History Main / NewsTravelsFast

** Also, a flaw common to all Spiderweb Software [=RPGs=] is that items tagged as “not yours” will cause the entire town to turn on you the instant you steal them, even if nobody sees you take them.

* In the first ''KingdomHearts'', as soon as you win the first tournament at Olympus Coliseum, the Moogle in the Accessory shop will know.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', events tend to be reported to the newspapers- and subsequently, those newspapers are distributed -incredibly fast. This is taken to extremes near the end of the Dressrosa arc, where the heroes victory over Doflamingo is made public knowledge in the course of a day.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In one of the Film/{{Sharpe}} films, the French tried to stir up disloyalty in Irish units on the continent by creating false reports of English atrocities on the Irish. Sharpe stops the plan by lampshading this trope - the reports were spread by smuggling in allegedly American newspapers, which were less than a week old according to the print dates. But during the Napoleonic Wars, crossing the Atlantic was a six week trip under ideal circumstances, meaning that for Americans to hear about the atrocities and send reports about them to soldiers in Spain, said atrocities would have had to be at least three months past, printed in papers nearly two months old.

* In FanFic/ChristianPotterChandler, Voldemort's attack on Chris backfires, killing Voldemort. British wizards are already vacationing in Virginia the next day.

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', recent issues of the manga have shown news traveling fast regarding the protagonist's trials and travails, and the consequential shifts in public opinion about him.
** It helps when half the village is watching you fight the big bad.

*** While we're on that subject, you being declared the Hortator by the Three Great Houses and the Nerevarine by the Four Ashlander Tribes is known almost immediately. Admittedly, the widespread Temple eventually adopts this story, and the Great Houses and the Ashlander Tribes ''are'' a big portion of the population of the island, but the news travels at the speed of event flags.
*** That's not the worst of it. At the very beginning of ''Oblivion'', the Emperor is killed in a sewer. The only witnesses are either dead, still in the sewer, or the player. Yet everyone in the Imperial City is talking about his death when you emerge from the sewer, and ''the local newspaper has already published an article about it.''
*** You kill a guy in Leyawiin (bottom of map). You fast travel to Bruma (top of map). [[StupidStatementDanceMix STOP! YOU! HAVE! VIOLATED! THE LAW!]]

* Lampshaded in ''Series/SesameStreet'': Telly created Texas Telly persona like 2 scenes ago when he meets Murray, who is ALREADY his biggest fan. "Whoa, news travel ''fast''".

-->'''Denise:''' News travels fast

** The same goes for factions as well, where if you become "hostile" with a faction, people who've never met you or even known what crime you've cmmitted against them will now want you dead.

*** Subverted in ''Tribunal'' after you [[spoiler: kill Almalexia]]. Virtually no one will believe you (save the [[MagnificentBastard machiavellian king]] of Morrowind and Vivec), and trying to tell them about it will be met with confusion from non-Dunmer and a big disposition drop from Tribunal Temple faithful.

* In a variation, in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series completing a sidequest will seemingly immediatly create the intended effect even when this shouldn't be in any way possible. For example, in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' you can find a salarian scientist discussing the possibility of cloning extinct Kakliosaurus as mounts for toxic environment, and if you bring him a skull of the creature, he will comment on the success of the project the next time you speak with him, even if it's only seconds later.

*** Factions in most Elder Scrolls game have this bizarre hive mind about them, and it's very prevalent in Morrowind, to almost ArtificialAtmosphericActions level. If you make a faction mad at you for some reason, you can then join their faction and now they will be absolutely friendly with you.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', when you speak to a guard after doing something that gives them a new line of dialogue, they'll say the new line before anything else. So, for example, you can be made Harbinger of the Companions in a little sea cave, and arrive at the nearest town before the Companions with you (the only ones who witnessed you being made Harbinger) get there, and the first guard will ''still'' greet you as Harbinger of the Companions.
*** Skyrim, however, does sometimes mess a few things up. Sometimes, for example, you might be the Harbinger of the Companions, yet a random guard might say "Let me guess - you fetch the mead". [[FridgeBrilliance While it may seem like a subversion of this trope]] in that they might not know just what you've accomplished, it still plays this trope straight in that you can join the companions, but then a guard in Falkreath or Riften will somehow know the second you travel there.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' plays this similar to ''VideoGame/TheElderScrolls'' with the strange hive-mind of factions:

** The remakes take it UpToEleven with whatever you do showing up on the updated Pokenav's newscast app.

* Notably averted in ''PlanescapeTorment'', where you can lie to just about everyone and the people who can tell you're lying can be counted on one hand. This is important for two reasons. First, you can't choose the Nameless One's [[CharacterAlignment alignment]]: he starts as True Neutral, being an amnesiac, and his alignment shifts over the course of the game based on the player's choices, including lying. Some conversations options where you can talk about the Nameless One's beliefs even allow you to say the exact same thing as either the truth or a lie. In these cases telling the truth or lying will result in the exact same response from the NPC, but which one you choose will affect your alignment. (For example, you've caught someone trying to steal from you, and have grabbed their arm. You are presented with several options, including two saying, "Stop struggling or I'll kill you", but one is marked with "Truth" and one with "Lie". If you tell the truth, it makes you more lawful and evil. If you lie, it makes you more chaotic.) Second, because the game takes place in a plane where belief affects reality, getting enough people to believe in a lie makes it the truth. A notable example is that the Nameless One can tell people his name is Adahn. Telling enough people that lie will result in an NPC named Adahn showing up out of nowhere.

** ''Tribunal'', an expansion pack for ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', subverts this at the end of its main quest; when news gets out of what you've accomplished, almost nobody believes you (except the machiavellian king of Morrowind, who is intrigued to learn that a factor in his powergames has been removed, a few people with additional reasons to believe you in general, and Vivec, who is a god), and certain people will try to kill you for suggesting it.

*** Also, the guard system in ''Morrowind'', if you stole 1 pen and a guard saw you, then suddenly every guard everywhere would know everything you stole and take it out of your inventory when they finally catch you
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', closing the Oblivion gate at Kvatch causes almost everybody in Cyrodiil to exclaim "It's you! The Hero of Kvatch!" when you walk by.

** That's not the worst of it. At the very beginning of ''Oblivion'', the Emperor is killed in a sewer. The only witnesses are either dead, still in the sewer, or the player. Yet everyone in the Imperial City is talking about his death when you emerge from the sewer, and ''the local newspaper has already published an article about it.''
** You kill a guy in Leyawiin (bottom of map). You fast travel to Bruma (top of map). [[StupidStatementDanceMix STOP! YOU! HAVE! VIOLATED! THE LAW!]]

%% * ZeroContextExample

** It probably doesn't get any straighter then this: you cannot sell stolen goods at all. Even if the store is on the ''other plane of existance'' from the crime scene you'll stll receive an "I don't receive stolen goods" reply. Such level of awareness makes you suspect a case of HiveMind. Or a remarkably efficient law enforcement system with instant and widespread notification about crimes...
* Mostly averted throughout the ''{{Geneforge}}'' series: the general population doesn't know what you've done unless it directly affects their own lives. Characters with an organization that can provide them intelligence know more about you if you've done anything significant to their own organization, but even they can't know everything. It's very possible to work for all factions at the same time, at least up to a PointOfNoReturn.

* Averted multiple times in the ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' series. After Jak defeats the Metal Head leader at the end of ''JakIIRenegade'', no one in Spargus City knows who he is when he arrives there. And after he saves the world at the end of ''VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander'', people in Kras City only know him for his racing exploits.

* Television, newspaper, the Internet, radio, {{Facebook}}, {{Twitter}}, and where else you can get fast news and information around the world in the modern era.

* ''Film/LaQueteLegendaire'': Omega Zell is in the middle of a FictionalVideoGame questline in which he regularly has to report to his QuestGiver. After a task that consisted of fighting another player from a specific calss, the QuestGiver makes a comment about the battle and Omega Zell asks him how he can know how it went if he wasn't actually there. The QuestGiver replies that he's omniscient, then gives Omega Zell his next task.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Film/LaQueteLegendaire'': Omega Zell is in the middle of a FictionalVideoGame questline in which he regularly has to report to his QuestGiver. After a task that consisted of fighting another player from a specific calss, the QuestGiver makes a comment about the battle and Omega Zell asks him how he can know how it went if he wasn't actually there. The QuestGiver replies that he's omniscient, then gives Omega Zell his next task.
[[/folder]]

* Averted multiple times in the ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' series. After Jak defeats the Metal Head leader at the end of ''JakIIRenegade'', no one in Spargus City knows who he is when he arrives there. And after he saves the world at the end of ''Jak3Wastelander'', people in Kras City only know him for his racing exploits.