Discussion Main / PacManFever

There was a cop show back in the early 2000s (probably 2002) where an episode revolved around murders whose only link was a FPS game that the victims played. They episode was finally solved by determining that the killer was another player of the game who was using a bot to establish an alibi, which they determined because "he got a low score that night" and the bot always used the same animation for melee kills (this being long before melee kill animations were even a thing in FPS games). Also, the only gaming terms that the writers seemed to know where "bot", "hack", and "mod". Can anyone remember what show this might have been?

The Surf Ninjas example seems to reference another example on the page. Could someone who knows the movie clarify without referring to another entry on the page that could move around or be deleted?

I think this page needs a major cleanup. A large number of the entries read like vapid complaints that a work messed up a minor detail of a portrayal of a particular game, which isn't in the spirit of the trope.

"In an episode of some Disney TV show (Hannah Montana or That's So Raven), two people were playing a video game together. One person had a Game Cube controller, and the other had an Xbox 360 controller. True, a PC can use both 360 controllers and USB-adapted GCN controllers, but it's unlikely that was the case."

Can someone find out which show exactly? because that kind of entry sucks.

Is Rules of Engagement the Trope Namer? When Adam buys a Play Station and plays Grand Theft Auto, Audrey mentions Jeff had Pac-Man Fever in the past.

It otherwise averts it, though.

Wouldn't it also simply be possible that most people making movies and TV shows in America never played any video games to begin with? I don't just mean the old fogeys and all, but the young people too.

The explanation I'd have is that to get into Hollywood here, you have to be pretty dedicated to making film or TV, and generally, there aren't a lot of people who dedicate themselves to film and TV who'd have time for or be interested in video games. That is, film and TV were their hobbies before getting in, and thus, you have a lack of video gamers in Hollywood.

I currently work at Hollywood and play a lot of video games (though I'm at the bottom of the bottom), so I'm seeing this from the inside, and here's what I'm seeing: Executives, agents, voice actors, and producers do not play video games but accept them as a viable and profitable business, and see video games and its industry as a potential partner. Most other staff members see video games as a novelty or as an enemy force, particularly writers and live-action actors for the latter.

(Granted, this is nothing compared to opinions of anime in Hollywood.)

I'm taking out the Stargate Atlantis Warcraft stuff because it sounds less like primitive games in modern times than Warcraft references made by someone who simply didn't know about the game. Even if every word is accurate, it's not a case of this trope, I don't think. The text of it was:

• In Stargate Atlantis, Weir distracts Dr. Lee by talking to him about World of Warcraft. This is before the first Expansion Pack, The Burning Crusade, came out, and he claims to have the beta. Let us count the problems with this conversation:
  1. How could Dr. Lee, no matter how clueless, think that someone who had been LIVING IN ANOTHER GALAXY for a few years could possibly be playing an MMO during that time?
  2. The Beta wasn't available yet.
  3. He claimed his character was level 75. The Burning Crusade raised the level cap from 60 to 70.
  4. He says that he plays a Mage who's spec is "engineering and duelling"; um, engineering's a profession and duelling kinda happens, a mage's spec would be fire, frost, arcane, or a mix.
  5. Weir, who doesn't know the game, says that her character's race is a mage, and Lee doesn't catch on. Mage is a class, people.
  6. I'm not sure just what to say about him trying to "increase his enchanter skill" and that it's "not going well." Yeah...
  • It seems very likely, although this could be wishful thinking, that this instance was Stylistic Suck for the sake of Rule of Funny. Lee is a Hollywood Nerd, he's so amazed and happy to have a chance to talk to an attractive woman about his hobby that of course he doesn't notice problems with her story. And every term Weir and Lee used appears in World of Warcraft, and yet every single one is used incorrectly. If They Just Didn't Care, one would expect the writers to mention stuff that doesn't exist at all, and/or to get some details right purely by accident.

Averted in E.R., right? Where Dr. Greene plays Doom for a couple of seconds. I think he was using a plasma rifle.