Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
How Subnautica uses sea monsters instead of invisible walls
Beyond Subnautica’s crater lies a deep, hostile zone patrolled by adult Ghost Leviathans. Staying there brings escalating danger, encouraging the player to…
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Why Magic: The Gathering prints terrible cards
Weak cards give players practice spotting why a card that looks useful is actually a poor choice. A card that's bad in the standard metagame might still…
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Street Fighter arcade sticks utilize microswitch clicks
The click is the switch registering an input, giving players tactile confirmation that a direction or button press went through.
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How Among Us turns blind spots into weapons
Some obstacles hide an impostor from other players while still letting the impostor see them, making it possible to attack from what looks like empty space.
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Minecraft once made you discover recipes yourself
Players had to discover recipes by arranging sticks and stone in exact patterns, often through trial and error or community wikis; there was no in-game recipe…
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Overwatch forces infinite Pharah and hitscan swapping
Because Pharah attacks from the air, opponents may switch to hitscan heroes such as Cassidy or Widowmaker to hit her more reliably. Teams can change…
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Why Skyrim quests never seem to end
Skyrim’s Radiant quest system can choose a target from available locations, often sending you to an uncleared cave. That keeps new errands coming even after…
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A Magic card can rotate out of Standard without becoming useless
Standard limits which sets are legal, so rotation changes the cards available for building a deck. An older card can remain playable in other formats even…
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Marth's invisible grab reaches farther than it should
Marth’s grab uses a large disjointed hitbox: the invisible area that registers the move extends beyond his character model, letting him snag opponents from a…
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Gloomhaven ties turn order directly to card power
Players choose whether to act early with weaker abilities or wait to unleash stronger attacks, making turn order part of the tactical trade-off.
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Gloomhaven box inserts cut setup time in half
Organized trays keep hundreds of tokens and monster pieces sorted, cutting down setup friction and making it easier to get the game to the table.
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Why escape rooms ration the UV flashlight
Game masters hold back UV lights to control the pacing: reveal one too early, and players may scan irrelevant props before solving the main logic puzzle.
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World of Warcraft Onyxia aggro reset wipeout
In classic raids, damage dealers had to manage an invisible threat meter so they wouldn't draw Onyxia's attention away from the tank. Guilds coordinated their…
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The spinning reels may hide the real math
Bonanza Megaways displays as many as 117,649 ways to win, but the spinning reels are a visual display; the game’s return-to-player rate comes from its…
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Seven chess pieces can hide a 549-move route to mate
The Lomonosov tablebases exhaustively calculated positions with up to seven pieces and found a longest forced mate of 549 moves. That result assumes play can…
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Riichi Mahjong Thirteen Orphans probability
Thirteen Orphans requires a specific set of terminal and honor tiles, making it exceptionally rare to draw naturally. Chasing it can hurt a player's chances…
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Why Zelda's Water Temple can't ruin your save
The dungeon’s doors and small-key placements are designed so you can’t use a key in the wrong place and permanently block your progress. The maze may…
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Why Warhammer 40K Titans are so huge on the table
At about two feet tall, a resin Titan towers over the tiny plastic infantry and can dominate the view across the tabletop.
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Even honest players can look fascist in Secret Hitler
The deck is weighted toward fascist policies, so even an honest liberal can be dealt fascist cards and look suspicious while passing them.
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Why Farkle makes one last roll so tempting
As dice are set aside, fewer remain to score, but a growing combo makes players chase one more roll—even when a single die gives them only a 33% chance of…
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This game gives NPCs randomly assigned grudges
In Streets of Rogue, the game builds missions from each level’s layout and gives ordinary NPCs random quirks—like a bartender with a safe code who hates…
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Borderlands gives its generated guns names that reveal their traits
Weapon parts and modifiers determine properties such as damage type or projectile behavior. Prefixes and other name elements help signal those properties to…
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GTA Online punishes trolls with a dunce cap
Players who repeatedly destroy others’ personal vehicles can be branded Bad Sports and sent to lobbies with other griefers, where they wear a white dunce cap.
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In Power Grid, players bid up terrible power plants
Players must bid against each other to purchase power plants from a fluctuating market. When the market shifts, they may drive up the price of an inefficient…
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