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00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at the 10 most bizarre superstitions
00:16in video games that people actually believed.
00:19Don't worry, we will not be including things like blowing into cartridges, that's so
00:25widely known now that it's become the Super Mario 2's re-skin fact.
00:29So don't expect that, we'll be focusing more on superstitions from specific games
00:34instead.
00:41Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo
00:45Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:50Favoritism in... names?
00:54World of Warcraft.
01:04When playing an online game, it can be easy to believe the game is intentionally trying
01:08to cheat us from certain rewards.
01:11In the case of World of Warcraft, the beliefs came down to sheer pettiness.
01:15In fact, the pettiness got so bad that many players began developing weird conspiracies
01:21as to why their randomized loot wasn't as good as they were hoping.
01:33The most popular conspiracy was that the game gave better loot to players who had certain
01:39names and were playing with particular character classes.
01:42You don't hear much about this sort of thing anymore, but back then, oh the conspiracies,
01:48they got wilder than this.
01:57The game was rigged from the start.
02:00Mario Party series.
02:05Granted, the newer titles may not function this way anymore, but the earlier Mario Party
02:14titles used to be more fixated than you might have believed.
02:18Prior to each turn, every player's dice roll is already determined by the game.
02:23For some reason, players actually believed there was a way to cheat this and get the
02:28dice block to always choose the number you want just by waiting for a few seconds before
02:33hitting the block.
02:35In reality, all you were doing was just wasting everybody's time.
02:49It didn't matter if you waited 2, 5, 10, or 15 seconds, you were already going to roll
02:55the same number that the game chose for you.
02:58It isn't like blowing on a pair of dice in a game of craps or shaking the Yahtzee
03:02cup longer than you need to.
03:04It's not how it works.
03:14Min-Maxing Halloween, City of Heroes.
03:25Unlike most online games, City of Heroes didn't give players a lot of reason to believe they
03:30were getting cheated out of rewards.
03:32However, there was some strange behavior happening during the game's Halloween event.
03:37Word started going around that wearing a particular costume would net you more candy than the
03:41average player.
03:43Another rumor going around was that saying trick or treat out loud when trick or treating
03:47in the game would net you bonus candy as well.
03:58No evidence ever suggested this was remotely true, yet some folks fell for this anyways.
04:12Holding Out for Hope, Pokemon series.
04:24If you grew up playing Pokemon, chances are you caught wind of this playground theory
04:29back in the day.
04:30No one knows how or where it started, but people believed there was a way to increase
04:35your chances of catching a Pokemon.
04:38Hold A or B just as the Pokeball snatches the pocket monster.
04:42Press A or B when each wiggle happens.
04:45Press every button at the same time and hold it until the Pokemon is captured.
05:00There were so many different variants of this superstition, none of which had any legs to
05:04stand on as legitimate methods for catching every Pokemon.
05:08So why was it so common to hear about, and how did anyone fall for it?
05:13The world may never know.
05:24Matchmaking Hates You, Dead by Daylight.
05:34Despite how competitive players treat this game, Dead by Daylight is about as heavy on
05:39the RNG as Mario Party can be.
05:41However, there are times where players have felt that the skill-based matchmaking is actively
05:46working against them.
05:48How many times did we load into a match thinking we had a great build, only to find the killer
05:52or the survivors brought perks that coincidentally countered everything we had brought?
06:05It's one thing to bring all locker-based builds only to find out you're facing a
06:09dredge.
06:10It's another to bring palette-based perks like Smash Hit and Dance With Me only to go
06:15up against a Vecna player running Hubris, Enduring, and Spirit Fury.
06:20It really is purely coincidence, but sometimes, when it happens in quick succession, one can't
06:25help but feel slighted or persecuted.
06:29Just a little bit.
06:37Gandhi's Nuke Rep, Civilization 2
06:48While it isn't much of a superstition compared to most of our other entries, we still believe
06:52this falls within our criteria.
06:54Many sought for some explanation as to why Gandhi was so nuke-happy in Civilization 2.
07:00One common belief was that there was a glitch that caused incorrect integers, making Gandhi
07:05behave incorrectly, and become unreasonably aggressive in his AI.
07:17This would be one of the very rare instances where the developers would soon dispel the
07:21rumor.
07:22Lead game designer Brian Reynolds revealed in 2023 that Civ 2 only featured three aggression
07:29settings, and that the game's source code didn't utilize the system that this rumor
07:33was suggesting.
07:35Others have pointed out how strange it was that this superstition wasn't widespread
07:39until Civilization 5, a game where Gandhi is way more nuke-happy than he ever was in
07:45previous games.
07:46Yeah, not sure why Civ 2 got caught in the crossfire here.
07:59Present Paranoia, Webkinz
08:09With a game as wholesome and innocent as Webkinz, one would have never expected as much turmoil
08:14to occur as it experienced in its first couple of years.
08:18For those unfamiliar, Webkinz was a line of plush toys that came with a code to use in
08:23the Webkinz video game, letting you see your toy come to life and play minigames with your
08:28new friend.
08:30Unfortunately, panic overtook the community when a rumor spread about Webkinz potentially
08:35dying.
08:36The rumor was that if you received presents or letters in black wrapping from certain
08:40characters, it meant that death was at your Webkinz doorstep.
08:53The fear got so bad within the community that GANZ, the company that owns Webkinz,
08:59had to make a public statement clarifying that it was impossible for a Webkinz character
09:04to die as the game had no implementation of death in any way.
09:15Fishing for Success, Ultima Online
09:24It can be especially easy for a player to believe fishing is randomized, though the
09:29Ultima Online community has tried to rig the odds in their favor a couple of times.
09:34If only their methods were true.
09:36For a while, the belief was that your luck stat would determine your odds of catching
09:40rare fish.
09:41Of course, there's been no evidence to suggest this.
09:49At one point, some players started thinking that certain hats had a hidden bonus attached
09:54that increased your chances of catching better fish.
09:58Again, there was no evidence to ever suggest this, nor any existence of a hat that did
10:04this.
10:05Who's cooking up these wild theories?
10:14The Diplomacy Meta, Dungeons & Dragons Online
10:17D&D Online found itself in a unique situation, one that was like a blend of what happened
10:32in World of Warcraft and the crackpot theories surrounding Ultima Online's fishing.
10:37A sizable chunk of the community was once obsessed with the Diplomacy stat, as they
10:41believed Diplomacy was what affected the level and quality of loot you'd earn from treasure
10:46chests.
10:53This quickly birthed a very toxic corner of the playerbase, as made-up rules became an
10:58expectation.
10:59Your Diplomacy stat isn't good enough for me, player disconnected.
11:03Only this player can open chests because they have the highest Diplomacy, don't touch
11:07it or I'll quit.
11:08Isn't this a skill meant for dissuading enemies from fighting you?
11:12Where on earth did the connection between Diplomacy and opening treasure chests come
11:17from?
11:26The Madden Curse, Madden NFL Series
11:37This might be the most famous superstition in video game history, outside of hardware-specific
11:43things like blowing into cartridges and the Red Ring of Death's solution that requires
11:47a towel.
11:48The Madden Curse is a superstition that has haunted both athletes and sports fans for
11:53decades.
11:54The belief is that whoever is chosen to be on the cover of the next Madden NFL game would
11:59see a tumultuous season the following year.
12:09And this wasn't a one-time thing, this happened almost repeatedly, across several years, without
12:16fail.
12:17Several NFL players would either see a drastic dip in their performance, or even fall victim
12:22to a career-ending injury.
12:25This curse eventually wound up plaguing other sports video games like EA Sports UFC 2, where
12:31Ronda Rousey was announced as one of the cover athletes the day before her upsetting loss
12:36against Holly Holm in 2015.
12:39The curse has become dormant in recent years, but many still see the signs pop up here and
12:45there.
12:48It's pretty scary, man, but which of these superstitions do you think was the most ridiculous?
12:57Let us know down in the comments below, and be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more
13:01great videos every day.