History YMMV / BlackAndWhite

* HypeBacklash: Black and White 1 was one of the first (if not ''the'' first) cases of Creator/PeterMolyneux promising that his games would [[UpToEleven basically be the best thing ever in every single respect]]. The released game ''was'' very good, but the expectations were so high that a sizable percentage of people were left disappointed. ([=GameSpy=] even ranked it [[http://web.archive.org/web/20040818131306/http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/september03/25overrated/index26.shtml first on its "Most Overrated Games" list]])

* HypeBacklash / DeaderThanDisco: Black and White 1 was one of the first (if not ''the'' first) cases of Creator/PeterMolyneux promising that his games would [[UpToEleven basically be the best thing ever in every single respect]]. The released game ''was'' very good, but the expectations were so high that a sizable percentage of people were left disappointed. ([=GameSpy=] even ranked it [[http://web.archive.org/web/20040818131306/http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/september03/25overrated/index26.shtml first on its "Most Overrated Games" list]])

* HypeBacklash: Black and White 1 was one of the first (if not ''the'' first) cases of Creator/PeterMolyneux promising that his games would [[UpToEleven basically be the best thing ever in every single respect]]. The released game ''was'' very good, but the expectations were so high that a sizable percentage of people were left disappointed. ([=GameSpy=] even ranked it [[http://web.archive.org/web/20040818131306/http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/september03/25overrated/index26.shtml first on its "Most Overrated Games" list]])

* MostAnnoyingSound: For pity's sake, villagers, we know you need more resources. we'll get to it in a second, so ''SHUT UP!''

* ScrappyLevel: The third island again. You're shoved on top of a mountain that barely has room for a half-decent village with virtually no supplies save for what you threw in the portal beforehand, plus your creature has been stolen and you have to cross the entire damn island just to get it back. By the time you do, it'll die on the spot and shrink. Moreover, creating supplies via miracles is terribly slow and inefficient, as you no longer have access to the Norse Wonder which supercharges them, plus the forests that are already planted will be picked clean by the rival God if you don't get to the first.
** Third island nothing, fucking fireball storm.
*** Indeed. The most effective strategy in Island 4 is invariably "Look up which curse maintains the Firestorm on the Internet and take it out first."

* GoodBadBugs: In the sequel[[note]] Not sure if this works in the first game[[/note]], objects in your hand still have all of the properties that they would had you not picked them up. Physics-wise, the game treats it as an object held an arbitrarily-high distance above the ground, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which it technically is]]. The only property that ''matters'', though, is if object is on fire. Burning down enemy wonders (preventing their miracles from being deployed), and destroying enemy catapults is simply a matter of [[KillItWithFire igniting a random tree]], picking it up, holding it over the thing you want damaged/destroyed[[note]] it takes a while to trigger and/or find out the idea spot[[/note]], and burn it. This can be done far outside your influence, and even in the ''enemy'' 's influence.

** In the first game, picking up and putting dead villagers through a teleport miracle will bring them back to life, even if they have decayed into skeletons. These undead villagers will have zero health (and will return to their dead state if picked up again at this amount of health), and cannot be healed or made into disciples - however they regain health by sleeping and cannot be killed by conventional means.

* FridgeHorror: The Gods' Playground has a very tiny village consisting of three girls, two boys and two men. If you play there for long enough, you'll eventually have a decent-sized population... [[IncestIsRelative who will all be closely related to each other.]]

* HypeBacklash: Black and White 1 was one of the first (if not ''the'' first) cases of Peter Molyneux promising that his games would [[UpToEleven basically be the best thing ever in every single respect]]. The released game ''was'' very good, but the expectations were so high that a sizable percentage of people were left disappointed. ([=GameSpy=] even ranked it [[http://web.archive.org/web/20040818131306/http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/september03/25overrated/index26.shtml first on its "Most Overrated Games" list]])

** This isn't a GoodBadBug, it's a GameBreaker. When you play like this, the game becomes too easy. Not like it was hard in the first place.

* GoodBadBugs: In the sequel[[hottip:*: Not sure if this works in the first game]], objects in your hand still have all of the properties that they would had you not picked them up. Physics-wise, the game treats it as an object held an arbitrarily-high distance above the ground, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which it technically is]]. The only property that ''matters'', though, is if object is on fire. Burning down enemy wonders (preventing their miracles from being deployed), and destroying enemy catapults is simply a matter of [[KillItWithFire igniting a random tree]], picking it up, holding it over the thing you want damaged/destroyed[[hottip:*: it takes a while to trigger and/or find out the idea spot]], and burn it. This can be done far outside your influence, and even in the ''enemy'' 's influence.

* EvilIsEasy:
** To an extremely annoying degree. You'll be hard-pressed to win over a village just by being nice, and the game will (karmically) punish you for any evil act far more than you are rewarded for good. You can spend the entire first and second levels being as good as possible, and yet manage to get yourself in the low evil range by burning down a village (and not even entirely). Your subjects are terribly whiny and fickle, which means being good is more likely to alienate them than evil is. In short, evil is in almost every way more rewarding than good is. The only advantage good has over evil is that a good god can get truly terrifying range for their miracles by building up villages to massive proportions.
** Evil was quick, but it was also ''wasteful.'' The "evil" methods, like destruction of buildings, poisoning villagers, human sacrifice, etc. wasted the resource in question, leading to you having to burn up the finite supply of wood and slow-building supply of food to rebuild what you trashed instead of reinvesting it in your power base. Taking the high road on the optional puzzles also yielded miracles that were terribly useful. The Dev Team must have had Yoda's quote in mind. The DarkSide is quicker, more obvious, and yields great results in the short term. It utterly sucks in the long term.
*** A *lot* less so in the second game, which boiled down to "Good gods build huge impressive cities that make people want to come to them; evil gods go out and take over the towns with an army." Unfortunately, because of some... undesirable placement of resources, a "good" player often had to not only have a huge metropolis, but one that was absolutely *sprawling*, with long highways featuring individual buildings here and there that just screamed "this is where the edge of my influence used to be" before getting to the next forest/mine. And never mind trying to keep yourself walled in... Oh you COULD, and just build up skyscrapers, which were pretty good for housing and sent your "impressive" meter through the roof (helping your goodly score.) But "people don't like living in them," so the easiest way to build up good points MAKES YOU MORE EVIL TOO!
** How is conversion hard as a good God? Miracle Flock for 200 Belief, then give them whatever resource they need with a Miracle for 80, a couple of heals for 50 each, then an artifact for 50-200? Then rinse and repeat in 5 minutes, and it's yours. That's not that hard, is it? Of course, you often won't have all those options, but you'll have enough... Even the Fireball can be used for good with a little skill: throw it ''over'' the village instead of ''through''.
*** Additionally, a good God does not need to take every village on the map. You can convert an enemy village by taking their people one at a time, if you have sufficient spare homes in your village. An empty village believes in no-one... and murderous fire (or other evil deeds) isn't the only way to achieve that state.
* ForTheEvulz: AI Gods generally don't. You can.

* HypeBacklash: Black and White 1 was one of the first (if not ''the'' first) cases of Peter Molyneux promising that his games would [[UpToEleven basically be the best thing ever in every single respect]]. The released game ''was'' very good, but the expectations were so high that a sizable percentage of people were left disappointed. ([=GameSpy=] even ranked it [[http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/september03/25overrated/index26.shtml first on its "Most Overrated Games" list]])

*** A *lot* less so in the second game, which boiled down to "Good gods build huge impressive cities that make people want to come to them; evil gods go out and take over the towns with an army." Unfortunately, because of some... Undesirable placement of resources, a "good" player often had to not only have a huge metropolis, but one that was absolutely *sprawling*, with long highways featuring individual buildings here and there that just screamed "this is where the edge of my influence used to be" before getting to the next forest/mine. And never mind trying to keep yourself walled in... Oh you COULD, and just build up skyscrapers, which were pretty good for housing and sent your "impressive" meter through the roof (helping your goodly score.) But "people don't like living in them," so the easiest way to build up good points MAKES YOU MORE EVIL TOO!

** How is conversion hard as a good God? Miracle Flock for 200 Belief, then give them whatever resource they need with a Miracle for 80, a couple of heals for 50 each, then an artifact for 50-200? Then rinse and repeat in 5 minutes, and it's yours. That's not that hard, is it? Of course, you often won't have all those options, but you'll have enough... Even the Fireball can be used for good with a little skill: throw it ''over'' instead of ''through''.

** How is conversion hard as a good God? Miracle Flock for 200 Belief, then give them whatever resource they need for 80, a couple of heals for 50 each, then an artifact for 50-200? Then rinse and repeat in 5 minutes, and it's yours. That's not that hard, is it?

** In both the first and the second game, abusing terrain and the zoom feature at specific places lets you throw anything (rock, person, fireball..) a few thousand miles into the sea.

* HypeBacklash: Black and White 1 was one of the first (if not ''the'' first) cases of Peter Molyneux promising that his games would [[UpToEleven basically be the best thing ever in every single respect]]. The released game ''was'' very good, but the expectations were so high that a sizable percentage of people were left disappointed.