Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why foosball handles resist spinning
The handles are intentionally rigid and often slightly uncomfortable by design. The lack of a grippy surface drastically prevents players from wrapping their…
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Standard square playing tiles are explicitly 45mm wide
A bizarrely rigid industry consensus dictates the exact millimeter width of these squares. It ensures uniform grid alignment, so if you try to mix and match…
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Throwing an explosive and running directly into it
The strategic act of tossing a highly destructive projectile over cover is often ruined by a sudden urge to charge forward. You end up accidentally detonating…
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How bizarre dice can still be fair
By twisting the faces into bizarre kites and trapezoids, these monstrosities look like melted mistakes. Yet, strictly speaking, they retain a perfectly equal…
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How Roblox creators turn Robux into real money
It sounds like a money laundering scheme, but it is entirely legal corporate infrastructure. Roblox allows independent creators to build within their…
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The Sims patch notes that mentioned wooing the Grim Reaper
Standard software updates fix crash loops; this one fixes existential romance. The Sims regularly publishes the most unhinged developmental text logs in the…
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Cuphead was drawn frame by frame
Modern software tools are wonderful, but pure stubbornness is better. Every single frame of the brutally difficult boss rush was drawn entirely by hand on…
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The theater usher who created Stardew Valley
A guy who was ushering patrons at a local theater spent four grueling years learning to code, draw, and compose music entirely by himself. He ultimately…
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Why every video game seems to have fishing
Whether you are a cybernetic ninja or a hardened space marine, you will inevitably have to catch a virtual trout. Throwing a bobber into a pixelated pond has…
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This game makes you click mayonnaise 10,000 times
When the barrier to entry hits rock bottom, you get pure existential dread. A title titled 'My Name is Mayo' exists purely to be clicked ten thousand times,…
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Your mousepad may be a graveyard of dead skin
Scraping a flat edge across your premium cloth surface uncovers dense layers of dead skin and immense regret. What you assumed was just a slight discoloration…
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Video games let the apocalypse wait for side quests
An apocalyptic meteor is seconds away from destroying the planet, but it will politely hold off while you collect ten rare herbs for a local chef.
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Go Fish began as a sophisticated literary game
Demanding someone hand over all their threes used to be a highly sophisticated intellectual pursuit. The modern matching deck actually evolved from a…
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Power hours turn drinking into a minute-by-minute chore
Why drink at your own leisure when a playlist can dictate your bodily functions? By pairing musical transitions with mandatory sips every single minute, this…
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Why Simon Says makes your body disobey you
The entire challenge revolves around suppressing your brain's automatic mirror neurons when someone omits a specific name. You fail not because you do not…
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Burst mechanics function as panic buttons when losing badly
For when you have completely failed at defense and need a literal get-out-of-jail-free card. Once per match, you can detonate a massive energy wave that…
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Garry's Mod rewards you for finding its creator
Nothing drives a community crazier than tying a permanent profile accolade to the whims of one specific human. Garry's Mod includes an achievement granted…
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Skyrim NPCs walk into fires
Situational awareness is completely absent in fantasy villages. An allegedly intelligent blacksmith will frequently step directly into a massive, burning…
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BioShock's Big Daddy voice came through a tube
The most terrifying sound in the underwater city of Rapture is just a voice actor reading lovely verses through a cardboard cylinder. It turns a horrifying…
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Monopoly's cheap properties reflect real racial inequality
The property values on the board aren't random; they're a grim historical snapshot. The original layout was based on real Atlantic City neighborhoods, pricing…
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Glancing at another screen in split-screen multiplayer
Despite constantly swearing you aren't looking, casting your eyes toward your friend's quadrant is an irresistible temptation. This illicit information…
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Metal Gear Solid 3 makes you climb one ladder for minutes
You do absolutely nothing but hold forward as a hauntingly beautiful vocal track swells in the background for an agonizingly long time. It is a brilliant…
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Punching massive trees yields perfect planks
Viciously assaulting a massive oak tree with your bare fists is the standard procedure for harvesting cleanly cut lumber.
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Invisible walls block completely open fields
Nothing says ultimate freedom like sprinting through a beautiful meadow only to smash your face against a transparent barricade. Developers implement these…
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