Basic Trope: Content in a Video Game that is (or usually was) only available for a certain period of time through online services.
- Straight: Several cars in a Trope Rider can no longer be unlocked, as the Downloadable Content associated with them has been pulled from the store.
- Exaggerated: Trope Rider was only digitally distributed - that is, the entire game is Temporary Online Content.
- Alternatively, Trope Rider requires a connection to an external server that is no longer available, rendering the game unplayable.
- Trope Rider is one of many Defunct Online Video Games.
- Downplayed:
- Although the cars in Trope Rider associated with the DLC are no longer attainable, they're still on the disc and can be driven - you just can't unlock them for regular use anymore.
- The cars do return to the store every once in a while.
- Justified:
- Trope Rider incorporated real world, licensed cars into its lineup of Downloadable Content. As the license to use the cars has expired, the cars are no longer available.
- Trope Rider incorporated some event specific DLC vehicles, such as the Cooky Cola Xmas Truck.
- Inverted: The cars are included on the disk - there's no way to remove them, and they can be attained normally, long after the servers have shut down.
- Subverted: A car is added to the game and is only available for a few months, only to then be added to the game permanently.
- Double Subverted: A car is added to the game as a Pre-Order Bonus. Several years later, the car is put up as Downloadable Content as part of a limited-time online event. After this, the car can no longer be unlocked.
- Parodied: A certain, "ultra rare" car is only available for purchase during one day of one month of the year for a truly exorbitant amount of money. The car in question is the Tropehatsu Dwarf, and the game questions your sanity if you somehow manage to attain it. Even better, it's not even special; it was on the disc as part of an otherwise unrelated secret the whole time!
- Zig-Zagged: A certain car is added to the game as Downloadable Content from day one. The content is delisted a year later, but comes back after several months. The car is removed again due to licensing issues, this time adding a patch with completely removes the car from the game, even if it had been bought... except you can still see CPU drivers using it.
- Averted: Temporary content is never added to the game in the first place; all content is included on the game disk.
- Enforced: The developers are under a strict license to show a licensed car in their game, with this license stating that the car can only be available for purchase during a period of six months.
- Lampshaded: "Aren't you glad you got this car before the lawyers made us pull it?"
- Invoked: Similar to Enforced, but the content is limited specifically to make it more valuable to players.
- Exploited: Before the cars are delisted, players go to the in-game auction house and start selling their duplicates for ludicrous amounts of in-game currency.
- Defied: Before the servers shut down, the developers release the online-only content as archive on their website, where it can be installed and put into a player's game for free. The developers encourage players to copy the content somewhere safe and Keep Circulating the Tapes.
- Discussed: "All new cars will be available permanently – no limited time shenaningans involved."
- Conversed: "I hate how I will never again be able to obtain certain cars just because I started playing this game late in its lifetime."
- Deconstructed: After Trope Rider's servers shut down, fans are wary to buy the next title lest it suffers the same fate. Trope Rider 2 proceeds to flop on release, since far fewer people are willing to buy it.
Quick! Get a copy of Temporary Online Content before the servers shut down!
