Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why game cases came wrapped in endless tape
Retailers firmly believed that the best way to prevent theft was to prevent anyone from opening the product at all. Store cases were notoriously wrapped in an…
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When Final Fantasy XIV had to stop selling itself
Suffering from success usually involves popping champagne, not shutting off the cash register. Final Fantasy XIV saw such a massive influx of users that their…
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Why Smash Bros. fighters eat chickens off the floor
The five-second rule is heavily enforced during intense brawls. Legendary icons of entertainment will gladly pause their epic clashes to eat fully roasted…
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The video game glitch that created combos
Every fighting game tournament you've ever watched owes its existence to lazy code. During the development of Street Fighter II, producer Noritaka Funamizu…
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Backgammon’s doubling cube lets a player raise the stakes before the game ends
A casual dice game turns into a ruthless standoff the moment someone turns that special cube. It forces the opponent to either instantly accept defeat or…
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Tabletop roleplaying games use dice to decide whether simple actions succeed or fail
Trying to peacefully negotiate with a merchant or vault a small fence shouldn't require divine intervention. Yet, rolling poorly on a piece of plastic means…
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Magic: The Gathering began as convention filler
The grandfather of all collectible card games was originally conceived as glorified lobby music. Garfield, a mathematics PhD student, pitched a complicated…
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Tetris reached the West through a legal thriller
Moving colorful blocks around is fun, but fighting the Soviet government for software rights is where the real game was played. Because Alexey Pajitnov…
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Why Sega's Michael Jackson game became a PR nightmare
Talk about a terrible return on investment. Sega partnered with the King of Pop to make Moonwalker, pouring massive resources into his vanity project. Right…
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The card game Pinochle uses a deck with every card below nine removed
Because normal rules were apparently too simple, this variant demands you throw away everything below a nine. It creates a heavily modified Frankenstein deck…
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Journalists get watched while testing preview builds
Critiquing an artistic work is quite difficult when the creator's boss is breathing down your neck. During exclusive preview events, journalists are routinely…
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Early Japanese PS2s needed a memory card for movies
A completely backward approach to watching a film. Early Japanese units notoriously required software physically installed on the portable memory drive just…
Discover moreSnoop Dogg can be your voice in Call of Duty
For a small fee, you could have a legendary rapper casually drop rhymes while intensely competitive matches unfold. It completely undermines the serious…
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Three-day conventions empty nearby stores of deodorant by Saturday morning
A dense crowd of enthusiastic hobbyists is a severe biological hazard. Over the course of a three-day weekend event, the sheer volume of excited attendees…
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Cheese dust can permanently stain plastic
Nothing says elite performance like ruining expensive plastic with neon orange grease. The artificial dyes and industrial oils chemically bond with porous…
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Monster Hunter's chefs are giant muscular cats
Before heading out into the wild, you are served a gargantuan, beautifully prepared feast by a feline who is significantly more buff than you are. It is an…
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In Catan, rolling a seven makes players with more than seven cards discard half
Rolling a seven does not yield any resources; instead, it unleashes a brutal tax on anyone hoarding too much stuff. If you hold more than seven cards, you…
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In Resident Evil 2, you can board windows before enemies climb through them
Unlike most horror scenarios where jumpscares are highly scripted, you can actually permanently stop threats from entering by hammering wooden planks over…
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The WonderSwan was designed to be played vertically or horizontally
A flexible display orientation far ahead of standard smartphones. The chassis featured an extra cluster of inputs specifically tailored for rotated viewing,…
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Making every useful object glow removes the challenge of finding hidden switches
Making every single useful object glow bright yellow assumes the player has the object permanence of a goldfish. Finding a hidden switch loses its luster when…
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Microsoft named the Xbox One as an all-in-one hub for home entertainment
A confusing numerical regression meant to declare absolute living room dominance. The title was chosen because it was intended to be the sole, all-in-one…
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Two Truths and a Lie exposes poor poker faces during fabricated statements
When forced to play 'Two Truths and a Lie,' the average person rapidly discovers they possess absolutely zero poker face. Because crafting a plausible…
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Splinter Cell let you hide above guards
Nothing says 'tactical espionage' quite like suspending your entire body weight between two narrow walls like a sweaty gymnast. Splinter Cell allowed players…
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Why Destiny replaced Peter Dinklage's voice
When you pay Hollywood money for voice acting, you generally hope they sound awake. Bungie hired Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage to voice the robotic…
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