Basic Trope: Background characters do things in video games that are meant to give the game more atmosphere, but end up seeming stilted and weird.
- Straight: In the game Alice's Amazing Adventure, there's a character called Bob who is always seen happily mowing his lawn, even when the bad guys attack, when Alice climbs on/steals/breaks things, and at night. He also has no dialogue except for "Hi, I'm Bob" when you click on him, even during scenes where a normal person would have something to say.
- Exaggerated: Bob appears in many settings, and he still never speaks unless clicked on or says anything but "Hi, I'm Bob" and he always has a lawnmower and is "mowing" the ground even in indoor scenes.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is not present if the player takes Alice past his house at night, but during the daytime scenes, he'll always be happily mowing his lawn and says nothing but "Hi, I'm Bob" even in situations such as fight scenes.
- Bob will look scared during attack scenes, but he still pays no heed to Alice climbing on things, breaking them, and stealing them, says nothing but "Hi, I'm Bob", and mows his lawn at night.
- Bob does different things depending on the setting and has a variety of dialogue, but he still always seems happy and during action scenes etc, he never tries to help or run away.
- Justified:
- Bob is a robot.
- Bob is a ghost specifically stuck performing actions of his own life out of context. Many allusions to Alzheimer's Disease are made.
- Inverted: Bob acts just the way a normal person would, but Alice never replies to the background characters, foolishly sticks around when the player idles even in the middle of an attack, etc.
- Subverted: In the updated version of the game, Bob gets more dialogue and reacts appropriately to Alice's odd behaviour, the bad guys' attacks, etc.
- Double Subverted: He still mows his lawn at night, though.
- Parodied: Alice is a normal person who was sucked into a video game. She tries to ask Bob for help, but Bob's just a mindless NPC and acts accordingly.
- Zigzagged: Depending on the setting/level/time/etc, Bob's actions are sometimes stilted and sometimes perfectly logical.
- Averted:
- Alice and the bad guys are the only characters in the game.
- Bob acts perfectly logically.
- Enforced:
- The writers couldn't be bothered/didn't have the time to write realistic actions for Bob, so they just had him mow the lawn with a smile on his face 24/7.
- Bob was number 39856 on the list of Needs Appropriate Actions when Time Crunch forced the developers to stop at number 12395.
- Lampshaded: Bob's neighbours complain about him mowing the lawn at night.
- Invoked: Evulz kills Bob and uses his ghost as decoration knowing he would perform confused actions in a loop like that.
- Exploited: Alice acts stilted so she is ignored.
- Defied: "I can't just stand here and mow the lawn while this lady's being attacked!"
- Discussed: "In my last adventure, there was a guy who'd do literally nothing but mow his lawn and introduce himself."
- Conversed: "Does that NPC know how to do anything besides either mow his lawn or introduce himself?"
- Implied:
- Deconstructed: Bob and his neighbours suffer Sleep Deprivation.
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama:
- Played for Horror: Bob's stilted acting just shows how much of his mind is gone now.
Back to Artificial Atmospheric Actions.
