Basic Trope: A video game give the player the option to be a right bastard.
- Straight: The player can shoot guards in the crotch and listen to them scream.
- Exaggerated: The player has total control over the lives and deaths of everyone in the game, and in-built torture options abound.
- Justified: The game follows the Spanish Inquisition.
- Inverted: The only one being tortured is the player character.
- Subverted: The game drops hints of a high cruelty potential, but all the NPCs are invincible.
- Double Subverted: The NPCs may be invincible, but there are lots of ways to screw with their emotions.
- Parodied: "Gosh, I sure hope nobody shoots my kids today!"
- Deconstructed: Video Game Cruelty Punishment
- Reconstructed: The game has multiple endings, one of which requires the player be an evil jerk... in order to get Laser-Guided Karma for their deeds.
- Zig Zagged: The game lets players be jerks, only it turns out there are limits to the cruelty, which can be lifted by in-game choices.
- Averted: The game is a non-violent sort, or combat is straightforward and lacking in torture methods.
- Enforced: "Murder Simulators are fun. Who are we to judge?"
- Lampshaded: "What cruel god would let this happen to me?!"
- Invoked: "Time to find out what my new dark powers can really do!"
- Defied: "I refuse to sink to the level of sadistic lowlifes."
- Discussed: "Why is it we always seem to be cosmic chew toys to "champions of justice" that are really psychos, or some evil god controlling everything?"
- Conversed: "Did you just plant a bomb on that guy?"
If you use the gravity gun to send that mook through the wall, the Video Game Cruelty Potential page should be on the other side.
