Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Jenga towers rely on loose middle blocks for height
The outer columns carry most of the tower’s weight, so removing middle blocks can make room to stack higher—but leaves the structure more fragile.
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The waterfall drinking game turns stopping into a chain reaction
Players drink in sequence and, under common rules, cannot stop until the person ahead of them does. The delay cascades around the group. That social pressure…
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Domino double-twelve sets contain exactly 91 tiles
That’s more than three times the 28 tiles in a standard set.
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Why distant game objects suddenly turn into blobs
Game engines replace distant, detailed models with simpler, low-polygon versions to save hardware resources, then swap the detail back in as you approach.
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In WoW, you can fish in a tavern
Players can spend hours casting lines into a tiny basement pool, ignoring dragons and world-ending threats to catch imaginary carp.
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Chances of rolling a Yahtzee immediately are 1 in 1296
The first die can be any number; the other four all have to match it.
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Sixteen clues can never pin down a standard Sudoku
Researchers exhaustively ruled out a uniquely solvable ordinary 9×9 puzzle with only 16 starting digits. Some arrangements with 17 work, although simply…
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Checkers strictly forces players to take any available jumps
When a capture is available, you must take it—even if the jump puts your piece in danger or opens a trap.
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Dire warnings can be interrupted by walking away
Even a dire warning about the end of the world can be cut short: you can walk away mid-sentence to check a trash can.
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Go is currently the oldest continuously played board game
Players claim territory by surrounding stones on a grid, and the game was played centuries before Rome became an empire.
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Bully rewards you for going to class between acts of trouble
Its school subjects become minigames: English involves making words, while other lessons test different skills. Passing classes unlocks useful advantages…
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Garry's Mod's purple checkerboards mean something is missing
Custom maps and addons can use textures and models supplied by other Source-engine games. If those assets are absent, the engine shows an unmistakable error…
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Static electricity causes un-sleeved cards to clump
Friction between dry paper layers creates an electrostatic charge, making cards cling together instead of sliding smoothly when dealt.
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Destiny 2 features a purple ball that players bounce around
Even during an interstellar crisis, armored Guardians take breaks to kick the ball off a balcony.
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Why Enix is named after a phoenix and a computer
The name combines “phoenix,” a symbol of rebirth and immortality, with ENIAC, the name of an early general-purpose computer.
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Swing chains implement heavy plastisol coating for grip
The plastisol coating keeps bare metal links from pinching riders' fingers as the swing moves.
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In Catan, the robber can shut down a sheep pasture
Move the robber onto a pasture, and it can block wool production from that hex, leaving players without that resource to trade.
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Video games let you insult kings to their faces
Some games let you insult an absolute monarch to his face without triggering a response from his guards.
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A perfect faro shuffle starts with exactly 26 cards
The deck must be divided into two equal piles of 26, then interwoven with precision; even one card too many or too few breaks the perfect shuffle.
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Yandere Simulator spent a decade growing around an unfinished main story
The project's published milestones show years devoted to core mechanics, rival characters, a ten-week structure, asset replacement and polishing. Its…
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An American checkers king gets a reverse gear, not a longer stride
In an ordinary move, a crowned piece travels one diagonal square, forward or backward. Captures still use jumps, and several captures can form a chain. Other…
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Borderlands put a company executive inside Claptrap's voice
David Eddings, then a Gearbox executive, voiced the original robot. The grating little guide became one of the series' most recognizable characters. A voice…
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Billiard balls helped push the search for an ivory substitute
Nineteenth-century makers wanted a material that behaved like ivory without its cost and limited supply. John Wesley Hyatt's experiments with cellulose-based…
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This puzzle folds into a perfect sphere
Its 24 interlocking prisms can be twisted from a long, stick-like shape into a solid sphere.
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