Playing With Wiki: General Cleanup and Writing Help

The new thread got more feedback (total of four different tropers, including me and the OP) in a single day (and on the day it was made) than it had over the past few months; that's generally better than the few times I had made Trope Talk threads in the past few years. I think that at least suggests that it's more likely to get traffic in Trope Talk than in this subforum.

edited 26th Dec '16 1:40:16 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Need some assistance for this one,

Basic Trope: An Assimilation Plot results in a quiet, emotionless world

• Straight: Dyeus and his suboordinate Luxia wants to end the Evils Of Free Will via an Assimilation Plot to create a emotionless world.
• Exaggerated: ???
• Downplayed: ???
• Justified: ??
• Inverted: ???
• Subverted: ???
• Parodied: ???
• Zig Zagged: ???
• Averted: ???
• Enforced: ???
• Invoked: ???
• Exploited: ???
• Defied: ???
• Discussed: ???
• Conversed: ???
• Implied: ???
• Deconstructed: ???
• Reconstructed: ???
• Played For Laughs: ???
• Played For Drama: ???

Up in Useful Notes/Paraguay

... So what is the trope supposed to be? Assimilation Plot?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

It's World of Silence trope. I am trying to think up anything that will work.

Up in Useful Notes/Paraguay

Well, for starters, I'd replace Assimilation Plot with Evil Plan in the "Basic Trope" entry, because that one is supposed to be generic.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Okay, but would you help me with that Playing With list.

Up in Useful Notes/Paraguay

I would suggest changing those names.

As it says in the OP, needlessly fancy names distract the reader from the definition.

TV Tropes's No. 1 bread themed lesbian. she/her, fae/faer

Would you kindly clarify for me, it's quite confusing.

Up in Useful Notes/Paraguay

I'm leaning towards cutlisting the playing with page for Hartman Hips (female character drawn with unrealistic pearshaped figure)

edited 18th Jan '17 6:42:30 AM by captainpat

I feel inclined to agree; it's not really that easy to play with a purely visual trope.

Basically, the point of a PWW page is to describe variations of the trope, so the characters need to be as bland as possible outside of things which demonstrate the trope. Calling someone "Bob" will pass without comment since it's a fairly innocuous name that doesn't bring to mind any other name related tropes, calling someone "Reginald" brings to mind specific tropes like Upper-Class Twit. Ironically, what would be good writing for a story (quick and easy character depth) gets in the way of a PWW description.

TV Tropes's No. 1 bread themed lesbian. she/her, fae/faer

Hi, how's it going?

I decided today that I want to start a Playing With page for a trope I launched about a month ago, Stealing the Handicapped Spot. As I've never written a page for the Playing With Wiki (even though I've been a troper for almost seven years), I thought I'd run my draft by you guys, just to make sure I have everything right. So, here goes!

---

Basic Trope: An able-bodied character parks in a handicapped space, as a demonstration of their jerkassery.

• Straight: Phil parks in the handicapped space, even though there are several non-reserved parking spaces available.
• Exaggerated: Phil parks in the handicapped space, even though the parking lot is completely empty.
• Downplayed: The handicapped space is the only one available, but Phil still takes it without hesitation (instead of waiting for a non-reserved spot to open up).
• Inverted: Phil is disabled, but he insists on using non-reserved parking spaces because he doesn't want any kind of special treatment.
• Subverted: Phil parks in the handicapped space... and then escorts his wheelchair-bound friend out of the car.
• Double Subverted: Said friend is faking an injury and can walk just fine without the wheelchair.
• Parodied: Phil parks his stretch limo sideways across several parking spaces, including one or two handicapped ones.
• Averted: Phil waits for a non-reserved parking space to open up before parking his car.
• Enforced: "We need to really show the audience that Phil is a douchebag. Let's have him casually steal a handicapped spot for no reason!"
• Lampshaded: "Hey, asshole! You know there are people who actually need to use that, right?"
• Exploited: Phil steals his rival's car and parks it in the handicapped spot, knowing that his rival will get heaps of scorn for it.

---

So... how was that?

edited 30th Apr '17 6:48:08 AM by TyeDyeWildebeest

I love to learn, I love to yearn, and most of all... I love to make money.

I would like to bring attention to the Playing With page for Angry Black Man. The trope itself is about a black person who is angry at The Man and is angry at racial injustices in the world.

The "Playing With" page for it, on the other hand, is just about "A black person with a Hair-Trigger Temper", and almost all the examples are about said Square Peg Round Trope definition.

I've tried giving it a once over, but a) I'm tired and b) I suspect there a tropers far more qualified to play with the trope than I, so consider it a patch.

TV Tropes's No. 1 bread themed lesbian. she/her, fae/faer

May I please propose a new Playing With trope, like Deconstructed, Exaggerated, and Subverted?

"BY THE POWER OF SPARKLES AND MAGIC YOU SHALL NOW HAVE BABIES" - Starclan 5/21/17 "What is it, land on Luigi day?" - Luigi

You can certainly propose it, but you need to be able to explain how it's not one of the ones we already have (or just "a variant form of the trope") and give examples of works that do that.

edited 2nd Jul '17 2:17:42 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I've seen some of the Trope Tropes — i.e. what Thegeniusyoshi is asking about — that were added in recent years (e.g. Downplayed Trope) being submitted in the Trope Launch Pad to gather feedback before being launched. That's how it should be done, right?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

That would be very much the way to do it, but opening a thread to see if there's even anything that needs to be added before going to TLP is better.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I have come across a few instances of tropers changing the names of the hypothetical characters to Alice and Bob for seemingly no reason. I can understand changing problematic names (e.g. overly similar names, overly long names, names that are hard to spell, obvious Flame Bait like calling a "hypothetical" Sleazy Politician "Donald" or "Hillary"...), but take a look at this. There was nothing wrong with the names "Jim" and "Deanna", and changing them to Alice and Bob comes across as standardization for the sake of standardization. If you read more than a few dozen Playing With pages, seeing "Alice" and "Bob" constantly gets really repetitive. So perhaps we should specify that the hypothetical characters do not need to be called Alice and Bob (edit: and that the character names on an existing Playing With page should not be changed unless there's a particularly good reason for it)?

edited 5th Sep '17 11:23:15 AM by MathsAngelicVersion

Sorry but what's wrong with Alice and Bob? I think it helps with keeling people from using silly names for the sake of variety, like "Deanna" or "Xavier" or something not particularly common. It's just easier to use Alice, Bob, Charles and the like (it's usually an A name and a B name followed by some C name if there's three characters).

Basically, if the names help with keeoing track if the example, then it ought to be fine. I've seen names like Eric the Evil Emperor and such, and that helps as you read each example. But if it's just there for the sake of variety, then there's not much reason to keep it.

edited 5th Sep '17 12:27:44 PM by WaterBlap

Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty

It gets repetitive after a while and they are only placeholder names.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

"What's wrong with Alice and Bob?" Primarily their overuse. I don't think the simplicity of using "Alice and Bob" over and over makes up for the monotony. While I don't think existing uses of Alice and Bob need to be replaced, I also don't think there's much reason to go out of our way to destroy existing variety by replacing e.g. "Shirley and Tom" with "Alice and Bob". There can also be other reasons to avoid Alice and Bob (for instance that "Alice" makes people think of Alice in Wonderland, and "Bob" borders on being an Inherently Funny Word).

With that said, there are bad ways to use names to add variety. I listed some in my previous post. That could be a potential problem, but terrible name choices aren't particularly hard to avoid if you use your head.

When it comes to "silly" names, I don't mind ones like Deanna (which isn't that rare anyway) and Xavier (rarer, but still a valid real-life name, and IMHO still better than seeing "Bob" for the 272nd time), but I do believe that we should generally stick to common(ish) real names unless there's a good reason to make one up (e.g. "Emperor Evulz").

Of course, I'm all for names that help the reader keep track of who is who. I also like it when the hypothetical character gets a Punny Name relevant to the trope.

Edit: Default names like Alice and Bob are useful in certain situations. For instance, if someone creates PlayingWith.Sleazy Politician and names the Sleazy Politician "Alice", you can be sure that name was chosen due to its status as a neutral default - not to make a Take That! to some real-life politician the troper didn't like (which could start an Edit War or a Flame War).

'nother edit: I propose the policy that the original author of the Playing With page gets to decide the character names, and that this decision should only be overruled if the names are particularly problematic (e.g. Flame Bait names or two major characters having names that are very easy to confuse). So if you prefer Alice and Bob, go ahead and use them for all of your pages. The idea behind the policy is not to prevent the use of "Alice" and "Bob". It's to avoid pointless edits that only change the character names without doing anything to improve the page. I believe that's a fair compromise between those who like "Alice" and "Bob", and those who don't.

Yet another edit: This ATT thread clarifies that Playing With pages can use whatever names the author wants, and it's okay to change them back if someone changes them for no reason.

edited 12th Sep '17 8:18:43 AM by MathsAngelicVersion

Just a question about Bandage Babe. PlayingWith.Bandage Babe suggests this trope is about a woman who gets a severe cut to the torso, has to put on form-fitting bandages, and is unable to wear a shirt over them. The trope, especially the image, seems to suggest that bandages in and of themselves are attractive.

Yeah, I'm guessing whoever wrote the Playing With subpage missed the fact that Fanservice / Fetish Fuel deriving from being bandaged-up is the whole point behind the trope.

edited 13th Nov '17 12:47:10 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Albert is having suicidal thoughts, but before he actually starts to seek out his death, Bethany notices the signs (whether through mundane ways or because she's an empath/telepath) and gives him a Bright Slap and/or a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech that at least convinces him to clamp down on his suicidal tendencies and try seeking professional help for his issues.

Does this qualify for being an example of Death Seeker as a Defied Trope?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I think to defy Death Seeker, it would specifically need to establish the character putting themselves in harms way.

It's a method of suicide, not just being suicidal.

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