The world of game design is filled with countless tropes. Everything fromAI behaviorto how a certain boss should look to how the player is allowed to interact with NPCs is all influenced on at least some level by tropes that have been in place since the very dawn of gaming. While some tropes are specific to one particular genre or one era of gaming, the colorfully-named ‘Die, chair, die!’ trope isn’t one of them, with its influence stretching across the entire gaming industry.
Though the ‘Die, chair, die!’ trope is much more prevalent in action-adventure games, it can be found in just about any gaming genre if players are looking hard enough.FromThe Legend of ZeldatoHalf-Life, no popular franchise is free from the ‘Die, chair, die!’ trope, and once fans have spotted it, they’ll be hard-pressed to ever forget it.
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The ‘Die, Chair, Die!’ Gaming Trope Explained
One of the more overt gaming tropes out there, the ‘Die, chair, die!’ trope encompasses practically any moment in a video game when the player is forced to destroy a piece of harmless furniture to progress. This can be anything from the titular chair blocking a doorway, to a palette propped up against a window, to a sea of pots littering the ground. With most games lacking any ability to reallyinteract with these objects in a non-violent way, players are forced to either barrel themselves toward the object or slash away at them with their weapon in order to unblock the path.
Sometimes, these destructible objects won’t even necessarily be in the player’s way, but the player is still encouraged to destroy them, with a coin, jewel, piece of ammo, or even health dropping from one. The ‘Die, chair, die!’ gaming trope can often go hand-in-hand withan impressive new physics system, with the developer deliberately placing more destructible furniture around the environment so that the player has more exposure to the mechanics.
The Best Examples of the ‘Die, Chair, Die!’ Trope in Gaming
Perhaps the greatest example of the ‘Die, chair, die!’ trope in gaming isthe entireThe Legend of Zeldaseries. Throughout theLegend of Zeldafranchise, players are consistently encouraged to break any pots that they find, either out in the wild, or in some unsuspecting shopkeeper’s establishment. Either smashing these pots with a weapon or rolling into them headfirst will often reward the player with some shiny Rupees, and maybe even some higher-tier rewards if they’re really lucky. InThe Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, this trope is subverted in a fun way, with Mila’s father actually fining Link if he breaks the pots in his house.
The LEGO games are the epitome of the ‘Die, chair, die!’ trope in the gaming industry. The vast majority of the environment in any given LEGO game is completely destructible, from benches to lampposts to walls. Players are often required to destroy much of the environment to progress a puzzle, using the fallen blocks as the materials needed to complete a new structure. Destroying the environment will also reward the player with high amounts of cash, encouraging players to destroy as much as they can during the course of a level in order to earn the Super Bonus. EventheHalf-Lifeseriesuses the ‘Die, chair, die!’ trope, with the player needing to smash their way through crates and glass panes with their iconic crowbar in order to progress through multiple levels.
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