The iconic "Wilhelm Scream," a stock sound effect, has been used in hundreds of films and games, including many AAA titles, often to comedic effect.
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The "roguelike" genre, known for its permadeath and procedural generation, is named after the 1980 game *Rogue*, which itself was influenced by the game *Dungeons & Dragons*.
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Many attendees of large game conventions like PAX and E3 cosplay, and the costumes can range from incredibly simple to extremely elaborate, sometimes taking months or even years to create.
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The term "ludology" refers to the study of games, specifically focusing on their rules and mechanics, rather than their narrative or social aspects.
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The "rule of three" – presenting information or options in sets of three – is a common narrative technique in game design to improve memorability and player engagement.
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The original Pac-Man was designed with only 256 possible game configurations, meaning that after a certain number of levels, the game would simply repeat itself.
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The original *Pac-Man* arcade cabinets were designed with a curved cabinet specifically to discourage players from leaning in to cheat by peeking at the maze layout.
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Many interactive fiction engines, despite their text-based nature, utilize sophisticated parser technology capable of understanding complex, grammatically incorrect, or even misspelled player input.
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The phrase "Press Start" in video games is often localized, but sometimes the localization doesn't accurately reflect the action—in some languages, it might translate to something closer to "Begin Game."
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EA's first game, in 1982, was a football game called *Madden NFL*. (While it's *now* synonymous with the Madden franchise, it wasn't initially called *Madden NFL*).
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The prize pool for The International (Dota 2's annual world championship) has, in some years, exceeded that of many major traditional sporting events like the Wimbledon Championships.
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The original *Doom* (1993) was so influential that its source code was reverse-engineered and ported to an astonishing variety of devices, including calculators and toasters.
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