These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
And as of now... the decision by the US government to cancel the vote on the infamous SOPA and PIPA bills. Through this is kinda subverted with the decision to shut down Megavideo and arrest it's creators.
Genghis Khan; evil warlord, or uniting liberator of the oppressed? Or did he just lead an active, outdoor lifestyle?
Adolf Hitler has a small but vocal group of fans claiming he was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Possibly multiple character interpretations for everyone, by everyone.
Anti-Climax Boss: The Soviet Union, basically. The entire twentieth century seemed to be building-up to an epic boss battle between the USA and the USSR, and then... the USSR just implodes. That's some pretty shoddy writing.
Anvilicious: The entire World War Two arc was basically just the writers saying "fascism is bad, mmmkay?" over and over and over again for six seasons.
Meanwhile some hack was going over a newly independent Poland and decided that after making its breakout appearance on world maps that it was going to have its epic. It digressed into antics including Loads and Loads of Characters leading into a Gambit Pileup that caused wars with the Soviet Union and Lithuania, an internal coup and border disputes with Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Reads like train wreck Fan Fictionculminating with the invasion by Hitler. God was likely on one hell of a bender when he wrote the interwar period in the region.
The War on Terror story-arc. It got real old real quick. Also, the massive Broken Aesop that accompanies it. "We're going to fight Terrorism! With War... wait, what?!"
The War On Terror Arc has been going on for nearly ten seasons.
The War on Communism / Cold War arc lasted a record-stretching 75 seasons and supplied a major Crisis Crossover of the 20th century. Some characters seem to be unaware that the arc ended, and continue to build massive bomb shelters and stockpile ammo in case of a commie takeover. Some would love to see the arc brought back, since they enjoyed the power they had during its continuity.
The Crusades, which lasted almost 200 seasons. The early arcs were okay. Big fights, mighty nations fighting. They'd been setting it up for hundreds of seasons. There was some Seasonal Rot with the later ones, though. The Children's Crusade, for example, or the Fourth Crusade, which never made it to the Holy Land. Instead, it turned on Constantinople and destroyed the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines would regain power about sixty seasons later.
This has happened to the whole "War On Drugs" arc.
Ditto the "War on Poverty", which was arguably a Red Herring.
Archive Binge: People have spent their entire lives exploring the backstory (in fact, there is an entire career path dedicated to this). This has been known to lead to the ultimate Archive Panic. Just to make things even harder, much if not all of the archive is written by Unreliable Narrators.
Broken Base: Many. Most base breakers involve views on politics, religion, and other such philosophies.
One of the biggest is the release-date history. Many claim it took billions of years of trial-and-error programming to get the final product, others claim the head programmer put it together in a week as a pet-project. And even the identity of the head programmer is in question.
Cargo Ship: Goes back a lot further than battery-powered toys.
Cliché Storm: Good luck finding a character archetype that isn't included. Also, World War II.
Complaining About Shows You Don't Like: Related to the above, many people get thoroughly disenfranchised with this series, for any myriad number of reasons. Some have reached a Dork Age in their "high school" story arcs, become Butt Monkeys, Gone Mad from the Revelation, etc. Many people complain about mini-games and a few cutscenes not being grounded in the main game's physics. Of course, most of these people are no fun.
Complaining about Shows You Don't Watch: This is pretty much non-existent in Real Life. While there are a few complaints still lingering around the world by people who have long since quit, there's been no complaints from those who've never played it. Though it must be noted that most new players spend much of their time crying to anyone around even though they haven't experienced much of Real Life's content yet.
There are, however, in-universe examples, some of which lead to censorship by characters of what other characters read/watch/play etc.
Continuity Porn: It is very difficult to understand any one part of Real Life without knowing the circumstances leading up to it (e.g., you can't understand the War on Terror without understanding the Cold War, which you can't understand without understanding World War II, which you can't understand without understanding World War I, which you can't understand without understanding the Congress of Vienna, etc.).
Contractual Purity: A lot of innocent child stars get sick of their status as good role models and decide to play villainous and uncharacteristic roles to break away from their squeaky-clean image. Averted when the actors can build careers with quality roles as a character actor in popular films.
Crazy Awesome: Some of the most memorable characters, who would be Memetic Badasses if it weren't for the fact you couldn't make up anything more outlandish than what they did in canon.
Crossing the Line Twice: Played somewhat straight, although instead of becoming funny, something just becomes acceptable. Happened in the World War 2 arc, and also happens in some levels like Iran.
Designated Hero/Designated Villain: Many, many examples. A notable one for Designated Hero would be Stalin in the World War II arc, who's own atrocities were just as bad, if not worse, than Hitler's.
For many, the last few weeks/days of School before vacations. Also applies to Fridays before weekends, assuming one is lucky enough to have weekends off.
For certain niche gamers, the periods between the next game in their favorite series/genre gets released.
Most (if not all) religions fall under this category, as well.
Even Better Sequel/Sequelitis: World War II. It depends on who you ask. On one hand, it had really improved action sequences, but on the other hand, it reused the villains from the first one, and it had the infamous "Genocide" story arc.
Fanon: Plenty of it. In-universe characters seem to like inventing stories about things that never happened in canon.
Game Breaker: Each era has an example. Steel, gunpowder, and the airplane are good examples. Currently, nuclear weapons. Such an extreme example that their usage is formally banned, and many want them to be removed completely. Being born to a rich family will let you surpass many of the financial problems everyone else has to deal with.
If you have a lot of money, ther are more arbitrage opportunities available to you that let you gain even more money.
Goddamned Bats: Mosquitoes, bedbugs, rats in some places, as well as many others.
Good Bad Bugs: In several paths, it's possible to make large amounts of money simply by moving other people's money around. Unfortunately, overuse of this bug in seasons 1929 and 2008 almost caused the entire system to crash.
During the George Bush arc the "Become Rich By Moving Other People's Money Around: The Good Version" (the one carried out by the public servants) was pushed up to 10 with the "economic stimulus package". The more edgy Obama arc pushed this up to 11.
A group of players found a way to combine the intuitive, physics-based control scheme with levels that weren't designed for specific maneuvers, and created a whole new minigame!
Growing the Beard: Many agree that the series found its foothold when the concept of Humanity was first introduced.
Even then, the first few series are considered unimpressive, concentrating mainly on day to day survival and featuring a lot of unnecessary shock elements such as cannibalism and indiscriminate slaughter. It's considered that the necessity of coping with farming on floodlands and the planning involved caused the creation of such popular elements as art, civilisation and legal codes which enabled the longevity of the Humanity concept.
Fans who love action scenes, however, tend to love the early episodes more. Some cool random encounters such as the Mammoth and Dodo just aren't available anymore. And since the weapons are much harder to acquire and use since the Modern Age patch, this series is more or less in a state of Badass Decay.
Many say that Europe's Grew The Beard during the Renaissance.
It's Short, so It Sucks : Averted. Some believe that life is short, yet so they try to make the most out of life. Ironically, unless you believe in an afterlife (and if it actually exists), this is the longest game you'll ever play.
M-Y
Magnificent Bastard: Played in every direction. Particularly memorable was during the WWII arc, where they ran rampant all over the place. The same arc featured a deconstruction with Oskar Schindler, a racketeer mostly concerned with filling his pockets who has one of the most moving Heel Face Turns in the entire series. Also, some characters are convinced that the author is one of these.
Large numbers of the fanbase might argue that education is entirely made up of Scrappy Levels.
The "IRS Audit" level has proved roundly unpopular. Same goes for the "minimum wage job" stage. However, the "divorce" stage is probably one of the most hated in the entire game.
The "International Copyright Law" mechanic is extremely unpopular; of course, the whole "Anti-Copyright" is a Scrappy Mechanic for a lot of other people.
Seasonal Rot: Although newbies tend to like the Cretaceous more, Jurassic fans are quick to note that the favored dinosaurs of that era (Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops) are mere stand-ins for the Killed Off for Real Allosaurus and Stegosaurus. Some even argue that the whole thing went to pot after the Triassic (and the less said about the seasons after the monkeys took over, the better.)
Winter. Everyone becomes much more grouchy, not to mention the cold.
Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: Considering the incredible number of gold saucers, this was inevitable, really. You can make a decent living from a few of these, but unfortunately they're usually the least fun.
Possibly the best example in the current arc is a spoiler about The End of the World as We Know It found in ancient Mayan hint books which will fail to happen in the year 2012.
Cyrus dies, Alexander dies, Qin Shi Huangdi dies, Caesar dies, The Allies win, Hitler dies, The Allies win again, Stalin dies, Mao dies, Oswald kills Kennedy*
]], Nixon lied, Capitalism wins (except for the Cuba and NK special conflict zones).
Everybody dies, including you.
Squick: Approximately 25% of the internet. Shock sites compose at least 10% of this. Certain sites can actually be High Octane Squick. Heck, there's a bunch of this outside the Internet.
The responsibilities and reduced free time that comes with growing up.
The generally accepted criteria for a 'good' life. Not happily married with children and a 'respectable' job? You, sir, fail at life.
More often than not this aspect of the trope plays itself straight.
Demanding parents can bring this up even earlier than normal. "We're so worried about little Timmy's academic performance, his pattern recognition is lacking, he can't seem to grasp phonics, and he's small! Heaven knows what it'll be like when he's born!"
Tear Jerker: Many, but the biggest one would be the unexpected and tragic death of my goldfish. Sadly, has its own page.
In fact, let's just lump in the whole Employment drill.
That One Level: World War I, World War II and the Great Depression qualify.
For the Western Roman faction, the Hun invasion was almost impossible to beat. Eventually the Roman faction won, but at such a cost as to eventually result in the faction's demise.
Throughout history, Afghanistan has proven itself to be That One Level for various factions. From The Hellenistic arc up to the current arc, it tends to leave factions a bit frustrated.
Puberty. At least it gives you some decent stat buffs and a huge new set of character class options.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Constantly, many people complain that the present series is not as good as 'the olden days'.
"For thousands of years, man thought the moon was made of cheese. We went there in the 60's, and proved it was made of rock. We haven't been back since."
