This is a dual wick check for Insecurity Camera and Useless Security Camera to see if they're used interchangeably.
Insecurity Camera and Useless Security Camera are both about security cameras not capturing footage of things. A few potential distinctions have been raised, such as Insecurity Camera being from the trespasser's perspective and Useless Security Camera from the camera owner's perspective, or Insecurity Camera attributing the failure to inbuilt features of the camera while Useless Security Camera is about the camera malfunctioning. In practice the causes of the camera not doing its job heavily overlap and most examples of both tropes don't really favor one perspective over the other, suggesting there's no meaningful difference at all.
Of note, Insecurity Camera is the older of the two tropes. The TLP
for Useless Security Camera has several signs of potential redundancy, such as a troper worrying about how similar the names sound and somebody suggesting a page image that was (and still is) already being used on Insecurity Camera's page.
To do: wick check both tropes to see if their most common use has the same meaning.
Notes about method used:
- I ran a wick check on both tropes, checking for the same categories of use.
- I also made a note of how many times they were used on the same page, and if so any differences in use.
- Number of wicks per category may not be integers due to multiple usage types on the same page.
Insecurity Camera
132 total wicks, 50 wicks checked.
Wicks checked: 14/50
Check the following wicks: 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 27, 32, 38, 42, 44, 45, 47, 52, 54, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 65, 69, 70, 71, 74, 76, 78, 82, 88, 89, 97, 101, 103, 106, 109, 110, 117, 118, 120, 122, 123, 125, 128, 129, 131
- Index Failure: A security camera fails to be useful, which is good news for you, the intruder. Implies a flaw in the camera, and notes that is from the perspective of the intruder.
- Stealth-Based Mission: From there follows more audioscoping, and dodging patrols, insecurity cameras, and killer laser traps. Implies the cameras don't notice anything due to the player avoiding their limited field of view.
- Characters.Rainbow Six Siege Operators Year One: Any player can throw their cams in spots that don't offer a good view for anyone using it. The camera fails because it's placed in a spot with poor visibility.
- Destruction Equals Off-Switch: Destroying an Insecurity Camera doesn't trigger some kind of automatic defence system, facility-wide alert or even notify the janitor. It just turns off the camera. Camera can no longer record footage due to being destroyed.
- Evil Overlord List: No matter how many shorts we have in the system, my guards will be instructed to treat every surveillance camera malfunction as a full-scale emergency. About cameras being deactivated through either electrical faults or destruction.
- Smoking Gun Control: In Police Procedurals and other works of Mystery Fiction, easy ways to solve crimes will quickly be eliminated. CCTV cameras were broken, guns and cars were stolen, etc. Says the camera is "broken", with the rest of the sentence implying destruction.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: When a security camera stops working, ignoring it instead of sounding the alarm, or at the very least getting a maintenance team onto it ASAP with accompanying guards.
- Fanfic.Frozen Moonlight: Despite half the cast having magical powers, several security cameras were taken care of in a mundane way. Cameras are deactivated in some way.
- Camera Abuse: Of course, Camera Abuse can be justified when it's explicitly presented as the view from an In-Universe Camera — such as an Insecurity Camera... Part of a trope description, not enough information to tell how the two are connected.
- False False Alarm: Just says to compare it to Insecurity Camera.
- Insecurity System: Just listed as part of the index
- Schlubby, Scummy Security Guard: If they're bad at their jobs too, they'll probably be a Surveillance Station Slacker, operating an Insecurity Camera or a Useless Security Camera. No further elaboration about what's up with the cameras.
- Surveillance Station Slacker: Often overlaps with Radar Is Useless, Insecurity Camera/Useless Security Camera, and The Guards Must Be Crazy, and they may be Playing Games at Work.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: They didn't get far, mainly because the crew knocked on the guard shack on the back gate, after spending about half an hour trying to get attention by dancing for the security cameras on the entrance area. Pothole of a "security cameras exist" nature.
- Awesome.Deus Ex Human Revolution: The soldiers have armor, guns, box guards, laser sights, alarm systems, vastly superior numbers, and locked doors. Pothole of a "security cameras exist" nature.
Useless Security Camera
76 total wicks, including redirects.
Check the following wicks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, 15, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 60, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 74
The following pages have wicks to both tropes:
- Index Failure: Both entries begin with "A security camera fails to be useful..." Insecurity Camera ends with "which is good news for you, the intruder", while Useless Security Camera ends with "which is bad news for you, the police" this is just two sides of the same coin.
- Insecurity System: Both listed on the same index with no further elaboration.
- Schlubby, Scummy Security Guard: Both listed as types of camera the security guard operates.
- Surveillance Station Slacker: Tropeslashed together, indicating whoever wrote that part of the description thought they were interchangeable.
Conclusions
Additionally, while there were technically 100 wicks checked, in practice there were only X unique wicks due to overlap between the two sets of wicks. Out of 100 wicks total, X had wicks to both tropes, with Y wicks being present in both wick checks.
