Wait, what?: Context Sensitive Button

This article is written about an in-universe control that does whatever function the current plot requires.

However, it's also a term for videogames, where one button on the controller interface is reserved for a context-sensitive function.

In-universe vs. audience interface is a pretty significant distinction, but what do we do?

Here's a cursory glance at the wicks:

In-universe control elements

• Applied Phlebotinum (index)
  • Fr.Phlebotinum Applique
  • It.Phlebotinum Applicato
• Tropers.Bailoroc (troper page)
• Ben 10 Alien Force
• Big Red Button
• Captain N The Game Master
• Narm.Code Geass
• Cool Ship (Yellow Submarine)
• Recap.Doctor Who S 31 E 11 The Lodger
• Handy Remote Control
• Heroman
• Inspector Gadget
• Kim Possible
• Megas XLR, with related mentions in:
  • WMG.Megas XLR
  • TriumphantExample.C
  • Failsafe Failure
  • Genius Ditz
  • Motion-Capture Mecha
  • Only I Can Make It Go
• Musical Trigger (Ocarina of Time): Unusually, this doesn't refer to the "A" button on the controller, which Zelda games use for context-sensitive actions.
• Plot-Sensitive Items
• Speed Racer
  • WMG.Speed Racer
• The Magic School Bus
• WMG.The Penguins Of Madagascar
• The Way Of The Metagamer
• Pantheon.War

Relating to player interface

• Action Commands
• Beyond Good And Evil
• Mind Jack
• Taunt Button
• Use Item

Ambiguous

• Conkers Bad Fur Day: Aside from being the Trope Namer, this seems to be mostly a Lampshade Hanging, with in-universe platforms labelled "B" being a visual cue that pressing the "B" button on the controller will trigger a context-sensitive action. It is mentioned in numerous articles:
  • Advancing Wall of Doom
  • Green Lantern Ring
  • Helium Voice
  • Rise to the Challenge

• Billions of Buttons
• Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers
• Enhance Button (Babylon 5)
• Webcomic.Flip Zone
• Futurama
• No Body Left Behind (Mai-Otome)
• Characters.The Wellspring Empire
• Who Even Needs a Brain? (Star Trek TOS)

Curse you videogames! You take a perfectly good gag and turn it into something serious.

Soft split?

Uncritically accepting stratadrake's numbers, I see a clear majority of uses being as defined on the page.

I'm inclined to do a hard split because one is a mechanic the other is a gag.

Googling around, it seems that "context sensitive" is a pre-existing term in the gaming world, but Context-Sensitive Button is not so universal. There is Action Button for the singular and Context Sensitive Controls when there is more than one. People also use Context-Sensitive Button, but googling for Context-Sensitive Button brings up our article at the top.

(I'd support a hard split too.)

edited 9th Feb '11 5:12:39 PM by Camacan

I can't think of a term for the comedy gag that wouldn't be confused for the mechanic though. Multi Purpose Button comes to mind, but same problem. Hm, Plot-Sensitive Button maybe?

I'm inclined to leave the trope article at its current name and put the videogame control examples on Action Button or Context Sensitive Controls and leave it at that. We can disambiguate at the bottom of Context-Sensitive Button.

edited 9th Feb '11 5:48:59 PM by Camacan

Controls would probably work best, since there's some that use d-pads and the like.

I kinda like Action Button for the interface mechanic and Plot-Sensitive Button for the in-universe item, but that's just me. They'd make suitable redirects in either case. Because if you have many context-sensitive Action Buttons in the control scheme, then ... well, that gets just plain confusing.

PS: To the cloud! —> https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=z3fx1ze5n9epl6y3yerdnz3n

edited 10th Feb '11 12:23:14 AM by Stratadrake

I would rather rename, since the term, even if not exact, has been used in video games, not for this trope. I have heard it referred to as a Do Anything Button once in a while.

This should be split into the gag Context Senstive Button and the mechanic Action Button.

I'm not against a rename, however I did review the wicks and a clear majority of them focused (in some manner) on the in-universe gag. Preserving the current name and making a new trope for the interface mechanic is simply less work.

This seems to have been stalled, however I'd like to point out that the discussed video game trope is likely People Sitting On Chairs. The VAST majority of games will use the same button for more than one purpose because of a limit of buttons, because overlapping buttons are easier to used then ones that are more spread out, and because some actions should be related.

But then, the reason why they overlap doesn't really matter when you can list (many) more games that have multi-use buttons than those that don't. So my vote is to just trim the examples that are not being correctly used and put a disclaimer stating "Don't do this!".

Being common doesn't make it People Sitting On Chairs. The vast majority of television programs have commercial breaks, but Commercial Break certainly isn't People Sitting On Chairs. Although since we don't have a page for Commercial Break, that's probably a poor example.

Quite a few of the Video Game Mechanics we have are simply a definition of the term, rather than an actual trope in the "story-telling device sense".

To be fair, videogames are a little more than stories to be "told"....

By Word of Eddie, game mechanics are to be considered tropes.

Hard split.

Bump...

I apologize for being late to this thread, but there is now a page action crowner for this trope here. Feel free to add other options as you see fit.

If we rename this one, I like Magic Plot Button.

Oh yeah to hard split, I like Action Button for Video Games most I play games do call it that, Adventure or Action-Adventure RPG games mostly. (the ones that don't use the tropes actual name that is) And for plot ones Magic Plot Button is ok or Press This To Make The Plot Go.

edited 20th Sep '11 1:25:16 PM by Raso

I prefer making the current name for uses in video games, since that is an actual term used by some games, and Do Anything Button for when a story just doesn't have a hard and fast use for a button.

edited 20th Sep '11 1:57:23 PM by DragonQuestZ

Consensus is for a Hard Split.