Wide Open Sandbox/Playing With

• Basic Trope: A Video Game that doesn't have strict rules and timelines for the player to follow.
• Played Straight: A videogame has a goal for the player to accomplish, but he/she is given several ways of doing so and no time limit to accomplish those tasks.
• Exaggerated: The game has no rules, and no way to "win" whatsoever!
• Justified: The sidequests don't seem important, but become important to the plot later.
  • Doing the sidequests earns the player extra rewards, such as game credits that can be used to purchase better weapons or defense.
  • The game is not based around winning; it's just one of those happy little time-wasters.
• Inverted: The game has strict rules and time-limits.
  • Closed Circle
• Subverted: Although there is an ultimate goal to be accomplished, there are numerous sidequests that can be undertaken, some of which may be semi-important, others not so much.
• Double Subverted: But there is no time limit to the ultimate goal of the game.
• Parodied: Calvin Ball
• Lampshaded: "The rules are: there ain't no rules!"
• Averted: See "Inverted"
• Enforced: "We need to make this game more fun, and more appealing to different kinds of gamers and personalities."
• Invoked: An optional Sidequest comes up that has little to do with the central plot.
• Defied: The player chooses not to do this, preferring to just accomplish the central goal, whatever that may be.