Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why Goat Simulator kept its glitches
Quality assurance is entirely subjective. The creators of Goat Simulator intentionally ignored massive collision errors and physics glitches in their code,…
Discover more
Whimsies are jigsaw pieces shaped like objects
In a desperate bid to be cute, some wooden puzzles feature pieces cut into silhouettes of recognizable items. While charming at first glance, trying to figure…
Discover more
Why Fortnite dances match a precise tempo
Every single absurd dance move you can actively purchase is meticulously tied to exactly 120 beats per minute. This strictly mathematical synchronization…
Discover more
Skipping cinematic scenes leaves players totally lost
Aggressively mashing buttons to bypass exposition always seems like a fantastic idea until gameplay resumes. You are suddenly dropped into a hostile…
Discover more
A magnet tells the Nintendo DS when to close
Sometimes the most elegant solution is just sticking a magnet inside a plastic hinge. To detect when the clamshell was closed, a magnetic field from the top…
Discover more
Baccarat has a version where you pretend to be the bank
In the Chemin de Fer variation, players actually take turns funding the wagers themselves instead of relying on the house. It is the ultimate ego trip,…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
Bidding nil in Spades risks a potentially massive penalty
Declaring that you will win zero tricks is a wildly arrogant gamble. You are essentially demanding your partner do all the heavy lifting, while desperately…
Discover more
Magic cards strictly divide wizard spells into five colors
Rather than learning whatever spell they want, incredibly powerful beings are forced to adhere to a rigid color-coded system. If you want to burn something,…
Discover more
Interpolation forces software to guess missing visual frames
When a simulation cannot render fast enough, it violently hallucinates the missing information. Interpolation compares two distant visual frames and…
Discover more
Crazy eights penalizes players who forget to declare
If you drop down to a single card and fail to verbally announce it, your opponents can force you to draw more. The entire climax hinges on whether you…
Discover more
Why video games make you fetch twenty pelts
When creators run out of ideas, they suddenly require you to collect twenty bear pelts from across the map before the king will even speak to you.
Discover more
Why voice directors dodge invisible lasers
Directing voice talent occasionally resembles an intense game of charades. When complex action scenes are being recorded without finished animation, directors…
Discover more
Composers have slept under their studio pianos
Genius takes time, but studio executives rarely provide any. In the desperate final weeks of production, composers have been known to literally sleep under…
Discover more
Craps began with a game called Hazard
Nothing screams 'good financial decision' like a game literally called hazard. Over centuries, French and American gamblers streamlined the overly complicated…
Discover more
Why spinning foosball rods is illegal
Aggressively spinning the rod like a helicopter blade is the hallmark of an amateur. Official tournament rules strictly ban this chaotic maneuver, forcing…
Discover more
How worthless party hats became RuneScape fortunes
Scarcity is a hilarious concept when applied to pixels. Runescape distributed cosmetic party hats for a holiday event in 2001, intended to be utterly…
Discover more
Why tournaments hide players' drink labels
Corporate branding strictly dictates what professionals are allowed to sip on stage. If a player dares to bring an unauthorized beverage to their desk,…
Discover more
Chess has more possible games than atoms in the universe
The absolute ultimate ego trip for chess grandmasters is knowing their little board game mathematically outnumbers the entire physical universe. Known as the…
Discover more
The world’s biggest arcade cabinet plays Tetris
Because straining your neck to look at a screen the size of a billboard is the optimal gaming experience. Mads Peter Iversen built this monstrosity, which…
Discover more
Why a digital threat can trigger a real stress response
Your primitive brain literally cannot tell the difference between a digital threat and a real tiger. The adrenal glands dump stress hormones into your…
Discover more
Why dominoes can't topple faster than a brisk walk
No matter how you space them, gravity and friction impose a strict speed limit on the toppling cascade. You can build the longest chain in the world, but…
Discover more
Penny lag involves systematically tossing currency at walls
A classic street distraction where participants quite literally throw their money against a brick wall. The goal is to rebound the coin so it lands as close…
Discover more
Whist was the intellectual obsession of the 18th century
Before modern screens existed, brilliant philosophers and politicians spent deeply serious evenings intensely focused on this silent trick-taking routine. It…
Discover more
The oldest chess piece is over 1,300 years old
Before we had toxic online chess lobbies, we had carved sandstone. Archaeologists dug up a two-horned piece in 2019 that represents a rook, proving that…
Discover more