I would argue here that a game's mechanics are part of its experience—they may not convey story-content, but they contribute to experiential content. Thus, to my mind, they are tropeworthy.
And they're definitely patterns within the structure of the works in question, for that matter!
Alternatively, one could argue that they contribute to the "story" of a given player's playthrough of the game; those elements that a player might include when telling another of their time playing. It's a story that varies from player to player, playthrough to playthrough—appropriately for an interactive medium, one in which the player is in a sense a part of the story.
I do have a little bit of experience with pinball, so I may not be best placed to make this comment. However, I don't have a significant amount of experience, especially with the jargon, so perhaps it's worth commenting anyway.
Given that, I actually find the above-quoted example quite comprehensible—I think, at least.
"Frenzy" implies a highly active, likely slightly overwhelming experience. Together with "multiball"—a term that I admit that I do know, but that seems clear enough to me anyway—I imagine that what happens is that lots of balls are loosed onto the playing field, perhaps continuously.
The "Batwing" is a reference to a Batman vehicle, which I imagine is plaecd on the field somewhere. It's clear to me that the player has to hit some entrance to the "Batwing"—but that the thing's movement makes that tricky.
I don't know what the "Batwing" does, specifically, but it seems to be implied that it's positive for the player, hence a miss being "unfortunate". The specifics don't seem important to me.
This one seems more problematic to me. I could take a guess from what experience I have at what the described things are, but I'm really not confident in such guesses.
Still, I suspect that this could be corrected with some more descriptive language. Perhaps something like "the elevated track near the top of the field", or "the track that runs down the left side".
Now, there is a question in my mind: Should that descriptive language be included in the body of the example-text itself, or added in notes attached to the jargon?
The former is likely clearer—but runs the risk of bloating the examples, I fear. The latter is likely more succinct—but perhaps reduces the clarifying effect of the new text, and the addition of numerous note-markers could impact the flow of reading.
Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Dec 13th 2020 at 11:01:48 AM
My Games and Asset Packs
I think putting that information within the text of the example itself would be better. We need to be clear first and foremost - conciseness comes afterwards in terms of priorities. Like you mentioned, putting it within notes disrupts the reader's flow.
Also, thank you for your thoughts on the matter! I genuinely hadn't considered the possibility of tropeworthiness outside of strictly storytelling patterns.
Edited by BlueGuy on Dec 13th 2020 at 2:07:11 PM
Pinball cleanup threadI would say this, Skill Shot as a term is much broader than pinball but as currently written is exclusively pinball (it's often used to describe any video game action that requires split second, non-auto-targeting moves that are either done by an expert or by sheer luck). That's a problem. Wizard Mode might be a bit more stable, but pinball is such a niche subject it's doubtful we can get enough people familiar with the pinball community to verify this stuff as legitimate.
That's fair—I just worry about the example-text becoming bloated, however.
It's my pleasure! ^_^
As far as I'm concerned, tropes are patterns found in creative works. In the case of movies and series, that's almost always a matter of narrative, I imagine. In the case of games, however, a new element—that of interaction—is introduced, having its own properties as part of a creative work. This then results in a new set of tropes.
The trope-page does make some reference to the broader meaning, I believe. However, I do think that I agree that there's an issue in focussing so primarily on pinball when the term is far more broadly used...
I could see perhaps a split happening: one trope for Pinball Skillshot, which covers the current definition, and another—say "Projectile Skillshot"—for the broader definition.
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Skill Shot and Wizard Mode are both tropes exclusive to pinball games that suffer from some critical issues.
The biggest is that their examples frequently indulge in Walkthrough Mode. Even if they aren't listing the exact steps needed to make a Skill Shot or complete a Wizard Mode, they are still caked in jargon that non-pinball fans would find difficult to parse. Here's an example from the former page:
Baywatch lets the player choose from one of three — the top SPF rollover lanes, the Shark Hole, or the Ironman side ramp. There's also a Secret Skill Shot, where you shoot for the Guard Tower when it's lit for 25 million points.
If you're not a fan, you won't know what "rollover lanes" are off the top of your head. Also, if you're not familiar with this machine's layout in particular, you won't really understand the other targets it mentions. You could assume that they're some kind of notable area in the game, but I doubt that would excuse it from being Walkthrough Mode. I'm honestly not 100% sure.Another example (from Wizard Mode this time):
Sega's Batman Forever has "Forever", a multiball scoring frenzy where the goal is to collect jackpots by shooting pinballs into the Batwing. Unfortunately, the Batwing is constantly pivoting during "Forever", which means a mistimed shot will not get loaded or scored.
I feel that Wizard Mode is a little better about Walkthrough Mode, since it's easier to describe the mode in more generic terms without getting into exact details. That said, I'm not sure this is sufficiently comprehensible to people who aren't aware of pinball terms like "frenzy", or what the Batwing does within the game.These could be cleared up with a cleanup effort, but I have concerns about whether they are tropeworthy at all. Part of it stems from how difficult it is to give examples without delving into Walkthrough Mode (particularly Skill Shot) - if it needs jargon to work as an example, should it really be a trope? I'm conflicted on the matter, personally, since I know that difficult does not mean impossible. At the same time, though, I'm not sure if it's worth it to keep them around if they cause this much trouble.
To a lesser extent, I'm also wondering if they would fall under People Sit on Chairs, given that they don't really convey anything. They're just pinball game mechanics. The discussion page
So is The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, Direct Continuous Levels, Final Boss, Level Editor, and various other Video Game Tropes.
Part of me thinks that some of these have more significance than he's implying (for instance, Final Boss is almost invariably the climax of a game's narrative, while The Very Definitely Final Dungeon is not just "the last area" but "the last area is made so climactic it is unmistakenly the end of the game"). Another part of me thinks that there may be similar issues with video game tropes that describe mechanics and mechanics alone. I'm torn here, which is why I wanted to ask for other people's thoughts on the matter.If it factors into anything: as far as I can tell, neither of these tropes went through the TLP. All I could find was that they were both created by rjung early in July 2013
Edited by BlueGuy on Oct 31st 2020 at 7:21:13 AM
Pinball cleanup thread