Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
In The Last of Us, bricks are survival tools
While sneaking around infected, players can pick up bricks and hurl them—even at innocent walls.
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Why people once played leapfrog for the harvest
Some ancient pagans believed leaping over a hunched person would help ensure a successful harvest.
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Why Floor Is Lava endangers the furniture
Treating the floor as molten lava turns coffee tables and sofas into stepping-stones, prompting kids to leap across furniture that may not survive the game.
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Call of Duty's zombie mode was a secret
The mode unlocked only after players finished the World War II campaign, with no prominent advertising to give it away.
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Pogs started as milk caps
The game began with decorated cardboard caps that sealed dairy beverages in Hawaii. Children later turned them into targets for heavy plastic slammers.
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Resident Evil grew partly from a horror game tied to a horror movie
Capcom's Famicom game Sweet Home, based on the 1989 film, sent characters into a dangerous mansion with limited resources. It became an important starting…
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Why Lite-Brite came with tiny, chokeable pegs
Lite-Brite depended on children pushing tiny colored plastic pegs through black paper, with a hot lightbulb glowing just behind it.
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Electronic Simon strictly demands pattern memorization
The game plays a sequence of beeps and flashing lights for you to repeat. Each round adds to the pattern, pushing your memory to keep up.
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BioShock's Big Daddies were built to harvest sea slugs
Their diving suits were designed to harvest valuable sea slugs, while their giant drills were meant for underwater plumbing.
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Truth or Dare has an older party-game relative
An early-18th-century game called Questions and Commands already mixed personal questions, instructions, and forfeits. Refusing the task could cost a player a…
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Destiny heavily encourages fierce grinding for random loot
Players shoot aliens to earn randomized purple engrams, often for only small stat boosts—turning a sci-fi shooter into a loot-grinding routine.
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An ancient Greek object looks like a yo-yo, but its purpose is uncertain
The Met holds a finely painted terracotta bobbin from around 460–450 BCE. Its shape suggests a bobbin or yo-yo, while its fragility points to a dedication…
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When a snowball fight turns dangerous
A snowball fight turns dangerous when someone skips the fluffy snow and hurls a densely packed ice ball at your face.
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When jump rope was considered a boys' activity
Before the 19th century, jumping rope was treated as a boys’ and men’s activity; that changed during the Victorian era, when girls began taking it up.
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Gears of War made chainsaw bayonets famous
Its rifle-mounted chainsaw became a signature close-quarters weapon for fighting the game's huge subterranean aliens.
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Dark Souls once made you walk between every checkpoint
Fast travel between discovered checkpoints was withheld until the final act, forcing players to retrace their routes on foot.
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The Magic 8 Ball began with a psychic's tool
The toy's design drew on a spirit slate used by the inventor's mother, a psychic. People now use it to make arbitrary decisions.
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Bop It turns simple commands into panic
The game barks commands like “twist,” “pull,” and “hit,” forcing players to react to the right lever under pressure.
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Why traditional piñatas have seven points
The seven points represented the seven deadly sins, while the blindfold symbolized blind faith.
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Assassin's Creed grew out of a game about protecting a prince
An early concept called Prince of Persia: Assassins placed the player among the prince's protectors rather than making the prince the hero. As that idea…
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Borderlands strictly relies on fiercely chaotic explosions
Its loot system generates millions of procedurally varied guns, including absurd designs such as a shotgun that fires exploding swords.
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Uncharted turned a train into an action scene
The game turns a train ride into a combat set piece: players fight while balancing on fast-moving, crumbling passenger cars.
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Horizon perfectly demands deeply aggressive robot dismantling
The game’s machines are armored and towering, but players fight them with bows and arrows—a striking mismatch between high-tech enemies and sharpened sticks.
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Half-Life's G-Man still has no backstory
The suited bureaucrat keeps appearing throughout the series, but the games have never explained who he is.
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