Abilities in games taken for granted

[gooddragon1]

Although this is related to games, it's not just either computer games or roleplaying games. Imagine all those times in games where you have abilities that should not ordinarily be possible, but are just mechanics of the game rather than specific abilities. I was just playing skyrim, so that's why it's first on the list for now.

For starters:
Skyrim
+Knowing if you are seen by anything while sneaking.
+Never actually having to eat food or drink water.
+Moving at full speed regardless of injury or encumberance.
+Automatically healing over time any injury.
+Never breaking bones.
+Infinitely durable equipment.

Dungeons and Dragons 3.5
+Being able to swing a weapon up to your maximum carrying weight until you have to go to sleep without ever getting tired.

[Skitterbug]

The average platformer protagonist can leap like 10 or 12 feet in the air like it was nothing and in some games fall like 100 feet and take no damage.

[DataNinja]

In a lot of games, somehow managing to be able to go through the events of the game in the amount of time it takes to actually complete your playthrough, with no rest. The ones that jump immediately to mind are the Portals - especially Portal 2, where you can complete the whole game, solving all the myriad puzzles without any noticeable breaks - and Pokémon, where you can somehow cross an entire region, and go from one-Pokémon nobody to Champion in one game (less so in the real-time ones, where it can stretch to a few days, but, still...)

[gooddragon1]

In a lot of games, somehow managing to be able to go through the events of the game in the amount of time it takes to actually complete your playthrough, with no rest. The ones that jump immediately to mind are the Portals - especially Portal 2, where you can complete the whole game, solving all the myriad puzzles without any noticeable breaks - and Pokémon, where you can somehow cross an entire region, and go from one-Pokémon nobody to Champion in one game (less so in the real-time ones, where it can stretch to a few days, but, still...)

Skyrim and fallout 3 don't even require that you sleep at all (though new Vegas does).

Mirrors edge allows indefinite sprinting and parkour.

[random11]

Many games: Instantly heal when you eat a chicken.
Bonus points to fallout for getting healed by drinking water from the toilet (as well as for any game that you acquire said food from checking garbage bins)

[Murmaider]

Killing strangers is easy. Even if the game provides non-lethal options, mass murder is usually less stressful.

Talking to anyone and introducing yourself to people you never met is never awkward.

[Doorhandle]

Looking at Dark souls, theoretically an RPG with more verisimilitude than average...

*Can somehow phase through enemy attacks when rolling
*Can roll around in full plate on pavement without so much as a bruise.
*Can maintain lethally-focused eye contact even after aforementioned rolling.
**...Just rolling, man.
* Can zoom in like a sniper scope...with no scope needed.
* You know you have estus flask and healing magic. What you don't know about is your ability to heal perfectly from every injury, as opposed to constantly resetting bones. Granted, this may have something to do with being undead, so it's not super glaring...
*You know snippets of backstory from any item you pick up and any bonfire you visit, no matter how old and forgotten.
* You can call out a readout of your greatest strength and weakness at any time, and similarly for any weapon you have.
* You can perfectly master any spell or equipment you pick up instantly...which may or may not be justified by the fact you may need ability scores in the 40s to use them.
* You have a maximum encumbrance of infinity and can lug a metric ton of equipment with you at any time. Granted, using a metric ton of equipment all at once is a lot harder...

Most of all, however:
*You are the one person in all of Lordran who isn't driven mad by the darksign, nor by any items you pick up. You are basically completely incorruptible.

[Celestia]

The average platformer protagonist can leap like 10 or 12 feet in the air like it was nothing and in some games fall like 100 feet and take no damage.

Also, double jumping and being able to move freely while in the air.


Never need to use the restroom.

[Gnoman]

A very subtle one. In virtually all games that feature firearms, you have an infinite supply of magazines, no matter what the ammo pickup looks like your ammo is always loaded into a magazine that fits your gun, and if you reload while there's still ammo in the magazine you not only keep that ammo but it is instantly combined into a full one instead of you having a bunch of half-loaded ones sitting around.

[gooddragon1]

Skyrim:
+You can wear almost nothing and walk into a blizzard with no problem (even if you're a redguard who are from the desert).
+You never encounter anything when fast traveling from one area to another (unlike fallout 1 and 2)
+You can sense hostility and the direction of a hostile enemy (and some vague idea of their distance from you)
+You never experience muscle atrophy or loss of ability from not using your abilities (except if you go to jail).

Morrowind:
+You can be inside a volcano and be wearing full metal armor and not have problems with heat exhaustion.
+You have an eidetic memory (maybe just for conversation options, maybe more) that never warps with time (as you can potentially live forever) since your conversation options once acquired never go away.

Duke Nukem 1:
+Falling never causes you to die, no matter the distance.

Mirror's Edge:
+You can heal absolutely everything that doesn't outright kill you by avoiding taking more damage for a few seconds.
+Objects you can parkour off of light up in red.

[Traab]

People generally dont mind it when you walk into their house, check all their cupboards, flower pots, closets, and chests for items, and take anything interesting.
Stores have no problem buying literally hundreds of items from you, over and over, and over again, even when you havent purchased anything from them at all. Even items that have nothing to do with them.

Village Blacksmith: "What can I do for you today heroes?"
Hero: /sells him 500 insect parts, 25 hyena jaw bones, 32 basalisk eyes, and 2 pieces of jewelry.
Village Blacksmith: "Here is your gold. Would you like to buy a new weapon or armor?"
Hero: /walks out to go farm another bajillion bits of garbage

Seriously, first of all, aside from pawnshops, noone is going to buy your garbage, and even pawnshops will only buy so much. They might want a soiled ogre loincloth as a random collectors item, they wont want 70 of them, then another 30 when you come back a few hours later. But game stores have unlimited inventory room and are absolutely enthralled by the idea of buying whatever you want to give them. Even total trash.

[veti]

Just About Every Game Ever:
+ You have perfect knowledge of your own stats
+ You have perfect knowledge of your own hit points and status
+ You know exactly what it will take to level up
+ You know exactly when you level up
+ You know the precise range and area of effect of every tool in your arsenal

Most games:
+ You can keep fighting, unimpaired by injury
+ You can heal any injury, completely, with a nominal amount of rest - broken bones and severed limbs don't happen to you
+ Similarly, diseases and poisons - with rare exceptions - can be trivially healed

Most tabletop games:
+ You can take as long as you like to decide your instantaneous reaction
+ You can judge ranges and areas, particularly areas of effect, precisely and without the possibility of error

Most computer games:
+ You can tell just by talking to people if there's something you can help them with

Skyrim:
+ Every guard everywhere knows your entire life story and major skills
+ Every service you can buy, no matter how tedious, dangerous or time-consuming, costs 10 g.p. You, on the other hand, can earn hundreds of GP just by carrying an urn a hundred yards down the road.

[Traab]

Speaking of leveling up. You go out and repeat an action for long enough, then suddenly you are stronger, healthier, and often have learned a totally new skill. Make 50 copper knives? Suddenly you can make iron ones! Create a hundred bandages made of linen, suddenly you can make them out of wool! Or silk! Why couldnt you make a bandage out of silk before? I dunno. Swing my sword around and kill 50 enemies? Now I can pull out a getsuga tensho for no reason. Cast enough fireballs at monsters and suddenly I can create a blizzard? How does that work?!

[gooddragon1]

Dota 2
+The range of your ability is indicated in a highlighted area when you want to use it.

Dota 1
+The radius of your ability is indicated by a highlighted area when you want to use it.

Diablo 1
+You have 360 vision and can know the layout of a room you have never seen before in your life.

[Keltest]

People generally dont mind it when you walk into their house, check all their cupboards, flower pots, closets, and chests for items, and take anything interesting.
Stores have no problem buying literally hundreds of items from you, over and over, and over again, even when you havent purchased anything from them at all. Even items that have nothing to do with them.

Village Blacksmith: "What can I do for you today heroes?"
Hero: /sells him 500 insect parts, 25 hyena jaw bones, 32 basalisk eyes, and 2 pieces of jewelry.
Village Blacksmith: "Here is your gold. Would you like to buy a new weapon or armor?"
Hero: /walks out to go farm another bajillion bits of garbage

Seriously, first of all, aside from pawnshops, noone is going to buy your garbage, and even pawnshops will only buy so much. They might want a soiled ogre loincloth as a random collectors item, they wont want 70 of them, then another 30 when you come back a few hours later. But game stores have unlimited inventory room and are absolutely enthralled by the idea of buying whatever you want to give them. Even total trash.

Ive always assumed that those soiled ogre loincloths can be recycled into fresh ogre loincloths that get sold back to the ogres or something like that. With the possible exception of random animal gibs (and not even that if they can be used in alchemy), pretty much anything you can pry off a corpse has a hypothetical use for something.

[Traab]

Ive always assumed that those soiled ogre loincloths can be recycled into fresh ogre loincloths that get sold back to the ogres or something like that. With the possible exception of random animal gibs (and not even that if they can be used in alchemy), pretty much anything you can pry off a corpse has a hypothetical use for something.

Well yeah, but a blacksmith doesnt need insect manidbles, the guy who sells mining equipment probably doesnt need any essence of undeath, etc etc tec. I wouldnt try to sell clothing to a food shop, or cooking supplies to a blacksmith. Yes those items are worth something, but not to everyone. Which was my point. The merchants dont care what they sell or what you are trying to sell them, they will take it all. I now imagine every merchant has this vast warehouse of miscellaneous junk behind their shop that they hold onto in hopes that one day they will meet someone who actually wants the femur of a jackalope.

[Keltest]

Well yeah, but a blacksmith doesnt need insect manidbles, the guy who sells mining equipment probably doesnt need any essence of undeath, etc etc tec. I wouldnt try to sell clothing to a food shop, or cooking supplies to a blacksmith. Yes those items are worth something, but not to everyone. Which was my point. The merchants dont care what they sell or what you are trying to sell them, they will take it all. I now imagine every merchant has this vast warehouse of miscellaneous junk behind their shop that they hold onto in hopes that one day they will meet someone who actually wants the femur of a jackalope.

In my experience, games with all-purpose merchants with limitless money tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

[Traab]

In my experience, games with all-purpose merchants with limitless money tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

Any rpg I play has worked out that way. Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, even in diablo 3, there is this little urchin fella who wants to sell me stuff. I bring back 600 items from killing my way through all of belials forces, and he is happy to continually buy it all off me. Im not going to buy anything from him, to heck with that! But he never runs out of cash to pay me. Not bad for a beggar boy with a few random bits and pieces to sell.

[Keltest]

Any rpg I play has worked out that way. Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, even in diablo 3, there is this little urchin fella who wants to sell me stuff. I bring back 600 items from killing my way through all of belials forces, and he is happy to continually buy it all off me. Im not going to buy anything from him, to heck with that! But he never runs out of cash to pay me. Not bad for a beggar boy with a few random bits and pieces to sell.

I'm pretty sure Squirt is a she.

[TurboGhast]

In Xenoblade Chronicles, you automatically know the name and level of enemies, along with the name of any arts they use and what would attract their attention to you.

[Knaight]

There are some pretty impressive background logistical networks that never fail in a lot of strategy games. Your resources can get transported from some remote province (or planet, for some of the science fiction ones) in the middle of nowhere that's currently under siege to wherever you need them halfway across the map, often right through enemy terrain. Knowledge spreads nigh instantaneously, retrofitting is often freakishly easy and can also be done out in the middle of nowhere (though this one is a bit rarer), and little details like keeping troops fed, equipment maintained, vehicles fueled, so on and so forth in all sorts of ludicrously logistics-hostile conditions are taken care of in the background.

[Traab]

If you follow the fluff of World of Warcraft literally, the entire planet is full of the most incompetent losers ever. You, and you alone, are the only reason why any problem gets solved. From defias bandits raiding the countryside, to the lich king getting killed. Its all down to you (and some friends depending on whats being done) Even when the big names show up to steal your thunder, they only got there because you plowed the road. If you play the game zone by zone to level up, you are literally the only person willing and able to save the day in well over a dozen zones. Its like living in one of those "made for tv" universes where people cant crack an egg without burning down the house. So here you come with your incredible competency and now you are world famous after getting your start killing wild boars and collecting plants that grow within 30 seconds walk of the guy asking for help. Yeah by the end you are fighting a black dragon with the help of john keeshan but its insane when you think about it. Why do you need my help to kill gnolls? You are wearing full plate mail and have a shiny sword and several friends standing right next to you! YOU ARE THE TOWN GUARD! Go kill Hogger yourself dangit! Whats that? You want me to transport this package to stormwind for you? Do you always ask random strangers who just walked into town to do supply runs for you? How are you still in business?!

[Rodin]

Most of all, however:
*You are the one person in all of Lordran who isn't driven mad by the darksign, nor by any items you pick up. You are basically completely incorruptible.

I've always felt like this would be a cool game - one where your performance affects the plot. Die a lot and get more corrupted, gaining power to overcome threats more easily but losing humanity the whole way. Die too much, and even formerly friendly NPCs turn against you as you become monstrous. Becoming too corrupted too soon would be a way to lose the game, but there might be difficult ways that open up to undo the curse.

[Celestia]

Well yeah, but a blacksmith doesnt need insect manidbles, the guy who sells mining equipment probably doesnt need any essence of undeath, etc etc tec. I wouldnt try to sell clothing to a food shop, or cooking supplies to a blacksmith. Yes those items are worth something, but not to everyone. Which was my point. The merchants dont care what they sell or what you are trying to sell them, they will take it all. I now imagine every merchant has this vast warehouse of miscellaneous junk behind their shop that they hold onto in hopes that one day they will meet someone who actually wants the femur of a jackalope.

I always assumed that the merchants just trade that stuff between themselves. You're an blacksmith, and some dude comes along and sells you fifty magic plants? Just walk over and sell them to the alchemist, yourself.

[Douglas]

I always assumed that the merchants just trade that stuff between themselves. You're an blacksmith, and some dude comes along and sells you fifty magic plants? Just walk over and sell them to the alchemist, yourself.

In some games they permanently stay in that one merchant's inventory, in case you ever want to buy them back.

Incidentally, this brings up another one: you are the one and only customer merchants ever have. No one else buys or sells anything, ever.

[Cazero]

The funniest thing of that list is that about 3/4 of those are simply good game design.

[Celestia]

In some games they permanently stay in that one merchant's inventory, in case you ever want to buy them back.

True. I forgot that there are some games like that. I've got no explanation.

Incidentally, this brings up another one: you are the one and only customer merchants ever have. No one else buys or sells anything, ever.

And since you never buy anything and only sell, you are inevitably draining the entire economy.

I'm now imagining all these merchants getting loan after loan just so that they can continue buying your useless garbage that they will keep forever. And they keep hoping beyond reason that someday you'll want to buy from them so that they can make a profit and start paying off all those loans. It's kinda sad and depressing, actually. It makes me feel bad now.

[Keltest]

True. I forgot that there are some games like that. I've got no explanation.


And since you never buy anything and only sell, you are inevitably draining the entire economy.

I'm now imagining all these merchants getting loan after loan just so that they can continue buying your useless garbage that they will keep forever. And they keep hoping beyond reason that someday you'll want to buy from them so that they can make a profit and start paying off all those loans. It's kinda sad and depressing, actually. It makes me feel bad now.

in retrospect, that cultist attack that killed the blacksmith in Riverwood may have been doing him a favor.

[TurboGhast]

The funniest thing of that list is that about 3/4 of those are simply good game design.

That's why we take the abilities for granted.

[warty goblin]

And since you never buy anything and only sell, you are inevitably draining the entire economy.

I'm now imagining all these merchants getting loan after loan just so that they can continue buying your useless garbage that they will keep forever. And they keep hoping beyond reason that someday you'll want to buy from them so that they can make a profit and start paying off all those loans. It's kinda sad and depressing, actually. It makes me feel bad now.

On the other hand, since you are the only customer, why would anybody want to hold on to money? They can't do anything else with it, and it has no utility on its own. Of course they want to buy your stuff, no matter how worthless it is, it's more useful than a bunch of heavy, completely worthless gold coins.


My favorite though is the habit of fantasy RPGs putting some farmland around their peasant huts. And the entire farmland area is like 400 square feet, which is supposed to feed not only the village, but the entire capital city, the army, the guards, and those ten thousand bandits who roam the hinterlands.