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Don't think of it as useless. Think of it as an opportunity. All that empty hard drive space, just begging to be used.
In seriousness though, what narrative device is this meant to convey? Lots of people build computers from individual components and brand-new, empty hard drives. Then they install an operating system and it's not useless.
I meant it like an ingame computer that only serves gameplay and cant be used for its in universe purpose. Like in shadows of doubt where the office computers cant do office work.
Edited by NoshGilligan
I was thinking that. I was wondering if it applied only to faulty computers, or if something like a work computer not being able to do work would fall under it. The idea is that the computer is unable to work as intended in universe, due to it not having the programs to do so.
Edited by NoshGilligan
Conservation of Detail - it is not important that the computer do things not related to gameplay, therefore there is no reason to waste time and effort making it do so.
Edited by Scorpion451
That also works, but in my head the version of this is where it serves as no more than a glorified computer outisde of a few other interactions. Would that fall under Conservation of detail or would it fall under its own trope?
Edited by NoshGilligan
If you can think of enough examples of computers having that property, you can make one as a subtrope to Conservation of Detail
Computer with no apps