Ambiguous Name: Magic Missile

Magic Missile's definition and Trope Namer conflict. The definition is "magic that travels in a straight line and requires line of sight like bullets". However the Trope Namer, the D&D spell magic missile is guided and doesn't miss.

I'm currently gathering misuse stats.

I am moar concerned about the trope name being mismatched with similarly-named tropes.

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

6 inbounds, 4 verifiable (although one of them's in a forum that requires registration before viewing).

From the page, ten misused or zero-context out of 31 examples.

• Kido in Bleach: ZCE
• Dungeons & Dragons: As stated, the Trope Namer is not an example, though the game does provide valid ones (any spell that travels in a line, for example lightning bolt or a warlock's eldritch blast, would qualify).
• Magic Arrow in Castle of the Winds: ZCE
• Touhou: belongs on Magic Missile Storm, a recent launch for Spam Attacks with magical projectiles (the actual magic missile spell goes there)
• Sluggy Freelance: Weblinks Are Not Examples
• The Order of the Stick: ZCE, but I suspect it refers to the spell, not the trope
• Drowtales: spell, not trope
• Apple Valley: spell, not trope
• Jackie Chan Adventures: ZCE, but having seen the show I think it's valid
• Real Life: can't check the weblinks because my home Internet sucks, but I suspect they're talking about the spell, not the trope

Non-index wicks A-E, 30 wicks out of 84 total:

• YMMV.Ace Combat 04 Shattered Skies: Misuse for the kind of missile that goes boom. I suspect they meant Super-Persistent Missile or something. Wick Removed
• Characters.A Game Of Gods Infinities Champions: belongs on Magic Missile Storm
• Characters.A Game Of Gods Taskforce Sifuri Team Magic: ZCE
• Ancient Domains of Mystery: spell, not trope
• CloseCallHaircut.Anime And Manga: spell, not trope
• Asheron's Call: seems valid
• Attack Reflector: spell, not trope
• Boom Stick: spell, not trope
• Card Sharp: spell, not trope
• Cast from Hit Points: spell, not trope
• Clonk: ZCE
• Characters.Crestfallen: Not sure. There's just enough context to avoid ZCE, but not enough to tell if it's a "spell, not trope".
• Crestfallen: See above.
• Curse of Enchantia: spell, not trope
• Damage Reduction: misuse for magic in general
• Characters.Dead Fantasy: spell, not trope
• Dead Man's Hand: spell, not trope
• Characters.Defense Of The Ancients One: Two wicks. One is misused for a Grappling-Hook Pistol whose hook travels in a * straight line, the other seems valid use.
• Characters.Defense Of The Ancients Two: Don't know enough about the game to call. Could be genuine, could be that Grappling-Hook Pistol again.
• Deus ex Nukina: misuse for generic magic
• Characters.Diablo: ZCE
• Diaspora The Scattering: spell, not trope.
• Drowtales: spell, not trope
• Classes.Dungeons And Dragons: ZCE in some cases, spell-not-trope in the others.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Valid. I fixed that one myself after Magic Missile Storm launched.
• Trivia.Dungeons And Dragons: Trope Namer entry
• Dungeons & Dragons Online: spell, not trope
• Egoboo: No clue. It says, "Averted, spell aiming is semi-automatic."
• Characters.Elemental Doom: Spell, not trope
• Elemental Doom: Two wicks, spell-not-trope and a ZCE.

Out of 30 wicks polled, 2/3 were misuse.

edited 9th Jun '13 8:00:53 PM by StarSword

Yeah, that's not a good name. The trope isn't about missiles that are magical, nor is it about the trope namer, and it also says "do not confuse with this similarly-named but completely different trope". I support a rename.

Also, the descriptive text should be shorter and more to-the-point, but that's an easy fix.

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

I should point out the "do not confuse with" part is only a recent addition. Magic Missile Storm is less than a month old, and the fact that Magic Missile doesn't have anything to do with it actually came up in the YKTTW for it.

Perhaps Straight Line Spell?

EDIT: I wandered into the discussion tab and discovered I'm not the first to think this trope has problems.

edited 9th Jun '13 7:19:39 PM by StarSword

Fair enough.

Brainstorm mode: Spell As Projectile? Projectile Spell? Dodgeable Magic? All Spells Are Bullets?

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

I like Projectile Spell. It also allows for spells that may not necessarily travel in a straight line*

but still require the spell to be aimed and all.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

Oh, wow.

I just checked the YKTTW archive for this. It had one hat and people weren't sure about the name, and this was back in '09. Last response has something of a Viewers Are Geniuses feel to it given how it's turned out.

The Ace Combat 04 example is talkinga bout the Quick Aim Air Missile, which in that game literally cannot miss your target except for two examples where the enemy AI is intentionally designed to be unbeatable.

It isn't Magic Missile, but it is another trope. Looking on the page where the example is listed, it can be safely removed. Nobody's going to notice or care, to be honest.

edited 9th Jun '13 7:30:55 PM by DRCEQ

Yeah, 30% misuse on the page; I'm ready to rename straight-away.

Line Of Sight Casting

Line Of Sight Spell

Thrown Curse

Deflected Magic

Wand Gun Spell Bullet (Wand = Gun, Spell = Bullet)

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

All right, I'll go ahead and kill that one. Want me to go ahead and check the other wicks as long as I'm up?

edited 9th Jun '13 7:35:48 PM by StarSword

A rename sounds like a good idea considering misuse.

Check out my fanfiction!

I checked up through E before determining that 90% of the wicks were talking about the spell instead of the trope. Adding list to post #3.

Line Of Sight Casting is a good suggestion. It's already a pre-existing term... ehh, sorta. Many an MMORPG has game mechanics where an NPC has to visually have you in it's line of sight, meaning no zone geometry is between it and it's target, for it to cast a spell.

Not even just those either, plenty of regular video games use this. It's just a basic part of the programming for the most part.

edited 9th Jun '13 9:37:09 PM by DRCEQ

More to the point "line-of-sight" is a preexisting term for weapons that travel in more or less a straight line (i.e. anything that isn't guided or is an indirect-fire weapon like mortars or artillery). That's what this trope is about, according to the description: a spell that travels in a straight line and can be dodged if you're fast enough.

edited 9th Jun '13 9:50:21 PM by StarSword

Line Of Sight Casting

^That made me think of Characters and Casting. More like Line Of Sight Spellcasting.

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

Also Line-of-Sight Name.

Line Of Sight Spellcasting sounds good to me.

Wait, this is not about spells that require line-of-sight to their target. This is about spells that take the form of a bolt that can be dodged (and that may affect something else than its intended target, if it happens to end up hitting that). I think Bolt Spell may be a better name here.

(for instance, D&D requires line-of-sight for practically all its spells, but not all of them can be dodged; the same applies to numerouos computer games)

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

The D&D term required is line of effect, this trope has 2 components: the spell is aimed, and the spell can miss.

Effectively, the spell is aimed at a direction, and therefore can be dodged/reflected.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Line Of Sight Spell, Line Of Sight Spellcasting,, any of that works for me.

Bolt Spell makes me think of an electric spell.

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I see what Spark9 is looking at. It's the second paragraph from line 2 on that is unclear:

"This is where the spells a witch or wizard cast act more or less like bullets: if Alice wants to curse Bob, she's going to have to point her hands or wand at him (or at least be facing in his direction), then, when she says the curse, the magic will actually take a physical form (usually some sort of glowing energy) which will shoot towards Bob. If the curse hits him, he's cursed. However, if Alice's aim is off, or if Bob manages to dodge out of the way, he'll remain safely unenchanted. Whatever the spell hits instead might not be so lucky."

This refers to both magic looking like Frickin' Laser Beams (i.e. bolts or beams of energy), and magic that requires line-of-effect. So we've actually got two different tropes here.

edited 10th Jun '13 7:18:51 AM by StarSword

Most examples are for the "line of sight" theme. That paragraph just looks almost like a bad Example as a Thesis.

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

Bullet Spell?

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