History SeriousBusiness / VideoGames

* InazumaEleven, especially ''2'' and an upcoming ''Go'', where soccer game and soccer ball are used to destroy Japan and take over the world.

** The ''Pokémon TCG'' games for Game Boy take this trope to a ridiculous extent, creating an entire civiliation apparently based around trading and battling with Pokémon cards.

*** "I'm a pretty cool guy. I have a girlfriend!"

***** This troper has oft-joked that the simplest way for a Team Rocket member (just one) to take over the world would be to challenge a trainer to a duel, and when he looses and the other trainer puts his Pokemon away, simply draw an illegally purchased firearm and shoot him, since it seems even the police are only armed with more Pokemon.

** This is debatable. If Nobuo Uematsu's success was solely based on his association with the ''FinalFantasy'' series, then logically Koichi Sugiyama's music should be even more SeriousBusiness, since he is the composer for the ''Dragon Quest'' series, which is more popular in Japan. This could just prove that Nobuo Uematsu is still able to be taken seriously as a composer, despite the traditionally low opinion given to many artists in the video game industry by the mainstream art community.

** Considering that in the Real World, people are plenty crazy about sports (don't even get me started on soccer, people have committed murder because of that game), it isn't strange at all that people in ''SuperRobotWars'' are crazy about the mech sim (could be considered a sport).

*** Kinda [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that this is an {{RPG}} we're talking about here. {{Trauma Inn}}s are a part of the game, might as well have fun with it.

** Not for nothing, but ''SecondLife'''s in-game Linden Dollars can be converted to and from real money. People have made substantial amounts of money with in-game businesses, or by extending real businesses into the virtual world. The SeriousBusiness attitude is somewhat justified.
*** [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDOntLike No, it's really not.]]

** You do realize there are worldwide tournaments devoted to this sport (see the Las Vegas post above, and it's only one example)?

* Meteos. It's a puzzle game with little colored blocks falling down, and you have to match them so they launch into the sky, and before they fill the screen. The story? Those things are meteors that are actively destroying planets, and sending them back is the only way to survive. One of the endings does a double inversion of this trope though: [[spoiler: After meteo is destroyed, the remaining planets decide to play Meteos as a simple sport. The denizens of the planets are very serious about this sport, though.]]

*** ''CustomRobo'''s seriousness is somewhat legitimate. Bear in mind, that Custom Robos are miniature mechas armed with repeating energy blasters and highly explosive pod and missile launchers. Unsurprisingly, they are stated to be highly dangerous to their surroundings. Also, some of them are equipped with stealth camouflage, and others can transform into high-speed fighter jets. Their pilots control them remotely from up to thirty feet away. ''Psychically''. This essentially transforms average humans into very small, hard to hit, highly destructive robo warriors that no ordinary human could combat. That sounds like a recipe for disaster if their ever was one. It's no wonder therefore that the police force resort to combating renegade robos with their own.

** [[WhatDoYouMeanIt'sNotAwesome I NEVER KNEW BEING A SURGEON WOULD BE SO COOL!]]

* In [[SuperSmashBros Smash Bros.]] there are flame war over whether you should play with items or not. Not realizing that [[TakeAThirdOption you can do both and everything in between]]

* ''[=~Pokémon~=]''' battles are so important in its world that people, including kids as young as 10, are allowed to wander around, doing nothing but Pokémon matches.

** You don't need to [[ButtonMashing mash A]] just to be able to capture that elusive Legendary. You just need to understand [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Catch_rate this]].

* The bonus-chapter of ''TheWorldEndsWithYou'' parodies that: In this AlternateUniverse, everything revolves about the game ''Tin Pin Slammer'', which is actually just a tiny little mini-game in the main storyline. In this AlternateUniverse however, ''Tin Pin Slammer'''s power is so great, it actually "managed" to make Neku become an hopeless optimist, instead of an IneffectualLoner. (Count the times Neku's only two smiling Cut-scene-sprites are used in the main storyline. Now count how often they are used in the bonus chapter) Optimist-Neku also parodies the protagonists of shows like ''[=~Pokémon~=]'', or ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'', by holding monologues a lá "Oh Tin Pin, how happy you make our world!" or "All these different people can only be united by one thing: ''TIN PIN SLAMMER!!''"

*** The anime, and the games themselves to a lesser extent, also show Pokémon being used for other tasks that have nothing to do with battling. Fighting, Ground and Rock Pokémon are used in construction tasks that involve heavy lifting and/or digging into the ground, Fire Pokémon are involved in glassblowing and blacksmithing, Water Pokémon are used in firefighting, Poison Pokémon serve as living garbage disposals, Electric Pokémon are used to provide backup sources of energy when the main power in a building goes out...

** This one has at least ''some'' justification: if every sentient, living thing in the world that wasn't a human was a potentially-dangerous monster that could be domesticated through the use of careful training, don't ''you'' think that a large chunk of society would be based upon that? It'd be no more unusual than real-world biologists, zookeepers, and pet owners.

** Kris vs [[ReplacementScrappy Kotone]]. There was a long war on a few forums about whether or not Kotone is a redone Kris, or a completely new character. The war never officially ended..

* In Korea, and for a lot of people outside Korea, Serious Business is ''{{Starcraft}}''. Did you know that ''{{Starcraft}}'' is really seriously Serious Business? Seriously. Stadiums with thousands of people watching the top-players face it off, TWO (2) dedicated TV channels and several professional leagues, an Korean Air Force Starcraft team and an entire CONVENTION dedicated to the unveiling of the sequel, with ten thousands of fans screaming in a sports stadium. Did we mention ''{{Starcraft}}'' is some pretty Serious Business?
** And yes, this is not in fiction. RealLife.
** Americans do [[{{Flanderization}} flanderize]] this somewhat. It's really about as popular as professional poker is in the U.S.

** [[http://www.destructoid.com/ten-golden-rules-of-online-gaming-64474.phtml A more detailed explanation of the above bullet]], courtesy of Destructoid.

* The ConsoleWars is serious business. On the Internet and in some forms of real life, just saying that you prefer one console over another or you just prefer that one console or just don't like that other console, can lead to alot of massive rage among many console wars fanboys of both or all sides. Don't be surprised if a FlameWar erupts.
** And if the "[[PCVsConsole glorious PC master race]]" gets involved, the rage increases exponentially.

** Ironically, you can find in online forums in occasion that some fans claim [[NoTrueScotsman their favorite service or game is immune to this]] (Playstation Network or some very hardcore PC game are common examples). These claims can become serious business in itself. This is because their communities are small, compared to the bigger communities like Xbox Live and World of Warcraft where since they are more popular services, you can find more FanDumb players utilizing {{GIFT}}. This naturally has led to the smaller services getting mis-credited as being "Serious Business free". However being a small community doesn't mean that they are not immune to having FanDumb players that take things way too seriously. Remember, {{GIFT}} can happen anywhere on the internet, so don't be surprised that in any game, a JerkAss {{Troll}} will try and ruin your fun. Your best thing to do is just ignore them, leave, or kick them out.

** [[MemeticMutation NO ITEMS! FOX ONLY! FINAL DESTINATION!!!]]

** Americans do [[{[Flanderization}} flanderize]] this somewhat. It's really about as popular as professional poker is in the U.S.

* ''[=~Pokémon~=]'''s combat is so important in its world that people, including kids as young as 10, are allowed to wander around, doing nothing but Pokémon matches. It seems there is ''nothing'' considered important that does not involve Pokémon in some way.
** In the most recent games, it is revealed that a Pokémon (Arceus) ''created the universe''. [[OlympusMons And you can catch it!]]
** The ''Pokémon TCG'' games for Game Boy take this trope to a ridiculous extent, creating an entire civilisation apparently based around trading and battling with Pokémon cards.
** The first generation ''Pokémon'' games featured exactly one character who didn't speak of Pokémon or the geography of his native town. What did he say? Something along the lines of "What? Are you expecting me to talk about Pokémon? Not everyone does that, you know."

** This one has at least ''some'' justification: if every sentient, living thing in the world that wasn't a human was a potentially-dangerous monster that could be domesticated through the use of careful training, don't ''you'' think that a large chunk of society would be based upon that? It'd be no more unusual than real-world biologists, zookeepers, and pet owners. However, the games ''do'' kind of get carried away with this...

**** It does seem very remarkable though that the idea of ritualized Pokémon Battling is so heavily ingrained in society that it supplants inter-human violence even in criminal context.

** You don't need to [[ButtonMashing mash A]] just to be able to capture that elusive Legendary. You just need to understand [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Catch_rate this]]

** Somewhat justified. It's mentioned that they were originally simple toys. The serious business came in because of Rahu's influence.
*** ''CustomRobo'''s seriousness is somewhat legitimate. Bear in mind, guys and girls, that Custom Robos are miniature mechas armed with repeating energy blasters and highly explosive pod and missile launchers. Unsurprisingly, they are stated to be highly dangerous to their surroundings. Also, some of them are equipped with stealth camouflage, and others can transform into high-speed ''fighter jets''. And their pilots control them remotely from upto thirty feet away. ''Psychically''. This essentially transforms an average human into very small, hard to hit, highly destructive robo warrior that no ordinary human could combat. That sounds like a recipe for disaster of their ever was one. It's no wonder therefore that the police force resort to combating renegade robos with their own.
*** And in addition to this, the above characteristics make Custom Robos ideal for exploring harsh environments hazardous to humans, such as the sea floor or the vacuum of space, as seen in the research facilities in ''[[CustomRobo Custom Robo Arena]]''.

* ''[[DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia]]'', a mash-up fighting game by Square-Enix in the same vein as ''Smash Brothers'', also has the same kind of StopHavingFunGuy; here, it's "No Acc, No Equipment, No Summons, Order's Sanctuary." The last item is the stage, and this particular stage is the only one that is ''completely'' wide-open. Fortunately, the mentality doesn't seem to have spread too much... yet.

* ''[[StopHavingFunGuys * deep breath* ]]'' [[SuperSmashBros NO ITEMS]], [[CharacterTiers FOX ONLY]], [[AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield FINAL DESTINATION!]]
** Well, Fox is considered the best character but not everyone uses him. On the other hand, there's a recurring [[InternetBackdraft flame war]] on whether [[PeripheryHatedom Brawl]] is "fair" or not. Don't go into any competitive Melee forum and say that the hitstun and DI are "legit". Ever.

* Averted in {{Canvas 2}}. Only the artists themselves and a few others take the world of painting that seriously.