Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
How WoW players learned to speak to the enemy
Blizzard Entertainment severely underestimated the sheer linguistic creativity of internet trolls. To prevent extreme toxicity between the Horde and Alliance…
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Magical fireballs casually ignore standard thermodynamics
Conjuring massive explosions in tight subterranean hallways sounds like a guaranteed recipe for collateral damage. Luckily, tabletop rules state the flames…
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Nintendogs delayed Metal Gear Solid 4
Hideo Kojima's overly dramatic Metal Gear Solid 4 was pushed back because his staff couldn't stop playing Nintendogs. The developers were allegedly so…
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Why video game caves can echo without simulating soundwaves
A digital cavern sounds perfectly silent unless the engine mathematically forces an echo. Reverb zones are invisible geometric boxes scattered across maps…
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Why gamers save powerful items until the end
You will inevitably finish the final boss with ninety-nine legendary elixirs in your inventory just in case. The paralyzing fear that you might need a…
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Insomniac Games was originally Xtreme Software
Nothing screams the 1990s quite like dropping the letter 'E' from extreme. The creators of legendary purple dragons and intergalactic lombaxes started with a…
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Crowning checkers grants the basic ability to move backward
You spend the entire game desperately protecting your helpless pieces on a one-way suicide mission across the board, only to be rewarded with the shockingly…
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Why Ryu and Ken originally looked identical
Why draw two completely different martial artists when you can just bucket-fill their pajamas with different colors? Ryu and Ken were originally identical…
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Officer Tenpenny controls the entire city underworld
Why bother protecting and serving when you can just run the mafia from a police cruiser? In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the primary antagonist is a corrupt…
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Why smart teams miss the obvious in escape rooms
Facilities constantly report that highly educated corporate teams fail the fastest. They routinely dismantle heavy furniture and rip up carpets looking for…
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Why ray tracing turns computers into space heaters
Why approximate a shadow when you can melt your hardware calculating individual light particles? Ray tracing simulates the exact physical path of millions of…
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In Shenmue, revenge can wait for the arcade
Your father was just murdered in front of you, but look, the arcade down the street has a new set of collectible erasers! Shenmue pioneered the 3D open world,…
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Why is there always a shop in the dungeon
Somehow, a guy selling basic health potions manages to set up a fully stocked shop deep inside a monster-infested cavern without ever being attacked.
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Why the clubs symbolized farm workers
Before they looked like cute little clovers, these symbols represented the heavy batons and wooden clubs carried by the working agricultural class. Nothing…
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A Ferrari was a Quake tournament prize
Before corporate esports sponsors were handing out branded gaming chairs, real developers bet their cars. In 1997, Carmack tossed the keys to his personal…
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The browser games that became escape rooms
Being locked in a physical room with strangers is just the real-world manifestation of an old internet era. The entire concept was directly lifted from those…
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Ice luge drinking aggressively chills liquids via gravity
Why pour a beverage normally when you can filter it down a carved block of frozen water? The luge utilizes strict gravitational pull and thermal transfer,…
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Kamchatka is an essential Risk territory for holding Asia
This real-world peninsula becomes a fiercely contested battleground on the cardboard map. Because it uniquely connects directly to North America, securing it…
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Seven shuffles can randomize a deck
Human laziness often stops at three shuffles, leaving massive clumps of suited cards together. Mathematical proof demands exactly seven standard riffle…
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Why tilting a console can destroy its disc
Tilting a console while a disc is violently spinning inside is a brilliant way to experience raw angular momentum. The gyroscopic force forces the optical…
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Big Daddy almost looked very different
The terrifying protectors of Rapture's Little Sisters almost went from steampunk cool to downright offensive. During the conceptual phase, Irrational Games…
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Why The Price Is Right locks up its Plinko chips
You cannot simply walk away with the legendary pink discs. Because they are highly customized to fall down the board in a specific chaotic manner, producers…
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Mario Kart routinely features the villain driving around
Grudges are easily set aside for high-speed karting. A massive spiked turtle will actively kidnap royalty on Tuesday, but by Friday he is cheerfully tossing…
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Pro gamers practice for 14 hours a day
Who needs work-life balance when there's a shiny trophy on the line? Professional esports rosters routinely submit themselves to fourteen-hour daily practice…
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