History ButThouMust / MMORPG

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' has a creative use of this trope in the Imperial Agent questline, where [[spoiler:the player character has been brainwashed]], and no matter what dialogue option you choose, your character will say the same thing [[spoiler:which conveys a sense of not being in control of your own mind]].

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' plays this for horror in the Romulan captain mission "Mind Game". You have been captured by the Tal Shiar and placed under mental conditioning. You can resist all you want, but you're gonna end up doing some horrible things.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' does something of the sort in the Romulan captain mission "Mind Game" where your character is captured and conditioned. You can resist all you want, but you're gonna end up doing some horrible things.

** Even if your Imperial character is an alien who is sick of racism and politicking of the superiors, they can't [[spoiler: join Darth Malgus's New Empire on Ilum, even though Darth Serevin gets to]].

** It applies to a T with companion characters during the class questlines. After Bioware removed the option of killing companion characters during beta, recruiting them is mandatory with a variety of "Yes" answers. It doesn't matter how badly their personalities clash with your character (and can lead to a rather startling ''OutOfCharacterMoment''). Skadge and Gault, companions of the Bounty Hunter, are particularly egregious examples. Similarly, as a Sith Warrior [[spoiler:you can't kill Malavai Quinn after he tries to kill you on Baras' orders. The Dark Side option is simply to Force Choke him out before giving him a spot back on your crew]].

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' In the Chains of Promathia storyline, fake choices come up often. Usually the other characters just react slightly differently but the scene goes on normally, so your decision is unimportant. However, there is a running gag of your character passing out and the Chebukki triplets robbing you. Finally, at the beginning of Chapter 7, you wake up first and find the triplets passed out. You are given the choice of whether or not you want to rob them. If you choose not to rob them, the game will tell you "You're always falling victim to these three. It's about time you returned the favor.". It will do this over and over again until you decide to rob them.
* Though ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' more typically falls into the category below, in the first class quest for the Dark Knight job in ''Stormblood'' you're asked about the supposed contradiction of a ''dark'' knight fighting in service of the Light and asked if you still walk the path. One option has you say you'll never give up being a dark knight so long as innocents suffer, and the quest proceeds as normal. The other has you say that if service to the Light requires you to give up that path you'll do it; the trainer says he's not sure whether they're mutually exclusive, but decides it's your choice and bids you well, and then the quest just ends. You can't complete it or move on to the later class quests until you give the first answer. A similar thing happens in the ''Return of Ivalice'' raid series, where brushing off a sidequest character prevents the quest from starting.

* Though ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' more typically falls into the category below, in the first class quest for the Dark Knight job in ''Stormblood'' you're asked about the supposed contradiction of a ''dark'' knight fighting in service of the Light and asked if you still walk the path. One option has you say you'll never give up being a dark knight so long as innocents suffer, and the quest proceeds as normal. The other has you say that if service to the Light requires you to give up that path you'll do it; the trainer says he's not sure whether they're mutually exclusive, but decides it's your choice and bids you well, and then the quest just ends. You can't complete it or move on to the later class quests until you give the first answer. A similar thing happens in the ''Return of Ivalice'' series, where brushing off a sidequest character prevents the quest from starting.

* Though ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' more typically falls into the category below, in the first class quest for the Dark Knight job in ''Stormblood'' you're asked about the supposed contradiction of a ''dark'' knight fighting in service of the Light and asked if you still walk the path. One option has you say you'll never give up being a dark knight so long as innocents suffer, and the quest proceeds as normal. The other has you say that if service to the Light requires you to give up that path you'll do it; the trainer says he's not sure whether they're mutually exclusive, but decides it's your choice and bids you well, and then the quest just ends. You can't complete it or move on to the later class quests until you give the first answer.

** Part of the ''Warlords of Draenor'' legendary questline has [[InvertedTrope But Thou Musn't]]. At one point [[spoiler:Cordana Felsong]] asks you for the ring you and Khadgar have been making throughout the expansion, realizing something is very wrong, your options are "No." and "Oh, HELL No!".
*** Three guesses as to which was most often picked.

* Done painfully in ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' in the Mirkwood Expansion. You are chastised by Celeborn for making the foolish decision to allow Mazog to live. A short while later, you actually ''rewind'' to the part where you were given that choice. However, selecting the option to kill him gets you overruled. You can practically hear the writers laughing.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' In the Chains of Promathia storyline, fake choices come up often. Usually the other characters just react slightly differently but the scene goes on normally, so your decision is unimportant. However, there is a running gag of your character passing out and the Chebukki triplets robbing you. Finally, at the beginning of chapter 7, you wake up first and find the triplets passed out. You are given the choice of whether or not you want to rob them. If you choose not to rob them, the game will tell you "You're always falling victim to these three. It's about time you returned the favor.". It will do this over and over again until you decide to rob them.

* In ''[[Website/GaiaOnline zOMG]]'', you are given the choice between going into the woods to fight monsters with ninjas, or to go back to check on the head Ninja's niece (despite the fact that the previous quest established the fact that she was 100% safe). If you choose "adventure" over "loyalty", the Ninja will call you foolish, and will force you to go check on his niece. (This is because the Forest area isn't actually in the game yet, and checking on said niece unlocks the Wish Tree Quest, which provides a nice piece of exposition if you clear it.)
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' has a creative use of this trope in the Imperial Agent questline, where [[spoiler:the player character has been brainwashed]], and no matter what dialogue option you choose, your character will say the same thing [[spoiler:which conveys a sense of not being in control of your own mind]].
** When encountering an important enemy, the player character can try to work things out peacefully instead of choosing the option to just attack, most of the time it won't work and they will have to fight anyway.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' does something of the sort in the Romulan captain mission "Mind Game" where your character is captured and conditioned. You can resist all you want, but you're gonna end up doing some horrible things.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' does this in its re-tooled Halloween event. You find an empty house with a giant bowl of candy. If you choose to steal the bowl, you get away with it, and there's no punishment. If you try to be honest by not stealing it, the homeowner appears, announces that it was a SecretTestOfCharacter, and gives you the bowl.
* ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' has a choice in Rohan where you are asked if you want to encourage a Thane's son to attack a group of orcs (allegedly against King Theoden's will), or encourage the Thane to follow his mother's advice in leaving the orcs alone per Theoden's decree. The Thane's mother is actually in league with Wormtongue, and believes that betraying Rohan is the only way to save it. This trope comes into play because even if you choose to side with the traitor, you end up performing the same quests against the orcs anyway, leading to the Thane's Mother getting increasingly upset with you as she's hiring you to do X and you keep doing Y instead.

* Browser-based MMORPG ''Travians'' lives on these, but one particular instance was at least more amusing than most:
-->''You attempt to give Lorena a letter from the main villain of the game.''\\
'''Lorena:''' Should I read it? You decide for me!\\
'''Choice #1:''' I'll rather keep the letter with me for a while.\\
'''Choice #2:''' Goodbye! ''(Standard conversation-ending choice)''\\
''And if you choose the only choice available:''\\
'''Lorena:''' I trust your common sense.

* Early quests in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' will automatically be placed on your list of accepted quests as soon as you talk to the quest-giver, without needing to accept them. However it's subverted as you could easily just abandon the quest.
** Very few quests (maybe three or four out of all of them, such as keeping the Chained Essence of Eranikus or not, saving or killing the Human Seedlings in Hillsbrad, letting Marion Wormwing go free or killing her, and [[http://www.wowhead.com/quest=29428 whatever this is]]) have any sort of choice at all, forcing your character to sometimes make odd decisions to keep the story moving.
** Recently a few more quests give you options on which dialogue you can use, but it makes little difference what you say.
*** For example in the 'Battle for Booty Bay' arc, you have to kill Bossy the cow to convince a pirate you're on his side. You can give Bossy a long, inspirational speech about how Booty Bay needs her - now more then ever - or you can just say "Moo." Either way, Bossy agrees and if you ''don't'' chop off her head, you can't continue.
** As of Cataclysm, one of the last quests in Westfall forces you to fly to Stormwind to tell the king that the Defias Brotherhood has reformed. Even if you're max level and could kill every one of the Defias with a single attack while naked.
** Part of the ''Warlords of Draenor'' legendary questline has [[InvertedTrope But Thou Musn't]]. At one point [[spoiler:Cordana Felsong]] asks you for the ring you and Khadgar have been making throughout the expansion, realizing something is very wrong, your options are "No." and "Oh, HELL No!".
*** Three guesses as to which was most often picked.

* Done painfully straight in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''. Your Federation crew is asked to invade a Romulan base in search of superweapons and you're accompanied by the admiral who gave you the orders. As it turns out [[spoiler: you just ruined Undine-spotting programs and the admiral was an Undine]]! And the worst thing is that you've probably figured something was wrong much sooner...
** And again in the mission "A Step Between Stars". First, you're told that you need to fly your ship towards an outpost that controls the Solanae Sphere's ability to warp towards different places. Which is located near an artificial sun. Your choices are, paraphrased, "Sure, I'll do it", "Absolutely not, my ship can't take it" and "Why can't we just cloak?" Choosing the cloak option reveals that your opponents, the Voth, are getting smart towards those tricks and choosing No will have the mission giver tell you that you'll be safe as you'll be outfitted with a shield modification that will protect you for a short while. With that, you're given the standard "okay" or a begrudging "okay". You find out, later, that the only way to shut down the Solanae Sphere's ability to jump, and thus unleash a horde of Omega molecules that would destroy subspace, is to activate an Iconian gateway. The scientist with you, Dr. Eric Cooper, tells you there's no other way and [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Tuvok]] gives you the honors of shutting it down. You can sit there and tell Tuvok that you're not shutting it down, but it's getting shut down, even if that Vulcan has to.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy11'' In the Chains of Promathia storyline, fake choices come up often. Usually the other characters just react slightly differently but the scene goes on normally, so your decision is unimportant. However, there is a running gag of your character passing out and the Chebukki triplets robbing you. Finally, at the beginning of chapter 7, you wake up first and find the triplets passed out. You are given the choice of whether or not you want to rob them. If you choose not to rob them, the game will tell you "You're always falling victim to these three. It's about time you returned the favor.". It will do this over and over again until you decide to rob them.