Clarification and cleanup: More Dakka

What, exactly, is the trope here? Is it simply "using automatic weapons"? Is it "shooting more bullets when a standard attack doesn't work"? Is it "any time a lot of bullets are flying around"? The description is unclear and the examples are all over the place.

We need to:

1. Figure out what the actual trope here is.
2. Clean up the description, which in addition to being vague, is also rambling and filled with Warhammer 40k nonsense that just adds to the confusion.
3. Prune examples to make sure they fit whatever the definition actually is.

edited 28th Jan '12 6:40:08 PM by NativeJovian

I'm about as confused about this trope as you, it seems to just be about bullet spam... but I'm not entirely sure if its a character personality trope like I've seen it used on quite a few character pages (I.e. Bob's preferred method of combat is to whip out the 6 chambered minigun and spray everything in a general direction with bullets) or if its like Beyond the Impossible, except specifically for guns! (another usage I've seen several times.

My understanding is its just Beam Spam with physical guns.

Isn't that Five Rounds Rapid?

edited 28th Jan '12 8:33:53 PM by Ghilz

Uh no Five Rounds Rapid has nothing to do with this trope as far as I can tell its "uses millitary to show Immune to Bullets" or something.

Hell that is a trope that should of been cut a long time ago... Look at the last repair shop for that one... [1]

edited 28th Jan '12 8:54:55 PM by Raso

Yeah, this is Beam Spam with bullets.

If it's just a Spam Attack (which is actually the supertrope) with bullets the examples listed are all over the place then.

Speaking of Spam Attack and its supertrope-ness, this article probably could do a better of job of clarifying that.

edited 28th Jan '12 10:06:30 PM by StubbyPenguin

Yeah, part of the reason is Spam Attack was made much later and I don't think it was ever quite cleaned up right when the supertrope was made.

Actually, Spam Attack is the melee version. The supertrope is Death In All Directions.

... yes, it's all very confusing.

edited 29th Jan '12 2:01:47 AM by Servbot

Well, Death In All Directions is actually supposed to be death from all directions, like everyone in a circle shooting the guy in the middle, but that's being misused.

More Dakka is about having more firepower. bullets, particle streams, lasers, slugs, shells, more of everything. Full Auto preferred.

It's all in the rate of fire.

edited 29th Jan '12 8:09:53 AM by AceOfScarabs

Death In All Directions is like a Death Blossom, right? Like dudes firing in all directions simultaneously.

That is what I thought (search for the old image picking thread...) [1]◊

Its the exact opposite if that fire coming from all directions at one target... Like being surrounded and such.

edited 29th Jan '12 9:34:01 AM by Raso

I always thought More Dakka was about using more (specifically the amount, not size) bullets than strictly necessary, either for the sake of practicality, as the Real Life examples, or for the Rule of Cool. Can also be described as an effective (or just cool) version of Spray And Pray. In Video Games you tend to have three options, generally speaking: Blow the enemy to smithereens in one hit, blow their heads off (or similar), or grind them down with More Dakka.

edited 29th Jan '12 9:38:02 AM by Feather7603

Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs is the unarmed melee version, Blade Spam is the weapon-aided melee version.

Death In All Directions apparently lists Spam Attack as the melee version, but Spam Attack treats itself as the supertrope... ugh this is getting confusing.

Death In All Directions has its own TRS thread here (though it apparently stalled back in November). Let's try to focus on More Dakka, here.

What I'm getting from this thread is that More Dakka is Spam Attack + Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better, yeah? It's the bullet equivalent of Beam Spam or Macross Missile Massacre. If that's the case, then the description needs pruning and there are a bunch of bad examples (and, I'd guess, wicks as well). I'll see if I can prune down the description to one that fits everyone's liking, and then we can work on examples and wicks.

More Dakka can, for the most part, correctly be used to refer to any instance of automatic fire.

The trope is about how automatic fire is always better than non-automatic fire. This comparison can manifest itself pretty subtly, so at a glance I wouldn't be surprised if it just looked like a list of machine guns in fiction. That's not necessarily wrong, though, since the mere omission of, like, burst fire, or whatever, reveals the writer's implicit bias in favor of MORE DAKKA.

I think if people are potholing More Dakka with any reference to automatic weapons, it shouldn't be any worse than, for example, potholing Technicolor Blade with any reference to colored swords. EDIT: As long as you pretend that Technicolor Blade is a bluelink. I guess it's still in YKTTW.

edited 29th Jan '12 6:18:11 PM by troacctid

We could rename it Full Auto All The Time?

Add it as a redirect, maybe make that the first line of the description or the laconic. But I'm not seeing a reason for a full rename. Description cleanup, sure. But a rename is overkill.

Also, anyone else a little annoyed by the ork-speak jokes at the bottom of the description and the page? If its just me, then whatever, I can ignore it, but I feel like it would look better without them.

That's not actually required for this trope though. They don't need to use the trope constantly for it to count as the trope. It's just a projectile weapon Spam Attack, and it frequently comes from things that shouldn't have full auto.

edited 29th Jan '12 9:47:48 PM by shimaspawn

Threw up a revised description at Sandbox.More Dakka. If that works for everyone, we can swap it in and start sorting bad examples and wicks.

Nicely done. I like it.

I thought the definition was settled on "more rapid fire is better," without any necessary emphasis on bullets.

That definition doesn't have any real basis in either the previous definition or the wiks. This is the original definition of the trope on this site. I'm not sure where you got that one from.

My mistake then.