History Main / DefaultSettingSyndrome

* Starting with Office 97, Creator/Microsoft included the now-infamous "[[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftOfficeAssistant Office Assistants]]." There were numerous assistants (including a robot and a caricature of Creator/WilliamShakespeare), but the default was a paperclip. However, most people, annoyed by [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper the feature]], never bothered to change it and it's still remembered by most people as "the paperclip."

* Most ''VideoGame/GigaWing'' players use the default character, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Sinnosuke/Shinnosuke]]. To quote one user on Website/YouTube:

* Competitive ''VideoGame/WanganMidnight Maximum Tune'' players--believe it or not--often play versus matchines with [[ComebackMechanic handicap]] left '''on'''. The rationale is that in a no-handicap round, the unpredictable traffic behavior combined with the massive loss in speed that comes with a single crash at 340 km/h means that a single mistake will completely screw over the victim unless the other player makes a mistake, resulting in [[LuckBasedMission luck-based outcomes]], while traffic-less racing games like ''VideoGame/InitialDArcadeStage'' offer room for recovery if one screws up.

* ''VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster 3'' defaults to [[http://harddrop.com/wiki/SRS World Rule]], the game's implementation of the the rotation system used in newer licensed ''Tetris'' games. As a result, those who don't already play TGM may start off with World Rule and then get very thrown off when they try [[http://harddrop.com/wiki/TGM_Rotation Classic Rule]] (a version of TGM rotation altered to accommodate [=TGM3=]'s higher speeds), not only because of the more limited wall kicks but also due to its version of [[http://harddrop.com/wiki/Drop#Hard_drop fast drop]] (drop the piece to the ground, but not lock it right away).

* The taskbar on all Windows products is at the bottom of the screen by default, and almost everyone keeps it there. One Microsoft Blog post spoke of the advantages of having the taskbar on the side in [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows 7]], but since the vast majority of users kept theirs at the bottom in prior versions, changing the default would cause major DamnYouMuscleMemory issues, to the point that even in Windows 8, which has such issues with nearly everything else, the taskbar is still at the bottom by default.

'''Kazuto''': YES! Whatever you're asking, I don't care! Just let me save my wife!!

* Who do the character select cursors in ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' default to? Ragna and, [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome that's right]], ''[[TierInducedScrappy Jin]]''.

* In a peculiar example, the ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedUnderground'' games actually gave benefit to players who stayed default... well, sort of. The second game in particular encouraged you to find and buy new cars often, because the new cars' ''base'' stats were higher than the base stats of the starter cars. The newer unlocked cars also looked a lot nicer than the mundane, boxy starter cars. Players smart enough to experiment, however, would realize to NOT switch cars as the game wanted you to-- [[MagikarpPower the two best cars in the game (when fully upgraded) were both starter cars]], and the BEST car in the game was also the ugliest and had the worst starter stats. In this way, if you did the default (that is to say, change cars) of what the GAME wanted you to do, you'd end up with a worse car than if you stuck with the default you started with.

[[folder: Driving Games ]]

* ''VideoGame/MarioKart Arcade GP'' has the Mario Highway course. ''Mario Kart Arcade GP 2'' has Yoshi Park 1 take up this honor instead.
* ''VideoGame/MarioKart DS'', where the first track ([[http://www.mariowiki.com/Figure-8_Circuit Figure-8 Circuit]]) is also the easiest to snake on.

* Only the host in an online room can choose the racetrack in ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing]]'', which always defaults to the first track, Whale Lagoon. The thing is that the track is chosen through a sub-menu, not from the lobby, where most other racing games allow you to choose. The result is online play being utterly ''dominated'' by races on Whale Lagoon, more so than any other track combined.
* Its sequel, ''Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed'', slowly grew into this as the game continued to be played online, making it an inverted case. At the beginning, many players picked all three game modes, between Race, Lucky Dip (randomized modes, including some exclusive to Lucky Dip), Arena (battle mode), and Boost Race (no items, lots of boost pads), but over time, people withdrew from the other modes and focused nearly entirely on Race mode, making it very hard to find opponents in any of the other modes, though there would occasionally be groups of people playing Boost Race.

[[folder: Fighting Games ]]

* Who do the character select cursors in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' default to? Ragna and, [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome that's right]], ''[[TierInducedScrappy Jin]]''.
** In general, most fighting games usually have their character select cursors default to whoever is the main protagonist and deuteragonist of the game[[note]]Ryu and Ken in ''Franchise/StreetFighter'', Kyo and Iori in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'', Sol and Ky in ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear''...[[/note]], though there are some exceptions. It also helps that said protagonist and deuteragonists are usually easy to use.
* The arcade release of ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur III]]'' includes a mode where players fight through the roster to a powerful opponent who is strengthened by how many victories over human opponents the computer has has. While the player can choose this opponent, Maxi is almost always the highest, as he is the character the mode defaults to.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'': The game defaults to the new characters of each game (Xiaoyu and Jin in ''3'', Raven and Asuka in ''5'', etc.), thus giving them free promotion for newcomers to see. Those already familiar to the games usually avert this, and even if they do choose the default setting, they tend to browse through the selection first.

[[folder: MOBAs ]]

[[folder: Rhythm Games ]]

* In ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'', most new players tend to not stray very far from the first song on the song select; as a result, when the game first came out, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDZBWU5QY8w Have You Never Been Mellow]]" (from the first US console release of DDR), "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EebUbR2wFM Make a Jam!]]" (from the first US arcade release) and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EbpJ4FgdAk Butterfly]]" were the most commonly picked songs. In fact, this lead to a [[SeriousBusiness "Death to Butterfly" group]] on a particular forum.

* "First Kiss" in ''DJMAX Technika''.
* ''VideoGame/PopNMusic'' has [[EasierThanEasy Enjoy mode]], or Easy mode in ''pop'n music 20 fantasia'' And within Enjoy mode, there's 5-button mode, which makes use of only 5 out of the machine's 9 buttons. As of ''pop'n music Sunny Park'', the trope is averted, as Easy mode is removed and replaced with an Easy difficulty in Normal mode.
* ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX'' generally averts this, as most players are experienced enough that you never see the default song getting played more than three times per day.
* Para Para mode in ''VideoGame/ParaParaParadise''. Most players prefer to play it so they can mimic the routines, something that is near-impossible in Freestyle mode due to the changing camera angles on the on-screen dancer.
* ''DJMAX Portable'''s 4 Button mode. It doesn't help that players who use 4B get used to it, and thus have much trouble progressing to any of the more difficult button modes.
* ''VideoGame/RockBand'' (the original) has "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer as its first song when ordered by band difficulty. When the developers were testing the game before implementing the song select screen, this was the default song that played every time, reportedly driving many Harmonix developers into madness.

[[folder:Role Playing Games]]

* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series has a number of game settings that your average fan has probably never used, and may not even know exist. These include options for speeding up the text speed, turning off battle effects (move animations, weather, status effect animations, etc.), and changing the "battle style" closer to how it is in PVP. All typically speed up the pace of the game, especially battles, but few players ever actually change them because it makes the games feel uncomfortably different.
* Creator/LarianStudios compiled user data on ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' to create a character based on the most popular choices made by first-time players. They were [[https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/2896336186738209915 surprised to discover]] that the result was [[TheGenericGuy a fairly unremarkable-looking human male]]. In terms of class, the screenshot reveals that he's a life-domain cleric aligned to Selûne, which is the setup the creator defaults to.
-->''Congratulations, you’ve basically made the default [[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} Vault Dweller]]. What the hell guys. We gave you demon eyes, horns, and even tails. We are sorely disappointed. Go crazy. We worked hard on this!''

[[folder: Shoot Em Ups ]]

* The normal, blue version of the RVR-01 Gauntlet in ''VideoGame/ThunderForce V''; the other versions have to be selected with a code involving the player 2 controller, which makes them [[GuideDangIt relatively unknown]] to most players.

[[folder: Other ]]

* In ''Fallen Empire: Legions'', people new to the game and Guests almost always use the Sentinel because they haven't figured out that you can change characters. It makes it even worse that it takes time and practice to actually master the Sentinel. Poor buggers.
* In ''VideoGame/StarTrekStarfleetCommand'', everyone plays as either Federation or Klingon. Sometimes Romulans, maybe Gorn. Hardly anyone as Hydran, Lyran, or ISC. Probably because the latter three aren't canonical to Star Trek. And does anyone really care about the Orion Pirate cartels? As for the Mirak, how many Trekkies remember missile salvos being used in Star Trek.
** The Mirak probably aren't helped by the fact that while the Hydran, Lyran and ISC are all from one of the two sources of canon for Starfleet Command, the Mirak are ''not'' (they're an expy, due to a complicated rights situation).
* In-universe example: In the Halo series, when Master Chief takes over a Covenant ship, Cortana finds that she can get vastly better performance out of it just by tweaking the settings. The Covenant believed the ships were holy relics left to them by the Forerunners, you see, and any modification of them would be blasphemy of the highest order, so it stayed on the factory defaults.

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', an in-universe example - [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2005-06-14 Newspaper arc]] "Dan in the {{MUD}}".
* Go to [[http://memegenerator.net memegenerator]]. Choose any "character" that has multiple templates. Observe that virtually all captioned images are the first in the non-cycling series.

[[folder: Software ]]

* Starting with Office 97, Microsoft included the now-infamous "Office Assistants". There were numerous assistants (including a robot and a caricature of Creator/WilliamShakespeare), but the default was a paperclip. However, most people, annoyed by the [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper feature]], never bothered to change it and it's still remembered by most people as "the paperclip"
* The taskbar on all Windows products is at the bottom of the screen by default, and almost everyone keeps it there. One Microsoft Blog post spoke of the advantages of having the taskbar on the side in Windows 7, but since the vast majority of users kept theirs at the bottom in prior versions, changing the default would cause major DamnYouMuscleMemory issues, to the point that even in Windows 8, which has such issues with nearly everything else, the taskbar is still at the bottom by default.

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'' the vast majority of adventures are set on Mars so most gamemasters will make stories and players will create characters for this environment despite the fact that there are other really cool and interesting places.

[[folder: Pinball ]]

* Creator/{{Stern}} is aware of this trope and has implemented ways to deal with it:
** Knowing newcomers stepping up to the ''Pinball/{{ACDC}}'' pinball machine wouldn't know you could pick a song, which prioritizes different playfield elements for jackpots, when the player is asked to pick a song, the machine randomizes where on the list it begins. Of course, that didn't solve the problem of people never looking up at the display and not even knowing they could pick a song, then wondering why their game wouldn't start, which leads to...
** The Casual Mode for their ''Pinball/GameOfThrones'' pinball machine, where it is [[EnforcedTrope enforced]]: Ordinarily, you can pick your house to be aligned with before when you begin a game (which creates slight changes to the rules and affects the order of modes available to play), but knowing people not into pinball would never know they have a choice in the matter, Casual Mode always begins with House Stark and begins the game immediately. Taken one step further here too: In early rule sets, ''Game of Thrones'' would be on Casual Mode by default (as they knew such people wouldn't know there is a Casual Mode otherwise), though it was changed in an update patch later on that allows the operator to specify whether to have Casual Mode or regular mode as the default.

[[folder: Miscellanous ]]

* Creator/LarianStudios compiled user data on ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' to create a character based on the most popular choices made by first-time players. They were [[https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/2896336186738209915 surprised to discover]] that the result was [[TheGenericGuy a fairly unremarkable-looking human male]].

* Creator/LarianStudios compiled user data on ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' to create a character based on the most popular choices made by first-time players. They were surprised to discover that the result was [[https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/2896336186738209915 a fairly unremarkable-looking human male]].

{{Rhythm Game}}s are a pretty special case. This trope can make the default song into a ([[HypeBacklash scorned]]) EarWorm, with some people [[FanHater developing the urge to brutally murder any more players who play that song]].

* Application of this trope in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' shows that sometimes TropesAreNotBad, since the game defaults to the new characters of each game (Xiaoyu and Jin in ''3'', Raven and Asuka in ''5'', etc.), thus giving them free promotion for newcomers to see. Those already familiar to the games usually avert this, and even if they do choose the default setting, they tend to browse through the selection first.

[[folder: MOB As ]]

* According to statistics collected by Creator/BioWare, the vast majority of people who played ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' picked Soldier, the first class on the list. More stats released after ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' also revealed that 82% of players used a Male Shepard, and it's probably likely a big chunk of these players simply went with the default setting (which was a Male Soldier modeled after Mark Vanderloo's face).
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' was similarly slanted in favor of Human Nobles.

* For quite a while, '''A'''lchemist used to be the default pick of a new ''{{DotA}} 2'' player. If you were playing at a low level and someone picked this character, you knew they hadn't even figured out how to choose a character yet.

* The arcade version of [[VideoGame/GuitarHero Guitar Hero III]] tries to avert this by increasing the price of its most overplayed songs. Slow Ride, the first song on the setlist, is almost always set at the premium price.

[[/folder]]

* Most ''VideoGame/GigaWing'' players use the default character, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Sinnosuke/Shinnosuke]]. To quote one user on YouTube:

[[AC:{{Driving Game}}s]]

[[AC: {{Fighting Game}}s]]

[[AC: {{MOBA}}s]]

[[AC:{{Rhythm Game}}s]]

[[AC:{{Shoot Em Up}}s]]

[[AC:Other]]

[[AC:WebComics]]

[[AC: Software]]

[[AC: Tabletop Games]]

[[AC:{{Pinball}}]]

[[AC: Miscellanous]]

* The arcade release of [[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur III]] includes a mode where players fight through the roster to a powerful opponent who is strengthened by how many victories over human opponents the computer has has. While the player can choose this opponent, Maxi is almost always the highest, as he is the character the mode defaults to.

** The Casual Mode for their ''Pinball/GameOfThrones'' pinball machine, where it is [[EnforcedTrope enforced]]: Ordinarily, you can pick your house to be aligned with before when you begin a game (which creates slight changes to the rules and affects the order of modes available to play), but knowing people not into pinball would never know they have a choice in the matter, Casual Mode always begins with House Stark and begins the game immediately.

* Creator/{{Stern}} was aware of this trope and enforced it when they created Casual Mode for their ''Pinball/GameOfThrones'' pinball machine: Ordinarily, you can pick your house to be aligned with before when you begin a game (which creates slight changes to the rules), but knowing people not into pinball would never know they have a choice in the matter, Casual Mode always begins with House Stark and begins the game immediately.