History Main / EarnYourFun

* ''Videogame/HalfLife'' is known for TrialAndErrorGameplay, especially ''Videogame/{{HalfLife1}}''. The protagonist, [[BadassNormal Gordon Freeman]], isn't very spongy and quickly goes down under sustained enemy fire. Persevere, however, and you get to follow Gordon's journey and see him become an in-universe MemeticBadass.

* ''VideoGame/{{DoomEternal}}'' is known for a SequelDifficultySpike, something that [[WordOfGod was intended by the developers]] to force players to push their skills to the fullest.

* ''Videogame/{{HalfLife}}'' is known for TrialAndErrorGameplay, especially ''Videogame/{{HalfLife1}}''. The protagonist, Gordon Freeman isn't very spongy and quickly goes down under sustained enemy fire. Persevere, however, and you get to follow Gordon's journey and see him become an in-universe MemeticBadass.

Note that this trope is nearly [[OmnipresentTrope omnipresent]] in video games to some degree: all but the most basic casual games contain some element of rewarding progression, even if simply by requiring that a player beat prior levels to progress to a later level. TropesAreNotBad, after all: done well it allows for things like story pacing and slowly increasing complexity of game mechanics, while rewarding players for successfully taking on challenges.

->''"You can be bad at playing a video game, and the video game will punish you, and deny you access to the rest of the game. No other art form does this -- you've never been reading a book and, three chapters in, it asks ''[='=]What are the major themes?[='=]''"''

*** In the essence, it enforces the ultimate factor in fun for Pokémon - there is no single ultimate mon so you have to keep changing it up to stay in the game.

* ''VideoGame/AlienSwarm'' is quite taxing on newbies that struggle with learning the game. Playing on easy will severely reduce the amount of experience points you get at the end of each mission and you need all the experience points you can get to level up and unlock new gear. HardModePerks kick in hard when your level gets a bit high since you won't progress much unless you start playing on higher difficulty levels for extra experience points. Gear is also level locked, so you need to level grind quite a bit to get better stuff in order to be more proficient in combat and team support. Without them, you'll be stuck with weak guns and very little means of defense since you can easily be killed in just a few hits

* ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' games often start you off with a dinky pistol and a handful of bullets, a knife, binoculars, an infinite supply of bolts and some bread and vodka. And then throw you out to the wolves to survive bandits, military soldiers, hostile factions, mutated wildlife, angry mutants, and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou even radiation and anomalies within the environment itself.]] If you want to even hope to survive in the long term, your only real option is to work your way up the food chain in equipment and ammunition while taking care not to get ambushed or mowed down at a moment's notice. Even fully kitted out with a gauss rifle and exoskeleton armor, one misstep can get you gored. But that's what makes it fun. This isn't even getting into mods like [[HarderThanHard MIS]][[MeaningfulName ERY.]]

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hardcore_games_.png]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hardcore_games_s_564.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[http://i.imgur.com/YVMaJ.png And then there is]] ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress''.]]

** Better yet, most of the cheats are just cosmetic changes and don't make the game easier, either. The console cheats, however, are fine to use.

* ''VideoGame/AlienSwarm'' is quite taxing on newbies that struggle with learning the game. Playing on easy will severely reduce the amount of experience points you get at the end of each mission and you need all the experience points you can get to level up and unlock new gear. HardModePerks kick in hard when your level gets a bit high since you won't progress much unless you start playing on higher difficulty levels for extra experience points. Gear is also level locked, so you need to level grind quite a bit to get better stuff in order to be more proficient in combat and team support. Without them, you'll be stuck with weak guns and very little means of defense since you can easily be killed in just a few hits.
* Fighting games are this by design. Unless you're playing one of the few with low skill floors (most of which have only come out in 2017 or later, which have become popular because of the lack of this trope), you ''will'' get utterly destroyed until you properly learn the universal and your character's mechanics and stop mashing. And even then, there's still plenty of things to learn before you can be considered good.

* Fighting games are this by design. Unless you're playing one of the few with high skill floors (most of which have only come out in 2017 or later, which have become popular because of the lack of this trope), you ''will'' get utterly destroyed until you properly learn the universal and your character's mechanics and stop mashing. And even then, there's still plenty of things to learn before you can be considered good.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': The strong Pokémon are always the rarest and [[LuckBasedMission hardest to catch]], and it's the [[TropeNamers trope namer]] for MagikarpPower. Not to mention the Mew-equivalent [[OlympusMons legendaries]] that can only be obtained at special events.

** [[http://i55.tinypic.com/2ewf5si.png In comic form]].

The design precept that a game should require some kind of dedication from its players before giving them anything. All the fun and rewarding content must be earned, inaccessible until the player "proves" themself somehow. While it adds to the bragging rights of those {{Challenge Gamer}}s who can handle the game on HarderThanHard mode, it can be intensely frustrating for those who don't have the time or skill to master the game. This comes in two flavors:

* ''[[VideoGame/DeadOrAlive Dead or Alive 5]]'' challenges the hardcore among the hardcore players if they want to unlock 3 extremely skimpy swimsuits for Tina, Christie and Lisa; the game features a ''whopping total of 8 levels'' of difficulty: 'Rookie, Easy, Normal, Hard, Champ, True Fighter, Master and Legend', with the last three being unlocked after the preceding difficulty is beaten; rest assured that your average player can’t go through Hard without losing continues, but if you want those Rare Swimsuits you must mow through Legend – 4 difficulties beyond Hard – ''without losing a single continue'' on Arcade for Tina's, Time Attack for Christie's and Survival for Lisa's. Simply put, it's a nightmare to get these pieces of clothing for the girls. The computer on Legend is on a whole new level of [[TheAllSeeingAI reading and countering]] any attack the player tries to connect; just beating this mode is a nerve-cracking task, but beating it without losing continues is absurd, and that's not enough: even though the task on Arcade and Time Attack is already beyond insane to complete, at the end of the day it's just 8 Stages each. On Survival though, it’s 100 Stages, ''a-freaking-hundred quasi-unbeatable opponents to defeat with one small recovering life bar'', so yeah, even some of the most hardcore players stop at Tina and Christie's swimsuits.

** Weapons and armor are also minimally effective without upgrades, which require a considerable amount of time and effort to aquire; and the best versions are often only available as [[RandomlyDrops random drops from bosses]], or rewards from a BonusLevelOfHell.

* The new "Quest" mode in ''Drummania V6'' (and probably ''GuitarFreaks V6'' also) presents challenges which award you quest ranking points. However, when you start off, all of the hardest quests are not accessible. If you can already clear difficulty-level 95 songs, have fun grinding the "Clear this level 30 song" quests until your rank is high enough to access the ''real'' challenges.

* ''VideoGame/WanganMidnight Maximum Tune''. You start with a stock vehicle that can maybe make 250 km/h tops, and to get it to full tune you need to complete Story Mode. Each stage in Story Mode uses up one [[ArcadeGame credit]], and depending on the installment there are 60, 80, or ''100'' stages to complete; thankfully, from the fourth game onwards Story Mode has been locked to 60 stages. Once you get that tedious grinding out of the way, that's where you can start seriously playing VS Mode, Ghost Battle Mode, and Time Attack mode, where most of the excitement takes place. Oh, and you have to do this with ''every new car you start'', unless you have a friend who can offer you a "Discard" that gives you a 20-stage head start on Story Mode, and even then it's still at least 40 stages to complete.

* ''[[VideoGame/DeadOrAlive Dead or Alive 5]]'' challenges the hardcore among the hardcore players if they want to unlock 3 extremely skimpy swimsuits for Tina, Christie and Lisa; the game features a ''whopping total of 8 levels'' of difficulty: 'Rookie, Easy, Normal, Hard, Champ, True Fighter, Master and Legend', with the last three being unlocked after the preceding difficulty is beaten; rest assured that your average player can’t go through Hard without losing continues, if you want those Rare Swimsuits you must mow through Legend – 4 difficulties beyond Hard – ''without losing a single continue'' on Arcade for Tina’s, Time Attack for Christie’s and on Survival for Lisa’s. Simply put it’s a nightmare to get these pieces of clothing for the girls, the computer on Legend is on an whole new level of [[TheAllSeeingAI reading and countering]] any attack the player tries to connect, just beating this mode is a nerve-cracking task, but beating it without losing continues is absurd, and that’s not enough, even though the task on Arcade and Time Attack is already beyond insane to complete, at the end of the day is just 8 Stages each, on Survival though, it’s 100 Stages, ''a-freaking-hundred quasi-unbeatable opponents to defeat with one small recovering life bar'', so yeah, even some of the most hardcore players stop at Tina and Christie’s swimsuits.

* Especially common with Korean {{MMORPG}}s, of which VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}} is a classic example; with the intense LevelGrinding only the start. Nearly all skills start as MagikarpPower, the best basic skills requiring months of training to be useful. Advanced skills require either {{Collection Quest}}s rife with difficult to find [[RandomlyDrops random drops]], or arduous story-based quests that often require high levels of unrelated skills to even attempt; and nearly all of both types include a BonusLevelOfHell (however, in most cases it is possible to skip this level by [[BribingYourWayToVictory buying the item]] from another player, or gain assistance from higher-level players). Story-line quests also require a considerable amount of involvement from other players in order to complete; so you actually have to convince your friends, or more often random strangers, to help you out.

* ''[[VideoGame/StreetsOfRage Streets of Rage 3]]'' has this if you play on Easy difficulty. If you try to beat the game on Easy, you get treated to a bad ending where the real Mr. X isn't found and you get mocked for "playing this game like a beginner." It doesn't help that compared to the Japanese version, the North American version is actually more difficult by increasing damage from enemies (Japanese version doesn't do this) and the Japanese version even lets you beat the game on Easy. If you weren't good enough to survive the game on Normal, you would probably never see the last two levels or the other endings.

* In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'', apart from honing your skills to a keen edge the only way to progress through the game and access the higher-tiered content is to get stronger weapons and/or armor sets. And how do you do that? A lengthy, often painful grind involving hunting increasingly stronger monsters and obtaining materials from them, with some of the more powerful weapon upgrades only obtainable via super rare mats like Gems and Mantles. Want that high-damage Hammer or pair of awesome Dual Blades? Then suit up and be prepared to track your quarry. Additionally, players who mistake the game to be just another HackAndSlash will soon get the idea brutally beaten out of their heads by the myriads of movement, combat and item usage mechanics that are required learning before you can even begin to hunt your first big monster.

* While the ShootEmUp community generally regards a true clear of a game as clearing it on one credit, ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' is infamous in that getting the good ending requires doing that, on Normal or above; failing either condition results in a bad ending. The sixth game, ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'', takes it a step further by outright denying the player the final stage on Easy difficulty! Worse yet, the developer specifically requested that his fandom never post any of the endings online (plot summaries yes, other cutscenes yes, just not the endings), and somehow this became the one issue on which the majority of the fandom actually listened to what he said. Not even Website/YouTube or Google will save you this time. You also need to do a ≥Normal one-credit clear to unlock Extra Stage to see the complete story, with the Extra Stage itself turning off continues, ensuring that the player will need to train hard to see the entirety of the game.

* In many ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' games: you want to see a good ending? Beat it without continues and/or on something higher than Easy mode. Considering the [[BulletHell genre]], that is asking quite a bit. Biggest example of this would have to be at the end of ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'''s 5th stage. If you beat Stage 5 on Easy mode, the boss ''literally'' [[EasyModeMockery mocks your character]] for using Easy mode, and your character proceeds to get embarrassed and ''leave''. Game over. You want to see the final boss? Screw you! Play on Normal mode.
** Worse yet, the developer specifically requested that his fandom never post any of the endings online (plot summaries yes, other cutscenes yes, just not the endings), and somehow this became the one issue on which the majority of the fandom actually listened to what he said. Not even Website/YouTube or Google will save you this time.
** Striving for a no-continue clear is standard practice within the ShootEmUp community, it's just that ''Touhou'' prominently has a reward for it. On top of that, many shoot-em-ups will reset your score every time you continue, so in order to rank in on high score tables you have to be proficient with the game's scoring mechanics ''and'' learn to survive.

* ''VideoGame/WanganMidnight Maximum Tune''. You start with a stock vehicle that can maybe make 250 km/h tops, and to get it to full tune you need to complete Story Mode. Each stage in Story Mode uses up one [[ArcadeGame credit]], and depending on the installment there are 60, 80, or ''100'' stages to complete; thankfully, from the fourth game onwards Story Mode has been locked to 60 stages. Once you get that tedious grinding out of the way, that's where you can start seriously playing VS Mode, Ghost Battle Mode, and Time Attack mode, where most of the excitement takes place.

* The fictional video game ''Greed Island'' in ''HunterXHunter'' distributes Spell Cards through only one location. Spell Cards let players do basic video game things like warping to other towns and are the only way outside of overwhelming force to rise above subsistence. Since players are the people themselves transported to the game world, this one location is staked out by powerful players attempting to claim as many Spell Cards as they can--meaning to advance, players have to already be pretty good at the game. Simply reaching the town the Spell Cards are distributed from was an ordeal for the main characters, who are already exceptionally strong and somewhat well known among some infamous people.