# Foibles of video games **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779 "2004-12-02T22:08:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/21 "2004-12-03T15:08:39Z")
Why is it in gun games the player can survive three hits of ANY kind of damage? I mean, knife slash, zombie chomp, pistol shot, missile, it doesn’t matter, it all only knocks off one ‘life box’. What kind of bizarre super power is that?! 😕 “I have the power to survive being hit by a projectile TWO times, no more!” _bad guy flicks two pebbles at good guy and puts a bullet in his head_ 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/22 "2004-12-03T15:37:50Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Why do princesses keep getting kidnapped again and again and again? After the first time, you’d think they’d invest pretty heavily in some elite guards. > > How is it that heros can carry a huge amount of stuff, sometimes without any pockets? > > I’m wearing a hazard suit, but I can carry an RPG, an MP5, a shotgun, several huge energy weapons, hand grenades, tripmines, alien creatures, a crossbow, a magnum and a crowbar, not to mention all the associated ammunition. I have no idea where I’m keeping all this, but somehow I am. Star Trek Voyager; Elite Force addressed this issue, each member of the away team has a portable pattern buffer on their uniform (think of a mini replicator/transporter), inventory items like weapons/ammo/keys are stored in the pattern buffer and are “beamed” to your hands when you need them ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/23 "2004-12-03T15:45:07Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Why didn’t the American version of FFX include the notorious “gangbang” cut-scene? What, what, what! ---
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/24 "2004-12-03T15:48:31Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Why didn’t the American version of FFX include the notorious “gangbang” cut-scene? In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary…‘come again?’ seriously, what’s that all about? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/25 "2004-12-03T15:49:10Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > Star Trek Voyager; Elite Force addressed this issue, each member of the away team has a portable pattern buffer on their uniform (think of a mini replicator/transporter), inventory items like weapons/ammo/keys are stored in the pattern buffer and are “beamed” to your hands when you need them A pattern buffer is just a storage device, like a hard drive or floppy disk, and without a transporter, it’d be pretty much useless. Or did they have a mini-transporter too? ---
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/26 "2004-12-03T15:51:14Z")
Oh, and to respond to **HPL** …as anyone that ever grew up watching \*Transformers \* can tell you, the answer is always _subspace_. Subspace pockets allow for the carrying of extra wepons, extra mass (for shape/size changers), etc…it’s a nice, neat, catch all theory. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/27 "2004-12-03T16:33:34Z")
Or, as anybody that grew up watching _Doraemon_ can tell you, it’s a Fourth Dimensional pouch, silly. Although, since Doraemon’s was so unorganized, he sometimes had trouble getting what he was looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/28 "2004-12-03T16:50:42Z")
Why didn’t Pitfall just run AROUND the alligator pit? You can see above and below it – it’s the same ground he’s jumping to the vine from. ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/29 "2004-12-03T16:55:29Z")
> [@velveeta](#): > > I’m going to guess a pocket dimension located in his underwear. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer game for the X-box is a particularly hilarious example of this. Since she’s Buffy, the in-game character wears rather tight pants. Since she’s a vampire slayer, in those pants she somehow carries 5 stakes, a crossbow with 30 bolts, a giant water gun, up to 9 different potions, and a circular bladed weapon bigger than her head. And since it’s a 3rd-person game, you can watch her take all of this stuff out of her pockets, with no noticable bulge and no impediment to her ability to jump-kick across the room. In a 1st-person game like Doom I could at least imagine that all of stuff was slung over the main character’s back, but in a 3rd-person game I have to believe in magical pants. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/30 "2004-12-03T17:00:55Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > There used to be a trivia quiz game, modeled on Trivia Prsuit. The player could be any one of four living markers: Baron von Rightoften (a German World War I pilot), Cleofactra (an ancient Egyptian queen), Smartacus (a Roman soldier), or a tall black girl with an Afro (Billie Genius). Billie walks backward in her trip around the board. Never seen this game before but my guess would be Billie Genius–\>Billie Jean–\>Michael Jackson–\>Moonwalking backwards around the board ---
**Author:** ![Sutremaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@Sutremaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sutremaine)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/31 "2004-12-03T17:11:58Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > How does a gunblade work? > Ultima Weapon is so much tougher than either Sephiroth or The Sorceress, why isn’t _it_ ruling the world? > Why didn’t the American version of FFX include the notorious “gangbang” cut-scene? 1. The blade of the sword bisects the gun’s barrel, so wouldn’t pulling the trigger simply send a bullet smashing into the blade? It would vibrate for a short while, presumably increasing cutting power, but it can’t be much good for the weapon. 2. Like all optional bosses, Ultima Weapon has no ambition. 3. Because Japanese gamers get all the goodies/ players have already been punished enough with The Laughing Scene. Depends what your opinion of gangbangs is. 😉 I’ve always wondered about level-dependant spells. Levelling up itself doesn’t bother me unless I think about it too much, but how on earth does Lv. 5 Death work in the game’s world? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/32 "2004-12-03T18:38:42Z")
Keys, power switches, and one-way exit doors are often on platforms suspended high off the floor; and the only way to reach them is to carefully time a jump from a moving conveyor belt. If you miss the jump, you fall thirty feet to the floor and are either severely injured or killed. You know, someone could do a movie parody of “imprisioned in a maze full of deathtraps” where the protagonists had to solve all these unreal pointless videogame challenges. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/33 "2004-12-03T19:26:00Z")
hmm let’s see, conveyor belt check, death traps check. the factory scene in star wars attack of the clones. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/34 "2004-12-03T20:17:13Z")
> [@](#): > > You know, someone could do a movie parody of “imprisioned in a maze full of deathtraps” where the protagonists had to solve all these unreal pointless videogame challenges. There was such a scene in _Galaxy Quest_, where the captain has to dodge a corridor of pounding pistons. “What the hell are these things doing here???” “They were in an episode.” ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/35 "2004-12-03T21:55:19Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > Do you _really_ want a blow job from someone named Princess Toadstool? [Does Mario?](http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=114) ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/36 "2004-12-03T21:56:21Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > hmm let’s see, conveyor belt check, death traps check. the factory scene in star wars attack of the clones. It wasn’t just the video-game-ness of this scene that bugged me. It’s that when they land on the conveyor belt and start moving through the factory, the background music starts playing the first few notes of “Powerhouse.” For some reason, _that_ bugged me even more than “you’re not like sand.” ---
**Author:** ![ShockingAlberto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ea924/32.png) [@ShockingAlberto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShockingAlberto)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/37 "2004-12-03T23:09:29Z")
Whoa, what? Gangbang scene? AFAIK, nothing was removed from the Japanese version of Final Fantasy X in the American localization. There were a few things added, however, like a new way to calculate Wakka’s slots attack and an extra addition to the ending (which was a set-up for the travesty that is FFX-2). The extra part of the ending and a Making Of DVD was re-released in Japan as Final Fantasy X International. You _may_ be thinking of Final Fantasy IX, where Zidane mistakes something Dagger says along the lines of “Well, I’d need a lot of men.” He goes from disgust to interest in sit-com fashion. I believe they toned down Zidane’s lechery (and a lot of sex jokes) for the American version, but it’s been years since I’ve played it, so I might be wrong. Another RPG that was big on sex jokes is Shadow Hearts 2, which has, among other things, [a quest for gay porn.](http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-10-04&res=l) ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/38 "2004-12-04T00:44:42Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > A pattern buffer is just a storage device, like a hard drive or floppy disk, and without a transporter, it’d be pretty much useless. > > Or did they have a mini-transporter too? it’s been a while since i played, but i believe it was a mini-transporter system, it couldn’t have been a replicator otherwise you could get more ammo packs by simply replicating them… when you switched weapons, there was an image of the old weapon dematerializing and the new weapon materializing after about a second delay, it beams the old weapon into storage in the pattern buffer matter stream, then beams you a new one ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/39 "2004-12-04T03:25:10Z")
> [@emekthian](#): > > Why is it that every time you turn over a car in GTA, it lights on fire and explodes? That’s nothing… In GTA San Andreas you can jump on the car and stomp it and it will burn and explode. ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779/40 "2004-12-04T06:06:08Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > Why is it in gun games the player can survive three hits of ANY kind of damage? I mean, knife slash, zombie chomp, pistol shot, missile, it doesn’t matter, it all only knocks off one ‘life box’. What kind of bizarre super power is that?! 😕 > > “I have the power to survive being hit by a projectile TWO times, no more!” > _bad guy flicks two pebbles at good guy and puts a bullet in his head_ > 😛 “What the? Getting stabbed by a flying knife isn’t fatal? It took away one letter, just like everything else does. It’s ridiculus, but every attack, from apples to axes, hurts me equally!..” :Radd faces down a guy with a bazooka: “Bring it on!” -Kid Radd [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foibles-of-video-games/277779.md?page=3)