Duplicate Trope: Wreaking Havok

The page on Wreaking Havok isn't sure on what it wants to be.

The description, and part of the page, is about TechDemoGames that use complicated physics as their tech. This is The Same But More of Tech-Demo Game, really.

Some other examples are simply "games that use a physics engine". However, this is already covered by Video Game Physics and its subtropes.

And then, the page also claims it's about a game having physics tricks only for the sake of it, and clashing with the rest of the gameplay. This is an audience reaction, and it would be subjective.

Finally, while there are several popular physics engines on the market (e.g. Bullet and Phys X) the page is arbitrarily named after one of them. Indeed, many of the examples have nothing to do with the Havok engine.

This trope is very common in major games of the last decade, yet it only gets 55 inbounds, so there's probably something wrong here. I think we need to pick one of the three definitions, and then move the incorrect examples to another page.

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

Video Game Physics is actually an index of tropes relating to physics in games, regardless of whether those games have a physics engine. It includes stuff like Directionally Solid Platforms, Edge Gravity, Not the Fall That Kills You…, and Projectile Platform.

I believe that Wreaking Havok is acceptable as the trope for "Physics Engine".

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Clocking due to lack of activity.

Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.

Basically, our page on Physics Engine lists the most common physics engines and some games that use them; whereas our page on Wreaking Havok lists the common physics engines and games that use them.

That strikes me as redundant.

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

Physics Engine is currently serving the role of a Useful Note, and Wreaking Havok is serving the role of a Trope. I don't think this is an unacceptable state of affairs.

I could see a case for merging Physics Engine into Wreaking Havok, if consensus is that it's not useful as a separate page.

edited 18th Jun '12 8:54:19 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Holy crap, we don't have simply Physics Puzzles as a trope. How Did We Miss This One?

I mean, Gish, World Of Goo, Cut The Rope, Angry Birds, Portal, Half Life 2...all those games using simulated physics as an integral part of gameplay...and this trope, as described, isn't it.

The description sound like this is "physics engine used for something practical in game"... as written by someone who would prefer it be used only for eye-candy.

There are a lot of Puzzle Game tropes that are undocumented. I think we just don't have a lot of people interested in them.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Or a lot of them aren't obvious to someone who just plays them without actively looking for them.

The name is a very common phrase for something much broader, and was only chosen to be a(n obscure) reference to a particular physics engine. At the very least, Needs A Better Name.

Yeah, that just makes it look like a misspelled common phrase, which is almost worse.

edited 20th Jul '12 5:20:57 PM by Xtifr

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

For the record, the actual English word is "havoc". Though that only makes the trope name slightly less terrible.

Yeah, the name ought to be changed no matter what else we do with the trope. It's bad.

It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird

Expired clock and stale. Locking.

Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.