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Freezer
Since: Jan, 2001
2011-01-05 03:30:15
Um... I think this goes under YKTTW, not here. This page is for "What is the name of this trope?" not "This is a new trope".
Slava Ukraini

Fake Skill
"Fake Difficulty? What Fake Difficulty?" - Challenge Gamer
There's Fake Difficulty, Fake Balance, and Fake Longevity, then there's this.
Luck Based Mission? Good Bad Bugs say not so. Overly long and redundant maze? Not with this unintended shortcut. Camera flips in the middle of a jump? Aha, the player skillfully masters the art of moving the analog stick/dpad with precision timing to counter this. Trial And Error Gameplay? Save Scumming to the rescue.
This is subversion of the control the developers have on the players. Basically, with Fake Skill, the player has the unfair advantage. Can sometimes take real skills to pull off, such as Difficult But Awsome Good Bad Bugs. Also of note, this is often used to reliably counter Fake Difficulty or Fake Longevity, but not always. Save Scumming to get through an area perfectly that has no Fake Difficulty is still a display of Fake Skill.
Do not confuse with using deliberately programmed cheats, which don't count as those are SUPPOSED to be in the game, and are expeced to be discovered and exploited. This only applies to when the player finds unintended ways to subvert Fake Difficulty, or otherwise give themselves some sort of unintended advantage.
Examples:
Infinite Flutter in Super Mario Galaxy 2. Although it is of the Difficult But Awsome variety and only helps if you can't others solve the game's puzzles.
Leg Sweeps on SNK Boss targets that are vulnerable to them.