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- Tank Goodness: Many of these beastly type of vehicles weigh in at at least 70 tons and are so powerful, that you could never even hope to own one if you're anything besides a Military class player. Of course, there are players who try to get around this rule such as one player from the "Colorado" sector of the USA server
building his own◊ to get revenge for a zoning dispute and another player, also from the USA server stealing an M60A3 Patton tank from a United States National Guard Armory in San Diego. - Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: An extremely complex web, constantly changing with technology. Factors for any military unit include firepower, mobility, survivability and dozens of niche roles. Most units are able to counter their counters as well, and are highly versatile.
- Teaser Equipment: Expensive cars, houses, jewelry, and the like will not be within your price range when you first start out. Particularly egregious examples require that you take several levels in certain Prestige Classes to be able to afford them. Thankfully, much of these items fall into Bragging Rights Reward. It is possible (about a 1% chance, depending on which server you play on) to start the game with high enough Wealth and Privilege stats to afford some of this prestige equipment.
- Tech Tree: Gigantic, intricate, messy, and the structure of it isn't fully understood.
- Terminally Dependent Society: Many of the human race are basically in trouble, if not helpless without technology. Take internet, electricity or water supply out of the picture, and a huge crisis would ensue. Still, the human race survived several disasters, and after the immediate shock, people will surely find a way to restore those things, or set up replacements.
- Theory of Narrative Causality: Usually averted. But occasionally played straight.
- There Is No Rule Six:
- Very common in real-life codes of law. Laws are generally always referred to by number, so labels always have to be kept consistent. This will often extend to leaving sections reserved for future laws so that new statutes can be slotted in where they would logically go. This leads to a lot of lines saying nothing beyond the fact that the line doesn't exist or isn't valid.
- Question 17 of the 2011 British Census: "This question is intentionally blank"note
- There's a joke that goes "Rule 1: I am always right. Rule 2: If I am ever wrong, see rule 1."
- A similar joke has been put up in German workplaces at least since the 1960s: "Rule 1: The boss is always right. Rule 2: Should the boss not be right for once, then rule 1 comes into force."
- With a live-cast showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, this is often used by the stage manager when explaining the general "rules of behavior" in the theater.
- IBM manuals are infamous for pages stating "This page intentionally left blank". Similar to the other examples described here, this was done to keep page numbers consistent for cross-referencing even if information was added or removed.
- Military field manuals are also well known for this and the subject of much derision among service members. The truth is that chapters conventionally start on an odd-numbered page; therefore, if the preceding chapter happens to have an odd number of pages, a blank page is inserted at the end. Classified documents are also accounted for by the number of pages; this practice ensures that blank pages are not accidentally discarded.
- Common in IT. When automated, regular reports are generated and sent to distribution lists, a "No report was created / No data in the report" message is the best way to avoid users calling the helpdesk to say "they didn't receive the report".
- During one of the debates between candidates for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, Governor Rick Perry declared, "And I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, Education, and the... what's the third one there?" After an awkward pause (during which a few of the other candidates and the debate moderator tried to prompt him), he finally concluded, "I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops."*
- Until 2019, highway exits in Massachusetts were numbered sequentially. After the Central Artery Tunnel (aka Big Dig) project was done, the new design removed some exits, and the remaining exits were not (then) renumbered. As a result, the state DOT added signs to the highway e.g. "There is no Exit 11. Next exit is 12" after exit 10.
- Starting in 2020 the state is changing all highway exits to milepost numbers, due to a federal mandate.
- They Would Cut You Up: vivisection (autopsy on a living body, as opposed to dissection, where they kill you first) is usually punished quite severely.
- This Is Reality: This is practically a Catchphrase for some characters, especially a Realist type of a Four-Philosophy Ensemble. Classes and character types that contest this claim will often express uncertainty as to whether anything is real.
- This Means War!: Played straight quite often. Occasionally averted.
- Timed Mission: Each human has, on average, around 70 years to live. This time limit can be extended if you're healthy enough. Unfortunately, it's also, by a fair degree anyway, luck based, as your time limit can be drastically reduced depending on where your character lives; for example, a character based in Africa is likely to have a lower time limit than one in Europe. Sometimes your characters time limit is unexpectedly ended by just plain unfair things, like being hit by a car. There are entire character classes (doctors, surgeons, etc.) dedicated to extending play time.
- Time for Plan B: Because Plan A doesn't always go off without a hitch, having a decent backup plan in reserve is a good idea.
- Toilet Humour: One of the first styles of humor many players encounter as well as being the oldest known type of comedy.
- Too Awesome to Use: Money, especially amongst the upper classes.
- Took a Level in Badass: Played straight by countless individuals, but can also happen on a larger scale, up to and including an entire species. Fan favorite moments include the Agricultural, Industrial, and Digital Revolutions. Rumor has it that North American Cockroaches are in the middle of doing this, by developing poison glands.
- Took a Level in Kindness: You'll be surprised of how many people went from spoiled brats into true saints.
- Tournament Arc: There are events that players around the world attend to compete with each other. Most notable are the Olympics, held every other season with alternating weather-based themes.
- Many sports by definition are this when the player reaches the professional level; in certain modules, for example football and baseball, every game is ultimately part of a ranking system that determines which players will proceed to the bonus rounds and thus be able to compete for titles.
- Some sports also include yearly tournament-style competitions.
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Torch the Franchise and Run: According to Biblical scripture, God tried doing this once, and it lasted forty days and forty nights. He eventually changed his mind and Un-Canceled the series. - Tragic Hero: Many characters suffer from their flaws or choices. Whether it's drug or alcohol addictions, anger management issues, pride, greed, ambition...
- Travel Cool: A lot of the human race's engineering efforts yield cool machines to suit their Badass Normal style. The higher-level examples of the Cool Starship, however, have not yet been unlocked as nobody has the cash for that expansion pack yet.
- Triage Tyrant:
- In most hospitals in North America, emergency department presentations are assessed according to a 5-point scale called the Emergency Severity Index, which assigns a "priority level" based on the patient's chief complaint, vital signs and a few other factors. Priority 1 patients, such as CPR in progress, major trauma, STEMI (heart attack) and stroke, skip the triage queue entirely and go straight back to the Trauma/Resuscitation area ("Resus" in department slang). Non-emergent events, such as suture removal or medication refills, are classed as Priority 5. Patients are seen in order of ESI priority, not in order of arrival time and not necessarily in order of graphic or exaggerated symptoms (i.e. nausea and vomiting isn't usually an emergencynote , respiratory distress is). Explaining the concept of triage to lay people without sounding like a petty tyrant is one of the hardest tasks of the triage nurse.
- By law in most countries, emergency department staff cannot turn any patient away until he/she has been provided a medical screening exam and, if necessary, adequate care to stabilize his/her condition. In the United States, this law is called EMTALA. If the patient isn't really that sick or injured, then they'll get the basic assessment and will be put in the triage queue to wait until the higher-priority cases are handled. Patients who are known to abuse EMTALA for drugs, attention, or other non-health-related reasons are much looked down upon by emergency department staff, as these cases are perceived as wasting time, staff, and bed space that could have been better used on a legitimately sick patient.
- One of the cruel realities of any mass casualty incident, such as a large multi-vehicle wreck in the middle of nowhere or something on the scale of Katrina or September 11th, is that not everyone can be saved, even with the miracles of modern medicine. Mass casualty triage rests upon providing the most benefit to the greatest number of people; if you expend all your resources saving one catastrophically injured patient, you may have just doomed ten more to die for lack of care. Enter the principle of Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment. If you can walk: Priority 3, help carry the person next to you over to the casualty collection point. If you can't walk, but follow commands, Priority 2: We'll get to you as soon as we can. On the other hand, if the only thing you do is breathe or babble incoherently, you get out of there pretty fast: Priority 1. Unsurvivable injuries, such as massive burns or amputations, no pulse, or no spontaneous breathing? Expectant/Morgue. See Triage for a breakdown of how this works.
- Trope Maker: While it is under-recognized as a source of tropes, the fact remains that this series is, quite literally, the baseline for most any work you can name.
- Truth in Television: Is this too meta for you?
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Monarchs since the dawn of history and accomplished British citizens, among others.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: All revolutions and coups, and even some democratically-elected parties, promise that things will be very, very different from then on. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes they are quickly removed, and things get back to normal.
U-V
- Unbroken First-Person Perspective: All players see Real Life like this.
- Uncanceled: The Cuban Missile Crisis was one notable example.
- Unconfessed Unemployment: Happens to players more often than not, who wants to convince other players they're still enjoying a high rank in their respective games.
- Unified Naming System:
- World War II: Allies vs Axis.
- The Cold War: U.S.A. vs. U.S.S.R.
- Another Cold War related one: Capitalism vs. Communism.
- Triple Alliance vs Triple Entente.
- The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) vs. the Warsaw Treaty Organisation (WTO), another name for the Warsaw Pact.
- The Russian Revolution: The Reds vs. the Whites.
- And prior to that the Bolsheviks vs. the Mensheviks. Though those words come from terms meaning "Majority" and "Minority" respectively (based on which side they took in a particular crucial vote).
- In early Christian church history, two groups arose over what word best expressed the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ in their creeds: the homoousians (those who favored "of the same substance") and the homoiousians (those who favored "of similar substance"). Yet another group didn't really see the point to all this arguing and called themselves the homoians (a deliberately vague compromise best translated as "alike"). For the record, the first group ultimately got their way.
- Rival college fraternities and sorority names will often have a similar number of seemingly random Greek letters, making them indistinguishable from each other to non-college students or anyone who just doesn't care about Greek life.
- The two leading Swedish parties for much of the 18th century were the Hats and the Caps.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: Server mods do their best to prevent this, but you can still suffer any number of bad breaks from crippling debuffs in character creation to a chance PVP encounter you're badly underleveled for to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a disaster strikes. Any of these can permanently screw you out of a happy ending through no fault of your own.
- Unobtainium: Oil, uranium, gold, diamond, and lots more (depending on what you want, where you are, and what you can give for it). An extreme case would be antimatter, which is extremely difficult to create and annihilates anything it touches into pure energy (and hence must be stored in electromagnetic fields). Nicely subverted with pure aluminum, which used to be more valuable than gold and is now used to store cheap beverages. In fact, Real Life is the Trope Namer. "Unobtainium" was first used as an alternate name for titanium by the U.S. during the Cold War arc, since the largest deposits were under the control of their main opponent, the Soviet Union.
- Unreliable Narrator:
- To many, the mass media.
- On a larger scale, much of the in-game lore about the setting's past is often contradictory, making working out what really happened a sometimes maddening affair. Some people try to write guides, but sometimes they make just as many mistakes and leaps of logic as their predecessors.
- The Unreveal: We never learned the identity of Jack The Ripper, or the Zodiac Killer, or D.B. Cooper.
- Unseen Evil: Many characters believe Satan is this. Sometimes this changes amongst players in relation to other humans. During World War II, Hitler was supposed to be this. Then he killed himself, and...
- Unstable Equilibrium: Criticized for having a huge balance problem. Some servers try to fight it by increasing taxes on the rich and giving it directly to the poor in theory, but in practice, the rich can easily transfer to a server of their choice using in-game money, and even when they are taxed, the money tends to trickle back into clans that they're a part of instead of the needy. The degree of Rules Lawyering in this area needs to be seen to be believed.
- Unstoppable Rage: Subverted, time and time again. Giving in to your primal rage in a modern day society always, always, makes things worse.
- On the other hand, back in the Viking arc, there existed warriors who were well-known for using this trope to devastating effect, as well as wearing serks (a type of garment) made of bear skin. They were so notorious for this that their name lives on to this day in the word "berserk".
- Unwinnable: Go ahead. Just try it.
- Since all achievements are open to interpretation, winning is possible by some definitions and impossible by others.
- Since you only get one life and no saves, you may only acquire one ending out of x, x being the amount of living creatures that did, do, and will exist in Real Life.
- As for in-game examples, the grand prize of any lottery, and doing anything politically that is both beneficial to the public and doesn't involve lining someone's pockets.
- YMMV, but Charlie Sheen seems to be the only one winning.
- Notable minigame known only as 'The Game', which you just lost.
- Some claim that the game as a whole is Unwinnable by Design.
- Upper-Class Twit: Paris Hilton is a notable example.
- Ur-Example: The Ur-Example of everything ever made ever.
- Useless Useful Spell: Nukes. Everyone is so afraid of automatic counterattacks for using just one that they remain stuck in the inventory. Not to mention that due to their side effect of spreading fallout, these automatic counterstrikes may cause the servers for the game to effectively become unplayable.
- The Interstellar space expansion pack has been in development since the 1950s, funding and development issues have meant the only avaliable content is the Earth orbit, the Moon and whatever shuttles and probes we can afford to send. The shuttle equipment is being removed from the game pending updates, although the Mars mission pack has been put off until the 2020s at least.
- The "End of Times" campaign event that's supposed to wrap up Real Life has been announced many, many times — but never, and this is worthy of note, directly by the developers. Loudly announced release dates within living memory include August 8, 1988; December 31, 1999-2001 inclusively; and December 21, 2012. In general it's best to assume any new release dates for this event are
Fan Wank unless you can get Word of Saint Paul confirmation.
- Vapor Wear: Lingerie, anything made out of gauze. That brief fad of paper clothing back in The '60s. And many people just don't wear anything underneath.
- The 'Verse: The Universe, Trope Namer; every player is the hero of their own story, and all these stories take place here.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment:
- The Prison minigame.
- In some servers, if you commit serious crimes you will have an enforced Game Over. These game overs are the subject of much controversy.
- Villain Protagonist: If you're reading this and you know you've done some wrong, let's hope it's not too late for you to change course.
- Violation of Common Sense:
- Laws don't stop people from doing bad or completely stupid things. In fact, the Darwin Awards exist to reward blatant violations. Also most of Quantum Physics and Relativity — evidently, the Universe doesn't bother about complying to the common sense of those insignificant little humans on their tiny pale blue bit of dust called Earth.
- So many people, so many times, that "common sense" is in fact uncommon. Sometimes, however, it's even Justified, as most innovations are the result of ignoring "common sense."note
- The Virus: Way too many to count; some of them are also Nightmare Fuel. Some of these tend to be Game Breaking Bugs that lead to many a Downer Ending.
- Virus and Cure Names: Old-school hackers had a taste for the dramatic that actually made this sort of thing reasonably common, e.g. "Creeper" vs. "Reaper".
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The UK and Australia have a relationship characterised by years of "hatred". But if you were to declare war on either of them, the other would respond with overwhelming force. The same can be said for Canada and the United States.
W
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: You'll run across more than a few of these during the game, although they'll seem more important at the time than they really turn out to be.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Elementary (or "primary") school can have surprisingly difficult tests of skill.
- SAT tests for English PCs.
- Adolescence.
- First dates, for many.
- Learning how to drive.
- Getting your first job.
- College.
- Independent living.
- Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: Subverted. Sadly, most players do the "wake up, go to school" bit, but rarely have a chance to save the world. Downplayed by Boy Scouts, who usually do a good turn daily.
- Deconstructed with Child Soldiers.
- Wakeup Makeup: It's possible to get eyeliner, lip liner and full lipstick tattooed on. Initially painful, and reduces makeup options later, but more and more military women find it to be worthwhile.
- Walking Swimsuit Scene: On hot days, a common way for the characters to cool down is to visit a beach or a swimming pool. Once there, they have an aversion to wearing normal clothing but - to prevent them breaking rules regarding nudity - they wear clothing referred to as "swimwear". It is also possible for this to happen if a character is sunbathing away from a body of water.
- War Is Hell: Played straight. The combat engine avoids any Acceptable Breaks from Reality. Ammo is full weight, status conditions have very long durations (and are sometimes permanent), and there are complete and very debilitating systems for fatigue, temperature, infection and disease. All the dull logistics involved in getting your fighters to the correct spot at the correct time with all their gear must be dealt with, and failure means an automatic loss. As noted elsewhere, you get no bonus lives and the healing rules are so strict that even if your character makes it back to a hospital it can take months or longer to regain full health - if you ever do. Defense items lag far behind the damage output of common weapons, and fog of war and friendly fire are hard-coded. Even if you emerge unwounded, it's possible to develop psychological debuffs. In short, the combat system is so bad that most characters will go to great lengths to prevent a war from starting.
- Water Is Womanly: Averted. Both men and women use water regularly, such as drinking it, or performing the "Shower" Quick Time Event.
- Watsonian vs. Doylist: In-universe known by the Fan Nickname Creationists vs Evolutionists. While the former insist on interpreting the work according to how the devs intended it, the latter argue that clues within the plot clearly point players to draw conclusions about the world-building that they can make use of in-game.
- Weakened by the Light:
- If you stay out in the sun for too long you will get really bad sunburns and possibly skin cancer. Subverted by darker skinned individuals (ranging from light brown and up) who simply get darker. Still, wear sunblock and also beware of sunstroke.
- Taken to a new level with the sun itself, the sun occasionally sends out bursts of plasma that can severely damage our magnetic field which is our only defense against it and all the cosmic debris in space, yet the sun is our only source of outer warmth and is needed for life.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Allergies.
- It's surprising how many dictators had strange phobias. For example, Adolf Hitler was afraid of cats. This was never exploited, though, possibly because of the difficulty of finding any cats that could make it through paratrooper training.
- Weapon Running Time:
- In World War 2, torpedo-bombers had to consider running time in their attacks and drop their torpedoes from a range that didn't give the target ship time to dodge. Japanese torpedo-bombers didn't have to worry about this as much as American ones, because the Japanese air-dropped torpedo ran about twice as fast as the American one.
- Modern torpedoes generally travel at around 50 knots. When launched at a target 2.5 nautical miles away, a torpedo will take 3 minutes to reach a target, allowing a sub time to "clear datum."
- Nuclear missile from the US to Russia, about half an hour. From Russia to the UK, about ten minutes. From Cuba to the southern US, under five. Welcome to nuclear strategy.
- Welcome to Corneria: Many people-oriented jobs, such as serving fast food or selling tickets at movies, involve several Stock Phrases.
- We Will Meet Again: Sometimes a strategic retreat is the most sensible option.
- Wham Episode:
- The year 1939 all the way to the end of World War II. It saw the destruction and/or restructuring of the factions aligned under the 'Axis' banner, the elimination of approximately 70 million total player characters (25 million of which were from the Soviet Union faction alone.), including the head admin of the United States (killed thanks to an unrelated status effect) and German factions (the Red Army guild had surrounded Berlin, and with no way out he chose to give himself a Non Standard Game Over by shooting himself), and permanently altered the relations between factions for the next century and then some. Many fans are still worried the potential followup, World War III, would result in a Grand Finale for the entire series. The arc itself has a few, such as:
- The event that kicked it off, the Invasion of Poland.
- The Fall of France, where the German faction's military guild pulled off a shocking victory over the completely off-guard French and British.
- The Operation Barbarossa event, where a previously made agreement between the German and Soviet admins was unilaterally broken by the Germans, who sent approximately 3 million players to invade the server. A number of factors however prevented them from actually removing the Soviet Union server/faction — which led to the entire army getting hit with the Russian Winter debuff when they hadn't even taken the precautions by winter.
- The Pearl Harbor event, where the Japanese faction decided to attack the titular naval base without telling the US admins, and made the Crisis Crossover truly global by joining it with their ongoing 'Second Sino-Japanese War' arc.
- The Battle of Stalingrad; the Big Badass Battle Sequence of the entire series. Millions of soldier-class players from both the German and Soviet factions were engaged in the largest battle ever fought, and around one million of them were eliminated from both sides. It ended when the remains of the '6th Army' of the Wehrmacht guild surrendered to the Soviets, and in the long run it ended hope of a German victory in the entire World War II arc.
- The Reveal of the Holocaust event conducted by the Nazis, first discovered by soldier players of the Allied Powers. The German faction apparently saw it fit to try to eliminate every single player of Jewish heritage, and tallied off at six million players killed for practically no reason other than they were born with the Jewish trait. Needless to say, the soldiers that discovered this industrial scale planned killing were horrified.
- Finally, the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which finally convinced the die-hard Japanese military guild admins to call it quits, and remains the only time any faction has used a nuclear weapon against another faction.
- Before that, the World War I arc. It started with the assassination of a particularly high ranking Austro-Hungarian player, which set off a chain reaction that dragged practically every faction in Europe into battle. The biggest problem everybody realized was that though successive updates and tech tree progress provided their respective military guilds with some fancy new weapons to use, they haven't updated their tactics yet. Cue the senseless slaughter of millions of players on the Western Front sub-arc. Later towards the end the Russian Empire server was taken down and replaced with the Soviet Union, to the annoyance of every Western faction since they withdrew from the event without finishing it.
- The terrorist attacks in America during September 11, 2001. The ensuing "War On Terror" arc had effects that were still being felt several seasons later.
- System-wide wham episodes occur just often enough to keep Real Life from ever growing too stable, including mass extinctions, sudden outbreaks of war, terrorist attacks, and plagues. More happily, events like the discovery of the New World, the development of penicillin and the release of the Beatles' first album opened up gameplay rather than punishing players. Individual characters can have all sorts of unexpected campaign events, generally as the unanticipated result of another player's progress in their campaign.
- In more recent times, the “2016” season was a particularly infamous string of these. A perceived unusually high kill rate for more well-known players, user Leo Dicaprio winning the Oscar achievement after several near-misses, the Chicago Cubs guild getting the World Series achievement after 100+ seasons, and a shocking Twist Ending to the "Presidential Election" arc that forever changed the America server.
- But even 2016 ended up having little on "2020", with the COVID-19 bug shutting down entire servers, and billions of players' daily activities suddenly halted. Not all of them would log back on...
- 2022 is shaping up to be this, what with massive inflation rates and the Ukraine arc sparking fears of the 'World War' arc returning.
- The year 1939 all the way to the end of World War II. It saw the destruction and/or restructuring of the factions aligned under the 'Axis' banner, the elimination of approximately 70 million total player characters (25 million of which were from the Soviet Union faction alone.), including the head admin of the United States (killed thanks to an unrelated status effect) and German factions (the Red Army guild had surrounded Berlin, and with no way out he chose to give himself a Non Standard Game Over by shooting himself), and permanently altered the relations between factions for the next century and then some. Many fans are still worried the potential followup, World War III, would result in a Grand Finale for the entire series. The arc itself has a few, such as:
- Wham Line: Numerous, depending on your playthrough. Can include such classics as:"I'm pregnant."
"It's a boy/girl/twins."
"Your test results are in."
"Will you marry me?" (And absolutely any response to the question also qualifies.)
"You're fired/hired" - What Does This Button Do?: Depending on the button, anything from "nothing" to "nuclear Armageddon, God help us all." The number of safeguards on a button is a rough (but inexact) guide to how big a thing would happen if you pushed it.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Ever think about the friends or acquaintances you haven't seen in a long time?
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Cultural example: In most European countries rats are considered to be pests and unclean. In India there is a 600-year-old temple of clean rats, with every generation free of disease, that are friendly with people. Anthropomorphic faced animal vs. non-anthropomorphic/fuzzy animal example: Pandas have billions of dollars spent on their survival and they don't contribute greatly as a species, while other very important insects and other critically endangered species are ignored massively in comparison, even though it will actually cause big problems to see them go.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Many humans' attitudes towards animals except for the "vegan" character class, though generally less so with animals frequently kept as pets.
- "What Now?" Ending: Pretty much every ending in Real Life that doesn't involve you actually dying is of this nature.
- What the Fu Are You Doing?: Some players have a rather inflated view of their own "martial arts skills." Some end up featured in YouTube videos where they manage to nunchuk themselves in the groin or the face, or otherwise end up looking like jackasses.
- When Things Spin, Science Happens:
- Particularly common in the last few hundred seasons. In fact, the mere presence of a centrifuge is often sufficient to communicate to the viewer that a scene is taking place in a science lab.
- The planet itself spins, although we didn't learn of this awesome spinning until long after the invention of the wheel.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Social media can serve as a good way to see what old acquaintances have been up to since you last saw them.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: You bet your ass someone would. (It's rumored that while the series population is continually growing, the sum of their total intelligence remains fixed.)
- Wide-Open Sandbox: The effective playing area is a single small planet that requires immense resources even to leave for a few days, so almost no one does. Thanks to the planet's transparent atmosphere, you can see immense distances into the Wide-Open Sandbox; you just can't get there. May be a Broken Bridge, or the content just hasn't been added yet. Well, technically you can get there if you're willing to wait for ages. And if warp drives are ever invented, the Sandbox is effectively opened.
- Life itself is a Wide Open Sandbox... at least after you clear the Tutorial Stage.
- The planet is not small from the perspective of the player. It can take days, even weeks, just to circle the map and wind up where you began — and that's only if you've maxed out your running/swimming/climbing/jumping stats. There are In-Universe transportation methods, such as planes and boats, to make the trip easier/more comfortable, but these tend to be fairly expensive and still quite time consuming, so using them to travel around the entire map isn't a practical use of the average player's resources.
- Wiki Walk: Many of the more interesting conversations in life, not all of them held on controlled substances.
- Wild Teen Party: Can you say, spring break?
- Not to mention many that occur outside of spring break. Doing this without permission can have unpleasant results for the one responsible (for example, it may result in receiving the "grounded" status effect). This does not stop some people.
- With This Herring: Everyone starts off naked, with no equipment and about a few basic skills. If you're lucky, your parents may provide you with a few items to get started.
- Wizard Needs Food Badly: Although players can go days to weeks (it varies) without consuming food, hunger kicks in after only a few hours (it varies also).
- World of Chaos: Dreams. Hallucinations. Planets which are still to be unlocked to the player characters.
- Word of Dante: Due to below argument over official Word of God, Science has filled this position.
- Word of God: Too many to count. For the Abrahamic religions, the various scriptures are considered to be authoritative statements by the author concerning the world's backstory, the purpose and message of the game's story, and outlines of future story events. Of course, these accounts disagree with each other on a number of points. For Catholics, also the Pope (under certain circumstances) and the Orthodox church has its Patriarchs. For still others, the voices inside their head. The difficulty of proving one knows the author(s) means that for all we know this is Word of Dante or even Fanon.
- World Half Empty: Players, audiences, and readers alike are all split between just how lovely the world is, and just how shitty it is. It seems to vary based on server location, the luck skill of the individual players, and random events, especially during char gen. Readers usually are split, based on which novel they started out on, and filmgoers tend to base their own opinions on other films and filmgoers. There's a stereotype (and noticeable trend) that many "serious" audiences view the shared world as crappy.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Say what you will about the other player characters; you cannot deny that Reality has some pretty kickass graphics!
- World of Badass: Many subclasses (Military, Police, Firemen) or locations (warzones, remote places) enforce this trope for all characters.
- Would Hurt a Child: Some characters are depraved enough to hurt or even kill children. This is heavily punished on most servers with a lifetime of the Prison minigame or even enforced Game Over.
- Wring Every Last Drop out of Him:
- Hospitals occasionally have to deal with these sorts of people in the real world —continually sick with some unknown illness which will almost certainly kill them (or believing themselves to be so). The term used for such unfortunate figures is GOMER, aka "Get Out of My Emergency Room".
- And even outside of hospitals, some people hold on surprisingly long before succumbing, whether to extreme old age, terminal illness, or injuries that are ultimately mortal but not quite severe enough to be quick about it.
- This can be very much Truth in Television with gunshot wounds, which can be a lot weirder and more varied in effect than most people think; you're just as likely to keep running around for hours, fully cognizant and capable of action, after being shot in the chest as you are to die instantly. It all depends on a huge amount of factors like where precisely you were hit, the type of bullet or gun used, your own physical attributes, how deep the bullet goes, and more. As any cop, soldier, or gun-owner can tell you, there is no such thing in real life as shooting to wound; if you have to pull a gun on someone and shoot, you shoot until they are no longer a threat (i.e., dead). Failure to do so will probably result in the person you're shooting at dying anyways (it is all too easy to hit a blood artery or major organ, even when trying not to), but not before they take advantage of your restraint to shoot you.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The number of divorces testifies to the amount of people who truly believe they are in a romantic comedy.
- Wutai: Thailand, China, and Japan are the Trope Codifiers. Also: many large cities in the North America region (and London) have a "Chinatown". Korea and Vietnam have been getting more prominence since their war arcs ended (or put on hiatus in Korea's case). And India's becoming extremely popular. Lima, Peru has a Chinatown of its own, called the "barrio chino" or, in English, "Chinese neighborhood". Brazil has a sizable Japanese population, enough to have a burgeoning Japantown and Japanese culture get to some players.
- Worthy Opponent: You can designate some NPCs or other players as this. It categorizes them somewhere between The Rival and Friendly Enemy — assuming they accept and reciprocate, of course. During the Crusades arc, Saladin was regarded as this by the Crusaders, most notably Richard the Lionheart.
X-Z
- Xanatos Gambit: Extremely difficult to pull off; most players cannot. Downplayed in various board games (Chess comes to mind quickly), where victory is often accomplished with this. Played straight for some players of the General Class.
- A Year and a Day: Used in various legal situations.
- Yellow Brick Road: Depending on your beliefs, this may be played straight or subverted/averted as far as life is concerned. That being said, there are literal walkways in the world that are designed with yellow bricks, but those are just for decorative purposes as opposed to serving as roadways to special destinations. Some players refer to their plan for reaching any goal as being a Yellow Brick Road.
- You Have Researched Breathing: Subverted; you don't need to know how something works to use it, but if you want to research your bodily functions, go ahead. Played straight in the Science Class, Metal Shop, and Small-Engine Repair Shop levels and Firearms/ Driver's Licence minigames, on the ground that you may hurt yourself or others if you don't know what you're doing.
- You Killed My Father: Played straight with Genghis Khan, who decided to kill everyone in the Tatar clan to get his revenge after his father was killed by them. He didn't stop there. It actually became a very large story arc which affected millions and is still looked back on by many of the fanbase.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: The implied purpose of every war in history. If those in charge claim they're fighting for something else, they're either lying or misinformed.
- You Require More Vespene Gas: While most structures do involve certain amounts of special materials, Oil is such an important source of both Energy and Raw Materials that players have gone to ridiculous extremes to access it or deny others access to it.
- Zerg Rush: See here.
