Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
The fans who spent 15 years fixing a broken game
Sometimes a title is released in such a broken, unplayable state that the fans have to step in. This vampire adventure was launched unfinished, full of…
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Elite Dangerous mapped a galaxy you can barely explore
If you want to feel incredibly small, this title uses actual astronomical data to simulate 400 billion star systems. It takes actual months of real-world…
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You can power-wash a Mars rover
People will refuse to do their actual laundry but will happily spend hours digitally spraying mud off a fictional van. The developers leaned into the joke so…
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The game where you shower with your dad
Digital storefronts are filled with incredibly bizarre concepts that somehow found an audience. This particular title is exactly what it sounds like: a…
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Genshin Impact requires tens of gigabytes on mobile
Trying to play massive open-world experiences on a cellular phone comes with heavy sacrifices. This specific title forces players to completely purge their…
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Why video game heroes still need keys for wooden doors
You possess a glowing plasma rifle that can instantly vaporize titanium armor and incinerate heavily shielded enemies. However, a standard wooden door with a…
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Why video games lock arena doors
Nothing screams impending doom quite like an overly spacious arena with a suspiciously high ceiling. The moment your character crosses the threshold, thick…
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Why ancient ruins in games never run out of fire
Nobody has stepped foot in this deep, forgotten cave for thousands of years, yet every sconce on the wall is brightly lit. There is apparently an invisible…
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Why climbing down a ladder is so dangerous in games
Slaying dragons and dodging lasers is child's play compared to navigating vertical rungs. The alignment required to successfully attach to a ladder is so…
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Underwater environments always feel incredibly clunky
Suddenly, a fast-paced action hero becomes a sluggish, flailing mess. Developers love to throw players into deep liquid environments just to take away their…
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Sweden once opened an embassy in Second Life
At the height of its popularity, this massive digital social space attracted actual governments. Real nations like Sweden opened official digital embassies…
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Leading a global resistance while completely silent
The greatest leaders in digital universes apparently do not need to speak a single word. Entire military factions will swear unwavering loyalty to a…
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Why Minecraft's creator sold it to Microsoft
Most tech founders sell their companies for strategic growth, but 'Notch' literally just wanted people to leave him alone. After an obscure EULA update caused…
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Gangsters play rotary-phone dating games
Between intense dramatic battles over family honor, hardened criminals spend their afternoons participating in extremely stressful telephone dating minigames.…
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Why games make you mash buttons during cutscenes
You are watching a beautifully choreographed fight scene, popcorn in hand, when suddenly the screen forcefully demands you mash a specific button or watch…
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How matching colorful sweets became a billion-dollar business
While traditional gamers loudly argue over graphic fidelity, a simple application about swapping brightly colored treats quietly makes billions of dollars.…
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Watching unskippable cinematics is a rite of passage
Nothing tests your sanity quite like losing a difficult boss fight and being forced to watch the villain deliver their three-minute evil monologue for the…
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Some mobile games make upgrades take 21 days
In the ultimate test of delayed gratification, mobile base-builders openly demand that you wait twenty-one real-life days for a digital hammer to finish…
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Fruit Ninja turned slicing a watermelon into a hit
Before social media completely rotted our attention spans, millions of people spent hours furiously swiping their sticky fingers across early smartphone…
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The oddly lucrative business of vacuuming slimes
The agricultural future doesn't involve growing corn; it involves sucking up bouncy, adorable slimes with a high-powered vacuum and feeding them carrots so…
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The bizarre search that became an expensive movie
One of the most ridiculously expensive entertainment projects of its era largely consisted of a teenage boy wandering around a Japanese port town politely…
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When a game disc was just a download ticket
Rushing home from the store with a brand new physical case is a beautiful nostalgic feeling immediately ruined by a giant progress bar. The disc is…
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Why town guards taunt heroes about stolen pastries
You could be a mythical hero capable of shouting giant dragons out of the sky, but the local town guards only want to mock you about whether someone recently…
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Why your expensive game weapon becomes useless
Companies will aggressively entice you to buy early with the promise of a flaming sword of absolute doom. Five minutes into the tutorial, you inevitably find…
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