truly capture the "spirit" of D&D. Bioware and Obsidian (mostly Obsidian, Bioware tends to use the options as pure flavor or as an alternative that gives the same results) continue this tradition today, as seen below.

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