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30 Geeky Bits of Trivia About Video Games, TTRPGs and Other Nerddome

What’s the only thing geekier than TTRPGs? Trivia about TTRPGs!

30 Geeky Bits of Trivia About Video Games, TTRPGs and Other Nerddome

November 04, 2023

You nerds these days have it easy. You can call anything that you’re into “nerding out” and feel like an underdog — even if you're “nerding out” to the most popular fantasy franchise in human history. Back in the 1990s, you had to spend a lot more time in lockers and toilet bowls to earn that label.

But now, thanks to elderly dweebs like us, everyone can take on the “nerd” label without fear. Oh, you’re “nerding out” on football? That’s not how it works! Well, this list is for the real, O.G. nerds. We see you dorks.

30

Pac-Man

The creators of Pac-Man did not know how the game ended as it was designed to run indefinitely. It was only when Billy Mitchell finished the game, after all its internal storage ran out, that they saw how it ended. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

29

Marvel

Marvel has licensed their characters She-Hulk and Rogue to be used in romance novels to lure women into comics. - - PRODUCTIONS TONOS The two novels feature strong, smart heroines seeking happiness and love while battling cosmic evil. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

28

CRACKED.COM SPURS go celebrities who play D&D 8, في A Tim Duncan DO OI H 12 10 2 г The NBA star has a number of geeky 2 15 BI 20 8 3 ح hobbies, including D&D. Based on one of his tattoos, many suspect he plays as a wizard . — Source

27

WORDLE Facts ITS WORD LIST EXCLUDES OBSCURE WORDS Of the some 12,000 five-letter English words, Wardle's partner Palak Shah pared them down. You can thank her we aren't having to guess words like 'amyls' or 'vinew.' CRACKED.COM — Source

26

CRACKED.COM ant MEDIA THE d FOR A M PA celebrities who play D&D stephen colbert Known Tolkien fan Colbert is a trained 19 improviser and loves the game. Не even 1 13 6 participated in a D&D campaign on Red 1 Nose Day to help fight child poverty. 5 1 — Source

25

WORDLE Facts A KNOCK-OFF APP SENDS ITS SALES TO CHARITY When Steve Cravotta's app took off, he offered the money to Josh Wardle. They both agreed that instead of taking the money, they would donate it to Boost! West Oakland, a tutoring nonprofit. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

CRACKED.COM celebrities who play D&D Paul The Big show wight Wight enjoys D&D as a break from the 9 I daily strife of a wrestler, along with ٤١ being able to use his imagination with = SI like-minded nerdy friends. 5 18 — Source

23

WORDLE Facts YOU MIGHT KNOW HIS BROTHER'S WORK Josh Wardle's brother Tim Wardle directed Three Identical Strangers, a fascinating documentary that had its own viral life. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Jon Favreau

CRACKED.COM AVENO MARVEL STUDIO RO MORT by Quicken INFINITY NI THE D 2 20 S oz 2 celebrities who play D&D & 14 9 14 DE 9 - Jon Favreau 2 20 Z 20 : 8 DI г 14 Favreau was a big geek in high school, 2 10 20 8 2 20 د. 2 8 playing as a halfling with his friends. 16 Не credits D&D with helping his improv training and developing movies for Marvel and Disney. — Source

21

WORDLE Facts THE WORD GAME WAS CREATED BY JOSH WARDLE The former Reddit software engineer created the simple game by himself. In 2013, he created a similar game that he nixed when his friends didn't care for it. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

CRACKED.COM celebrities who play D&D Aubrey Plaza Plaza got into the game through her friends in the comedy scene. She is often invited to Dan Harmon's games, and was even a guest on Harmon's roleplaying game show Harmonquest. — Source

19

Rainn Wilson

CRACKED.COM celebrities who play D&D Rainn wilson ~ 20 The Office star played D&D in his youth 8 16 ZL 10 17 and went to gaming conventions in the 1980s. Не considers himself a LARPer and and revisits these interests in his spare time. — Source

18

CRACKED.COM Te Ac celebrities who play D&D LG 7 z 20 Patton oswalt 5 8 The comedian has been playing since the 6th grade, and still plays with his comedian friends (often as Boozehammer, a drunken dwarf warrior.) — Source

17

More Monopoly money is printed annually than $1 STATES OF bills UNITED have been in a decade IS LEGAL TENDER STATES NOTE THIS OF AMI PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DEBTS FOR ALL 7774 L WASHING DEPARTMENT 902L SERIES 2009 ED Since 2008, the US Treasury has printed around 25 billion dollar bills, whereas Hasbro prints 30 billion bills for their Monopoly games CRACKED.COM every year. But to be fair, only 43 million of those are ones. — Source

16

In Sierra Leone, playing a board game is part of getting your driver's license. TRAFFIC POLICE VEHICLE EXAMINATION CENTRE STATION CHECK ROSE Alt GAS TRAFFIC GAS CHECK R CHECK pows VEHICLE A CHECK C DIRECTION CHECK I 40 CHOICE CHOICE VEHICLE N PARKING LOT NAGUEST CROSSING ALLOW TRAIS MALZS-LASE TO CROSS CHOICE Applicants have to play Driver's Way (which involves rolling dice, moving car models on a board, and answering questions about road laws) at least once before their actual driving test. CRACKED.COM NOW YOU KNOW — Source

15

Doom aimed at being Aliens meets Evil Dead IL DOOK The reason you get a chainsaw is because Ash has one. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Dungeons and Dragons was a big influence. DOCM Doom's cacodemon is the head of an Astral Dreadnought, as it appears on the cover of the D&D book Manual of the Planes. Also, aspects of the game came from a long-running D&D campaign the dev team was playing. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Just four guys invented first-person shooters. DOCK 100% ٦ 2 3 9 0% BULL 57 200 SHEL 700 50 5 G 7 ROKT 50 AMMO HEALTH ARMS ARMOR CELL 300 While Doom wasn't the first game to give you a POV shot of the game world, it did become the blueprint for the genre, set out by the founders of id Software - John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

The First Easter Egg

ADVENTURE The first Easter egg was created by a disgruntled + Atari employee. ADVENTURE معر VIDEO COMPUTER SYSTEM GAME PROGRAM 3 GAMES VIDEO SHEEP LEVELS OZ PLAYER SALE created Warren Robinett, the programmer on Adventure, knew he wouldn't get credit for his work. So he created a secret room with his name written on the floor. By the time it was discovered, the games had hit the shelves. Atari decided to tell people it was a hidden feature, and coined the term Easter egg. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

GRACKED.COM Every named character you kill in the Assassin's Creed series is a real historical person, died in the right year in the right location. Think about that next time you stab somebody in the heart. You could be killing your own great-great-grandfather. — Source

10

BEHIND-THE-SCENESFACTS PARAS' ORIGINAL NAME WAS A LOT DARKER. CRACKED.COM Paras, and its evolution Parasect, are based on insects that have been infected by a fungus called Massospora, which eventually take over their brains and motor functions. Early promotional material for the game gives Paras a name in direct response to this relationship: Parasyte. — Source

9

Game makers created a government body to oversee video game censorship. EARLY CHILDHOOD EVERYONE EVERYONE 10+ TEEN © ® T . E C E CONTENT RATED BY CONTENT RATED BY CONTENT RATED BY CONTENT RATED BY ESRB ESRB ESRB ESRB MATURE 17+ ADULTS ONLY 18+ RATING PENDING M a A RP CONTENT RATED BY CONTENT RATED BY CONTENT RATED BY ESRB ESRB ESRB CRACKED.COM Working with Congress in the 90s, they created the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, which makes the black and white letters on game cases most people ignore. — Source

8

John Romero posed for the cover illustration. DOCM A model was hired for reference photos, but the guy couldn't manage to look like he was fending off demons. Frustrated, Romero took his shirt off and grabbed the prop gun to show the illustrator what he wanted. Or, as Romero puts it himself, I AM THE DOOMGUY. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

GEOMETRY WARS STARTED AS AN ANALOG STICK TEST. While working on the Xbox prototype hardware, the developers of Project Gotham Racing encountered issues with the analog sticks on the controller. They decided to make a test app in order to find a fix for the problem and input it into Project Gotham Racing. This test app ended up becoming Geometry Wars. CRACKED COM — Source

6

The Legend of Zelda

TLOZ's iconic title music was a last-minute patch. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA™ TM ©1986 NINTENDO CRACKED.COM They had planned to use Ravel's Boléro, but found out at the last minute that it wasn't yet in the public domain. Nintendo composer Koji Kondo had a day to whip up the iconic theme. — Source

5

Street Fighter

STREET FIGHTER WAS BORN DURING A DULL MEETING. 100 STALEST FREHER Capcom programmer Takashi Nishiyama was getting really bored during a long meeting, so he started thinking about martial arts games, and the boss fights in those games, and wouldn't it be cool to make a game that was all about those boss fights. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Diablo

30 Geeky Bits of Trivia About Video Games, TTRPGs and Other Nerddome — Source

3

30 Geeky Bits of Trivia About Video Games, TTRPGs and Other Nerddome — Source

2

HALF-LIFE CRACKED.COM The early prototype for Half-Life's protagonist was a burly-bearded, strung out looking mad-man nicknamed by the designers as Ivan the Space Biker. As game production advanced, they changed Ivan into Gordon Freeman, with his iconic goatee and glasses. — Source

1

The Team Fortress va Spy is a glitch that never went away. A bug in the graphics caused some enemies to render as teammates. They pulled the old it's a feature, not a bug, and developed it into its own wildcard class. CRACKED.COM — Source

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