Tropes in Games
Seed Questions
Q - Is there such thing as an original story in a medium known for the heavy use of certain tropes?
A - In standard deck of playing cards, there are 52 cards. The number of combinations of those 52 cards is 52! (the ! means factorial). That’s 8.06 x 10^67 or 80658175170943878571660636856403766975289505440883277824000000000000 combinations. (thanks to vsauce and this other site for that info). There are 26,000 tropes entries on TV tropes.org. Combining those, we get 26,000! The “!” in that sentence stands for both factorial and amazement. There are functionally an infinite combination of ideas/tropes. You can make any idea interesting by combining it with another idea that it’s not always combined with. You can also use it well by presenting it well. Romeo and Juliet is wonderful and heart wrenching when I watch or read it now, just as it was when I first saw it. Perhaps even more-so. It’s all in the presentation. As for original stories, yes. I think there is such a thing as an original story. But you have to either study every single trope out there or stumble upon something that no one else has ever done. It’s probably not as hard as you think if you are just aware as you go into your story. A better way to approach the question is to ask, will your audience (whether that’s you and your friends, or a larger fan base) be troped out on a certain trope?
Q - Can often used storylines still be useful/compelling?
A - See above.
Q - Tell us about some of your favorite tropes.
A - Some of my favorite tropes in gaming are - The hero’s journey, The evil empire (I actually like the reverse of this which is the evil rebellion), and the Smart/Sensitive bruiser.
Thoughts
- First thought: What are tropes?
- In the sense we see it used with games, tropes are themes, events, ideas, etc. that are used over and over in a medium. Another name, is a convention, though not exactly a cliche. The popular website, TV Tropes.org has a great definition. “Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations.”
- What aren’t tropes?
- Tropes aren’t cliches. Tropes aren’t formulas for success or failure. Tropes are not rules.
- What are tropes again?
- Ok. So tropes (as used in game and storytelling) are shorthand tools that let the writer tell the audience something without telling them the whole thing. In other mediums we use them as well. Ever draw an little “m” in the sky to indicate a bird? Tropes (I prefer the word convention) are a method of symbolic communication. When you see a little “m” in a picture you don’t think…”Huh, that’s weird. I wonder why there are a bunch of “m”s hanging out up there.” You think. “Oh, birds.” You know they’re not actually birds. You know the artist didn’t get out their magnifying glass out and paint every last detail of the bird in with a single hair brush. You just accept that they are birds and move on with the picture.
- So, tropes are symbols. If you’ve ever heard of the phrase “Cultural Literacy”, then you’ll see why they are useful in culture.
- Why do tropes exist/where do they come from?
- Tropes are formed when someone gets an idea across so well that it sticks in our collective consciousness. Here’s one at random, the Red Filter of Doom. Someone once thought, “Hey, I want to indicate that this scene is super intense and maybe a bit dangerous. Maybe I should give everything a red tint.” It worked well enough that someone else thought of it when they wanted to create a similar feel. Now when someone wants to invoke a similar feeling, the Red Filter of Doom is a tool they can use.
- What’s the difference between a trope and a cliche?
- A cliche has become trite or commonplace through overuse. Dictionary.com
- Calling something a trope or a cliche is often a function of personal exposure. If you’ve seen something done so much that it doesn’t elicit the intended emotional response, then it’s cliche to you. When enough of society has the same “blah” reaction to it, then it’s a cliche. Critics, reviewers, agents, or fans and students of a certain medium will probably think something is cliche long before those of us who have limited exposure.
- Different types of tropes:
- It is important to note that there are game mechanic tropes in games, art tropes, story tropes, and probably more. I’m assuming that the panel for LTUE is more focused on story tropes.
- What are some common tropes?
- Game mechanics:
- The Cooperative board game.
- Roll to move/Race to the finish (like candyland, monopoly, Jumanji, Zathura, etc.) - This game mechanic is pretty much used for kids games because it’s almost purely random. It’s also super easy to make a game like this. It’s a simple mechanic so most successful games that use it also include other mechanics (Chutes and ladders, etc.)
- Resource gathering
- Worker Placement
- Story:
- Meet in the Tavern.
- The evil advisor trying to take over the kingdom.
- Overturned wagon
- vengeful child
- Bad guy who hates the world because the world treated them poorly as a child/adult/scorned lover/etc.
- Anything in the Hero’s journey (old sage, young man leaving home, etc.)
- Anything from a fairy tale, especially one that’s Disney has made a movie out of.
- Art
- Epic fantasy style
- 8-bit style
- small body with a big head
- star wars
- What’s an example of a trope turned cliche that might still work for some people?
- I really like cover based shooters. I was around way back in 2006 when Gears of War came out. I thought it was a novel game mechanic. I loved it in 2007 when Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was released. Some people are tired of that mechanic. I still like it, but I don’t play a lot of shooters. I might get tired of it if I spent more time playing video games. The alternative is games that allow you to just stand or crouch behind something that blocks line of sight and puts an obstacle in the enemy’s path/line of fire. A cover based mechanic allows the designer to say, “When in this position, the player will take no damage or damage is reduced by X amount.” Plus it allows some cool “TAKE COVER” animations.
- Why are tropes useful?
- This guy said it well - Giving your audience tools that they are familiar with let them understand the game/story/message more quickly. Tropes let you tell a particular type of story without laying all the boring ground work. If you think of it, establishing an intellectual property is a process of creating tropes in your audience’s mind and then using them to tell a story. Tropes are shorthand exposition. If you watch star wars, no one has to tell you what the force is. If you watch star trek, no one has to explain teleporters or warp drive to you. They’re part of our culture. Now look at the characters. In the first episode of Star Trek TNG we are introduced to Data. He’s an android that wants to be human. In a later episode he starts to dream and we learn about his creator’s goals for him. Later still, he finds an emotion chip that allows him to experience emotions. When we finally see Data in Star Trek Generations, we don’t have to explain all the back story. The audience understands that emotions are new for him and fans will already have a rich understanding of who he is, so when he whistles and sings about “life-forms” during a scan, we can enjoy the moment in a way that we never could have in episode 1 of TNG.
- Using tropes to establish a base understanding of your world, a character, a plot event, etc. Is a great way to use tropes. Then, since your audience understands the basics you can move on to more enticing details that set your story, character, setting, etc. apart.
- When can tropes fail?
- Tropes can fail if your audience doesn’t know them well enough and you’re relying on the trope to fill in certain gaps in their knowledge.
- Tropes can fail if they are overused. There’s a sweet spot.
- Tropes can fail if they reinforce social messages or go against social themes that you don’t want reinforced or go against. One of my professors often said that a story either reinforces the status quo or breaks it.
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