Redefine?: The Computer Shall Taunt You

When I made the YKTTW for this trope, the examples I'd thought of involved playing as a villain and the game seemingly trying to make you embrace the role by making you hate the good guys.

I'm now wondering if it should have been that specific, since it prevents examples from being added. For intance, I was thinking about the "Civilization" games and how the other world leaders in those can kind of be dicks to you, calling your civilization pathetic and so on. But in those, you aren't really playing a villain. You can choose to be a warmongering bastard, but the game doesn't cast you in that role. So perhaps somebody thought about putting a "Civilization" example there, but thought "Nah, it doesn't fit the trope."

I already changed the definition slightly before I was familiar with the proper procedure: instead of what it initially said about how it tries to make you angry and not think about how evil you're being, it now says it tries to make you angry and not consider any possible moral ramifications.

What I'd like to do is leave the hypothetical example in the first couple of paragraphs as is, and then go on to say something like this:

"In a nutshell: any instance where the game you're playing has the opponents it pits you against disrespect you, making you want to kick their ass. And despite it being the case in the above example, you don't necessarily have to be playing as a villain."

The name doesn't match the trope description. That's the problem.

When I saw the name, the first thing I thought of was Shao Kahn taunting you in Mortal Kombat, but he's the villain.

edited 23rd Apr '11 4:59:41 PM by Scardoll

I never read the description to this either, so I thought it was about when an AI-controlled character executes taunting gestures against the player.

If you keep your original definition, I'd go with something like Enforced Player Villainy.

Okay, maybe I'll redefine it to something like this:

Imagine you're playing a video game. You're not really emotionally invested in it, you just want to beat the game and...HEY! Did that NPC just insult you?! What a DICK! Now It's Personal, and you will not rest until you not only shut this bastard's mouth, but sever his lips and mount them on your wall!!! (Hopefully the game will let you do that.)

NPCs might taunt, mock, or insult you for a variety of reasons. One reason could be to make a villain seem less likeable to you and more like somebody you just want to punch. Or, if you are playing as a villain, you might go after the good guys with renewed zeal if they piss you off enough by showing their contempt for you. (I mean sure, maybe your character is a megalomaniac with an Evil Plan to enslave half of humanity and seal the other half in People Jars to prepare them for your later consumption...but geez, that's no excuse for them to hurt your feelings!) Or maybe you're playing a Fighting Game where everybody just gets gloaty after winning.

Can be related to Player Punch, depending on the circumstances. Made more frustrating if the computer is also a cheating bastard. Compare with I Shall Taunt You.

edited 24th Apr '11 8:31:26 AM by KilgoreTrout

You could remake the trope you wanted under a different name and keep the one here under this name, that's what I would recommend at least.

I also thought of Shao Kahn. The name makes it sound like an AI version of Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat.