History Main / MyRulesAreNotYourRules

* The developers of ''VideoGame/JudgeDreddDreddVsDeath'' went through the extra effort to have the firearms of the Judges explode if a civilian tries to use them, which is keeping in with the source material. This would be more commendable if it applied for the AI too. Admittedly, actually witnessing this is a rare occurrence, since you have to fulfill several specific conditions: A) Find an enemy who will not surrender when you shoot the weapon out of his/her hand. B) Have this happen near a dropped Judge weapon. C) Get the enemy to pick up the Judge weapon instead of the weapon they just dropped, or simply attacking you with fisticuffs.

* As detailled in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Vbsr3Ko7M this video]], Malenia from ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' interacts with the BreakMeter system in a way that no other enemy in the game (or even in ''the entire soulsborne franchise'') does. She can cancel her stagger animation to dodge away from the player (stagger animations are supposed to play in full before the entity can do anything else), some of her attacks outright make her immune to stance break during their animations to let her use them in full (when stance-breaking is supposed to stun and superseed any "super armor" to do so), and she can even cancel her attack animations to let her block incoming blows as well (when the player has to finish their attack animations before being able to do so).

* ''VideoGame/EmpiresOfTheUndergrowth'': Tiger beetle larvae are explicitly stated to lurk in the ground and ambush ants. Except for AI ants: they are never attacked.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' there is a curious example in that it does not apply to specifically the player or AI, but to a few specific Pokémon who still have their abilities as intrinsically built into the game. The first is Cherrim, who, based on time of day, can transform from its Overcast form into its Sunshine form, gaining a stat boost equivalent to Flower Gift. The second is the titular Arceus itself, who can change types by using the plates, which are Key Items in the game, and the third (and amusingly, a Pokémon who is WORSE for it) is Regigigas, who, despite being in a game with no abilities, is still forced to deal with an attack and speed penalty for five turns, akin to its Slow Start ability.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' there is a curious example in that it does not apply to specifically the player or AI, but to a few specific Pokémon who still have their abilities as intrinsically built into the game. The first is Cherrim, who, based on time of day, can transform from its Overcast form into its Sunshine form, gaining a stat boost equivalent to Flower Gift. The second is [[TitleCharacter Arceus itself]], who can change types by using the plates, which are Key Items in the game, and the third (and amusingly, a Pokémon who is WORSE for it) is Regigigas, who, despite being in a game with no abilities, is still forced to deal with an attack and speed penalty for five turns, akin to its Slow Start ability.

** ''VideoGame/PathOfRadiance'' has Feral Ones, enemy Laguz units that are always permanently shifted due to their transformation gauge locked at full. This means they will always be able to counter attack your units who attack them from close range (something that most of playable Laguz unit cannot do without specific items or skills). The same rule also applies for ''VideoGame/RadiantDawn''.

Sometimes this is actually inverted for the player's benefit to provide a fair challenge -- in games which value input speed and assume equal footing of both sides (such as fighting games), the AI simulating the opponent has to naturally be handicapped so that the player has a fighting chance, considering the computer has no need to physically bash buttons, [[ComputersAreFast is capable of perfect timing]], knows ''every'' move and would never fumble a special attack unless some kind of restriction is in place. In games like RealTimeStrategy, this generally ensures the computer opponent won't try cheap or underhanded tactics (such as foregoing base building, investing everything in a ZergRush of starter units to win quickly).

* Zigzagged with the agents in ''Film/TheMatrix'', who can bend the rules of the virtual world to have super strength and speed and thus are severe threats. However, Morpheus explains that as agents of the system they are limited to bending the rules, which is very powerful, but can not outright ''break'' the rules and can never be as powerful as a human can potentially be. [[spoiler:In the end Neo effectively becomes a god by learning to actually break the rules, thus becoming The One, and in the sequels we see just how bad things get when an agent actually ''does'' [[AnswersToTheNameOfGod decide]] [[ApocalypseHow to]] [[TheVirus break]] [[GrandTheftMe the]] [[EnemyMine rules]]. Worse, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero that agent learned how to break the rules by experiencing Neo doing it]].]]

* In ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', no one -- human or Material -- can enter or leave the closed space of a battle enabled by the Third Summoning Ceremony. Unless [[spoiler:they are a Material manifested through the Fourth Summoning Ceremony]]. That's why no-one can fight [[spoiler:the Colorless Little Girl]], as there is nothing to prevent her from simply leaving.

** One example of this trope that benefits the player: the elemental lighthouses are charged with Psynergy that weakens Adepts of the opposite element. This is used to explain why your team of level 10 chumps can feasibly take on the BigBad (you're fighting on the Mercury Lighthouse, while he's a Mars Adept and is thus weakened), but your Adepts never suffer any such penalty.

** ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'': The AllSeeingAI is in full effect, with the AI being able to use superpowers even where they don't have line-of-sight or immediately send troops after isolated engineers.

** The Struggle in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. When you get your opponent down to 0 HP, they are knocked out for a few seconds so you can collect more orbs, then they revive with full health. When YOU get knocked down to 0 HP? You lose instantly. (It helps that the only remotely dangerous Struggle opponent is Vivi, whom you cannot fight again after Roxas' part of the game is over.)

* Used for horror in ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'', where [[spoiler:the werewolf of Griffith Park]] breaks all the previously established rules of the game up to that point just to underline just how utterly, completely out of your depth you are when dealing with it. It has no health bar, takes no damage from anything you can throw at it (including OneHitKill Disciplines, which at least deal some moderate damage to other bosses) and even shrugs off the game's console commands. It ignores all forms of damage resistance (including god mode) and is mostly immune to the effects of [[TimeStandsStill higher levels of]] [[SuperSpeed Celerity]], giving you at best a short burst of ground speed to get away. Finally, it is scripted to teleport next to you [[BarrierBurstingBlow and destroy the nearest wall or roof segment to get at you]] [[OffscreenTeleportation whenever you lose sight of each other]], something no other boss can do.

** In most games, you'll find equipment that can protect you from a variety of status effects and can even get items that will prevent instant death. Many of a BonusBoss can ignore your protection entirely and inflict the status effect on you anyway, making those items pointless to have.

** Another curious case is the BonusBoss from the first game, Captain Deadbeard. All his abilities are the "cast" type, which means that you can cheese him off by [[AIBreaker simply keeping a Seal ailment on him, forcing the boss to use simple physical attacks on your party, one target at a time]].[[note]]What makes it interesting is that Cpt. Deadbeard is the ''only'' case in all three games of the series that's susceptible to this. It might get a lot of players by surprise, due to the very nature of this enemy: after so many mooks and bosses can NoSell the Seal status, why would the one guy, typically stronger than the FinalBoss, would fall for it?[[/note]]

* There was once an electronic Tic Tac Toe game in the Sydney Powerhouse Museum, which was literally impossible to win, thanks to this trope. The computer's flawed programming meant that it could override a box you had put your "O" in with one of its own "X"s, meaning that the computer would ''always'' win in three or four moves, no matter what you did.

** A rare example that benefits the ''players'': in dnd, and, by extension, ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', Players can reach the LevelCap of 20 after only a year or two of adventuring in-game. However, there are numerous npcs that are hundreds or even thousands of years old that are less than level 20, despite having plenty of time to get there. With regards to ''Pathfinder'', WordOfGod has outright said that npcs don't use the same xp tables as pcs, and are just whatever level the plot requires.

* Used liberally in ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore''. The player has to constantly balance their weapon's ammunition, their energy generator's reserves, and various sub-functions of the titular AC units. Despite ostensibly using the same parts and mechanics as you as they typically follow an identical ruleset, however, in select situations and missions the AI suddenly has infinite reserves of ammo and can infinitely boost around without overheating nor batting an eye. Another infamous case is that a shoulder-mounted heavy weapon will force the player to take a knee and potentially even manually aim it, locking you in place if you don't have particular heavy legs like quads or treads, while the AI will shoot at you with terrifying accuracy in the midst of overboosting their thrusters through the air and packing regular bipedal legs. Some of this is justified in-universe by the [[SuperSoldier Human-PLUS]] experiments that explicitly give the pilots advantages, and the player can acquire them through non-intuitive means (or cheats) in the early series; other cases are against a literal artificial intelligence explicitly cheating with non-usable parts and no human limitations. Most of the time, however, it's just the AI being a cheating bastard for the sake of a harder boss battle.