Why is this videogame specific?!? (Alt Titles Crowner Sept 15): Saving The World

Seriously, why?

Because people who write tropes are knuckleheads.

I dunno, the ubiquitousness of this particular plotline in videogames is quite notable.

...I was hoping for a better reason then that.

There is absolutely no reason I can think of for this trope to have the write-up it has.

It's quite common in other forms of media as well - in fact, the whole reason I found it was because I was unable to believe we did not have a "Save The World" trope under Ending Tropes.

edited 13th Jun '11 12:54:43 AM by nrjxll

Oh, I don't disagree, but before we go haring off and rewriting things, we should determine whether or not we need to rewrite this, or make a new trope for the non-videogame version.

So that it can make a meaningful observation about videogame stories.

Whereas if it were made into a list of every piece of media in which somebody saves the world, it would become so boring people may actually drive nails into their eyes to escape reading it.

I'm not following this.

Actually, I did have the kernel of a ""Save the World" Climax" for a YKTTW if I couldn't find a trope on this, but I'm unconvinced that we can't just rewrite the current page. How is this really different in video games then anywhere else? I mean, it's not something like the difference between Suicidal Overconfidence and Attack! Attack! Attack!, where the former is actually gameplay related - the sole justification for having this as a videogame-exclusive trope (or cooexisting besides a more general counterpart) is that "it's common in video game plots". As if it wasn't in other media?

Why would we need a separate trope for saving the world in videogames? The only tropes that tend to be video game exclusive tend to be Gameplay Tropes.

It's come to this: not ever the Trope Repair shop reads descriptions anymore.

Also, what's with the awful picture?

I read the description, and it is basically just about saving the world as a plot point. And while that is common in videogame plots, it's by no means exclusive to it. That observation could still be kept if the trope was expanded, but it seems ridiculous to restrict such a common trope to one medium just because of that.

I see no reason that this should be videogame-only.

This doesn't seem to be just about saving the world. It seems to be about the plot continually escalating until you wind up having to save the world.

That said, no reason it should be video game only.

Why would you use a broad name like Saving the World to be about escalation? Escalating Goals would be better than that.

I have no idea. This is an amazingly broad name for a rather narrow trope.

A cursory glance through the wicks has this appearing on several non-videogame works.

I'm reasonably certain the "Escalating Plot" trope exists elsewhere under a different name.

Bump.

I'm pretty sure this is used primarily for the non-medium-specific generic plot of Saving the World. For example, when Save the World appears in all-caps in the Evil Overlord List.

Bump, again. Come on, people, something's got to be done about this.

I don't see anyone here who thinks this should be a videogame specific trope. Let's expand it already.

I think it should a videogame specific trope.

Its problem is its name: the description is quite clear, but who reads descriptions these days? If it were created today, it would probably have been called something like "All Videogames Are About Saving The World".

Because that's actually a 'device or convention' of media, whereas a list of every time a fictional character has saved the world is fatally boring.

In which case the trope is just wrong. There's a variety of games that aren't about saving the world.

"Saving the world" is not an Omnipresent Trope in any form of media (including video games), nor is it something that happens normally or incidentally during the storytelling. Therefore, the only objection to creating a Saving the World page that's actually about what it sounds like is your opinion that it would "it would become so boring people may actually drive nails into their eyes to escape reading it". In which case, don't read the page - this is a legitimate trope that should exist, and "it's boring" is not a valid objection.

As for the current page, I favor a Trope Transplant. The concept it's about - video game plots escalating over the course of the game - is certainly worth troping, but not under its current, misleading name.

Feel free to discuss whether the trope is wrong — at the very least, it would suggest they you read the very first sentence of the very first paragraph of description.

edited 9th Jul '11 12:53:47 AM by ninjacrat

The impression I get is that it's about RP Gs, particularly JRP Gs, which because of the World Map and Conservation of Detail tropes tend to be globally spanning in their plots. The exceptions where you're only saving the kingdom or the continent or just rescuing the girl are surprisingly rare. This sort of has the side effect of making the world seem pretty small.

So while saving the world as a plot in general is definitely something that we should have, we should also have something noting its unusual commonness in a certain genre of video games.