SpawnPoint - Where Game Begins

Forced Stupidity in Gameplay

How many times have you reached a point in a game, where you have to stop and imagine that if the game world was really happening, it would be a terrible idea to do the thing you're about to do? Yet for the sake of following the game plot, stupidity is your only option. It doesn't matter how obvious that trap is, because it's the hero's job to spring it, and then escape later. No matter how obvious it is that the statues behind you will come to life as soon as you pick up the ancient gem of shiny power, you still have to do it and deal with the consequences as they come.

Most likely the earliest time gamers have seen this is at the end of the first episode of Doom. After killing the final boss monsters, there's nothing to do but step into the teleported of death. Sure it literally kills you and sends you to hell, but it's the next step of the plot so there's no chance avoiding it. You remember all those powerful weapons you spent the whole game gathering? Yeah you left them behind and need to restart completely naked until you can pummel your first bad guy to death with your fists and get your hands on another pistol. FPS games are constantly guilty of putting you in scenarios just so that those guns you worked so hard to gather all become lost and you get the joy of hunting them down again.

Sometimes it's a literal trap that's just too obvious to ignore; such as a certain room filled with pressure plates in Resident Evil 5. Now there's plenty of room to go between the plates or even press yourself against a wall and slide past. But no, the plot demands that you walk into the trap; so you do. At least you get to rescue yourself afterwards. Not so much the case in Half-Life 2 where Gordon steps into a stalker pod for no apparent reason, and is only rescued by random luck.

It's important to remember that it isn't necessarily you being stupid, just the character you're supposedly controlling. So it's not so bad, right? In fact maybe you should feel good that you saw it coming well in advance, but that foolish avatar on the screen walked right into it. There's no shame in being smarter than the video game character you control!