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"Press F to Pay Respects" and other gaming memes that have had incredible staying power

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ItWasMeantToBe19

ItWasMeantToBe19

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
20,440
"The player is the character, let me use Bioshock Infinite as an example"

The character in Bioshock Infinite is murdered dozens to hundreds of times and replaced with another character from an alternate dimension. These characters all sold their daughter to a Klansman from an alternate dimension which is something the player would generally not do.

Bioshock Infinite completely disconnects its gameplay from its story also making the example bizarre. Elizabeth is viewed as an innocent third party who is ashamed at killing the incredibly racist written Black Panther leader but she is fully on board with Booker fucking wasting thousands of dudes before that point. Booker and Elizabeth basically walk down a hallway and kill half the population of a city in game and none of that is reflected in the story.
 
MistaTwo

MistaTwo

SNK Gaming Division Studio 1
Verified
Oct 24, 2017
2,456
I remember the RE4 window bail out gif getting quite a bit of usage back in the day, but I haven't seen it in a long time.
 
Son Goku

Son Goku

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
4,332
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
I feel like people got mad at this almost instantly and it didn't last past 2015.

Whereas "Press F to pay respects" has managed to survive for four years now.
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Disagree completely. Arrow to the knee got over exaggerated to where it got over the hill and just became known to everyone even non gamers. I have friends who have never touched a game and even they were making that joke
 
Olaf

Olaf

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,419
Press F is the best gaming meme hands down and Sledgehammer should be proud.
 
Dr. Caroll

Dr. Caroll

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,111
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
A button prompt for grieving is a parody of video games.
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It's not "grieving", per se. You press F to touch a coffin. Just like everyone else at the funeral, presumably. Remember that one of the core design choices of Advanced Warfare is that Mitchell never talks outside of pre-rendered cutscenes. So they couldn't have you walk up to Irons and Press F to pay respects, and trigger him saying something like, "Sorry for your loss." Instead, they went for a non-verbal communication of Mitchell paying his respects to a dead friend. As I said, Mitchell is the player, and the player is Mitchell.
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Just make it a cutscene.
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Why? We have no issue with pressing F to slit people's throats. We have no issue pressing F to mercy kill. We have no issues pressing F to kill millions with a button press. We have no issue pressing F to be accept baptism (except that one guy who demanded a refund because he refused to be baptised). Why is touching a coffin to silently express respect for a dead friend such a problem? The fact "Press F to pay respects" became a meme demonstrates a few things. Firstly that most of the people spouting it have clearly never played many Call of Duty games because they failed to recognise the design language of the series or the many times throughout the series you Pressed F to Do a Thing. Secondly, there is something deeply broken in gaming culture when dealing with the first person shooter genre that seeks to eliminate the lines between player and protagonist and make the player directly responsible for everything the protagonist does.
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Wolfenstein 2 is the definitive story-driven FPS because it realizes that, actually, all of the story-driven ideas Half Life 2 came up with were terrible and movies are a lot better at story-telling.
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You mean the game where you Press E/F to choose which friend you want to sacrifice? The game where you press Left Mouse Button to shoot your dog? The MachineGames Wolfenstein games are descended from Syndicate 2012, the game where you frequently pressed E to do bad things to people, such as ripping chips out of their brains. There are plenty of moments in Wolfenstein TNO/TOB/TNC where you Press Button to Do Important Thing. You might note that many of the pre-rendered cutscenes in Wolfenstein are directly triggered by the player pressing F to do something.

Wolf 2 literally ends with an onscreen visual prompt to Press Button to Stab. As I mentioned, nobody objects to "Press F to perform act of violence". Yet when a game has you pressing F to do something more subtle, people complain or don't understand it. Gaming culture is at fault here.
 
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lorddarkflare

lorddarkflare

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,254
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
I'm sorry, but are you fucking kidding me.

A button prompt for grieving is a parody of video games. Just make it a cutscene.

Wolfenstein 2 is the definitive story-driven FPS because it realizes that, actually, all of the story-driven ideas Half Life 2 came up with were terrible and movies are a lot better at story-telling.

Wolfenstein 2 just has everything be cutscenes because cutscenes actually allow you to show the drama of the scene by having a pre-planned camera angle and don't have ridiculous button prompts that feel desperately thrown in to keep player engagement.
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Agreed.

Forcing the player to make a choice through prompt CAN be a very powerful tool to make the player complicit and artificially force them to accept responsibility, but it is NOT something to used lightly as it can easily backfire.
 
Dinjoralo

Dinjoralo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,145
Jawmuncher said:
Typically the best gaming memes either were already set and are grandfathered in like "All your base" or "You were almost a Jill Sandwich" or have some sort of easy use that never feels overplayed.

Saying "F to pay respects" is quick and easy to the point. The same with "They played us like damn fiddle".

A bad video game meme is something with no real use outside a bad punchline. AKA "I took an arrow to the knee"
Which was the equivalent of your friend telling one joke to everyone and praying someone would laugh at it.

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The problem with Arrow to the Knee was that the actual joke behind it (Skyrim having slapdash world-building) pertains to nothing outside of the game itself. It was also for a very popular game, with the kind of audience that would parrot it without actually getting what was so funny.
 
Odeko

Odeko

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Mar 22, 2018
15,180
West Blue
Dr. Caroll said:
It's not "grieving", per se. You press F to touch a coffin. Just like everyone else at the funeral, presumably. Remember that one of the core design choices of Advanced Warfare is that Mitchell never talks outside of pre-rendered cutscenes. So they couldn't have you walk up to Irons and Press F to pay respects, and trigger him saying something like, "Sorry for your loss." Instead, they went for a non-verbal communication of Mitchell paying his respects to a dead friend. As I said, Mitchell is the player, and the player is Mitchell.

Why? We have no issue with pressing F to slit people's throats. We have no issue pressing F to mercy kill. We have no issues pressing F to kill millions with a button press. We have no issue pressing F to be accept baptism (except that one guy who demanded a refund because he refused to be baptised). Why is touching a coffin to silently express respect for a dead friend such a problem? The fact "Press F to pay respects" became a meme demonstrates a few things. Firstly that most of the people spouting it have clearly never played many Call of Duty games because they failed to recognise the design language of the series or the many times throughout the series you Pressed F to Do a Thing. Secondly, there is something deeply broken in gaming culture when dealing with the first person shooter genre that seeks to eliminate the lines between player and protagonist and make the player directly responsible for everything the protagonist does.

You mean the game where you Press E/F to choose which friend you want to sacrifice? The game where you press Left Mouse Button to shoot your dog? The MachineGames Wolfenstein games are descended from Syndicate 2012, the game where you frequently pressed E to do bad things to people, such as ripping chips out of their brains. There are plenty of moments in Wolfenstein TNO/TOB/TNC where you Press Button to Do Important Thing. You might note that many of the pre-rendered cutscenes in Wolfenstein are directly triggered by the player pressing F to do something.

Wolf 2 literally ends with an onscreen visual prompt to Press Button to Stab. As I mentioned, nobody objects to "Press F to perform act of violence". Yet when a game has you pressing F to do something more subtle, people complain or don't understand it. Gaming culture is at fault here.
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Just because you've convinced yourself that having to press a button at random points during cutscenes to make them unpause and keep playing is compelling design doesn't mean everyone else has. There's a clear difference between a contextual pop-up when you have control of your character that informs you what the "use" button will do in this instance (since in those cases you actually have the option of either pressing it or walking away) and a timeless Q.T.E. (so I guess just an "E."). The contextual pop-up is necessary information on how to interact with the world while the Q.T.E.s would nearly universally be better as just normal cutscenes, or better yet, interactive segments.

The only exceptions to this rule I've ever come across where it's done well are the final scene Wonderful 101 (because it's played for laughs) and the final scene in MGS3 since no immersion-breaking pop-up is required.
 
OP
OP
ItWasMeantToBe19

ItWasMeantToBe19

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
20,440
Dr. Caroll said:
It's not "grieving", per se. You press F to touch a coffin. Just like everyone else at the funeral, presumably. Remember that one of the core design choices of Advanced Warfare is that Mitchell never talks outside of pre-rendered cutscenes. So they couldn't have you walk up to Irons and Press F to pay respects, and trigger him saying something like, "Sorry for your loss." Instead, they went for a non-verbal communication of Mitchell paying his respects to a dead friend. As I said, Mitchell is the player, and the player is Mitchell.

Why? We have no issue with pressing F to slit people's throats. We have no issue pressing F to mercy kill. We have no issues pressing F to kill millions with a button press. We have no issue pressing F to be accept baptism (except that one guy who demanded a refund because he refused to be baptised). Why is touching a coffin to silently express respect for a dead friend such a problem? The fact "Press F to pay respects" became a meme demonstrates a few things. Firstly that most of the people spouting it have clearly never played many Call of Duty games because they failed to recognise the design language of the series or the many times throughout the series you Pressed F to Do a Thing. Secondly, there is something deeply broken in gaming culture when dealing with the first person shooter genre that seeks to eliminate the lines between player and protagonist and make the player directly responsible for everything the protagonist does.

You mean the game where you Press E/F to choose which friend you want to sacrifice? The game where you press Left Mouse Button to shoot your dog? The MachineGames Wolfenstein games are descended from Syndicate 2012, the game where you frequently pressed E to do bad things to people, such as ripping chips out of their brains. There are plenty of moments in Wolfenstein TNO/TOB/TNC where you Press Button to Do Important Thing.

Wolf 2 literally ends with an onscreen visual prompt to Press Button to Stab. As I mentioned, nobody objects to "Press F to perform act of violence". Yet when a game has you pressing F to do something more subtle, people complain or don't understand it. Gaming culture is at fault here.
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Wolfenstein 2 has you pressing a button to kill at the end because it feels satisfying to kill that person.

The other mentioned things are choices, bro... not just button prompts.

I did not shoot my dog in Wolfenstein 2... There is 100% an option not to shoot your dog.

"Press F to pay respects" adds nothing to engagement with the game and it makes you think "oh, this is a very video game video game" which takes you out of the experience of mourning. Adding engagement thoughtlessly is just stupid game and story design.
 
Dr. Caroll

Dr. Caroll

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,111
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Wolfenstein 2 has you pressing a button to kill at the end because it feels satisfying to kill that person.
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You didn't have a choice not to kill. Just because you wanted to kill doesn't change the fact it's essentially a scripted sequence where you have a press to button to proceed. It's just a false choice you wanted to make.
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
"Press F to pay respects" adds nothing to engagement with the game and it makes you think "oh, this is a very video game video game" which takes you out of the experience of mourning. Adding engagement thoughtlessly is just stupid game and story design.
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The protagonist should never perform major actions without player prompting. It doesn't have to be direct prompting, but the player must be responsible for what happens. That's basically an unspoken design law in the story-driven FPS genre. Press F to Pay Respects exists for a very good reason. You don't want Mitchell paying respects without the player's input. Period. Otherwise the protagonist and player are not the same person. Some people don't like this idea, and that's where the tension comes from.
 
OP
OP
ItWasMeantToBe19

ItWasMeantToBe19

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
20,440
Dr. Caroll said:
You didn't have a choice not to kill. Just because you wanted to kill doesn't change the fact it's essentially a scripted sequence where you have a press to button to proceed. It's just a false choice you wanted to make.

The protagonist should never perform major actions without player prompting. It doesn't have to be direct prompting, but the player must be responsible for what happens. That's basically an unspoken design law in the story-driven FPS genre. Press F to Pay Respects exists for a very good reason. You don't want Mitchell paying respects without the player's input. Period. Otherwise the protagonist and player are not the same person. Some people don't like this idea, and that's where the tension comes from.
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............ You do know Booker sells his daughter to a Klansman in a cutscene with no player input in Bioshock Infinite right?

Why are you using Bioshock Infinite as a positive example when you're on this bizarre "the protagonist should never perform major actions without the player's prompting" crusade?
 
Piston

Piston

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,164
I could be wrong, but I think the Press F thing originates from League of Legends were the F button often has the ability Flash binded to it which has like a 5-minute cooldown if you use it on accident.

Oh god, I just had my friends explain this to me, nevermind.
 
Metto

Metto

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,109


While it may not be something people just quote or use often it's kind of become the definitive Woah so it kinda counts
 
Redfox088

Redfox088

Banned
May 31, 2018
2,293
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
"The player is the character, let me use Bioshock Infinite as an example"

The character in Bioshock Infinite is murdered dozens to hundreds of times and replaced with another character from an alternate dimension. These characters all sold their daughter to a Klansman from an alternate dimension which is something the player would generally not do.

Bioshock Infinite completely disconnects its gameplay from its story also making the example bizarre. Elizabeth is viewed as an innocent third party who is ashamed at killing the incredibly racist written Black Panther leader but she is fully on board with Booker fucking wasting thousands of dudes before that point. Booker and Elizabeth basically walk down a hallway and kill half the population of a city in game and none of that is reflected in the story.
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I wish there was a term for this.
 
Cruxist

Cruxist

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
3,818
For the guardians out there:

Whether we wanted it or not, we've stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars. So let's get to taking out their command, one by one. Valus Ta'aurc. From what I can gather he commands the Siege Dancers from an Imperial Land Tank outside of Rubicon. He's well protected, but with the right team, we can punch through those defences, take this beast out, and break their grip on Freehold.
 

MoonlitBow

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,879
It's hard to describe why "press F to pay respects" is such a meme. I think a part of it is that it is a line of text telling you what to do rather than finding a way to make it an engaging roleplaying moment or just having the character do it automatically.
 
Redfox088

Redfox088

Banned
May 31, 2018
2,293
Dr. Caroll said:
It's not "grieving", per se. You press F to touch a coffin. Just like everyone else at the funeral, presumably. Remember that one of the core design choices of Advanced Warfare is that Mitchell never talks outside of pre-rendered cutscenes. So they couldn't have you walk up to Irons and Press F to pay respects, and trigger him saying something like, "Sorry for your loss." Instead, they went for a non-verbal communication of Mitchell paying his respects to a dead friend. As I said, Mitchell is the player, and the player is Mitchell.

Why? We have no issue with pressing F to slit people's throats. We have no issue pressing F to mercy kill. We have no issues pressing F to kill millions with a button press. We have no issue pressing F to be accept baptism (except that one guy who demanded a refund because he refused to be baptised). Why is touching a coffin to silently express respect for a dead friend such a problem? The fact "Press F to pay respects" became a meme demonstrates a few things. Firstly that most of the people spouting it have clearly never played many Call of Duty games because they failed to recognise the design language of the series or the many times throughout the series you Pressed F to Do a Thing. Secondly, there is something deeply broken in gaming culture when dealing with the first person shooter genre that seeks to eliminate the lines between player and protagonist and make the player directly responsible for everything the protagonist does.

You mean the game where you Press E/F to choose which friend you want to sacrifice? The game where you press Left Mouse Button to shoot your dog? The MachineGames Wolfenstein games are descended from Syndicate 2012, the game where you frequently pressed E to do bad things to people, such as ripping chips out of their brains. There are plenty of moments in Wolfenstein TNO/TOB/TNC where you Press Button to Do Important Thing. You might note that many of the pre-rendered cutscenes in Wolfenstein are directly triggered by the player pressing F to do something.

Wolf 2 literally ends with an onscreen visual prompt to Press Button to Stab. As I mentioned, nobody objects to "Press F to perform act of violence". Yet when a game has you pressing F to do something more subtle, people complain or don't understand it. Gaming culture is at fault here.
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Thread derailed
 
SABO.

SABO.

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,872
I'm forgetting the words to it right now but that one where someone claimed to be an expert on Japanese culture is pretty great.
 
Azroix

Azroix

Member
Mar 26, 2018
6
New York
Redfox088 said:
I wish there was a term for this.
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I believe the term might be Ludonarrative Dissonance, which is the disconnection between a game's gameplay and its narrative. In this case being that the gameplay of killing hundreds is disconnected from the narrative of making an issue of killing a few. (Never played BioShock Infinite)
 
Keldroc

Keldroc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,984
Dr. Caroll said:
It's not "grieving", per se. You press F to touch a coffin. Just like everyone else at the funeral, presumably. Remember that one of the core design choices of Advanced Warfare is that Mitchell never talks outside of pre-rendered cutscenes. So they couldn't have you walk up to Irons and Press F to pay respects, and trigger him saying something like, "Sorry for your loss." Instead, they went for a non-verbal communication of Mitchell paying his respects to a dead friend. As I said, Mitchell is the player, and the player is Mitchell.

Why? We have no issue with pressing F to slit people's throats. We have no issue pressing F to mercy kill. We have no issues pressing F to kill millions with a button press. We have no issue pressing F to be accept baptism (except that one guy who demanded a refund because he refused to be baptised). Why is touching a coffin to silently express respect for a dead friend such a problem? The fact "Press F to pay respects" became a meme demonstrates a few things. Firstly that most of the people spouting it have clearly never played many Call of Duty games because they failed to recognise the design language of the series or the many times throughout the series you Pressed F to Do a Thing. Secondly, there is something deeply broken in gaming culture when dealing with the first person shooter genre that seeks to eliminate the lines between player and protagonist and make the player directly responsible for everything the protagonist does.

You mean the game where you Press E/F to choose which friend you want to sacrifice? The game where you press Left Mouse Button to shoot your dog? The MachineGames Wolfenstein games are descended from Syndicate 2012, the game where you frequently pressed E to do bad things to people, such as ripping chips out of their brains. There are plenty of moments in Wolfenstein TNO/TOB/TNC where you Press Button to Do Important Thing. You might note that many of the pre-rendered cutscenes in Wolfenstein are directly triggered by the player pressing F to do something.

Wolf 2 literally ends with an onscreen visual prompt to Press Button to Stab. As I mentioned, nobody objects to "Press F to perform act of violence". Yet when a game has you pressing F to do something more subtle, people complain or don't understand it. Gaming culture is at fault here.
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You're kind of off in the weeds on this for the Press F thing but I do think your take is very applicable to the people who thought the line "Moms are tough" was somehow hilarious.
 
World B. SkiFree

World B. SkiFree

Member
Nov 2, 2017
982
"Warrior needs food badly" from Gauntlet. My friends and I used that in other games and in real life before memes, does that count?

Edit: Also "A winner is you" from NES Pro Wrestling.
 
Aegis Renfro

Aegis Renfro

Member
Jan 11, 2018
423
Dysentery.

The only reason people know what it is, if they didn't go to medical school, is because of a video game.
 
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