So, we now have the trope Embarrassing but Empowering Outfit. Personally I think the two are too similar, but the distinction given in the YKTTW is that the new trope is about particular items being ugly but powerful, while RPG (hah, I just got that!) is about discordant combinations.
The names don't help, with the one about pieces of gear being called "outift" and the one about outfits being called "gear", but there we go.
The problem is, a lot of the examples on this page are of single items (including the page quote). Do we start moving them over, go to TRS and propose a merge, or what?
Would Animal Crossing count as a non-clothing example? In order to get points for your House Appraisals, you can either have sets that work together, or just get a giant mishmash of point-granting items and arrange them throughout your house.
The feng shui is a better example, since if you already have a nice, matching set, you may have to put a Lemon Table in the West in order to get more money.
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Sirlin refers to this when he talks about Football Helmet Clown Shoes Guy
in game design. It's not an actual example, but it is a reference... would that be worth some kind of mention somewhere?
Wow, Sirlin has no idea how most Magic players see the game.
Donate is an intentional combo card. It's designed to make silly, powerful combinations with other weird cards, and most players appreciate this as a feature of the game that allows them to channel creativity in deckbuilding. When a combo like Trix appears, it's not a failure of the game design, but a success. The problem with combos is when they become too reliable or too fast; this is not a fault of the wacky combo, but a fault of the generally good utility cards around it like Ponder, Necropotence, tutors, etc.
Yes, it's Football Helmet Clown Shoes Guy; that's the point. It's supposed to be a crazy Rube Goldberg machine that people are impressed by. I think the reason why it works is because they don't really provide stat bonuses; instead, the combo abuses a loophole to do something unexpected, and that sense of discovery is fun for a lot of people. It's why many people complain about the lack of a decent combo deck in standard.
But then again, Sirlin not understanding why people enjoy Magic is nothing new.
Edited by Scardoll Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.
Team Fortress 2 certainly counts. Even though set bonuses tend to follow a general theme, individual loadouts are crazy diverse now that the game is full of Nice Hats and weapons that can be painted into all sorts of hues. (Some servers even give you the option of having any color item you want if you donate a set amount.)
Edited by dotchan
Just a heads up; I removed the following example:
- The World Ends With You would suffer from this if equipped "threads" actually changed the appearance of the character sprites. As it is, the characters' appearances never change, saving the player from the image of a fifteen-year-old boy wearing a dress, high heels, fashionably distressed jeans, and a potted plant.
- That said, this trope was still thoroughly mocked in the tie-in comics.
Because it wasn't really an example at all. Someone could go and put the comic's lampshaing if they want, I think that fits, but the game itself has nothing to do with the trope.
Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Often misuses for equipment that is just ugly,
, started by Ghilz on Jan 14th 2012 at 7:20:14 PM
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