History Main / TheGameNeverStopped

* Can happen in ''VideoGame/AmongUs'', when you thought you've found out who the impostor is, kicked them out, AndThereWasMuchRejoicing ...but wait, where's the victory screen? [[spoiler:You've got the wrong person, dumbass. The actual impostor is still here to kill you.]]

* The GenreSavvy title character of ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' is invited, along with the rest of the FiveManBand, to a small remote island which seems perfect for a murder mystery setting, and despite there not being any suspicious people present, Haruhi tries predicting the first murder victim and the murderer's identity. Then her best candidate for murderer turns up dead. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a game put on by Koizumi's organization, who are even ''more'' GenreSavvy than Haruhi and provided her with the murder mystery she desired so that her unconscious reality-warping powers didn't kick in and create a ''real'' murder mystery]].

* One episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' had a completely unintentional example of this trope that the characters decided to run with. Ash and friends decide to enter a Pokémon mimicry contest, where they each submit a Pokémon who has to remain in-character as a completely different Pokémon, and the winner's Trainer receives a rare Pokémon egg as their prize. Halfway through the contest, Team Rocket decides to steal the egg, leading to a frenzy that ends with Ash and friends blasting them off and recovering the egg. ''However'', instead of resuming the contest, the judges declare Brock and his Croagunk the winner, because Croagunk was the only one not to break character during the commotion.

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Not related to The Game, [[MemeticMutation which you just lost.]] (Though it ''is'' related to ''Film/TheGame'', as noted below!)

* In the David Fincher movie, ''Film/TheGame'' never stopped, either.

* Manga/BlackButler has a manga arc that plays with this trope, fittingly called the "Phantomhive Manor Murders Arc."

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' episode 57-58 has the characters at a Sherlock Holmes-related gathering, which will end with a mystery to be solved, the prize being a rare Sherlock Holmes book. But when the time for the test approaches, the owner's car drives him off the edge of a cliff. The body is unrecoverable. [[spoiler:This is actually an ''aversion''. It's a real murder, and no character ever suspects that it's just a test (although some think that the owner is alive but that other murders are real). The fact that the body is not recoverable is important to the mystery in a different way, not as a sign that he's not really dead.]]

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', this was used by a sentient hologram known as Moriarty--yes, the ''SherlockHolmes'' Moriarty--when he pretends to step outside the holodeck. His plan was to make them think it was possible, so they would attempt to do the same thing for his wife, but for real, thus allowing him to duplicate the experiment for himself. [[spoiler:The main characters caught on, however, and used the same method to make him think he'd already left the holodeck, but was really in a computer simulation. And just to mess with the audience, they muse about how ''their'' entire world could be running [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall in a box on someone's table]].]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* There was, apparently, once a murder during a B&B's mystery weekend. The perpetrator was counting on the confusion to get a head start on a getaway. The other guests simply called the police.

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* As might be expected, ''Film/GameNight'' plays with this. The main character's upstaging brother hosts a mystery where he's supposed to be abducted, and the others have to save him by solving puzzles. Halfway through the explanation, real kidnappers show up. Everyone present assumes it's all part of the game and joke around while the brother is assaulted and kidnapped. The rest of the movie is them trying to save the brother after realizing their mistake. [[spoiler: This is then flipped when they learn that the "real" kidnappers were just actors hired by an ostracized neighbor to upstage their game night. And then flipped AGAIN when actual mobsters show up and want a list of protected witnesses the players found.]]

A group of characters take part in a game, for example, a [[TenLittleMurderVictims murder mystery]] role playing game, then someone is apparently KilledOffForReal. One of the characters gets accused of the "real" murder, there is much sleuthing, then the truth is revealed -- TheGameNeverStopped.

* A more sinister version happens in the {{Creepypasta}} "[=NoEnd=] House". A man attempts to the challenge of the titular [=NoEnd=] House, which promises a $500 cash prize to anyone who can make it through all 9 rooms. Each room is more terrifying and {{Mind Screw}}y than the last, but eventually he finally completes Room 9, returns to the entrance of the house, and collects the $500. But when he returns home, [[OhCrap he sees a number 10 scratched into his front door]].

* The pseudo-slasher fim ''April Fool's Day''.

* In ''VideoGame/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' in [[spoiler:[= EP6=]]] it turns out that the victims were only playing dead to [[spoiler: play a prank on Erika. And then it turns out that as the detective, Erika took the liberty of 'ensuring' the bodies were dead by sawing their heads off.]]

* One episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' had a completely unintentional example of this trope that the characters decided to run with. Ash and friends decide to enter a Pokémon mimicry contest, where they each submit a Pokémon who has to remain in-character as a completely different Pokémon, and the winner's Trainer receives a rare Pokémon egg as their prize. Halfway through the context, Team Rocket decides to steal the egg, leading to a frenzy that ends with Ash and friends blasting them off and recovering the egg. ''However'', instead of resuming the contest, the judges declare Brock and his Croagunk the winner, because Croagunk was the only one not to break character during the commotion.

* Creator/TedDekker's book [[spoiler:Skin]] turns out to be this, and [[spoiler:does it AGAIN in the end]]. [[MindScrew Dekker likes to mess with his readers' heads sometimes]].

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', Raiden is performing a complicated operation with the goal of rescuing the president from terrorists. As the story progresses, he realises the operation is actually a very complicated training exercise-cum-social experiment by an organisation called The Patriots, with only Solid Snake and Otacon's involvement as an unplanned-for element. In the final scene of the game, we overhear a conversation between Snake and Otacon in which Otacon reveals that their biggest contributor shares a name with a member of The Patriots, implying their involvement was part of the simulation after all.

* In Creator/DerrenBrown's Series/Apocalypse Reality TV special, the victim, Steven, was told that he did not qualify to partake in the special when in fact he has been chosen. This was done to prevent bias and to ensure that he doesn't get suspicious and catch on when the gaslighting, and later, the elaborate con, starts.

* Played with in "Mr. ''Series/{{Monk}}'' Gets Drunk", when Monk and Natalie visit the place where Monk honeymooned with Trudy. The owner brings up a NoodleIncident, which Monk apologizes for again, and the owner explains that they had a mystery weekend where some actors were brought along to act out a little murder mystery that was to take three days, and Monk solved the case in twelve minutes. The details, from what Monk mentions, apparently involved an alibi being broken because of someone claiming to have met Winston Churchill before Churchill was knighted, and two lovers plotting to assassinate a sultan.