All over the place: Press X To Die

Depends on the game. I'm not convinced that Puzzle Reset-and-lose-a-life is really a different trope than Puzzle Reset without losing a life. Many games these days have infinite lives anyway, making the point moot.

Yeah, there was some discussion about that earlier in the thread, and I'm definitely of the opinion that "suicide button available for if you find yourself in an Unwinnable situation" isn't the same thing as this trope. I wasn't aware of the existence of Puzzle Reset at the time, but it's probably lumpable under that (or a subtrope, if it's not).

I Wanna Be The Guy and N aren't really puzzle games.

Good point. Level Reset Button, then?

The point is that "you can start over when you're stuck, as a clearly explained game mechanic" is a different trope than "you can cause a game over by using the sword on yourself for no reason".

Clocking as inactive.

I'll sponsor the "Button you press to kill yourself to reset the level" YKTTW, if anyone can think of a good name for it, cuz I got nothing on that front.

Suicide Button For Level Reset?

Also, in IWBTG, the Q key isn't necessary to get unstuck, since you can reload at any time, even if alive. So it's an entirely optional suicide key with no legitimate use in the game.

Unlocking by request, but re-clocking. Let's see some activity this time.

edited 12th Apr '12 6:47:55 AM by ccoa

Crowner hooked.

Fixed the tag.

I strongly prefer leaving this as a supertrope, as both the name and description are better-suited for the broader variant. We can split off the proposed subtrope in YKTTW. I'll volunteer to sponsor it.

To me, the biggest problem with the trope is its name, which sounds like a quicktime event where you're supposed to not press a button instead of pressing it (Which would probably be Too Rare To Trope anyways). It is completely unrelated to Press X to Not Die.

IMO, the trope should be limited to examples where it's blatantly obvious that doing something will result in death, and is very unlikely to be done accidentally unless your mouse slipped or you pressed the wrong key by accident. Examples about a command you can use to kill yourself to reset a level would probably fit under a new, different trope. This should be renamed, and limited to stuff you can do for a funny Game Over.

Bumping for votes.

Defining this trope as the more specific version is just going to lead to misuse. It should be the supertrope—that's the one that fits the name and the examples the best. The "Reset the level" variant isn't supported in the current trope's examples, and it doesn't fit the name, so it makes more sense to give that a new YKTTW and a new trope.

Bumping for votes.

Both of the options are currently identical. Both options are currently in the green. Can we just go ahead and implement the solution? So YKTTW a trope for "Death as level reset" (name TBD), YKTTW a trope for "Item that has no purpose other than suicide", rewrite the current page to be the supertrope.

I agree.

Bumping for votes.

Game mechanics that's here specifically to kill the character (grabbing a live wire which does nothing else, pressing the self-destruct button that isn't used in normal gameplay, ">kill me" command, etc), which may be used to quit the game, reset level, or just Non Standard Gameover for fun - as opposed to actions that may otherwise make sense, but can be also performed suicidally or terminally wrong (e.g. "cooking" a grenade too long).

Bumping again for votes.

Got this via PM:

I see that "Press X to Die" has some discussion going on as to the actual point of it, so I figured I should throw this in. The best I can describe my criteria for this trope are as follows:

1. The action can only ever cause harm. 2. The action is something from which you would expect either positive effect or nothing to happen. 3. The action is completely avoidable. The player will never do it again unless verifying "Did they REALLY just let me do that?"

I will say that I would support a rename, however. It gets a lot of misuse for "suicide button", which isn't the point of the trope.

So, with that said, let's review some examples:

Any suicide button: 1. Only causes harm? Questionable. Many instances of this are to get out of unwinnable situations. 2. Expected positive or zero effect? No. It straight-up TELLS you what it does. 3. Completely avoidable? Yes. Don't push the button 1/3 or 2/3, nope.

Any schmuck bait: 1. Only causes harm? Yes. 2. Expected positive or zero effect? No. Again, it tells you what it does. 3. Completely avoidable? Yes. 2/3, nope.

Half-Life Opposing Force: The shock rifle kills you immediately if fired underwater. 1. Only causes harm? Yes. Always results in game over. 2. Expected positive or zero effect? Yes. Every other gun but the pistol does absolutely nothing when you try to fire underwater. 3. Completely avoidable? Yes. It'd take some contrived circumstances to accidentally shoot underwater. 3/3, it's this trope.

Streets of Rage 3: Trying to throw fat guys results in them crushing you. 1. Only causes harm? Yes. 2. Expected positive or zero effect? Yes. You can throw everyone else, including some enemies that are bigger than fatso. 3. Completely avoidable? Yes. 3/3, it's this trope.

Using explosives at point-blank: 1. Only causes harm? Yes. 2. Expected positive or zero effect? Varies with the game and circumstances. 3. Completely avoidable? No. Accidentally blowing yourself up is quite possible if the player is panicking, careless, or just bad. 1/3 or 2/3, nope.

Oh, and calling the crowner in favor of making Press X to Die the supertrope and YKTT Wing the puzzle game subtrope.

Thanks, ccoa.

Hey everyone, I'm the guy that originally made the Press X to Die page. I've long since lost access to my old account, and thus wasn't able to post directly until the anti-spam timer expired on this one.

Like ccoa posted for me, the trope is intended for actions that always have negative results, aren't expected to have negative results, and will never be repeated by somebody trying to beat the game. Basically, when the player encounters it, they generally think "Why didn't the devs just disable that?"

Resetting countdown clock.