History Main / WinToExit

* ''Series/Exit2013'' and the Japanese show that inspired it are game shows where teams have to solve challenges to move onto the next room or be "killed" by that particular room's death trap. They of course aren't killed but the show likes to pretend they are.

* DownplayedTrope by Rensenware. Rensenware was a Ransomware, a type of malware that holds your files in a HostageSituation until you comply to their demands. The demand Rensenware did to release your files? Score 200 million points in ''VideoGame/TouhouSeirensenUndefinedFantasticObject'' in [[HarderThanHard Lunatic Mode]]. While it is not hazardous, you still have to win to get your files back.

* ''Series/{{Exit}}'' and the Japanese show that inspired it are game shows where teams have to solve challenges to move onto the next room or be "killed" by that particular room's death trap. They of course aren't killed but the show likes to pretend they are.

SisterTrope to TrappedInTVLand, and a Subtrope of YourMindMakesItReal and DreamEmergencyExit; almost always a feature of TheMostDangerousVideoGame. Overlaps with DeepImmersionGaming in some ways. The main difference is that whereas DeepImmersionGaming is basically a variant form of an ImagineSpot, this trope involves the game becoming very real. Anyone trapped in a PortalBook may find themselves facing a variant of this (finish the story to exit).

* Due to HolodeckMalfunction, at least one of the 50 children in the Virtual Console "Cocoon" in the ''Manga/CaseClosed'' NonSerialMovie ''Anime/DetectiveConanFilm06ThePhantomOfBakerStreet'' need to WinToExit, or else their brains will be literally fried.

* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'''s AlternateContinuity manga ''Manga/NegimaNeo'', due to a mischievous fairy, Negi and friends are trapped in Chisame's video game.
* In ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', unless the final boss of SAO is defeated, players will remain trapped in the virtual world until they die one way or another.
* ''Manga/ToLoveRu'' had the characters get stuck in an RPG during the Trouble Quest arc. Later on, they voluntarily place themselves in a board game.

* ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'': In the [[Recap/BoBoiBoyS1E7GameOn 7th episode]], Adu Du traps [=BoBoiBoy=] and Gopal into the [[FictionalVideoGame Papa Zola video game]] they were playing, and Probe, whose inside the game as well to give them trouble, tells them that they have to beat the game to get out, much to Adu Du's chagrin.

* Happens to Ellie Dee is an issue of the ''Cherry Comics''. She ends up derezzing the video game's main character by having sex with him.
%%* There was this short series where this trope was inverted. Memory fails me, but the gist of it was, a super-hacker was forced to play against an AI in an old videogame. The AI rigged the game so there was absolutely no way it could ever lose... problem was, the game was fixed so the only way to end it was ''losing''...
* The "VR in Deep Trouble" issue of ''[[ComicBook/SaturdayMorningAdventures Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures]]'' has the Turtles trapped in a virtual reality game designed by Donatello after lightning fries the emergency kill switch, so they have to capture the flag guarded by their RoguesGallery in order to leave before the game crashes. Ultimately, [[spoiler: Michelangelo wins the game by figuring out that he didn't ''need'' to fight the villains, so he outmaneuvers them and grabs the flag.]]

* Sort of, in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached''. Although the Vasyn quest takes place across several real worlds, [[spoiler: it all turns out to be a giant live-action quasi-game engineered by Jeft]]. He fixes things so that after Shag and Varx discover the truth, they still cannot pull the four out; the computer ice in between them and the return program won't melt until they bring the third piece of the Vasyn back to C'hou. But by then things have changed so considerably that they can't rescue the four anyway...

* Almost all of the film ''Film/{{Existenz}}'' takes place in a virtual reality gameworld with assassins stalking the main characters. It's only after the heroine exposes [[spoiler:her partner]] as an operative who was sent to kill her all along and kills him instead that the game slowly unravels and she wakes up for real.
* Spencer in ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'' gets stoned and sucked into a game and is promptly killed by Freddy and his custom "Power Glove".

* All versions of ''Jumanji'' have this trope in effect.

* In the film ''Film/{{Nerve}}'', groups of teenagers enter a "truth-or-dare"-styled game on their smart-phones. However, the players must win the game or else they will lose everything. For those who attempt to report the game to the police, they have "snitched" in the game, causing them to become a prisoner to the game unless they win.
* In the ''Bishop Of Battle'' segment of the four-part film ''Film/{{Nightmares}}'', J. J. Cooney is trapped inside the eponymous video game, after failing to complete level 13 the game becomes real.

* In the film ''Film/StayAlive2006'', a group of beta testers realize that they are slowly dying off one by one in the exact same fashion that their avatars in the game they are testing die. It is later revealed that playing this game summons the ghost of a sociopathic killer who delights in killing you in the most horrendous ways possible.

* The basic plot of the first arc of ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'': everyone's minds are trapped in an MMORPG, and the equipment is set up so that dying in the game kills you in real life. However, if a player, ''any'' player, manages to beat the boss of Floor 100, then everyone goes free. [[spoiler:Ends up played with, when the protagonist manages to free everyone after floor 75 instead, by uncovering the identity of the game master and beating him in a duel.]]
* During ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', the Arrandas visit a theme park and go to see something called "The Nightmare Machine", a sim purportedly using mind-scanning and HardLight technology to [[IKnowWhatYouFear bring visitors' fears to life]]. It would start with relatively minor things and progress to worse fears, and the visitor won if they could make it through their worst without bailing out. Of course, they get trapped in it, the FailsafeFailure doesn't work, and the kids finally realize they have to just [[FaceYourFears skip to their worst fear]] - [[spoiler: one of them dying and leaving the other alone]]. It then ends and they're both able to walk out of it.
* A rare boardgame example occurs in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', where Harry, Ron, and Hermione take the part of pieces on a chessboard and win to get to the next test protecting the stone. Ron masterminds a victory for our heroes' side, but actually has to allow himself to be captured to allow Harry to make the checkmating move. Fortunately, this does not prove to be fatal, only knocking him out - although Ron actually had no way to know this at the time.
* In Creator/VivianVandeVelde's ''Literature/HeirApparent'', the main character is playing a virtual reality game at a sort of VR arcade, and becomes unable to quit when anti-videogame protesters damage the equipment -- interestingly, it has the opposite message from most trapped-in-a-videogame stories (i.e. instead of being harmful, videogames are harmless fun and the people who think they're evil are misguided and possibly even dangerous).
* The Jumanji game works that way in the ''Literature/{{Jumanji}}'' series.
* In the Creator/PiersAnthony novel ''Killobyte'' the protagonists become stuck in a virtual reality {{MMORPG}} due to the interference of a hacker.
* In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/LabyrinthOfReflections'' trilogy, the Deep program puts a person into a state of hypnosis, during which he or she will perceive a poorly-rendered image on the screen as reality. The first person to use this was a man who randomly found the Deep program online and ran it. The program played a ten-second fractal-like video, after which the man started up ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''. To his horror, he found himself walking the corridors, shooting weapons, fighting monsters. No matter what he tried, he could not get himself to "awaken". After many hours of playing, he finally beat the game, at which point his subconsciousness allowed him to "exit". He found a nearly-broken keyboard and his own bloody hands (his own blood).
* This is how the action gets started in Creator/TadWilliams' ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'' series. Kids around the world end up in mysterious comas, and the protagonists start to suspect that it has something to do with an online playground. Then they get caught themselves, and it becomes apparent that they only way to escape from the virtual world is to solve its mysteries (and possibly destroy it from the inside). The story contains no moralism whatsoever on computers and computer games; TheMetaVerse is simply another arena for human virtues and vices to take place.
* In the novelisation of ''Series/RedDwarf'', the video game Better Than Life is essentially a LotusEaterMachine; only by rejecting the perfect universe offered by the game could players "win" and be allowed to exit. (The series' version was harmless to anyone but Rimmer, and could be exited at will; the novels [[DarkerAndEdgier changed it]] from an expensive toy to a lethal drug.)

* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' side-story ''The Ellimist Chronicles,'' Toomin's mind is kept alive by an entity known as Father that has absorbed the minds of many dead people. Toomin is forced to play games that he has no chance of winning against Father's extensive knowledge until [[spoiler: he wins a game based on creativity (Father has no real creativity and can only mimic what he has seen and heard). After defeating Father at music, Toomin begins to grow too intelligent for Father and defeats him]].

** In the episode "The Tale of the Renegade Virus", a VR game goes awry and if the main character doesn't beat it, the virus will literally invade his brain and take him over.
** Subverted in the episode "The Tale of The Pinball Wizard". A kid gets trapped in a pinball game, and he believes that to escape, he needs to win. Turns out, he's not quite so lucky, and it's implied that he's trapped there forever.

* ''Series/{{Exit}}'' and the Japanese show that inspired it are game shows where teams have to solve challenges to move onto the next room or be "killed" by that particular rooms death trap. They of course aren't killed but the show likes to pretend they are.
* The "John Quixote" episode of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' had VR "game blobs". Dying inside of the game only returns you to the start of the level. The real problem was getting out of the game, as the exit trigger had been sabotaged. Chiana does mention, though, that brain damage resulting from the games is not unheard of.
* ''Series/Goosebumps1995'': In "[[Recap/Goosebumps1995S3E10TheHauntedHouseGame The Haunted House Game]]" episode, two kids are sucked into a magical board game inside a creepy abandoned house. The only way to get out is to win the game while [[TheGamePlaysYou not getting killed]].
* The ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'' episode "And the [[ExpospeakGag Point of Salvation]]" has a twist on this. The Librarians are trapped in a GroundhogDayLoop created by a malfunctioning magic-powered computer; eventually it turns out that the malfunctioning computer is overwriting reality with video game tropes, and Ezekiel is stuck in an EscortMission to get the other three out alive. Interestingly, [[spoiler:he only has to get ''them'' out. If he himself dies in the attempt, it's fine as far as the game is concerned. He accepts that and performs a HeroicSacrifice. Luckily, Cassandra is able to "restore" him, although he loses all memory (and CharacterDevelopment) of the events]].
* The HalloweenEpisode for ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel'', titled "Grave Robber", sees the five main Rangers trapped playing a Halloween-themed board game the episode is named for, controlled by the antagonistic GameShowHost Cosmo Royale. In a slight subversion of the trope, the Rangers play the game in reality but are repeatedly drawn inside the game's world to fight monsters they had already defeated (this subverts ClipShow by using footage from the Sentai, ''Series/ShurikenSentaiNinninger'', that had not been adapted into the Ninja Steel episodes its episodes resulted in). They escape when the SixthRanger, Levi the Gold Ranger, counters Cosmo's [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem Screw the Rules, I Make Them!]] with his own [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules My Rules Are Not Your Rules]], shooting and destroying the magical hourglass that had trapped the Rangers in the game (and making everyone wonder why they didn't just try [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim that]] to begin with).

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''
** The episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E12TheRoyale The Royale]]" has Riker, Data and Worf stuck in a alien simulation of a casino, based on a (bad) book. They manage to escape by gambling and winning enough money to pose as foreign investors, buy the casino and then leave (which was the ending of the book).
** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E8AFistfulOfDatas A Fistful of Datas]]", the only way the holodeck would shut down is if Worf, Troi, and Alexander were able to win a wild west shootout. As the name suggests, it's a shootout against copies of Data, with all his android abilities to make them superior to any living opponent.

** This is subverted in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E10MoveAlongHome Move Along Home]]". After being cheated by Quark, a group of aliens from the Gamma Quadrant decide to show him "an honest game" that involves four playing pieces trying to make it "home" down a tiered board. Meanwhile, Sisko, Dax, Kira, and Bashir find themselves in a maze-like series of rooms, with strange puzzles and scenarios in each room and a figure of one of the aliens telling them to "move along home." They (as well as Quark) quickly realize that the four crew members are trapped in the game and assume that this trope is in effect. After several narrow escapes, they reach the last room- a shaking, cliff-filled cave. As they cross, [[spoiler:they fall and rematerialize in Quark's, where the aliens say that Quark has lost and laugh when they discover the terror of the "players" -- after all, it was only a game]].
** Inverted with the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E10OurManBashir Our Man Bashir]]", in which several crew members, to save their lives after a TeleporterAccident, are turned into holodeck characters in a program Bashir is playing -- Bashir has to keep them alive and specifically ''not'' win, as if the program ends, they will also die. At the last minute, when Bashir has reached the final scene and can't stall the program anymore, he goes OffTheRails and deliberately ''loses,'' invoking a NonstandardGameOver that the program hadn't accounted for, confusing it long enough to save both himself and his friends. ([[spoiler:Specifically, he had his heroic protagonist pull a massive FaceHeelTurn and activate the villain's EarthShatteringKaboom device himself, something that the game's dev team obviously did not think of.]])
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' get into the act with "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E24WorstCaseScenario Worst Case Scenario]]", in which it turns out that [[FaceHeelTurn Seska]] has [[HolodeckMalfunction reprogrammed one of Tuvok's programs]] to [[EverythingTryingToKillYou kill Tuvok and Tom Paris]]. Janeway helps out by playing DeusExMachina.
* Inverted in one Creator/{{Syfy}} [[Film/SyfyOriginalMovie movie]] (anyone remember the name?) in which a malfunction causes the video game boss to animate the motion-capture exoskeleton in the real world and go on a murderous rampage.

* The U.K. kids' game show ''[[Series/TrappedGameShow Trapped]]'' had six contestants competing to see who would win the game and escape a tower.

* An episode of ''Series/Warehouse13'' had Fargo from ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' program a virtual reality game and use an Artifact to help make it more real. The artifact caused players to become trapped in the game which manifested their greatest fears. They couldn't get out until those fears were conquered.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'': Episode "FPS" is built of this trope. One guy who is an ace of a gamer and an exquisite programmer doesn't make it. Mulder almost loses, but Scully saves his butt.

* Inverted in the adventure game ''VideoGame/{{Gateway}}'' - there is a Virtual Reality casino that is actually a ruse set up by the BigBad, who intends the player to always win and keep playing - therefore, the player must force themselves to lose. [[spoiler:Folding in poker does the trick]].

* An optional side-quest in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' involves some SchmuckBait in the form of an alien artifact. Opening it traps you with the prison's occupant whose mind is trapped inside, and whose body died long ago. However, ''your'' body is currently unoccupied. He challenges you to a game of riddles to see who gets dibs on the body.
** Of course, the Brotherhood of Shadow GameMod cranks this one up with a similar artifact. The Brotherhood wants the PlayerCharacter as the avatar of their HiveMind, but first must conquer your mind to do it. Cue ''two'' massively trippy rounds of BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind.

* In ''VideoGame/MoonRemixRPGAdventure'' the protagonist is sucked into a videogame and told to save its resident god, with the implication that he'll be free once he wins. [[spoiler:But you cannot possibly beat the final boss, and in fact, by choosing to try again, you get the bad ending where the protagonist remains trapped in the game. Ultimately, the main character (and you) can only exit the game by choosing the most obvious solution: [[AntiEscapismAesop not playing anymore]].]]

* ''VideoGame/OneShot'' had its title for a reason. In its initial release, closing the game before it's finished would [[PressXToDie result in Niko's death]]. The game would actually [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou modify your computer]] so that it could only be finished once. [[spoiler:Averted as of version 1.003, in which the player is given a second chance if they do kill Niko this way. The updated re-release removed this death-by-closing mechanic, instead saving the player's progress. However, Niko still feels uneasy with each closure of the game.]]
* In ''VideoGame/Persona4'' there's a dungeon based entirely on blocky classic Dragon Warrior-type graphics... since the characters are going inside the collective subconscious as represented by television and dealing with people's internal imaginations, comforts, and insecurities, this is pretty justified.
** And that its [[ThatOneBoss Boss Battle]] allows for a ShoutOut to the Game-play style of the first two ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games is the cherry on the cheesecake.

* ''VideoGame/YuGiOhTheFalseboundKingdom'' subverts this. You beat the VR game's main villain about a third of the way through, only for the creator of the game to take over, delete the villain, and attack you from behind. In order to actually win, you need to break out of the game and [[CyberSpace enter the computer itself]].

* ''WebVideo/JonTron'' also subverts this in the ''Joe and Mac Retrospective'' video.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In one episode Jimmy shows off an invention that allows you to go inside of video games. The only way to exit is to win, although Jimmy was planning to fix that. Jimmy and Sheen both go into an Ultralord video game, but end up being trapped due Carl messing the controls, not realizing that Jimmy and Carl were actually in the game.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode "The Game" is centered around Dodj or Darr, a game that forces its players to do humiliating or dangerous challenges, even if they leave the board alone. As Gumball states, "You don't win. You ''survive.''"
* The ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatiansTheSeries'' episode "Virtual Lucky" saw Cruella and the dogs trapped in a video game, with Lucky having to defeat Cruella in every stage before they could escape.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' episode "Teacher Of The Year", the protagonists have to prevent Technus from winning a computer game and thereby escaping to the internet; however, they still need to progress through several levels to catch up with him. Bizarrely, "access to the World Wide Web" [[PacManFever is the actual reward for winning the game]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', the gizmo that turns real objects into video game objects breaks after letting DW and Quackerjack in, so they must beat the game to reach the default "exit door."
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' once did a plot of this sort as a result of one of Timmy's wishes. Bizarrely, he ''specifically asked'' for "a game you can't wish yourself out of," for no apparent reason other than so this trope could happen (the concept of wishing oneself out of a video game being utterly meaningless in any other context). Unusually for this trope, it was perfectly possible to leave the game by quitting, but none of them actually did this because Timmy couldn't warn the other players and he wouldn't abandon them.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'' has Johnny, Dukey, and his sisters getting trapped in a ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' {{expy}}, and the only way out was to win a tournament.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': This is how the comic book world works in "Power Ponies".
* This was the central idea behind ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' - the heroes are periodically trapped in the User's games, and must win in order to both escape and prevent the game cube from damaging the sector of the city it had landed on.
* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCyberChase'': After being beamed into a game based on them, the gang had to play through all ten levels (clearing each one by finding a hidden box of Scooby Snacks), only being able to leave once they beat the game. Beating the game also deleted the living computer virus they'd been dealing with.

* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' tackles this just like in Canon, only here the reason behind why Kayaba locked everyone in the game is fleshed out more. [[spoiler:It's because ''Sword Art Online'' was actually ChristmasRushed out the gate by Kayaba at the orders of the developers: ''{{Creator/Bethesda}}'', and that because of ExhaustionInducedIdiocy Kayaba accidentally programmed in a glitch that only killed '''some''' of the Players when their Avatars died, and him locking everyone in the game was just a bid to "[[IMeantToDoThat make it all part of a Master Plan]] [[SnowballLie instead of an ever-spiraling series of events he's long since lost control of]]".]]

* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' tackles this just like in Canon, only here the reason behind why Kayaba locked everyone in the game is fleshed out more. [[spoiler:It's because ''Sword Art Online'' was actually ChristmasRushed out the gate by Kayaba at the orders of the developers: ''Creator/Bethesda'', and that because of ExhaustionInducedIdiocy Kayaba accidentally programmed in a glitch that only killed '''some''' of the Players when their Avatars died, and him locking everyone in the game was just a bid to "[[IMeantToDoThat make it all part of a Master Plan]] [[SnowballLie instead of an ever-spiraling series of events he's long since lost control of]]".]]

* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' tackles this just like in Canon, only here the reason behind why Kayaba locked everyone in the game is fleshed out more. [[spoiler:It's because ''Sword Art Online'' was actually ChristmasRushed out the gate by Kayaba at the orders of the developers: Creators/Bethesda, and that because of ExhaustionInducedIdiocy Kayaba accidentally programmed in a glitch that only killed '''some''' of the Players when their Avatars died, and him locking everyone in the game was just a bid to "[[IMeantToDoThat make it all part of a Master Plan]] [[SnowballLie instead of an ever-spiraling series of events he's lost control of]]".]]

* In Vivian Vande Velde's ''Literature/HeirApparent'', the main character is playing a virtual reality game at a sort of VR arcade, and becomes unable to quit when anti-videogame protesters damage the equipment -- interestingly, it has the opposite message from most trapped-in-a-videogame stories (i.e. instead of being harmful, videogames are harmless fun and the people who think they're evil are misguided and possibly even dangerous).