History VideoGame / HypnospaceOutlaw

** Slushmouth's Guide to New Digital Music is based on [[Website/IshkursGuideToElectronicMusic an actual music map about electronic music from 2000.]] It's just as snarky too.

** Special mention must be given to Counselor Ronnie's horrible "Birthstone Song", which is completely arrhythmic and horribly mispronounces the name of each stone, such as "ruby" sounding like "roob-''why''". [[spoiler:Ironically, this was completely intentional in-universe. Counselor Ronnie was created by [=m1nx=] to see how crappy they could make his content before Merchantsoft noticed...and they pull it off so well that "Ronnie" earns Merchantsoft an ''award from a federal agency for promoting forward-thinking child-friendly content.'']]
** Most of Tamara Pierce's audio poems are sincere, but amateur and experimental in a way college students who just picked up poetry are. One of her poems is just her reciting the word "River" and various objects in different tones. [[spoiler:Small wonder she claims not to really remember anything she wrote before her bestselling book that launched her career.]]

* TargetAudience: Some of Merchantsoft's woes are caused by Adrian Merchant's attempt to push out the "dorks" that made Hypnospace successful and attract a more mainstream audience of teens, elderly, and professionals.

* ThereAreNoGoodExecutives: A running theme of the game is how large corporations try to suppress, exploit, or monetise the works of Hypnospace users in the name of maximum profit. W.E. Briggs' estate demands that every single use of their copyrighted character is taken down regardless of context, [[spoiler:and only relents after striking a sponsorship deal with Merchantsoft]]. Merchantsoft exploits the free labor of Counselor Ronnie to win grants from the federal government and sponsorships with videogame companies, [[spoiler:despite ''not knowing his true identity'']]. The entire Coolpunk movement [[spoiler:was astroturfed by Merchantsoft to get them a sponsorship deal with Gray's Peak Cola... who then proceeds to steal the identity and (freely-distributed) work of the anonymous [=Fr3ezer=] to sell "him" as a pop idol]]. Overall, Merchantsoft tends to prioritize money and the bosses' personal projects over the feelings and payment of employees, [[spoiler:and covers up their own culpability in numerous accidental deaths]].
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Inverted, in one case. [[spoiler:Zane can be banned from Hypnospace by taking every opportunity to strike and flag his account, including "his" new stuff on New Year's Eve. If you pull this off, then Zane will be barred from accessing Hypnospace...just before the Mindcrash incident, which otherwise kills him.]]

** [[spoiler:Three in quick succession. First, the financial backer and co-leader of the HAP happily announcing that their latest member is none other than former Merchantsoft lead programmer [[BigBad Dylan Merchant]]. Second, using your new Rule 6 to report to Samantha the screenshots of the chatlogs in which Dylan and Adrian admit to burying the report about Hypnospace's potential danger. To hammer in the seriousness of this, the email she sends you after closing the case is just titled "URGENT: [[PrecisionFStrike Dear God]]", and the short two-line body of the email implies that she's too shocked to do anything other than tell you to keep digging. Third: soon after that, Dylan himself emails you regarding how ''strange'' it is that you can still utilize the violation system 20 years after it was disabled...]]

* AffectionateParody: Of late '90s Internet culture, specifically sites like Website/GeoCities and Angelfire. Emphasis on the "affectionate" part, since it's clear from the intense care and detail put into the structure of Hypnospace that the creators ''really'' admired this time of the internet.

** The Coolpunk genre started with a song by Fre3zer that ironically sampled the jingle of Gray's Peak Cola to deliver an anti-consumerist message. The company completely misses out on this and starts officially sponsoring Coolpunk to promote themselves.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: [[spoiler:Adrian and Dylan cross over from PointyHairedBoss to this in the leaked [=ChitChat=] logs. They commission a report on the health effects of Hypnospace, but keep the results a secret when they find out it's actually potentially dangerous.]]

** The members of the local hacker group [[spoiler:[=m1nx=]]] are much smarter, more capable, and more subtle than [[LeetSpeak T1MAGEDDON]], though their leader briefly considers letting him join. Among other pranks, they have convinced users to put an annoying song on their pages to prevent their headbands from exploding, [[spoiler:singlehandedly made and spread the Beefbrain hoax]], and [[spoiler:''created Teentopia's community leader.'']] They also have their limits, as shown when [[spoiler:[=re3koning_inc=] uses what little time remains between the Year 2000 update and the ''Outlaw'' release to desperately spread the word that the headbands actually are dangerous, going so far as to post in what is probably an administrators-only zone and link to evidence. Unfortunately, the evidence is very quickly removed by other Hypnospace enforcers (or Dylan Merchant himself) and the page is a mess of CHIME-violation messages by the time you can access it. Tim's "Mindcrash" takeover provides a perfect scapegoat for when something ''does'' go horribly wrong.]]

* DistantFinale: The last portion of the game [[spoiler:is an archival project in the PresentDay, with the in-universe clock and calendar displaying the actual date and time on your computer]].

** The technical aspects of Hypnospace Tune Sequencer (HSM) files make them direct analogs to UsefulNotes/{{MOD}} music files, but their reputation for sounding cheesy and their widespread use as background music for pages also makes them analogous to UsefulNotes/{{MIDI}} files. Likewise, AUD files, being high-compressed digital audio recordings, are Hypnospace's version of [[UsefulNotes/{{MP3}} MP3s]].

''Hypnospace Outlaw'' is an internet simulation AdventureGame developed by Jay Tholen and Mike Lasch, and published by No More Robots. It was fully funded via Kickstarter in October 2016, and was released in March 2019 on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and itch.io. A free [[DownloadableContent downloadable]] ExpansionPack, ''Hypnospace Plus'', was released in August 2020. This coincided with the game's release on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, UsefulNotes/Playstation4, and UsefulNotes/XboxOne, which all come bundled with the ''Plus'' content. A physical Nintendo Switch edition, packaged with a bonus audio CD, was released by Fangamer in September 2021.

** Aside from the conceit of a web service that can be accessed while asleep through a BrainComputerInterface, technology in general seems a little further along in this universe compared to the equivalent tech of our 1990s. The actual Hypnospace browser is much more fluid than real-life Internet browsers of the time, and download times are practically instant. Additionally, screenshots seen of the Game Boy-alike "[=GameChamp=] Portable" appear to be around the same level of quality as the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance or even the UsefulNotes/PlaystationPortable rather than the contemporaneous UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor.

* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler:It's possible to prevent two of the Mindcrash deaths, completely unintentionally if you haven't been spoiled, by getting the users banned. This of course means that the other victims were quite literally too pure for this world....]]

** Out-of-universe, the initial release of the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch version had a problem with occasional crashes during the visual glitching effect that occurs when trying to load the in-universe-outdated [=NetSettler=] pages or [[spoiler:randomly throughout all of Hypnospace on New Year's Eve]]. It was infrequent enough to not be that much of a problem, coupled with autosave mitigating the potential damage, but the issue was common enough for a patch to address it.

*** Leaka is based on a Toys/{{Furby}}, playing on its unintentionally creepy nature. Similarly, Yuckey is based on a Toys/{{Tamagotchi}}, and also includes the four face buttons of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation on its display.

** The Merchantsoft logo features a red spiral that looks very similar to the logo of the ''UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast''. [[StealthPun Yes, Dreamcast]].

Of course, every new form of technology is bound to have growing pains... and Hypnospace is no different. Sites filled with copyright infringing content, harassment and trolling, and sketchy virus-laden programs abound. That is where ''you'' come in: as a Merchantsoft-employed Hypnospace Enforcer, it is your duty to police the service for content that violates the rules, remove offending content, and if need be, flag sites for multiple/serious infractions and shut them down entirely. Your diligent efforts will be rewarded with Hypnocoins, the premier (and only!) currency of this brand new online community which can be spent on everything from music and wallpapers to virtual pets. So plug in, doze off, log on, and get to work!

* FourOneNineScam: Subverted. At first, you get Hypnomail from one Dimitry S Jackson, about him looking for donations to help him and a wealthy individual fund an expedition to find a hidden treasure. You can choose to fund this or ignore it. [[spoiler:After the final timeskip, you find that he was not actually trying to scam you, but that he's gone missing. One quest involves helping catalog his last known location, which he posted the coordinates to on Hypnospace before leaving on his expedition. Thanks to your donation, he could have become LostAtSea or could have been involved in a SinkingShipScenario. NiceJobBreakingItHero!]]

* AffablyEvil: Invoked: the lawyer/rep for the equivalent of the RIAA who threatens to take legal action against Merchantsoft if they don't take down all pirated soundtracks of works under their copyright (and this is ''the'' biggest threat to Merchantsoft operations so far, as no one wants to have an expensive tangle with the record industry, even for a big tech company) is noted to be very nice and polite by the responding MS employee.

** Abby [[spoiler:eventually succeeds in keeping Gumshoe Gooper on Hypnospace after Merchantsoft tried to follow the Briggs estate's copyright demands. Unfortunately, she doesn't follow the new policies, which requires asking for permission to use Gumshoe Gooper imagery, letting you take down her images again. This is also before the Mindcrash event that renders Hypnospace abandoned.]]

** Of all things, the sport of tennis was unfairly exploited in its infancy and eventually turned into "trennis," which involves a circular court with three players and a "ball-catcher" in the center. The game of tennis that we know is relegated to a page in the conspiracy-theory zone by someone who claims to be the descendant of the man who ''really'' invented the two-player, rectangular-court tennis. Additionally, reading the Sports section of the online newspaper shows that a very different set of teams and cities represent the Hypnospace universe's version of the NFL.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: While there's enough hints to solving cases scattered throughout Hypnospace, [[spoiler:there is also a secret page designed by Jay Tholen himself which, for a small fee, gives out both partial and complete solutions to most puzzles in the game. This is accessed by searching for the keyword "Hint"]]

* ArtisticLicense: Even with the [[StylisticSuck glitchy, low-resolution aesthetic]], Hypnospace is a lot more fluid and dynamic than the real-world internet of the time.
* AssholeVictim: [=ThatBrassyKid=]'s longer suspension and labeling as a "loner" to be moderated harder, compared to Zane's slap on the wrist, seems unfair. Then you check his and his (now ex-)girlfriend's page, and it's clear he's harassing and being an overall "Nice Guy"[[note]]Entitled men who think being nice to a girl means they must return their investment in the form of sex and/or a relationship[[/note]] and creep towards another teenager, to the point of ''dumping his existing and supportive girlfriend to chase her'' [[spoiler:and also making it all up in an apparent attempt for clout.]]

** [[spoiler:Dylan mentions on [=m1nx=] that despite having a whole board dedicated to it, the Coolpunk movement boiled down to "a few kids being weird online", and Coolfest didn't exceed 200, 300 people. Though not directly stated, it's implied that Gray's Peak and Merchantsoft were attempting to make it a much bigger deal than it really was.]]

* BadBoss: Adrian and Dylan Merchant are the two opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to Bad Bosses Of An Emerging Tech Company. Adrian Merchant is far too ''hands-off'', only thinking about how he can make the most profit from the invention, and being removed at best and downright callous at worst towards how it is used by the everyday users who made it a success. Dylan Merchant is far too ''hands-on'', having a dangerously-high emotional investment in the success of his invention, while neglecting the social and ethical responsibilities that come with his power and status because he still thinks of himself as "one of the boys".

* {{Bathos}}: [=BurnRubber50=]'s tribute page to his late wife, Lisa. It's pretty sad, but that doesn't change the fact that Carl Parker speaks in [[CapsLock all-caps]] and portrays the relationship between him and his wife with a gif of a ''skeleton biker''. And this is all while loud electric guitar-laden music plays in the background.
* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler:"Counselor Ronnie" started as a [=m1nx=] prank to see just how crappy they could make his content before Merchantsoft noticed. However, since Merchantsoft showed little interest in moderating Teentopia themselves (despite it being a zone for ''vulnerable children''), the person playing Ronnie ends up doing the job themselves for real]].

* BigGood: [[spoiler:Samantha and [=Re3koning_inc=], in different ways. Samantha is the OnlySaneEmployee of Merchantsoft and, having reasonable doubt to believe that they were complicit in the Mindcrash, she motivates the player to find and expose the Merchant brothers' crimes. [=Re3koning_inc=], though [[PresentAbsence not around in the present day]], already found the incriminating evidence by spying on the Merchant brothers and leaking their internal documents. Most of the endgame revolves around finding a way into [=Re3koning_inc=]'s hacker group [=m1nx=], using the [=allseeing3y3=] program to uncover their hidden messages, and using those to find the two sets of files they uploaded showing that Hypnospace is unsafe, and that the brothers knew about this.]]

** [[spoiler:Adrian and Dylan Merchant's culpability in the Mindcrash is exposed, exonerating Tim who was framed for the incident... though after Tim spent six years in prison and lived with nearly two decades of guilt.]]
** [[spoiler:Though Hypnospace (and by extension, the user-driven Internet of old) is long-gone, its legacy will live on in the hands of dedicated archivists and people who carry on its ideals.]]

* BoldInflation: A variant; the case list puts key phrases in ALL CAPS, making it seem like an automated form. It's later revealed that [[MissionControl Samantha]] writes them manually, and she complains about it: "I wish we didn't have to do this IMPORTANT THINGS IN CAPS thing because it's a pain to keep it consistent." [[spoiler:She ditches it in the final act when she uses the case system to collect evidence of Merchantsoft's crimes.]]

** The initial ad for [=HypnOS=] you get before the tutorial has a shot containing a plush of [[{{VideoGame/Dropsy}} Dropsy the Clown]]. One of the food items you can buy for your virtual pet is the medicinal cake pill...thing that plays an important role in his game.

** The aforementioned Zane is (initially) a fan of the Dumpster, and tries to imitate their style. However, because Zane is a genuine {{Jerkass}} and not just cynical and world-weary, the needlessly malicious result earns him a MedalOfDishonor from the Dumpster.
** Harris Lawton appears to be (a very childish) one. Whereas The Dumpster at least tries for humour and glosses over the geniunely horrible (such as the Coolfest disaster), Harris openly whines about anything not fitting into his vision of Coolpunk and maintains a secondary page with personal attacks on the targets of his ire, to the point where he obsesses over mocking the Chowder Man's [[spoiler:amputation and dead drummer that left Chowder Man in a deep depression]] even ''after'' having the initial content taken down.
* ChekhovsGunman: Tamara Frost, the relatively unimportant spoken word poet/musician who you could go the entire game without glancing at the Hypnospace page of. [[spoiler:After the Y2K Mindcrash incident, she becomes a famous author and the main financial backer of the Hypnospace Archival Project.]]

** Zane proudly displays the MedalOfDishonor the Dumpster gives him.
** Coolpunk genre started with a song by Fre3zer that ironically samples the jingle of Gray's Peak Cola to deliver an anti-consumerist message. The company completely misses out on this and starts offically sponsoring Coolpunk to promote themselves

** [[LeetSpeak T1MAGEDDON]] (a.k.a. Tim), a misanthropic teenager desperately trying to impress a girl with his hacking skills. [[EvenEvilHasStandards He's got limits]], with viruses intended to annoy rather than destroy, but he's still a constant thorn in your side; a number of your missions are cleaning up his handiwork. [[spoiler:In the DistantFinale, [[TookALevelInKindness he's much nicer]].]]

** [[{{Downplayed}} Subtle]], but Hypnospace has the same general values of real-world 1999. Zane insults the Dumpster by calling its writer a "fruity fairy", two outdated homophobic slurs that have since been reclaimed -- and when [=T1MAGEDDON=] breaks into Zane's page, his idea of comedy is to make the page of a macho {{Jerkass}} into a crude CampGay stereotype -- while actual LGBT users generally avoid explicitly stating their sexuality in favor of the "hs_lifestyles" tag, whose meaning is obvious to the modern reader with its rainbow coloring but avoids directly stating anything. The use of the word "lifestyles" in the tag's name additionally invokes the common misconception at the time that being LGBT+ is a choice.

* DisproportionateRetribution: When solving a case about music piracy [[spoiler:you find the culprit is Dylan Merchant himself. Reporting him causes him to send you a furious email and use his admin status to ban your account for no valid reason.]]

* DownloadableContent: August 2020 saw the release of ''Hypnospace Plus'', a free update that also came automatically with console releases. It adds extra pages, games, cosmetics, tracks and more.

** Hypnospace Heaven is a virtual graveyard in Goodtime Valley where people can leave messages to their deceased loved ones
** Carl Parker III has a memorial page to his dead wife on his site that is that is andmitedly looks goofy despite it subject matter due to the the fact it's made entirely of clipart. With Carl representing himself with a gif of a skeleton biker and his wife with a gif of an angel.
** [[spoiler:Dylan's final version of Outlaw serves as one to those who died in the Mindcrash. There are are very few cars, each representing a victim. Capturing them causes them to "ascend" and a short eulogy being downloaded. After all the victims are ascended the game shows you that the outlaw is Dylan himself who does not resist at all showing that he admits his guilt and responsibility for it.]]

** Hypii gives a special message if your Hypnocoin balance is exactly [[FourTwentyBlazeIt 420]] or [[LOL69 69]].

* EveryoneIsSatanInHell: [[invoked]] ''[=SquisherZ=]'' are accused of being "satanic" by the website Lookout Ministries, referencing similar real-life accusations against ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''. Their arguments amount to "some [=SquisherZ=] look like wolves and snakes, which are used to represent evil in the Bible" and "some [=SquisherZ=] have eyes and stars on their designs, which are occult symbols."

** [=NetSettler=], the non-sleeptime web browser Merchantsoft developed and based Hypnospace upon, references Netscape Navigator, which popularized the concept of web browsers in the real world.

* FanWorkBan: In-universe. The very first mission you are given is to take down any unauthorized images of the character Gumshoe Gooper, as enforced by the estate of its creator. This can potentially include [[ExaggeratedTrope pencil drawings by first-grade children]] that their teacher uploaded to her page... [[spoiler:which snowballs into a counter-movement claiming that the ban is a Communist scheme.]]

** Merchantsoft's chief visual designer discusses the various inspirations and themes behind the [=HypnOS=] logo. [[spoiler:One of these is rapid eye movement, the first (and least-restful) stage of the sleep cycle. It turns out the [=HypnOS=] headbands, in order to interface with the users' brains, keep the users in [=REM=] sleep for almost the entire night which means they aren't getting enough proper rest.]]

** On her personal page, [=DarkTwilightTiff=] briefly mentions that [[spoiler:she has epilepsy. While she hasn't had a seizure in years, her disorder probably didn't react well to the Mindcrash...]]

* FrameUp: [[spoiler:[=T1MAGGEDON=] might be a {{troll}}ing [[TheCracker cracker]], but [[EvenEvilHasStandards he's no killer]].]] In truth, [[spoiler:the cause of the Mindcrash incident is actually an update pushed without proper QA, combined with the shoddy hardware of the BrainComputerInterface]].

** Invoked in the game's story: [[spoiler:''Outlaw'', the pet project game of Dylan Merchant, is so insanely glitchy and buggy that it bricks your [=HypnOS=] system the first time you test it, then ''kills'' people when a second test version is pushed out.]]

** The genre d'jour when you first arrive in Hypnospace is Coolpunk, which [[NonIndicativeName is not punk]] but a sort of a synth movement with samples from dad rock, Christmas music, and advertising jingles similar to {{Vaporwave}}. Mostly StylisticSuck, with some silly but surprisingly enjoyable pieces mixed in, and a couple of unironically emotional and expressive pieces. [[spoiler:[[CondemnedByHistory The genre collapses]] during your tenure as Enforcer, overtaken by the cave-themed Fungus Scene and a few other former coolpunks coming up with potential new genres.]] [[invoked]]

* GlobalCurrencyException: An in-universe example; Hypnocoins are used for Hypnospace transactions but have no real-world value, and one of your jobs as an enforcer is to crack down on [=CapaCash=], which is part of a scheme to get around this restriction.

** ''Hypnospace Outlaw'' itself has elements of this as well. Collect more Hypnocoin, collect software, collect new music for your Tunebox and sample packs for your SGS, collect new wallpapers and themes.... [[spoiler:Collecting ''all of Hypnospace'' in your access device's absurdly large storage-memory serves as your final job.]]

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Tiffany helped Tim create the "True Tranquility" creepypasta stories, and basing them on existing Hypnospace Citizens was her idea; still, it seems unlikely that she realized just how far Tim would go with the idea. All of the 'digital parasites' are ''extremely'' mean-spirited caricatures of the citizens they're based on. Tim's writing makes it clear that he genuinely views most of them, especially the crippled Arlan, as being "leeches on society." She also never meant for him to go to the lengths of creating an ''actual'' True Tranquility virus.

* InsaneTrollLogic: At first, the hidden socialism page written by an apparently mild-mannered Hypnospace user proclaims that the Gumshoe Gooper estate removing "unauthorised" reproductions of the titular character in any shape or form must be a comrade, as they are actively removing a "imperialist propaganda" cartoon... even though it later turns out the estate was just removing the reproductions for copyright (and thus capitalist) reasons. The "imperialist propaganda" bit seems like typical tankie talk, but it does turn out the creator was an ardent anti-communist.

** [[spoiler:Dylan Merchant made ''Outlaw'' to win back customers that were bored of Hypnospace's lack of features. Ironically, ''Outlaw'' turned out so buggy that it killed some of the users and the rest completely abandoned Hypnospace ''and'' its competitor.]]

* ItsASmallNetAfterAll: Though the game centers around a very realistic [[TheAlternet alternet]] with hundreds of unique pages, that still pales in comparison to the real-world Internet even in the game's setting of 1999. It's justified by your occupation as an Enforcer, as you only have assigned access to a small portion of Hypnospace's true size.

** As it turns out, [[spoiler:Dylan Merchant.]] Appearing to be a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and fellow geek, [[spoiler:he, instead, is a typical techbro with an ego bigger than the sun. Even before his accidental murder of at least four [=HypnoSpace=] users and the subsequent cover-up, he begins screaming in all caps whenever he thinks his competence (which is nil) is vaguely questioned, even if it's reasonable criticism. He tries to fire a female underling ''and'' dox her when she raises concerns about a program Dylan worked on, steals credit in multiple ways like piracy, and kicks the player off moderation duty in a fit of rage when his aforementioned piracy is reported.]]
** [=CPColdSnap=] secretly hosts a page flaming the fuck out of anyone he deems a "Coolpunk poser", and even after Coolpunk goes on the decline, decides the best course of action is to [[spoiler:openly jeer a dead man out of some kind of sad, obesssive belief he caused Coolpunk's decline.]]

** [=T1MAGEDDON=] is a troublemaker and causes you the biggest headaches early on, but he very much cares for Tiff and his other friends. [[spoiler:After the time skip he is a happily married man with a young daughter.]]

*** Arlan's story makes fun of his handicap, implies he's only good at being a salesman because people pity him, and outright refers to him as a "leech" on society.

** Even Tim doesn't go as far as [=CPColdSnap=]. On top of being a blowhard gatekeeper who keeps a hate page laden with personal attacks towards "posers" in Coolpunk, he later obsessively mocks Chowder Man's [[spoiler:disaster that resulted in his leg being amputated and the death of a bandmate]] as both karma and some kind of grudge for "killing Coolpunk", even after being suspended at least once. He goes so far as to register a new account ''and'' potentially a new headband (that costs ''hundreds of dollars - thousands'' if adjusted for 2019 inflation) just to continue mocking [[spoiler:a dead man]] out of nothing more than elitism.

* LoggingOntoTheFourthWall: Websites for both [[https://prof.help/ Professor Helper]] and [[https://capa.cash/ CapaCa$h]] exist.
* LeetSpeak: Pretty common among hackers; see [=T1MAGEDDON=], the hacker group [=m1nx=], and the program [=allseeing3y3=], for example.

* MeaningfulName: Hypnospace and the operating system it runs on, [=HypnOS=], are used while sleeping. Their names include "Hypnos", the personification of sleep in Greek mythology.

* MiscarriageOfJustice: Tiff tries to bring harassment she gets from [=ChitChat=] to the attention of Merchantsoft and the Enforcers. Since her page hosts the screenshots and since [=ChitChat=] is a separate service, it's ''her'' posts that get taken down while Dylan refuses to do anything about the situation at the moment.

** In the base game, the third [[spoiler:(actually fourth)]], ''[=SquisherZ=]''-themed virtual pet talked about on a few pages is never available to the player at any point. It was added for the ''Hypnospace Plus'' update.
** The Dumpster's article on weird FLST directories in chapter 2 lists one with some kind of "poetry" on it under a non-functional number. (The ID number is the same as Sarah Sanders - it's not impossible to imagine that she took it down after seeing it getting laughed at.) Also corrected in ''Hypnospace Plus'', where you can see Sanders' college poetry about her depression and battles with mental illness there. [[spoiler:Taken down by New Year's Eve, with an angry note that [[AwfulWeddedLife her husband saw it]].]]

* TheMoralSubstitute: ''C.H.O.S.E.N.: Anointed'', a Christian-themed counterpart to the FPS ''Kataklysm'', is mentioned on a few pages. Previews show that it's about a pastor who uses a sword with a bible stuck to it and [[InstrumentOfMurder musical instrument guns]] to destroy things like a children's museum featuring an exhibition on evolution. Game reviewer The Observer claims it's surprisingly good despite less-than-impressive graphics and insane fundie silliness.

* NeverWasThisUniverse: It initially seems like the 1990s were the main point of diversion from our own timeline, but then you discover what happened to the concept of ''tennis''.

* PaymentPlanPitch: One of Professor Helper's ads is for "Katie's Kuddly Kat Korner", a cat bed designed for corners, which is available for "only 4 easy payments of 29.95 USD". $120 - in 1999 money no less! - for what basically amounts to a triangular cat bed. [-Cat not included.-]

** Adrian himself isn't great. He seems to be prone to angry rants, [[spoiler:such as if you flag Professor Helper's page after you were instructed not to]], and is clearly lacking in basic tech knowledge needed for running a major software company. [[spoiler:The fantasy zones being condensed onto a crappy server and needing to have speed caps put on them was his idea, because all the "geek zones" were going against his vision of Hypnospace being for "regular people", and he cared more about that then the backlash from pissing off one of the service's largest audiences.]]

** The game has a mild '90s {{Cyberpunk}} vibe to it, and features an all-controlling corporation who has a monopoly on a peripheral that lets you directly jack-in to the internet while you sleep.

* RainbowSpeak: In the most literal sense, anyone on Hypnospace can do this since your interactions are through webpages. Mechanically some hints as to what to look out for are explicitly highlighted by making the text pulse different colors.

* {{Retraux}}: The aesthetic of the game draws inspiration from the earliest days of the internet, especially Angelfire and Geocities. Low-quality videos and gifs abound, and much like in the user pages of old, almost every site has an autoplaying MIDI-like song.

** While Enforcers have to deal with the antics of various Hypnospace hackers, [[spoiler:Dylan is fully aware of who they are and even in their private chatroom.]]
** Roddy Wall is a Merchantsoft programmer disgruntled over the condensing of the Fantasy Zones, and [[spoiler:makes a program to bypass the speed cap imposed on the server the Freelands are hosted on.]]

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: In-Universe. By November 26th, 1999, Jan "[=Fre3zer=]" Wolf had become a pariah after he was caught lip-syncing during his set at the disastrous Coolfest '99, thus exposing him as a fraud and [[GenreKiller causing the demise of Coolpunk as an emerging genre/movement]].

** Savvier players will know not to click on any of the out-of-the-ordinary links or download dodgy-looking software. [[spoiler:Apart from the fact that an early case requires downloading Professor Helper to zero in on the payment system used by the ads it forces.]]

** The auditory variety shows up as part of the tutorial, with some of the tutorial lines ''not'' narrated by the usual narrator, and instead read out with a ton of audio clipping and half-assed delivery by the poor intern who makes up half of the Hypnospace Patrol Department staff.

** While it's much harder to do without having played the game already, [[spoiler:you can find and report Dylan's FLST page, and skip straight to New Year's Eve, as soon as you start the game.]] This one was patched out in ''Plus'', suggesting it wasn't intentional.

* SingerNamedrop: All songs made by Chowder Man have him saying his stage name at least once. That even includes [[spoiler:a private unreleased song he made to cope with losing his leg in a helicopter accident]]

* SpringtimeForHitler: [[spoiler:Councilor Ronnie]] was the result of M1nx making a [[spoiler:very, very blatant troll account and seeing how long it would take Merchantsoft to notice]]. Not only do they [[spoiler:make Ronnie the community leader of Teentopia, he '''earns Merchantsoft a federal grant''']].

** The Enforcer video guide has portions where the professional voiceover is replaced by an intern that makes mistakes and uses low-quality equipment.
** Various user websites abuse low-quality gifs, sound effects, and format templates.
** The [=HypnOS=] will run more and more slowly as time goes on, simulating memory leak, until it crashes or the player performs a reboot.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: {{Invoked|Trope}}. [[spoiler:The final act of the game takes place in the present day, long after the Mindcrash incident convinced people that sleeptime browsing was dangerous and Merchantsoft went out of business during the ensuing investigations. The tech world has moved on, and Hypnospace now exists primarily as a time capsule of early internet history. Dylan uses a 'D-Phone', implying sleeptime is still in usage to some extent.]]

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Inverted, in one case. [[spoiler:Zane can be banned from Hypnospace by taking every opportunity to strike and flag his account, including “his” new stuff on New Years' Eve. If you pull this off, then Zane will be barred from accessing Hypnospace...just before the Mindcrash incident, which otherwise kills him.]]

* YouAreWhatYouHate: Unfortunately for the SAI Freelands, they're rather like Merchantsoft: [[spoiler:glitchy pieces of shit that abuse power like mad over the pettiest of things and prone to manchild rageouts over perceived defiance.]]
* ViolationOfCommonSense: Professor Helper: clearly intended for those without 'net savvy. Free to install, but costs 11hc to uninstall. Has a legal disclaimer that is hard-to-read and gives the company ''way'' too many rights and permissions. [[spoiler:Mostly true for the player as well, as Professor Helper's ads are the primary way of finding the sites utilizing the unauthorized [=CapaCash=] service.]]

** After the first TimeSkip, Hypnospace is a mess. Rulebreaking has run rampant in the time that you've been gone, because your hardware wasn't the only enforcer unit that was damaged by [[PointyHairedBoss Dylan Merchant's incompetence]]. For about three weeks, there were only two moderators left on the entire {{Alternet}}, and they could only do so much due to being overwhelmed.

** [[spoiler:Three in quick succession: First, the financial backer and co-leader of the HAP happily announcing that their latest member is none other than former Merchantsoft lead programmer [[BigBad Dylan Merchant]]. Second: Using your new Rule 6 to report to Samantha the screenshots of the chatlogs in which Dylan and Adrian admit to burying the report about Hypnospace's potential danger. To hammer in the seriousness of this, the email she sends you after closing the case is just titled “URGENT: [[PrecisionFStrike Dear God]]”, and the short two-line body of the email implies that she's too shocked to do anything other than tell you to keep digging. Third: Soon after that, Dylan himself emails you regarding how ''strange'' it is that you can still utilize the violation system 20 years after it was disabled...]]

Of course, every new form of technology is bound to have growing pains... and Hypnospace is no different. Sites filled with copyright infringing content, harassment and trolling, and sketchy virus-laden programs abound. That is where ''you'' come in: as a Merchantsoft-employed Hypnospace Enforcer, it is your duty to police the service for content that violates the rules, remove offending content, and if need be, flag sites for multiple[=/=]serious infractions and shut them down entirely. Your diligent efforts will be rewarded with Hypnocoins, the premier (and only!) currency of this brand new online community which can be spent on everything from music and wallpapers to virtual pets. So plug in, doze off, log on, and get to work!

** One user, [=zane_rocks_14=], is a bit of a blowhard, such that other users are very vocal about their disdain for him. Not that it stops one of the people he's going after from setting up a shame page in return.

** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with Zane and Corey's situation. On the first chapter, Zane makes an entire page dedicated to mocking other users while Corey makes a page and badge insulting Zane back. Zane gets let off with a warning while Corey is given a three-day ban. While seemingly a situation where the bully gets away as their victim is punished for fighting back, Corey ''did'' portray Zane's character as getting bloodily decapitated in a webzone housing a young audience (though it's an animation of him getting punched in later versions)

** The Dumpster's article on weird FLST directories in chapter 2 lists one with some kind of “poetry” on it under a non-functional number. (The ID number is the same as Sarah Sanders - it's not impossible to imagine that she took it down after seeing it getting laughed at.) Also corrected in ''Hypnospace Plus'', where you can see Sanders' college poetry about her depression and battles with mental illness there. [[spoiler:Taken down by New Years' Eve, with an angry note that [[AwfulWeddedLife her husband saw it]].]]

* TheNineties: The game starts in late 1999.

** Comes to a head when you're tasked with finding out who's distributing pirated music on Hypnospace. [[spoiler:It's Dylan. Flagging his downloads has him scramble to remove your Enforcer privileges and prevent anyone else at Merchantsoft from seeing the [=CHIME=] reports. After a TimeSkip, Samantha puts you back on the force, unsure why you were banned and wondering if she did it on accident.]]
* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: In-Universe. By November 26, 1999, Jan "[=Fre3zer=]" Wolf had become a pariah after he was caught lip-syncing during his set at the disastrous Coolfest '99, thus exposing him as a fraud and [[GenreKiller causing the demise of Coolpunk as an emerging genre/movement]].

** The logo of [=CP_Shaman=]'s page, two hands (one with a ring) with their fingers over a peace sign, invokes the imagery of an infamous real-life ShockSite. Developer Jay Tholen, when the image was posted on a Reddit thread of accidental imagery, replied with "Accidental though? :-)"

** The "T-Nubs" prank is likely based on the moral panic of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenkem Jenkem]] from the late [=2000s=], where kids were supposedly marinating shit and piss to get high. Coincidentally, Jenkem is an ''actual'' thing from the [=90s=]...

* TechnologyMarchesOn: {{Invoked}}. [[spoiler:The final act of the game takes place in the present day, long after the Mindcrash incident convinced people that sleeptime browsing was dangerous and Merchantsoft went out of business during the ensuing investigations. The tech world has moved on, and Hypnospace now exists primarily as a time capsule of early internet history. Dylan uses a 'D-Phone', implying sleeptime is still in usage to some extent.]]

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Zane proudly displays the MedalOfDishonor the Dumpster gives him.

** Hypnospace Heaven is a virtual graveyard in Goodtime Valley where people can leave messages to their decesed loved ones

** [[Spoiler: The Dylan's final version of Outlaw serves as one to thouse who died in the Mindcrash. There are are very few cars, each representing a victim. Capturing them sauses them to "assend" and a short euology deing dowloaded. After all the victims are assended the game shows you that the outlaw is Dylan himself who does not resist at all showing that he admits his guilt and resposibilty for it.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

In April 2022, the creators [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufMl2DlWX7w announced]] a sequel to ''Hypnospace Outlaw'' titled ''Dreamsettler'', which puts you in the shoes of a Sleepnet private detective during an alternate history period of 2003-2005. At the same time, they announced a spin-off game called ''[[VideoGame/SlayersXTerminalAftermathVenganceOfTheSlayer Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer]]'', a {{VideoGame/Doom}}-like FPS game created by Zane (one of the characters from ''Hypnospace Outlaw'', now 37 years old) [[StylisticSuck based on ideas from when he was a teenager]].

* {{Feelies}}: The physical UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch edition of the game comes with a 19-minute mini CD called ''The Sounds of Hypnospace Audio Tour'', a soundtrack sampler which is presented as an in-universe promo disc (akin to AOL's free trial discs) and contains exclusive content not found on the game's soundtrack.

* PeripheryDemographic: In-universe. Hypnospace is a service meant for ordinary people to connect with each other, but a significant portion of its users (at least a third, by Dylan's estimate) are "nerds" into niche music, gaming, sci-fi, and so on. A running theme through the game is that Merchantsoft wants to make Hypnospace more mainstream at the expense of its existing audience. Adrian is dismissive toward them, and figures that the profits from Hypnospace going mainstream will cover what they lose from the "geeks" leaving in protest. Meanwhile, Dylan's misguided attempt to appeal to the nerdy community with ''Outlaw'' leaves everyone unimpressed [[spoiler:and backfires horribly, causing ''everyone'' to abandon Hypnospace and lose trust in the safety of sleeptime computing as a whole]].

* PeripheryDemographic: In-universe. Hypnospace is a service meant for ordinary people to connect with each other, but a significant portion of its users (at least a third, by Dylan's estimate) are "nerds" into niche music, gaming, sci-fi, and so on. A running theme through the game is that Merchantsoft wants to make Hypnospace more mainstream at the expense of its existing audience. Adrian is dismissive toward them, and figures that the profits from Hypnospace going mainstream will cover what they lose from the "geeks" leaving in protest. Meanwhile, Dylan's misguided attempt to appeal to the nerdy community with ''Outlaw'' leaves everyone unimpressed [[spoiler:and backfires horribly, causing everyone to abandon Hypnospace and lose trust in the safety of sleeptime computing]].

* PeripheryDemographic: In-universe. Hypnospace is a service meant for ordinary people to connect with each other, but a significant portion of its users (at least a third, by Dylan's estimate) are "nerds" into niche music, gaming, sci-fi, and so on. A running theme through the game is that Merchantsoft wants to make Hypnospace more mainstream at the expense of its existing audience. Adrian dismisses them as geeks and figures that Hypnospace hitting mainstream will make back what they lose from the "geeks" leaving in protest, and Dylan's misguided attempt to keep the geeks by proving Hypnospace can run games [[spoiler:causes a disaster that not only causes ''everyone'' to leave Hypnospace, but dream-based computing forever.]]
* {{Phonymon}}: ''[=SquisherZ=]'', which looks like ''Pokemon'' crossed with ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}''.

** Even Tim doesn't go as far as [=CPColdSnap=]. On top of being a blowhard gatekeeper who keeps a hate page laden with personal attacks towards "posers" in Coolpunk, he later obsessively mocks Chowder Man's [[spoiler:disaster that resulted in his leg being amputated and the death of a bandmate]] as both karma and some kind of grudge for "killing Coolpunk", even after being suspended at least once. He goes so far as to register a new account ''and'' potentially a new headband just to continue mocking [[spoiler:a dead man]] out of nothing more than elitism.

* PeripheryDemographic: In-universe. Hypnospace is a service meant for ordinary people to connect with each other, but a significant portion of its users (at least a third, by Dylan's estimate) are "nerds" into niche music, gaming, sci-fi, and so on. A running theme through the game is that Merchantsoft wants to make Hypnospace more mainstream at the expense of its existing audience. Adrian dismisses them as geeks and figures that Hypnospace will make back what they lose from the "geeks" leaving in protest, and Dylan's misguided attempt to keep the geeks by proving Hypnospace can run games [[spoiler:causes a disaster that not only causes ''everyone'' to leave Hypnospace, but dream-based computing forever.]]
* {{Phonymon}}: ''[=SquisherZ=]'', which looks like it's crossed with ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}''.

* {{Retcon}}: The news report seen following [[spoiler:the Mindcrash]] pretty unambiguously states that it caused the end of [[spoiler:the Sleeptime computing industry]]. However, ''Dreamsettler'' apparently takes place in the mid 2000s, well after [[spoiler:the Mindcrash]].