History Main / ParadiegeticGameplay

* UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash game ''I Don't Even Game'' is a surreal adventure. At one point, you're blocked by a gate, and told to visit a URL to progress. This leads to a separate Flash puzzle, which gives you a ''very long'' code you need to enter. The original URL is down, but you can still Google the code to find out what it is.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'': In the Famicom Disk System version, the pol's voice enemy is killed by yelling in the microphone in the Famicom's second controller. Each Japanese rerelease changes it so pol's voice can be killed with a different method, such as pressing Select 4 times in the GBA version, or pressing L and R to virtually "switch" to the second controller and yell into the 3DS's microphone in the 3DS version. In all English releases, including the NES version, the enemy is instead weak to arrows, as the NES does not have a microphone.

*** Pol's voices return as enemies, and can be stunned by blowing in the DS' microphone.

ExtrinsicGoFirstRule is a subtrope. See also BreakingTheFourthWall and LoggingOntoTheFourthWall, which is similar however is simply PlayedForLaughs or as an EasterEgg. Also see UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay and UnexpectedGameplayChange. Website/TheOtherWiki calls it a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervasive_game pervasive game]]. Note that {{Metapuzzle}} is not a SubTrope, since puzzles under that category are only called "meta" in the sense that they have other, seemingly self-contained, puzzles tied to them. Puzzles that rely on paradiegetic methods (and thus are sometimes called colloquially "meta puzzles" by players who don't know about the other kind) go here instead.

* ''VideoGame/InFamousSecondSon'' had the Paper Trail series of missions, where you would find clues in game that you would then need to solve through a special website by linking your [=PlayStation=] Network ID to it. However, as of December 2018, the website has become defunct, but the developers rolled out an update that allowed players to finish the campaign without it.

** There are two "promotional storage cabinets" in the game (containing powerful weapons), from the fictional company Martian Buddy. To find the code to open these cabinets, you had to visit the actual website www.martianbuddy.com in your browser, which was hinted at by the in-game spam e-mails found in certain [=PDAs=]. Today the website is long offline.
** ''Resurrection of Evil'' contains another Martian Buddy locker, which likewise requires a code. This time, you need to complete an arcade machine mini-game, which will give you the URL to a martianbuddy.com subpage where the code can be found.

ExtrinsicGoFirstRule is a subtrope. See also BreakingTheFourthWall and LoggingOntoTheFourthWall, which is similar however is simply PlayedForLaughs or as an EasterEgg. Also see UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay and UnexpectedGameplayChange. Website/TheOtherWiki calls it a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervasive_game pervasive game]].

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'': The UsefulNotes/NintendoDS version has an upside-down Sudoku puzzle that requires you to turn your DS upside down. [[spoiler:Throughout the game, the top screen represents Junpei's perspective and the bottom represents Akane, who is the actual protagonist. Turning the DS indicates that you are temporarily taking control of Junpei so that he can solve the puzzle.]]

** The first ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has you get a person's contact frequency from the back of the CD case. Additionally, Psycho Mantis hijacks your controller input and thus can read your actions, so you have to move the controller to a different port.

* Some real-life escape room games (giant, physical versions of the online versions) will require players to actually call phone numbers, scan QR codes, or visit websites visible somewhere in the room, resulting in either a prerecorded message or a small interactive puzzle to get the next clue. Since most escape rooms run on a "everything you need to win is in the room" policy, it can throw customers for a loop (although some companies place cell phones for people to find as a hint, or use ExactWords as a reference: since "everything in the room" includes ''the players' phones'', they're part of the solution, too).

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'': One of the achievements requires you to not play the game for five years. Another requires you to leave the game on all day on a Tuesday.

[[folder:Dating Sim]]
* ''VisualNovel/SaveTheDatePaperDino'' will always result in a bad ending unless [[spoiler:you edit one of the game files to make yourself a "hacker"]].
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[[folder:Text Adventure]]
* ''VideoGame/ZorkZero'' consists half of {{Stock Puzzle}}s and half of this as a form of CopyProtection. The solution to puzzle after puzzle was simply to pull a specific bit of trivia out of the game's {{Feelies}} and type it in. This was especially disappointing since many of the tasks that seemed to be clever puzzles, like finally getting to play Double Fanucci, had their only solutions printed in the documentation.