We already gathered five examples, neither of them has anything to do with Schrödinger's Gun, and not a single one of the Schrödinger's Gun examples is an example of this trope, so I'm pretty sure that the tropes are sufficiently different.
It is possible that I failed at clearly describing the trope, or finding an appropriate name, and I'm still working on these.
The most laconic difference I can produce:
- Schrödinger's Gun is a plot point that's not fixed as true or not when it is first mentioned, but once it is "fired", it solidifies its status.
- E.g. a gun on the wall, that can be either a Chekhov's Gun or a Red Herring, until it is fired.
- Schrodingers Closed Box (new working title) is a plot point that exists when you open up the box and see it, but not opening it up in a next route implies that its status went back to undecided.
- E.g. Saving Town A from a monster, in the fist walkthrough, and choosing to save Town B from the terrorists in the second walkthrough, but not hearing distressing news about the other town being destroyed in either case, implying that as long as you don't go there to look at them, their safety is undecided.
edited 17th Oct '10 6:00:59 AM by EternalSeptember
Zzzzzzzzzz
I see what you're saying, but really, that's simply the Law of Conservation of Detail in action: "If it doesn't affect the story I'm telling you now, I won't mention it."
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
In any case, we don't need another title for a trope that no one can spell.
Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty
^^ It surely relies on the Law, but I think it has enough objective parts to make it a trope.
- It can have a specific usage form in the narrative (for example by putting characters on a bus, or suspiciously avoiding to mention a certain issue)
- It's usage has an intentional purpose. (to upkeep a certain atmosphere)
- It is notably different from how real life works (because somtimes troubles don't disappear from your life just because they are not in your field of vision for a short time).
Zzzzzzzzzz
But that doesn't make it a trope. It's not a storytelling convention; it doesn't add any information for the audience; it doesn't serve any purpose within the story. It's just something that happens when you go through a plot that has more than one path more than once, because of the nature of the plot.
As soon as you chose to go to Town B instead of Town A on your second time through the game, what would have happened in Town A if you had chosen it became irrelevant to the story and fell to the Law of Conservation of Detail.
edited 17th Oct '10 9:23:43 AM by Madrugada
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
This made up example might be incomplete, the actual examples in the YKTTW demonstrate my last points better.
If these all happen in the same game, they are not completely irrelevant. They still happen in the same multiverse, where the same characters who you just met, and care about, still "exist".
If there is also Town C, that it isn't even a playable location, just a mentioned background, and you know nothing about its fate, that is a straight use of the Law.
If you are in town B, there is A Winner Is You screen, everyone is happy, and you can reasonably assume that if there would be any trouble in town A, you would know about it, that is an enforced version of the Law, that is used with a specific, intentional purpose: forcefully leaving you in the dark about its fate, to maintain the happy ending atmosphere.
edited 17th Oct '10 9:46:17 AM by EternalSeptember
Zzzzzzzzzz
They may happen in the same multiverse, but if you hadn't already played the game once you'd never know about them. They aren't a part of the game, they're just a consequence of playing the game more than once. Saying that's a trope is like saying that the fact that I don't get fooled by the red herrings the second time I read a mystery is a trope.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Except that interactive media is intentionally written with consideration of it's interactive nature. By your logic, even Multiple Endings wouldn't be a trope, because they are just endings of plots, that happen to be parts of the same game.
All of the current examples are works that rely on this form of storytelling, two RP Gs, and three V Ns. In these cases, you effectively "play through" the game if you investigate all of these routes.
You might be right that when for a second playthrough, you forget to take some minor sidequest about saving a citizen, but you don't feel bad about it, this is nothing but an omnipresent audience reaction. But Visual Novels, that provided most of the examples, have this unique way of telling one story through many routes that show it from different angles. And RP Gs like Oblivion also expect you to go through more than one mission arc.
Discussion here
. Eternal September calls it "Schrodinger's Plot" but I fail to get what makes it so different from a Schrödinger's Gun. Can we get some more opinions?
An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.