Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why Chopped removes the obvious ingredients
The producers intentionally remove obvious binding agents and standard ingredients from the kitchen to induce maximum culinary panic. It ensures that when…
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Red light green light demands absolute physical immobility
The second the caller turns around, every single participant must aggressively lock their muscles and pretend to be completely petrified. It is a masterclass…
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The Deal or No Deal banker follows a formula
The ominous figure in the shadowy booth is not making gut-wrenching personal judgments about your life choices; they are literally just plugging the remaining…
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Why the craps stickman moves every die
That employee with the long wooden hook is not just there to look distinguished; they are the only person allowed to physically move the dice across the felt.…
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Cup stacking is a real competitive sport
Society eventually ran out of athletic feats, so we turned doing the dishes into an intense global competition. There is a legitimate world governing body…
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Why slot machines replaced coins with paper tickets
The glorious, chaotic sound of hundreds of metal coins violently clattering into a metal tray has been completely replaced by a tiny, silent slip of paper.…
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The diners on Hell's Kitchen may be paid actors
Those seemingly random people waiting three hours for a completely raw scallop are not actual paying restaurant patrons; they are paid extras signed on for…
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Why Simon Says turns a simple game into a trap
The entire premise revolves around tricking a group of people into performing completely ridiculous physical actions just because a specific name was not…
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Keno has some of the casino's worst odds
The house advantage in this number-drawing lottery is astronomically high compared to other table offerings. It exists entirely to slowly drain loose change…
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Wheel of Fortune's letters are now touchscreens
Vanna White no longer actually physically rotates large blocks of wood; she simply taps highly responsive touch screens that instantly illuminate. The…
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Why lottery winners take the lump sum
Despite the annuity option mathematically yielding significantly more cash over thirty years, almost everyone takes the immediate, heavily taxed upfront pile.…
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The game that rewards disobeying its narrator
An incredibly soothing, highly authoritative British voice calmly tells you exactly which hallway to walk down, and the entire experience is built on you…
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Why digital cars still need oil changes
The vehicles in your entirely fictional garage will actually degrade in performance if you fail to regularly change their completely nonexistent oil. The…
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Pac-Man ate billions in arcade quarters
If you ever feel bad about your personal finances, remember a yellow circle ate more money than you'll ever see. By 1990, Pac-Man cabinets had generated over…
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How Wii Sports became a best-selling game
Do you really own the title of 'best-selling exclusive' if literally no one had a choice in buying you? Nintendo bundled Wii Sports with over 80 million…
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Table tennis began as a Victorian dinner game
Before it became an intense Olympic bloodsport, ping-pong was just an excuse for rich people to avoid engaging in actual conversation after dinner.…
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Hangman began with a fascination with executions
Ah, nothing spells family fun quite like drawing a literal execution. The staple of modern elementary schools originated in the 19th century, a time when…
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Crosswords were once called a threat to society
Nothing says moral decay quite like guessing a five-letter word for 'river'. In the 1920s, major publications like the New York Times actively condemned…
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Why Red Light, Green Light became a safety lesson
Obeying a screaming child acting as a human traffic signal was heavily popularized during the early days of the automobile, specifically engineered to drill…
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Minecraft's map is bigger than Earth's surface
While you struggle to navigate your local grocery store, blocky avatars are running across a digital surface area of over four billion square kilometers,…
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Rock paper scissors began with frogs and snakes
Settling disputes with aggressive hand gestures is a tradition that predates Western civilization entirely, originating in Han dynasty China where lords would…
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Hacky sack has Indigenous roots
Kicking a small beanbag in a circle with your slacker friends is actually derived from indigenous athletic traditions, violently co-opted in the seventies to…
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How severe dieting can make reality-show contestants lose hair
Winning a million dollars on reality television costs you roughly half your physical well-being. The severe caloric deficit causes the body to panic and shut…
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Jeopardy contestants stand on adjustable platforms
Television magic dictates that all humans must appear exactly the same height. To prevent the host from looking like a giant or a dwarf next to the trivia…
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