RPG Clichés

[Kilravok]

Mel Brooks has proven many times, your story can be filled to the brim with cliche and still be a hit. Some stories are founded on the concept of "How many cliches can we fit?" It would be great to make a game, or be part of a group that makes a game, that aims to be as cliche as humanly possible and still turn out a hit

(BTW, loved that Monstrex intro, would love to play the whole game)

 

[Julien Brightside]

Heh, Funny Monstrex intro.

Trying to make a game myself where you play the "evil overlord", but it's not half the cliche points of that.

Well, some other RPG cliches I can come up with:

Impassable fences and people who can't climb across a small stream even at the cost of their lives?

 

[Kilravok]

There is one cliche that is missing on this list. The Real Uber Big Boss ALWAYS sends out goons to get defeated and giving the heros ample opportunity to become strong enough to defeat him instead of just taking those two minutes in his spare time to finnish them himself before they become a threat.

 

[Velex]

There is one cliche that is missing on this list. The Real Uber Big Boss ALWAYS sends out goons to get defeated and giving the heros ample opportunity to become strong enough to defeat him instead of just taking those two minutes in his spare time to finnish them himself before they become a threat.

On the other side of the coin, there's the "Entire army stand aside. I have to deal with these heroes myself."

 

[Probotector 200X]

"The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Clichés", huh?

I think I first came across that quite some time ago. it was an amusing read...

Around that time, I decided that someday, I'd get around to making two games based on it. One using EVERY SINGLE cliché on the list, and one using ABSOLUTELY ZERO clichés on that list! I'd imagine both would be a challenge to do properly (possibly for different reasons), a challenge that I accept! Well, eventually. I want more experience actually finishing games first though!

 

[Gomi Boy]

Around that time, I decided that someday, I'd get around to making two games based on it. One using EVERY SINGLE cliché on the list, and one using ABSOLUTELY ZERO clichés on that list!

Please don't.

I'm going to repeat myself:

"Obsessively avoiding clichés won't guarantee you an engaging final product, and in fact could very well hurt it. While it's disgusting to build something based purely around what's been proven to sell in the past, the opposite is also true: if your main driving motivation is self-satisfaction at the idea that hey, I bet this hasn't been done before, then you're opening yourself up to the same problems.

"A story is a living thing, and it grows on its own to an extent. If it happens to grow in such a way that sees someone using a magic sword, or being pitched into another world, or running from the law, then let it. And don't you dare underestimate your ability to cast something old in a new light."

Fixating on these things, to one end or another, is trite at best and flat-out *********ory most other times. The novelty of a game like the one you're proposing would wear off fast, and I'd advise against it.

A lot of people here seem to be falling into a perspective trap common to TVTropes, wherein everything is a neat little box that can be mashed together with other boxes in certain pre-approved ways, and the presence or absence of certain boxes matters more than anything else. Please, take a broader view. What you're doing is math, not writing.

 

[Zeramae]

You want to know what's cliché?

Trying to avoid them for the sake of being different. Make the game you wish to make; I bet everyone here could make something interesting out of the clichés they will eventually come across.

Except for crystal searches; sorry but if I have to find crystals one more time I'll just sit back and wait for the enemy to get them all. Then I can steal them later...even the inverse cliché sucks.

 

[Zasian]

14 made me LOL. aka; the cloud rule. The spikier the hair, the closer to rod hahaha.

 

[PK8]

Why is it that every thread I run into on the subject of cliches in just about every RPG Maker community have these discussions which are usually dominated by this notion that "cliches are evil and should be avoided?"

 

[Kaiser]

Because PK they hate cliches even though in their own project they would use it as well. Cliches are totally fine as long as they are used right.

 

[Acetonide]

Reply to the first 100 or so...

Spoiler

1. Sleepyhead RuleNot always true, but I suppose I do see this a lot.

2. "No! My beloved peasant village!"

Um.. I don't know... I see this sometimes but.. Er.. I don't know..

3. Thinking With The Wrong Head (Hiro Rule)

Let's be fair here.. I mean, he's a guy who sleeps in all the time who needs to be woken up by his mother, and his village just got destroyed. He just wants some love! D:

4. Cubic Zirconium Corollary

I don't know... Quite often I find that the girl herself is the item rather than having an items..

5. Logan's Run Rule

This I cannot argue with.

6. Single Parent Rule

I guess this does happen a lot..

7. Some Call Me... Tim?

Really? Most of the time the characters I encounter only have one name, and honestly there's no distinction between first name or surname imo.

8. Nominal Rule

I don't know, I've come across a few RPGs where all the minor background characters and side quest NPCs have a random name too..

9. The Compulsories

I think this list is jsut getting out of hand now. This may be true for a few series but when you (at least when I did) play hundreds of different RPGs this is far from true.. (I pretty much spent about 5-50 hours each on various NDS, NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis RPGs.. At least 30 from each system.. Usually more.. >.<)

10. Luddite Rule (or, George Lucas Rule)

Again, not always true.. But this probably stems from JRPGs being so popular.. You know, it's a popular thing with magic and tradition being good and newer things being bad (which includes technology) and you mgiht as well throw in trying to surpass God and religion in here too. >.>;

11. Let's Start From The Very Beginning (Yuna Rule)

Yeah, this is often true. I plan to find a way to break away from this should I find the time, but sometimes it's explained away with some dialog. You know, got injured, was lazing about and got rusty with their skills, etc..

12. Poor Little Rich Hero (Meis Rule)

Hm... Excluding royalty I only remember one game where the hero was rich, and he was fine.. He just used his money to go off on adventures to follow his father's footsteps, who was still very much alive. Missing for like 1/4 or 1/3 of the game, but alive.

13. The Higher The Hair, The Closer To God (Cloud Rule)

Again, it's more JRPGs than RPGs in general.. But I guess I see this seeping in more.

14. Garrett's Principle

True.. Ironically in the game I was working on the opposite was true where you coudl rob stores (although you coudl ge caught) but homes were locked and usually devoid of items to steal.

15. Hey, I Know You!

Agreed. Well, maybe not three but yeah..

16. Hey, I Know You, Too!

See above.

17. Hey, I Know You, Three!

Mhm....

18. Crono's Complaint

Hm... I think I'd have to think about this more to judge this one.

19. "Silly Squall, bringing a sword to a gunfight..."

Hm.... Not too sure about this one. It was pretty true in a lot of the older ones, but now I really don't know.

20. Just Nod Your Head And Smile

You're in a world of adventures, if you don't at least keep a spare potion or herb in your cardboard for them to rummage through and steal they'll hold you up. It's common knowledge.

21. Aeris's Corollary

Um.. No... Just.. No. Maybe up until around the late 90's tops, but just.. No..

22. MacGyver Rule

Obviously Mary Poppins. Who else?

23. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Melfice Rule)

Although obviously not always true, this is true too often for me to argue..

24. Capitalism Is A Harsh Mistress

Actually I've encountered a lot of games where they keep the item until you close the shop dialog. What should be said instead (imo) is that once you sell an item to a shop owner he will demand approximitely double what you got for it even if it was only for a few seconds you sold it for.

25. Dimensional Transcendence Principle

It's bigger on the inside!

26. Local Control Rule

To be fair, usually the later cities are so far away that the weak measly villagers in the first town would never survive the trip to the later cities without becoming strong enough to take on the monster that started their quest in the first place. Granted, that would make for an amusing game... Where ultimate goal of your journey which makes you into a hero is to hire a merc to save your village.

27. Nostradamus Rule

Yeah, pretty much. Although more and more I find games where the legends are half truths and the whole truth is different and the legend was just twisted to suit one groups purpose..

28. IDKFA

No Comment

29. Indestructible Weapon Rule

This is less and less true with the popularity of MMORPGs, although still quite often.

30. Selective Paralysis

I don't know. This may of been true for a short middle period, but I found earlier most of the time the small rocks or what ever represented something larger (world map types) and then later you could.. I guess there was a middle period.. Around the PS1, N64, etc years.. But I didn't play that many RPGs for that generation. >.<:

31. Bed Bed Bed

Yeah.. There were some RPGs where the characters were knocked out instead or they had to be revived or uncursed at a church specifically, but besides those it was pretty much true..

32. You Can't Kill Me, I Quit (Seifer Rule)

Then what of all the lowly monsters with no rights who you beat the bloody snot out of?! D:

33. And Now You Die, Mr. Bond! (Beatrix Rule)

This is only true for cut-scenes.. So often (especially in older games) I've found that even if I'm fighting the villain again later on if I lose to them earlier I'm dead and I go back to my last save. Dx

34. Zap!

Of course it's never answered, I thought it was implied. Obviously it's taught in the School of Villainy and Evil Doingss.. One must always taunt the hero by letting them think they will succeed before coming in to rub it in their face that you could of done it at any given time.

A secondary reason is that the legendary ruins were protected by a seal which you stupidly broke allowing the villain to enter. But meh, who cares. You're a hero, you can get away with it.

35. Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (Grahf Rule)

I guess this happens enough to let it go.

36. Clockwork Universe Rule

.... Hm..... I'll leave this alone for now since atm only one game with a meteor comes to mind and it doesn't follow.

37. Fake Ending

But fake endings are fun! D: Although personally both as a player and a person trying to make games I prefer having multiple endings and storylines instead. >.>; Probably comes from playing VNs and VNs with RPG elements.

38. You Die, And We All Move Up In Rank

Okay, yeah.. This happens a lot. Also something I encountered a lot was the real villain controling the fake villain and instead of killing him brainwashes him further or something.

39. "What are we going to do tonight, Vinsfeld?"

I agree with this mostly, but I've encoutnered a lot of games where after you save the world thigns are still hell on [name of planet] and they're jsut rebuilding in the ending sequence/cut-scene or in the sequel.

40. Zelda's Axiom

Yeah... And quite often there's anoher secret one too. >:/

41. George W. Bush Geography Simplification Initiative

I can't argue with this simply because the name of the rule makes me laugh too much. :3

42. Fodor's Guide Rule

I really hate rules like these.. I can't argue them enough. It may be rue for a game or a series, but it's not always true. Who ever writes these types of lists some how [almost] always includes a rule similar to this which is too specific and it just pisses me off. It's a list of cliches, jsut because it's common in a popular series or something it does not meann it's always true or a cliche.. Maybe a clieche for the sreies, but not for a broad genre that series belongs to.

43. Midgar Principle

Meh.. True enough to leave alone.

44. Not Invented Here

Hm.... True often, but there are some story and world focused ones where it either isn't true, or it's partially true because of warring countries, etc, etc, etc.. But they have their own tech to go against it or beliefs..

45. Law of Cartographical Elegance

This rule I just find stupid. Do our world maps in reality have the edges cut off too? No? Why is that? Oh? You used bigger paper or draw the map smaller? Why didn't I think of that! It's brilliant.

46. ¿Quien Es Mas Macho? (Fargo Rule)

Well who would want to be led by some weak little pansy? Unless of their their strength was their intelligence. I wouldn't mind a good strategist as my leader. >.>;

47. We Had To Destroy The Village In Order To, Well, You Know The Rest (Selene Rule)

Um...... I think I remember this happening, but I usually didn't care enough because there wasn't enough build up to make me attached to the town destroyed. I only got annoyed at the group for being idiots or for harrassing my character personally. Who cares about some dinky village which I was only in for a few minutes.

48. Zidane's Curse (or, Dirty Pair Rule)

I don't know.. I recall back-tracking to a lot of towns I visited earlier for some reason or another. I usually chalked it up to lazy or short-handed devlopers/mappers who decided to reuse an earlier town and jsut write it into the story since it'd be easier personally.

49. Maginot Line Rule

To be fair, if I was an evil empire hell-bent on taking over the world.. The smug annoying people would be the first I would wipe off the first of the planet too..

50. Short Attention Span Principle

Hm... Yeah, that's usually true unless it contributes to a quest/plot.. Or unless it's a wide bookshelf in which case there's two.

51. Planet of the Apes Rule

Um.... Not all countries. Maybe one in each game or a few... And of course not always.

52. Insomnia Rule

Really? I've found quite a few honestly free inns, due in part to being early in the game and making it easier for the player, usually explained away with some plot device like the family helped the inn's owner in the past.

53. The Bling-Bling Thing (Lemina Rule)

Yeah.. I guess.

54. I Don't Like Gears Or Fighting

No. Just no.. Another one of those horribly written cliches. This doesn't even happen in 1/3 of all the RPGs I've played.. That includes, humanoid robots, to mecha suits, to bio-mech suits that look like a jump suit. Not even 1/3.

55. Houdini's Postulate

Hm.. I guess this is often true, although I recall a game or two where if you were thrown in jail and escaped you could potentially be hunted in every town or you were (something I planned to implement to my own creation), and it wasn't a plot device.. It was irrelvent to the plot, it was just another thing in the game.

56. Zeigfried's Contradiction

Too true. But is that truly a RPG cliche? :/ I think that's just a fact of life.

57. Natural Monopoly Rule

Yes.. Very true. I have plans to chagne this in my game, but I'm nto sure yet. Other things take priority, especially since I have to start nearly from scratch.

58. But They Don't Take American Express

Mostly true. Very rare instances where it's not, but that ties into the plot where a country was destroyed and your currency is worthless.

59. Apathy Principle

Hm.. I don't know. I remember a series or two with several games out that differeed from this a lot. They used to be popular but I don't know anymore. One had a lot of people who you could get to join your party but didn't always because they were busy helping with oher things, or in the other you belonged to a whole group o the last remaining survivors of the world or something an they were raising a lot of potential heroes, who you'd sometimes run into later to advance the story. it's just you ended up donig it.

60. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Rule

I think this is true enough that I don't need to comment.

61. Henchman Quota (Nana, Saki, and Mio Rule)

Yeah.... Okay. I can see this. I argue the loveable point though.

62. Thousand Year Rule

Hm.. I don't know about the latter part of this, as I recall quite often it jsut ends up getting sealed again.. Probably to open up for a possiblity for a sequel.

63. Principle of Narrative Efficiency

Er...... o.o; I swear I don't recall ever coming across this.. XD At least if I did it wasn't a secret that the guy who defeated the ancient evil previously was in my party..

64. Ayn Rand's Revenge

*Giggles* true, and I rather like the cliche name too. >.>;

65. First Law of Travel

Well you live in a world with magic. Unless the laws of physics can explain magic, I think they went out the window when you started gathering mana to throw fireballs.

66. Second Law of Travel

Well when the world is so dangerous that yuo usually get attacked when using that one boat or w/e and potentially sinks, you can kind of see why there's only one around for you to use..

67. Third Law of Travel

Well, if there's a single passage and something is built in it I can only say it's smart planning on the part of the country to defend against attacks. Build a fortress where it's surrounded by impenetrable mountains and you have fewer areas to defend against invaders. But then again I'm Chinese. We think a giant wall is a good idea. >.>;

68. Fourth Law of Travel

Hm... Yeah.. True enough I suppose. I do recall a lot of games where just one or none of them do, but you never see them again..

69. Fifth Law of Travel

I don't know, often I end up not being the pilot (although I across the graphic) and the actual pilot is someone else.. Although as the player I control it at all times, ti's not the main character who does it supposedly.

70. Sixth Law of Travel

No comment.

71. Seventh Law of Travel

Yeah.. Pretty much, although you (not the OP I know, but the person(s) who wrote this) let out sleeping or wasting time in their cabin..

72. Eighth Law of Travel

Yep.

73. Last Law of Travel (Big Joe Rule)

That's because you're poor, or you cleared the way for them.

74. If You Meet The Buddha In A Random Encounter, Kill Him!

It's a good think I'm not Buddhist I suppose.. >.>;

75. Law of Numbers

It makes sense to me.. The world is math.. You can find math in everything from nature to humanity's designs in architecture and even a little postcard.. It's every where.

76. Magical Inequality Theorem

Yeah... This is too true. I know in most games I only touch the offensive and occasionally defensive spells. Rarely debuffs or buffs. Exception being Pokemon.

77. Magical Inequality Corollary

Yeah.. Why is that. Always hurts me so badly. u.u''

78. Pretty Line Syndrome (or, Crash Bandicoot: The RPG)

But it's all worth it because they're pretty.

79. Xenobiology Rule

Hm.... I suppose this is true.

80. Friendly Fire Principle (or, Final Fantasy Tactics Rule)

I have never found this to be true. Ever. Maybe because in all the tactical stratey games I play I plan and place my characters extremely carefully (even when I played sleep deprived with my eyes half open I rarely hurt my team unless I would take out more enemies) but yeah... Haven't ever found this to be true.

81. Dungeon Design 101

Hm.... I think this happens in the games I play with waterfalls only about 1/5 of the time at most. There might be a cave and people hiding there, but not always goodies.. No mroe than any other average dungeon.

82. Dungeon Design 102

I don't know, I just pick the way to go but intution nowadays since I ran into so many huge maps with branching paths and either path might be the right way to go (I usually end up there even though I want to go to the dead end to look for treasure)

83. Dungeon Design 103 (or, Wallpaper Warning)

Hm.... I guess so. xD I thought it was usually music or something more subtle though..

84. Dungeon Design 201 (or, The Interior Decorators Anticipated Your Out-Of-Body Experience)

Yeah, it's so unfair. Mode7 ftw! >D

85. Dungeon Design 301

Hm.. I think it left out stepping on all the tiles of a room puzzles..

86. Wait! That Was A Load-Bearing Boss!

Rofl... Nice. :3 And true.

87. Supply and Demand Axiom

That's true, and the item you get usually becomes obsolete soon after.. u.u''

88. Edison's Lament

Well, we all know about Edison so is this really a surprise? Telsa is the guy to admire. <3

89. Well, That About Wraps It Up For God

Haha.... Yeah, pretty much. >.>;

90. Guy in the Street Rule

Please, there's always someone around to witness them. They're just usually too cowardly to make themselves known.

91. Wherever You Go, There They Are

Yeah, I've only encountered that in parodies of RPGs. u.u'' Not that I stay at inns when ever possible. XD

92. Figurehead Rule

Oh, this was the first thing I wanted to change in my games. If you pick the wrong answer it will lead to a bad end. Simple.

93. Puddin' Tame Rule

Yeah... Only some of my random passer-bys give different messages, and that's only if you bug them long enough. u.u''

94. Franklin Covey Was Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

Rofl... It's karma. And the whole turtle and hare rule. >.>;

95. Selective Invulnerability Principle

True. 'nough said.

96. I'm the NRA (Billy Lee Black Rule)

Hm.... I'm not sure but maybe..

97. Three Females Rule

I'm not sure, I recall quite often either more or less.. ;; But perhaps this does happen often..

98. Experience Not Required

Well, the hand of god (the player) is guiding the main character, of course he's better at it.

99. Law of Reverse Evolution (Zeboim Principle)

It's Atlantis all over again. >:/

100. Science-Magic Equivalence (Citan Rule)

Please, we all know in about 50 years scientist will develop magic so of course it's interchangeable..

Okay, I replied to 100 of the 192.. I give up. >.>; But yeah.. I know some people who tried making a parody using all of them before.. it's hard, the list is long..

As Kread-EX said they're not all cliches and that bugs me... Many don't happen often enough to be considered a cliche.

And as many have said I also believe it's execution, not the general idea... I mean, you can rip off Shakespeare but that doesn't mean it'll still be read and played 50 years from now.

 

[Kaiser]

Dear God...and I thought I make walls of text...that's a demon wall right there! (ding ding another cliche. Inanimate objects come to life! Whooooooo!)

 

[Probotector 200X]

Please don't.

I'm going to repeat myself:

"Obsessively avoiding clichés won't guarantee you an engaging final product, and in fact could very well hurt it. While it's disgusting to build something based purely around what's been proven to sell in the past, the opposite is also true: if your main driving motivation is self-satisfaction at the idea that hey, I bet this hasn't been done before, then you're opening yourself up to the same problems.

"A story is a living thing, and it grows on its own to an extent. If it happens to grow in such a way that sees someone using a magic sword, or being pitched into another world, or running from the law, then let it. And don't you dare underestimate your ability to cast something old in a new light."

Fixating on these things, to one end or another, is trite at best and flat-out *********ory most other times. The novelty of a game like the one you're proposing would wear off fast, and I'd advise against it.

A lot of people here seem to be falling into a perspective trap common to TVTropes, wherein everything is a neat little box that can be mashed together with other boxes in certain pre-approved ways, and the presence or absence of certain boxes matters more than anything else. Please, take a broader view. What you're doing is math, not writing.

I guess you completely misunderstood my point. Which is understandable, because I didn't really say anything about it. Considering that a lot of the things on that list I don't consider very cliché or have even seen in an RPG before...I don't take it super seriously. It was just like, "Hey, these people worked together to compile this huge, entertaining list! Maybe it would be fun to make a game that uses all of them, and one that uses none of them!" They were supposed to be fun little side projects I'd get around to someday. It's not some obsession or self-satisfaction thing. Just something I wanted to do for fun. Keep in mind that I would have both sides...one EMBRACING clichés, and one REJECTING clichéd...which I think would imply that I find merit in both ideas.

And for the record, I actually don't really like TvTropes much. I hate it when everything is "labelled" like that...it's annoying, and just another sign of humans trying to categorize everything, which on paper doesn't sound that bad, but in practice means bias, bias, and more bias...which usually means trouble. Personally, I avoid thinking about "clichés" or "tropes" when making my RPGs, I just do what I like, and do what I want to see more of, and do what I want to see that no one else has done. It just so happens that having borderline parody games that are "super cliché" or "anti-cliche" fits into the category of something that I what to do.

Oh, and a story where the plot is math could certainly be interesting...

Why is it that every thread I run into on the subject of cliches in just about every RPG Maker community have these discussions which are usually dominated by this notion that "cliches are evil and should be avoided?"

I don't know about you, but the majority of people in these kinds of topics tend to be saying "clichés are the foundation of all RPGs and should be used whenever possible..."

 

[RyanA]

Yes, I too think cliche's are OK, but it's nice to add your own flair to them :3

 

[Robin]

And for the record, I actually don't really like TvTropes much. I hate it when everything is "labelled" like that...it's annoying, and just another sign of humans trying to categorize everything, which on paper doesn't sound that bad, but in practice means bias, bias, and more bias...which usually means trouble. Personally, I avoid thinking about "clichés" or "tropes" when making my RPGs, I just do what I like, and do what I want to see more of, and do what I want to see that no one else has done.

I'm not sure why it means "bias". Sure, some things are subjective, but ultimately there are commonly recurring motifs and devices in stories, so they can logically be categorised.

 

[Gomi Boy]

Categorization is fine. Problems only arise when you lose sight of the fact that in something as nebulous as writing, any attempt to assign a hard and fast designation to everything will invariably fall short. This is hardly a problem exclusive to TVTropes, but they're one of the largest examples -- many would-be writers there get drawn in by the lists and come to believe that the lists represent everything there is. It then follows for them that the secret to writing is to collect as many (or as few) of these sterile elements as possible and go from there. I believe that these lists are entertaining, and interesting for the purposes of comparison, but they shouldn't play a large role in the creative process. I wouldn't recommend writing in a vacuum, but it also isn't a good idea to throw yourself to the winds like that.

 

[RachelTheSeeker]

Cliches are cliches, but as a few folks have said, if done well then even cliches can be fun to experience.

...also, it helps if one's never experienced the cliche being done and actually draws ideas based on how to use the cliche itself. Like me, on a few of the ones listed. =P

 

[ProdigalPolymath]

Like others have said, avoiding cliche for the sake of being different is well...cliche. Many of the best stories follow certain archetypes and many of these archetypes seem cliche. The heroic journey in itself is an archetype and any RPG that tries to tell a somewhat serious story regarding this journey is going to have a few of these cliches. That list is entertaining, but so were the games that contributed to the development of that list. As long as the game is fun, and the story is moving, cliche is great.

 

[AlanLane]

I love the cliches written in this thread XD. Brings back nice memories of all the games I've played in the past. I especially enjoyed the cliches from Lunar.

Around where I live, and people I talk to on MMO's hardly anyone knows what that is, because never played it, (They're missing out) and it makes me crazy!

 

[Probotector 200X]

I'm not sure why it means "bias". Sure, some things are subjective, but ultimately there are commonly recurring motifs and devices in stories, so they can logically be categorised.

I was going off on a tangent I guess. I was trying to relate it to people use labels to describe people based on their little social groups (nerds, jocks, etc.), or how people have to label each "race"...and the biggest one, people having to associate things with a person's sex (girls do this, guys do that, etc.). People assign roles and stereotypes based on this labels, and it creates bias...which leads to double standards and racism and sexism and other kinds of bigotry. Well, that stuff isn't all derived from labels, but labels certainly help those things flourish much more than they should. So, what I meant was that stuff like TvTropes labeling everything leads to people misunderstanding those things, and trying to look at everything in a little box (or multiple boxes, same difference)

Categorization is fine. Problems only arise when you lose sight of the fact that in something as nebulous as writing, any attempt to assign a hard and fast designation to everything will invariably fall short. This is hardly a problem exclusive to TVTropes, but they're one of the largest examples -- many would-be writers there get drawn in by the lists and come to believe that the lists represent everything there is. It then follows for them that the secret to writing is to collect as many (or as few) of these sterile elements as possible and go from there. I believe that these lists are entertaining, and interesting for the purposes of comparison, but they shouldn't play a large role in the creative process. I wouldn't recommend writing in a vacuum, but it also isn't a good idea to throw yourself to the winds like that.

Well, sure, categorizing and labeling things can be useful, but like I said above, it helps big problems flourish. I see what you are saying though, and like I said earlier, the 2 game ideas I mentioned are just stand alone side projects, and don't represent my typical approach to story writing or game design.

Well, actually, a decent amount of my story ideas involve taking common clichés and twisting them around so much that they wouldn't even be recognizable any more. (I mentioned that about 3 cliché topics ago...The main character is a teenage guy with a sword! But he's a pretty crossdressing belly dancer...) So sometimes I do pay attention to clichés just so I can mess around with them like that...(and I like characters like that anyway)