Soup cans: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:27, 25 May 2024

Soup cans is a derisive term for a puzzle that makes no sense within the plot of a game. The puzzle's nonsensical nature distracts so much from the plot that the puzzle compromises mimesis.

The term is named after a sequence in The Seventh Guest (Trilobyte/Virgin, 1993) where the player must spell out a secret message by shuffling cans of soup on a pantry shelf. There is no logical reason for this at all, other than the sense that the mansion the player is exploring has a pantry, and the pantry needed a puzzle of some kind.

The term arose from a comment made by Russ Bryan in the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction: "I mean, what the hell kind of villain thwarts the hero's progress with soup cans in the kitchen pantry (Seventh Guest)?"

Links

Solve The Soup Cans at TV Tropes Wiki.

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-A derisive term for a [[puzzle]] that makes no sense within the [[plot]] of a game, thus compromising [[mimesis]]. In a sequence in "The Seventh Guest" (Trilobyte/Virgin, 1993), the PC must shuffle cans of soup on a shelf in order to spell out a message, which will will.. uh... because the PC would have been in the kitchen at the time and... well, because the pantry needed some sort of puzzle, and... er...
+'''Soup cans''' is a derisive term for a [[puzzle]] that makes no sense within the [[plot]] of a game. The puzzle's nonsensical nature distracts so much from the plot that the puzzle compromises [[mimesis]].
-Well. There you have it -- the eponymous soup-cans puzzle.
+The term is named after a sequence in ''The Seventh Guest'' (Trilobyte/Virgin, 1993) where the player must spell out a secret message by shuffling cans of soup on a pantry shelf. There is no logical reason for this at all, other than the sense that the mansion the player is exploring has a pantry, and the pantry needed a puzzle of some kind.
-The term arose from a [http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=4k1vij%241f3%40newsbf02.news.aol.com comment made by Russ Bryan] in the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction: "I mean,
+The term arose from a [http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=4k1vij%241f3%40newsbf02.news.aol.com comment made by Russ Bryan] in the Usenet newsgroup [[rec.arts.int-fiction]]: "I mean,
 what the hell kind of villain thwarts the hero's progress with soup cans in the kitchen pantry (Seventh Guest)?"