The Difference Between Good and Bad Cliches

I've been wondering this for a while, but is there a difference between cliches? Are they all bad? And could you guys give me some examples if they're not?

The cliches are going bad if you've already knew many stories which has same plot or at least similar which lead you to the boredom. Because, you could already guessed what would happen in next. Says that you played 6 different games. But all of them is told you about a prince who gonna save the princess from evil king. You would begin to getting sick, wouldn't you?

However, not all people know such kind of stories. Depends on who are your audiences. The veteran RPG Player or person which already read all kind of stories, he/she needs something new. But not for a person who is not spent his/her time on reading stories.

Personally... I don't really care about the cliches.

I enjoy characters interaction and story presentation itself :D

From Wikipedia:

 
So yeah. All cliches are overused, and some have been overused so much as to be irritating.

The word is often used on things that are not cliche though. For example, the Cinderella type of story has been used more times than we probably even know (there's one in every culture around the world, some of them are true) but while it is easy to use it in a cliche manner the story itself is not cliche. You just have to put some effort into that retelling, make it something that you don't get anywhere else.

I love playing around with cliches. Cliches can be used to end up with a (hopefully, non-cliche)plot twist.

It's something that's entirely subjective which some people will like, dislike, hate or otherwise not care about all individually. Personally I don't mind their use so long as it's a good presentation; if it's like someone just frankensteined together a bunch of cliche themes that comprised a story back in the 8-bit days and that's the entirety of it... probably not going to be very entertaining though. 

It's not the problem that you use a cliche it's what you make out of it

best example monty oum:



every simgle oneliner on this trailer is a chliche

but it's doesn't mather because it's executed well and somehow made cool, and then mixed up with a non cliche fighting sceene

So im my opinion: it's no problem on using chliches (even a lot of them) but you shouldn't rely on them and more important use them correctly.

If you gonna save the princess make her beautyfull (at least if you don't want a shrek-like parody) make it tragic (anyone seen the film "The Whore"?) and put a lot of tension in it.

Isn't it kind of cliche'd to avoid cliche's as much as possible?

There is a superb website called tvtropes.org.  That site showcases a lot of video game and literary plot devices (tropes), some of which are clearly cliche.

I don't personally think there is such a thing as a bad cliche.  There is such a thing as bad storytelling.  A lot of core story concepts such as the hero's arc, have existed probably as long as humans have told each other stories over the fires at night.  

Let's say the "Save the princess from the evil king" trope.  Yes, that's been done to death.  But, if you take that core story concept and do it very well, it can still make an excellent game.  Here's one way that cliche could play out interestingly:

There are three kingdoms who have been at war for many years.  One day, the princess and her entourage visit the neighboring kingdom on a mission of mercy.  The princess is killed and quietly replaced with a magical doll (which looks, talks, etc like her).   Said "princess" returns, disheveled and says how she barely survived, since the neighboring king doesn't want to start a war.

Now, the third king gets wind of this and kidnaps the doll, because he wants to take her apart to understand the magic involved, since it could be used to bring his dead Queen back to life.  The "Prince" who goes to rescue her was really the toymaker who created the doll in the first place for the second kingdom...

That's just a quick off-the-cuff idea.  But you see how even the most tired cliche can be turned into something more unique?

After that, the rich detail in the game world, music, maps, NPC events, can make even a tired cliche a really good game.  Even Chrono Trigger has a "Rescue the Princess" quest at the beginning.

A cliche is basically a story hook or idea that has been used many times because it works. Stories made with them can be good and interesting.


A cliche becomes bad if the reader/gamer/watcher has nothing left to rise interest - if you use only basic cliches so that people know what will happen without even starting to think, then your project will stop being interesting to people.


So if you use a cliche (and there are often good reasons for that - as I said cliches have become cliches because they work), you need to modify it and add new twist to it to generate the needed interest.

This topic has been done to death already. :\  Clichés are fine, as long as it's executed properly.