Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why voice chat sounds like a wind tunnel
A headset microphone set too sensitively can pick up background sounds like a ceiling fan or nearby conversation and send them straight into the call.
Discover more
Why headphones leave a dent in your hair
The headband presses your hair flat, leaving a groove that looks like a dent in your head but is really just flattened hair.
Discover more
Autosave icons demand you never cut power
A spinning autosave icon means your progress is still being written to storage; cutting power before it finishes can wipe out recent work.
Discover more
Achievements exist for opening basic menus
Some games award achievements for opening menus or adjusting basic settings, giving players a digital reward before gameplay even begins.
Discover more
Why gamers turn off film grain in seconds
Film grain overlays artificial noise to imitate old cameras, deliberately making a digital image look grainier.
Discover more
Why game lights glow like they’re blinding you
A post-processing effect exaggerates bright areas, making lights bloom into blurry smudges.
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.
Subtitle backgrounds default to solid black
Opaque backgrounds boost contrast, but they can cover part of the image—sometimes nearly a quarter of the screen.
Discover more
Multiple disc prompts plagued long titles
Before digital downloads, reaching the halfway point of an epic journey required standing up and swapping a piece of plastic. Some long games came on multiple…
Discover more
Default subtitles remain entirely tiny
When the default is hard to read from the couch, you may have to dig through the settings before the dialogue becomes legible.
Discover more
Colorblind filters just wash out all colors
Some filters apply a magenta tint across the entire screen rather than making individual interface elements easier to distinguish, so the whole image can look…
Discover more
The inventor of Twister also created Nerf
Reyn Guyer created Twister and later developed the first Nerf product, giving indoor play both a party game built around tangled bodies and soft projectiles…
Discover more
Yahtzee began as a yacht game
A wealthy Canadian couple devised the game in 1954 to entertain guests on their yacht and called it the Yacht Game. Toy entrepreneur Edwin Lowe took it to the…
Discover more
The boring train ride that inspired the Game Boy
Nintendo engineer Gunpei Yokoi saw a businessman fidgeting with a pocket calculator on a bullet train and imagined a better portable distraction. That idea…
Discover more
The Sega game with a talking fish that could bleed
The game was Seaman, a Dreamcast title narrated by Leonard Nimoy. Players spoke to its human-faced amphibian through a microphone; if neglected, it could…
Discover more
A video-game door can create dozens of design problems
Designer Liz England used doors to explain her job: which ones open, how players recognize them, what happens when an enemy blocks one, and how locks behave.…
Discover more
Elden Ring lets you fight monsters but not swim across deep water
The character can wade through shallow areas, but stepping into water beyond the playable edge can end the run. Armor upgrades do not supply a swimming…
Discover more
Rubberbanding ensures opponents never fall far behind
The game can boost trailing opponents so they stay within reach, making even a strong lead feel less secure.
Discover more
Weapon durability shatters heavy swords after three swings
In some fictional worlds, a massive steel broadsword can crumble after just a few soft hits—as if its blacksmith forgot how to forge.
Discover more
Fallout 4 lets a battered fedora become serious armor
Once ballistic weave is unlocked, certain ordinary clothing items—including the battered fedora—can gain substantial protection. The upgrade changes their…
Discover more
Sleeping in a standard bed cures all physical ailments
Eight hours in a standard bed cannot cure severe burns, broken bones, or radiation injuries; sleep is no substitute for medical care.
Discover more
Kiting targets in large circles maximizes damage output
You keep moving in circles while firing; heavily armored enemies may follow until bullets—and sometimes exhaustion—finish them.
Discover more
Opponents get drastically stronger when almost defeated
Some games make a nearly defeated boss glow red, heal, and add new attacks, turning the final stretch into a tougher phase.
Discover more
Infinite death loops occur at poorly placed checkpoints
If a save point records one health just as a grenade is about to explode, every reload can drop you back into the same unavoidable death—again and again.
Discover more
Magical barriers block paths until arbitrary tasks finish
The only way forward is to find three glowing artifacts scattered across the map; brute force won’t break the barrier.
Discover more