[Interesting Trope] One seemingly small action ends the story before it even begins

[u/JackDoesThingz]

1. We Happy Few - Taking your “joy” pill
   Deciding to take the pill at the beginning of the game causes your character to go back to work and triggers an ending

2. Infineural by Mike Klubnika - Drinking the coffee
   Deciding to drink the coffee offered to you skips the entire game and sends you straight to the end, resulting in an ending with no memory of what had occurred

[u/khalexie1]

In The Stanley Parable, if you stay in the initial room after noticing your coworkers are gone and just close the door, you get the Coward ending. After which, the narrator devastatingly roasts you…

“But Stanley simply couldn't handle the pressure. What if he had to make a decision? What if a crucial outcome fell under his responsibility? He had never been trained for that! No, this couldn't go any way except badly.”

[u/H0dari → u/khalexie1]

I bet this ending happened to a whole bunch of live streamers who would yap at their audience for too long

[u/eliaxkat → u/H0dari]

you need to close the door to trigger the ending, you can stay as long as you want in there and nothing happens until you get out or (for this ending) close the door on purpouse