Malicious Slander in Video Games.
- Crusader Kings II: A ruler can spread vicious rumors about another character, lowering everyone else's opinion of them which makes their armies weaker, as their vassals and commanders dislike them, and their realm more likely to experience internal strife.
- Dragon's Dogma: After defeating the titular dragon that has been scouring the land and was prophesized to perform a ritual with a Fallen Hero that would bring the apocalypse, you return home only to discover that the apocalypse has occurred. The Duke, who was famous for dealing with the last dragon, has speed-aged into an old man. He reveals that last time, he made a deal with the dragon, who did NOT destroy the world but simply slept until now. By rejecting the Deal with the Devil and defeating the dragon YOU have signaled the end of the world. In spite, the Duke publically slanders YOU as the Deal Taker, justifying his claim with the destruction that surely would not have come if you destroyed the dragon as the prophecies (and common sense) foretold. They side with him.
- Fallen London: One of the many weapons a Persuasive character has at their disposal. By the time you've talked your way into the Palace, you can start horrific rumors about practically anyone, and casually hinder any rivals you have through rumourmongering.
- In Fallout: New Vegas, if you're working for the NCR and choose to negotiate a truce with the Brotherhood of Steel rather than destroy them as Colonel Moore ordered, Moore will take it out on you by going on a smear campaign against your character, which in-game means you gain some negative NCR rep.
- In Final Fantasy VII the news calls AVALANCHE a terrorist group. Which is entirely accurate.
- In the remake, Shin-Ra intentionally overloaded the generator that AVALANCHE blew up, in order to ramp up their criminal charges from saboteurs to mass-murderers. They also blame Wutai for funding AVALANCHE so they can start another war against them.
- Final Fantasy X: After Tidus and company crash Yuna's wedding to an insane creep of a priest, the church of Yevon brands the party heretics. Mostly to discredit the party from revealing the supposed luddites of Bevelle are gun-toting techno-hedonists.
- Hidden City reveals that Violet runs an underground newspaper called City of Shadows Herald that, among other things, prints false articles to defame the Security Service, especially Mr. Black, in order to destroy the citizens' trust towards them so that Violet's Octopuses can better establish control over the region.
- In inFAMOUS the "Voice of Truth" does this to Cole at the behest of the Big Bad in order to toughen him up. Whether it sticks depends on what you choose to do.
- Knight Bewitched: There are multiple stories about Gwen floating around, most notably, the idea that she is infecting people with Bog Fever and stealing their blood, when in truth, she is healing the people sick with it and asking for blood samples afterwards to keep making tests and medicine.
- At the beginning of the arson cases segment in L.A. Noire Cole's partner sets him up protect his superiors from a scandal, using the fact he had an affair with a German woman (a refugee from Nazi Germany) to brand him a traitor who ran out on his wife (she threw him out). This is lampshaded by the description of the default outfit for the arson cases;"Don't believe everything you read in the papers."
- Rise of the Tomb Raider: Trinity did this to Lara father, Richard Croft, when he started researching for certain mythical phenomenon that they were also searching for, turning the press, the public, his academic peers and even long-time colleagues against him until he was assassinated by them and died in disgrace. By the time the game starts, they've started to do the same thing to Lara, who is picking up where her father left off.
- In Saints Row: The Third, midway through the story, Killbane releases a doctored video, framing the Saints for the destruction of a bridge at its grand opening, during a live interview to turn public opinion against the now-celebrity Saints Gang. In reality, the attack was carried out by Killbane and his Luchadores against the Saints, who just happened to be on the bridge when Killbane attacked. That the Saints reacted to this by calling in and issuing death threats to Killbane during the interview, then storming the building and killing the security probably didn't do them any favors either.
