Not Tropeworthy: Guide Dang It.Non Game Examples

The trope Guide Dang It! is about parts of the game that you basically need to look up in the guidebook to figure out. That is fine.

However, for some reason this has a subpage for Non Game Examples, which is a contradiction in terms. Obviously, if something isn't a game, then it can't have any parts of the game that you need to look up in the guidebook.

Some examples of this page really are a game, and thus belong on another subpage. Most examples on this page, however, are just people complaining about how learning stuff is hard.

I think this should be cut. Other opinions welcome.

At a glance, a few of the examples there aren't in games but would qualify, it seems, particularly the Toy Story 2 and Adventurers! examples.

Other than those, though, I agree that most of those entries aren't this trope, and could use a chainsawing.

edited 2nd Apr '12 9:54:58 AM by Nohbody

I went through the entire page, and this is what fits the page, but I'm still unsure about the Knightmare example. It is a game, and a damn hard one at that.

• Referenced in Toy Story 2, in which Rex can't figure out how to beat Emperor Zurg in the Buzz Lightyear video game until he finds a Strategy Guide when the characters infiltrate Al's Toy Barn: "They make it so you can't defeat Zurg unless you buy this book. It's extortion, that's what it is!"
  • When the group goes up against an action figure of Zurg, Rex manages to defeat it by accident. When he gets back home at the end of the film, he's uninterested in the game. "I don't have to beat it. I lived it!"
    • It's implied to be counterintuitive to the point of Insane Troll Logic, because Rex's remark is prompted by Hamm trying to play the game and asking Rex for help.
• Spoofed in this Adventurers! strip. And also see this one.
• Good luck getting through Knightmare without divining what you were supposed to do, the game was easily made unwinnable with the no backtracking rule.
• There's several hint sites for the Real Life "How to Find a Mate" Romance Side Quest, but sometimes even that doesn't seem like enough.

edited 2nd Apr '12 11:28:25 AM by Feather7603

Knightmare is a game, so it doesn't belong on the "non-games" subpage.

Real life romance is absolutely not this trope.

No, it's just funny.

I think tossing them to GuideDangIt.Other wouldn't be a bad idea.

edited 2nd Apr '12 12:14:56 PM by Feather7603

Toy Story and Adventurers! seem to be In-Universe examples.

Moving them to "Other" sounds good.

Correct.

Question: Is there a section in the trope about examples where someone, other than you, gets stuck into this trope? Toy Story 2 example would count.

edited 2nd Apr '12 4:51:55 PM by spacemarine50

Clocking due to lack of activity.

I moved the short list I suggested to GuideDangIt.Other.

With that done, I'm in favour of cutting GuideDangIt.Non Game Examples.

edited 5th May '12 10:01:04 AM by Feather7603

None of the current examples on this page are particularly useful. I think we can cut the whole page.

What about:

• A: in-universe examples of this trope inside fictional works
• B: Examples involving other electronic devices (ie. smartphones, computers,etc)

And

• C: in-universe examples involving other electronic devices (ie. smartphones, computers, etc) inside fictional works.

It would be nice to have one place for in-universe examples if there are that many of them.

Then it should be called "In-Universe", rather than just "Non-Game". Of course Tabletop games, Gamebooks etc are legit. I did have a book adventure which was completely unwinnable unless you selected some very counterintuitive answers.

Electronics and software tend to have instruction manuals for most things. Not reading those and not understanding is not Guide Dang It!, but Read the Freaking Manual.

B: (from my last post) Can extend to anything. If you do read the manual, but either it's no help, or doesn't help you enough to do the job (or worse), it might be this trope. It's not failure to Read the Freaking Manual, it's another trope, or this.

Also: Is there an existing trope where there isn't a manual at all? (Losing it or it's missing won't count)

edited 5th May '12 8:06:40 PM by spacemarine50

The closest thing I can think of is No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup, which mentions a lack of documentation in some examples, but doesn't seem to be focused on it.

Also, are there actual examples for those? If there are examples that aren't shoehorned and actually fit the trope, they can still be placed on GuideDangIt.Other.

Anyway, since there is a place for any potential examples that would fit here, and none of the examples here are actual examples, is it fine to just cutlist it now, or do we need a crowner for it?

edited 5th May '12 9:23:43 PM by Feather7603

Crowner hooked.

The trope for fumbling with something awesome that you don't have a manual for seems to be How Do I Shot Web?; that was pretty much the entire premise of The Greatest American Hero, which is how I refreshed my memory on that.

@21 Thanks for that - your post reminded me of why I should vote to cut. I also propose we direct people on the main Guide Dang It! page to How Do I Shot Web? to keep such examples from popping up in the future.

If Non-Game Examples don't fit this, they fit a sister trope, then. Not having some conversion units explained to you in a game would be a Guide Dang It!, wouldn't it? So why not in an airplane (the Gimli Glider example)? Having no access to what would otherwise be in-game information would fit—so why not in some school software?

My point is: If they don't fit here, where the heck DO they fit?

That would be the trope Read the Freaking Manual. The point is that real life is not a game, so it doesn't make sense that you require a guidebook to "win" it.

Calling the crowner in favor of the cut.

EDIT: And it's done.

edited 26th May '12 5:13:09 AM by Willbyr