Putting Items in Characters' Butts: Why?

[Rxanadu]

Why do most games have characters reach into their butts to deliver and receive items? I know it's supposed to look like their 'back pockets,' but after so many games have done it (e.g. most polygonal Zelda games, recent Telltale games). It's especially jarring when this issue has been solved in clever ways such as with the Digi-Pouch in Beyond Good & Evil (i.e. the thing Jade shoves the first large, floating pearl into after the first attack on the lighthouse).

[darthbator]

I always thought it was a version of the trope below. I just figure that most games take a cue from old cartoons where characters would comically pull anvils, pianos, giants guns, or other hilariously huge items out their pants.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BagOfHolding

[TheYoungCato]

It's particularly jarring in The Walking Dead for me, because the rest of game sets you up for a higher level of verisimilitude than "I put the shotgun behind my back and it disapeared into thin air but now I need it and it popped into my hands".

I'm guessing it's done because actually animating characters putting items into a pack of some sort would be a lot of added work, and in games like Zelda, you'd still have the issue of items like giant hammers that couldn't possibly fit into a backpack worn by humans.

[TychoCelchuuu]

Some people are in to that kind of scene. No need to judge.

[TheoHuxtable]

It never really bothers me, though it does seem to detract from the overall "immersion". Not in any major way, just whenever anyone switches weapons or pulls out an item it does feel like a reminder that you're playing a video game.

[shammack]

It's because working out a realistic system by which a 3D character can hold a variable number of objects of different sizes and shapes at once is an extremely complicated and difficult problem, and even if you manage to solve it, the degree to which it improves the game is pretty small.

There's a long tradition of video game characters being able to carry more stuff than any actual human could, and players are generally willing to suspend their disbelief because the alternative is to be constantly juggling objects, which is rarely fun. It was easier to get away with it early on when graphics were either nonexistent or more abstract/representational. I guess it was during that time that designers got used to allowing players to carry huge amounts of stuff in their inventory, and now it's hard to go back without it feeling like a hindrance.

Personally, it doesn't bother me at all, unless the game is meant to be some sort of serious simulation where for some reason it's important that you be able to carry a realistic amount of stuff. Otherwise it's just one of those concessions you make in order for the game to be less tedious, like how game characters tend not to have to eat or sleep or excrete unless it's useful to the plot or replenishes their hit points or something. Realism just for the sake of realism rarely makes a game better, IMHO.

[Lu]

Like a boss.

[SecretAsianMan]

Like a boss.

Beat me to it.

[Sno]

TES games.

Next time you play Skyrim, make your safety save and then go through your inventory dumping everything that isn't a quest item. You will likely find yourself standing on a pile of stuff that exceeds your own character's physical volume several times over. Probably one of the nuttier examples to be found.

Anyways, i might be misremembering, but i seem to recall the camera being so tight on Leon in RE4 that when you'd go into the largest ever attache case to switch weapons, you'd just see his hands kind of shuffle out of frame and back on screen with a new weapon. I always thought that was amusing, though i guess that's just a variation on what happens in every FPS ever.

The Halo games have gradually been creeping towards actually representing all of the gear you carry on your model. (Most shooters with plausible carry limits have, i guess.)

Borderlands does the narratively-justified bag of holding thing, and i can recall a few other games that have taken such approaches. (The Star Trek: Elite Forces series, games that were better than you might expect, justified it as a transporter buffer.)

[Gormongous]

(The Star Trek: Elite Forces series, games that were better than you might expect, justified it as a transporter buffer.)

Yeah, the Elite Force games, especially the first one, were really creative in pushing the bounds of typical Star Trek hand-waving technobabble to justify all sorts of otherwise goofy video game business. In particular, the holodeck was used to explain and structure a pretty clever deathmatch system for multiplayer.

Regarding the actual topic, it's funny how the blade never really cuts both ways. With the new XCOM, I've heard multiple people complain about the limited item capacity of soldiers without batting an eye at the infinite ammo they do carry.

[Thrik]

Some games completely take the piss regarding how much your character can carry, so I guess an infinite bag is the only way to get around it. I find it somewhat refreshing when games like Uncharted and Max Payne 3 come along where the inventory is kept low and the characters clearly stash their stuff about their person — even though you can't actually use it, it's cool seeing that the key to Shambala is physically there all along for example.

Of course, you've got games like Monkey Island which were openly taking the piss out of this trope way back in the industry's early days.

[Sno]

Gears of War just popped into mind as a game that goes to great lengths to represent all of your equipment on the character model, with proper animations for switching weapons and everything.

[darthbator]

I've loved in XCOM how everything is shown on the individual units. It really enhances that kind of "80's gi joe figure" feeling of the models. "Look at all the stuff from the accessory packs guys!!"

[Nachimir]

Like darthbator, I'd always thought of it as a narratively and mechanically convenient bottomless pocket or something. I'd never thought of things as coming from characters' butts. You may have just ruined videogames for me.

[Thrik]

If you think that's bad, check out where the star of this mind-numbing advert shown on UK television all the time gets her shit from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZH6kslt30Y

[darthbator]

...You may have just ruined Video games for me.

It's ultra disturbing when you think of the amount of edible consumables retrieved from this particular "pouch" in many games. Yeah I heal myself by eating herbs from my butt.

EDIT: Borderlands 2 also represents all your gear on your character. I really enjoyed that even stuff like class and grenade mods are visible on the character model.

[Squid Division]

One of my favorite things about Mass Effect is that it shows the actual gun you have equipped and they are holstered on your armor. It doesn't work for the rest of the items, but it does for your equipped weapons and armor.

[Justin Leego]

It's ultra disturbing when you think of the amount of edible consumables retrieved from this particular "pouch" in many games. Yeah I heal myself by eating herbs from my butt.

EDIT: Borderlands 2 also represents all your gear on your character. I really enjoyed that even stuff like class and grenade mods are visible on the character model.

Butt that still leaves up to 27 other items unaccounted for.

It would explain at least why the Borderlands games' characters grunt so loudly when they jump. Ouch.

[youmeyou]

ha, thrik, I work on those confused spots. the 'bag of holding' location is very purposeful. those guys are oddly blatant about their 10 year old sense of humor.

[Problem Machine]

If you think that's bad, check out where the star of this mind-numbing advert shown on UK television all the time gets her shit from:

agh stick figure jiggle physics

[berniesbc]

I dunno. I keep all my most important stuff in my butt.

[elmuerte]

where else are you going to store crap?

[SecretAsianMan]

Of course, you've got games like Monkey Island which were openly taking the piss out of this trope way back in the industry's early days.

I always liked the way Grim Fandango showed the inventory with Manny reaching into his coat and pulling out items. Do skeletons even have butts?

[Lu]

I think skeletons have more cavity space than we do. If I were a skeleton, I'd decorate the inside of my ribcage and then others can stick their head in it and it'll be like a cool diorama.

[Thrik]

Grim Fandango went to fairly amusing lengths to keep the inventory within the realms of believability, for example making you drag around a gigantic axe during a later puzzle, and of course the whole protracting scythe thing.