Downwards Funnel/Videogames

Downwards funnels aren't just limited to TV, literature or real life. Here are some in videogames, with videogame-related examples documented on this page as well.

* The entire ordeal surrounding the name "Dohvakiin" quickly spiraled into one of the biggest downwards funnels in videogame history:
	+ First off, Bethesda announced *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim*. So far so good, right? *Except* close to the game's release, they started a promotion where if people born on the day of the game's release were named "Dohvakiin", the parents would get *Steam keys to the entire Bethesda library at the time*.
	+ Here's the twist: Bethesda's promotion somehow paralleled the first half of the plot to *Chrysanthemum*, which is a book that discourages bullying just because of a name. Unfortunately for Bethesda, not only did the fact that books just can't change the world flew by them (they weren't inspired by the book when they made the promotion), but somebody actually named her child "Dohvakiin" and ended up getting her son doomed "to a lifetime of bullying"- the *exact opposite* of what Bethesda were hoping for.
	+ It even got Trey Parker and Matt Stone involved, since the protagonist of *South Park: The Stick of Truth* is The New Kid, whose real name is Dohvakiin.
* Bowser of *Super Mario Bros.* has been subject to this since his first appearance in *1985*. His plans were crazier and crazier each game, which always involved him kidnapping Princess Peach. This meant his defeat at the end of each game was as humiliating that the limitations of the console allowed.
* Similarly, every *Sonic the Hedgehog* game starts with Dr. Eggman unleashing a Super Evil scheme, only to suffer a big defeat at the hands of Sonic and the others by the end of the game. It was once even lampshaded in *Sonic Colors*.
* The GameStop short squeeze became one of the biggest downwards funnels in videogame history in *just one month* (the above-mentioned Dohvakiin debacle took between the announcement of *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim* and the game's release for the same to happen to it):
	+ First, a few hedge funds actively bet against GameStop by engaging in short-selling of its stock. If not for the mess below, this would've worked out for them, for a few reasons:
		- GameStop saw less revenue in 2020. Less revenue = lower stock price. In fact, had the hedge funds been *right* and the share price dropped *dramatically*, GameStop would've been delisted from the NYSE- a big sign of trouble for *any* stock in the United States.
		- The COVID-19 pandemic. It's not a good idea to visit a brick-and-mortar store, especially if it's a non-essential business, in the middle of a pandemic. When temporary bans on non-essential businesses were lifted, GameStop then had to deal with not too many people being allowed into their stores, which contributed to GameStop making less money than they did in 2020.
		- The overall decline of brick-and-mortar stores, and the idea that, once one purchases a videogame console (especially from the current generation), you would never have to buy *any* physical games for it.
	+ But here's where the irony comes in: none of the people betting against GameStop even bothered to check if investors were actively betting that the price of GameStop would go up. Sure enough, people on Reddit (we can't say which subreddit it was, for obvious reasons) noticed that the price of GameStop stock was being shorted, and sure enough, they bought a lot of the stock for GameStop, making the price go *up*. People with GameStop stock suddenly became *rich* by the end of the month and hedge funds began losing money thanks to this. One of the hedge funds even had to be *bailed out* in order to avoid bankruptcy. It got to the point where trading apps halted the sale of GameStop stock, as well as other "meme stocks".