History Main / BlamedForBeingRailroaded

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}} Golden'' has a scene on Valentine's Day where, if you romance more than one girl, you have to personally reject all of the ones you didn't choose to spend the day with. Obviously this is to punish you for being a player... but here's the problem: the game ''also'' guilt-trips you if you turn down their romantic overtures during their Social Links. No matter which way you choose, you're going to break their hearts.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': the player could find a xvart settlement while wandering in the countryside (xvarts are evil blue creatures that the game sets as enemies by default). They automatically spawn as hostile npcs and then they will attack you on sight. However, one of the inhabitants yells that they didn't nothing wrong, yet you are rampaging through their home, even before you enter the village proper. You are not given any dialogue option, you can't even offer apologies for interloping or prevent a reaction. Thus, you are mostly blamed for a case of HardcodedHostility. Although you can ignore them and go away, this can be done only AFTER they blame you (besides, they will stay hostile and xvarts anyway are just low level evil mooks in the world of D&D, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman players would have no reason at all to flee away rather than killing them]]).

** There’s also a minor interaction upon coming to Nar Shadda with a beggar asking for money. No matter what the player does, Kreia chews them out for it - either the beggar walks away angry and murders someone for their money, or they walk away with your money and are themselves murdered in turn. Kreia blames you for weakening others if you try to solve their problems, and blames you for creating more suffering and violence if you don’t. A {{justified}} example here: Kreia is very much a TricksterMentor and her real aim (as she implies if you reply that you'll take her comments under advisement) is to get the Exile to consider the potential unintended consequences of their actions before they make a decision.

* ''VideoGame/Portal2'' has a couple of examples that are played more for comedy than drama, as neither [=GLaDOS=] or Wheatley are particularly sympathetic and it's clear they are being unreasonable.
** [=GLaDOS=] is constantly upset over you "killing" her in the previous game, spending a good half of the game flinging passive-aggressive remarks about it at you. This is despite the fact that in [[VideoGame/Portal1 the previous game]], your "escape" was set up in such a manner that you just couldn't go anywhere but straight to [=GLaDOS=]' room, with the only way to advance the plot being throwing her cores into fire. This is made all the more egregious by the fact that even if you deliberately attempt NOT to throw them into fire, [=GLaDOS=] will keep nagging you to do it with (unintentional?) ReversePsychology.
** At one point, Wheatley wants to detach himself from his rail (while being about twenty feet off the ground) and asks you to catch him before he hits the ground. Try as you might, you will simply NOT be allowed to catch him. You can even abuse the game's physics to make Wheatley land on your head, but even then it will not count as catching him, and you will be forced to just let him fall on the ground. Later, at the end of the game, Wheatley chews you out on it, reminding you about how you didn't catch him as if it was ''your'' fault and you deliberately let him hit the ground.
** Also parodied in the first game. It required you to euthanize your Companion Cube as [=GLaDOS=] will not open the door to the next chamber until you've done so. Even though the Companion Cube in this game is (apparently) just a non-sentient box with hearts on the side, [=GLaDOS=] still only refers to this as "euthanizing" and if you hesitate will list off reasons why killing it is for the best. After you've done so, she'll passive-aggressively mock you for it, even stating that the Companion Cube was your only friend and can't come to a party she was planning for you since you murdered it. Just another painful dose of psychological mind-games from [=GLaDOS=].

** "The Big Fix" has [[TokenMinority Token Black]]'s name {{retcon}}ned to have been ''Tolkien'' all along, with [[ItSeemedTrivial everyone in South Park knowing except Stan and Randy]]. Stan even points out that Cartman's spelled it Token (while conveniently forgetting that ''Token himself'' has spelled it like that before), only for it to turn out that Cartman just doesn't know how to spell. When Stan goes to his doctor seeking advice, his doctor gaslights him [[BreakingTheFourthWall and the audience]] [[MistakenForRacist by accusing them of "racism"]]. This even gets extended outside of the show itself, as on the night that the show premired, the South Park website retroactively changed every instance of Token's name to "Tolken" to make the gasslighting effect hit stronger.

** "The Big Fix" has [[TokenMinority Token Black]]'s name {{retcon}}ned to have been ''Tolkien'' all along, with [[ItSeemedTrivial everyone in South Park knowing except Stan and Randy]]. Stan even points out that Cartman's spelled it Token (while conveniently forgetting that ''Token himself'' has spelled it like that before), only for it to turn out that Cartman just doesn't know how to spell. When Stan goes to his doctor seeking advice, his doctor gaslights him [[BreakingTheFourthWall and the audience]] [[MistakenForRacist by accusing them of "racism"]].

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': The final mission of the Bounty Hunter PC's chapter 1 requires them to assassinate a Jedi Master and blow up his ship at the behest of Mandalore, the patron of the Great Hunt. This results in the Bounty Hunter getting a price on ''their own'' head for terrorism (since [[SpaceColdWar it was ostensibly peacetime]]), which comes back to bite them in a big way in chapter 3. Most prior and future bounty targets can be brought in alive if the PC chooses, but no such option is given here.

** Earlier in the game, the player is expected to pick up diffusion missiles to porgress, but it is possible to avoid it through liberal use of Shinesparks to SequenceBreak. If you do, you're awarded with an EasterEgg where Adam and a Federation offical are both surprised you managed to make it here ''without'' picking up diffusion missiles.

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* In ''VideoGame/DudeStop'', the narrator tells you not to touch anything while he's on the phone during the tutorial. Of course, he takes so long to make the call that the only way to progress is to ignore his instructions and deliberately fail all the puzzles. This leads to the narrator getting irrationally angry and threatening to ban you from playing the rest of the game. Though the main point of this exercise is to [[KickTheSonOfABitch make it harder for you to feel sorry for the guy]] when you deliberately fail later puzzles. In fact, some of the packs ''require'' you to fail in order to progress, which of course still makes the narrator angry.

** The ''Lonesome Road'' DLC of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has a point where the only way to progress further into the Divide is to interact with a mysterious control panel. If you interact with the panel, it launches a nuclear missile. Fortunately, the missile lands somewhere where there are no people around to be killed by it, but [[BigBad Ulysses]] gives you a ReasonYouSuckSpeech anyway, about how you can't help but cause destruction simply because of your curiosity. Granted, you can head back to the Mojave and just not finish the DLC campaign (which is unique to ''Lonesome Road'', by the way; starting any of the other DLCs means you have to finish them), but if you want to finish the DLC, you have to launch the missile.

* The first mission of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' begins with you breaking the Assassins' three core tenets, and failing the mission along with causing the death of one of your brothers. You have your rank and cool weapons stripped, and spend the rest of the game re-earning them, along with every character criticizing what you did in the tutorial. Justified by the FramingStory: you're reliving the memories of your ancestor Altair, so you literally ''can't'' act differently because that's how Altair acted in the first place.

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', there comes a point where the only way to move the game forward is to make Crono bump into Marle, and the fact that you did so is later used against you by a corrupt prosecutor in a trial.

* In ''Spider and Web'', when you turn away from the sealed lab entrance, the Interrogator will point out that you could have used your explosive "blast tab" to break through the door. If you actually use the blast tab, though, it's considered a failure as the Interrogator forces a replay of the scene because you made too much noise.

** "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E14WoodlandCritterChristmas Woodland Critter Christmas]]" has Stan being constantly being dragged along by the story by the narrator ([[spoiler:Cartman]]) into helping the Woodland Critters (who turn out to be EvilAllAlong) and continually making things worse. He then constantly gets [[WhatTheHellHero guilt-tripped]] for it. Stan is less than pleased.

** At the beginning of the game, the X Parasites are closed off. However, advancing the plot requires Samus to open the various security gates that are holding them back, and sure enough, the X Parasites spread throughout the station as she does. Subverted in that that Adam, the AI acting as MissionControl, explicitly ''doesn't'' blame her for it: the briefings leading her to opening the gates are more along the lines of "This is going to make things worse, but if we don't do it, we're not going to get any further".

** Played straight in the same game, however. Near the end of the game, Samus falls through a floor that respawns and blocks her immediately afterwards, and has to enter a restricted part of the station, [[spoiler:where she learns about the station's top-secret Metroid cloning program]]. ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games are known for their vulnerability to SequenceBreaking, but this sequence is constructed so that you have no means by which to get out of the room except to enter the restricted area. This time, Adam's not so forgiving, coldly pointing out that Samus is in ''deep shit'' with The Federation for that and ordering her to make contact with them as soon as possible; although this isn't really about Samus doing something wrong, but rather her finding out something that the Federation ''really'' didn't want her to know about. If you ''do'' manage to avoid it through liberal use of Shinesparks to SequenceBreak, you're awarded with an EasterEgg where Adam and one of Federation are both surprised you managed to make it here ''without'' going through the top secret area, and [[LampshadeHanging hang a lampshade]] that it's the only way to progress with the plot.

* In the Revendreth storyline in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Shadowlands'', the rebel venthyr blame you for doing the bidding of Sir Denathrius and his court, something you're forced to do to continue through the zone. Overlaps with StupidityIsTheOnlyOption, since as a player, you'll almost certainly see that they're bad guys long before your character makes that realization.

* Intentionally done in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''. Most of Snake's allies are understanding of the tough calls he has to make, but the HateSink Huey Emmerich will always make sure to vilify him, even in situations like Episode 43 where the player character has only one option: [[spoiler:kill every single one of his soldiers stationed on the Quarantine platform]]. Since the whole thing [[spoiler:turns out to be Huey's fault]], his criticism of you comes across rather flatly. Most of the tapes of Huey's interrogations reveal that he's almost pathologically incapable of accepting fault and impulsively tries to find ways to justify framing himself as an innocent hero and calling everyone against him evil villains. This reaches an especially disturbing conclusion when [[spoiler:it's discovered that he murdered his wife, Strangelove, to keep using their son (the future Otacon) as a Metal Gear test pilot. As obvious as all of the evidence is, Huey continues lying himself into increasingly ridiculous contradictions and trying to find ways to blame everyone else for her death.]] Even as you exile him from the station, he still blames you for everything even though [[spoiler:he was lucky you didn't let everyone else kill him]].

* {{Justified}} in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI''. Altaïr violates the Creed in the JustifiedTutorial by first killing a civilian who could have given away his squad's presence, then exposing the Brotherhood to outside danger by screwing up and getting caught by the Templars. For this he is first subjected to a simulated execution by Al Mualim, then demoted and hit with a BagOfSpilling. You really ''don't'' have a choice but to do any of this, because the game's FramingDevice is that the ''actual'' PlayerCharacter, Assassin-descended present-day bartender Desmond Miles, is just replaying the GeneticMemory of his distant ancestor.

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** In the Wizards storyline, you are sent as an envoy to the reclusive Count Hassildor, whose [[ObviousJudas obvious Mole]] of a steward tells you he'll only meet you at a remote mine shortly after midnight. To progress, you have to walk into the steward's [[TrapIsTheOnlyOption ambush]], then let the Count "rescue you" -- even if you beat your assailants yourself -- and repeatedly insult you for your foolishness.

** In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the ''Nuka-World'' expansion's storyline revolves around the PlayerCharacter [[ForcedIntoEvil becoming a Raider boss]] through a KlingonPromotion. Once you finish claiming the park for the various gangs, the story requires you to expand into the Commonwealth. Once this is done, LawfulGood companion Preston Garvey will give you a WhatTheHellHero speech and refuse to associate with you any longer. The expansion offers no real alternative, as you ''can'' KillEmAll but this [[BeingGoodSucks ends the storyline prematurely]] if done too early and [[ShaggyDogStory leaves the park barren]] [[https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/31164 without the use of mods]].

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'': If you speak to the {{N|onPlayerCharacter}}PCs being held captive at the beginning of the game, they will call you out for being an evil jerk and stealing their crystal. Granted, that's all done in a cutscene. A straighter example would be a little deeper into the game when Cecil is ordered/tricked by his king to deliver a package that destroys an entire village and kills nearly everyone in it, save for a little girl whose mother you just inadvertently murdered after slaying the monster that blocks your way ''into'' said village. The player character and the game both do a good job of making you feel like a complete bastard even though the only way to progress is to deliver the package and destroy the village. Fortunately this is also when Cecil realizes he's on the wrong side and kicks off the events of the game proper. Sadly, the surviving villagers still call you a bastard and treat you like crap when you return to the rebuilt village later on in the game after reforming. Of course, nobody ever ''tells'' them Cecil didn't want to do it and was an unwitting accomplice, so it has to be expected.