The 10 Strangest Superstitions in Video Game History

10 Strangest Superstitions in Video Game History

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at the 10 most bizarre superstitions in video games people actually believed.

We won’t be including things like blowing into cartridges, though; that’s so widely known now it’s become that “Super Mario 2 is a reskin” fact. We’ll be focusing more on superstitions from specific games instead.

Favoritism in…Names?

“World of Warcraft” (2004)

When playing an online game, it can be easy to believe the game is intentionally trying to cheat us from certain rewards. In the case of “World of Warcraft”, the beliefs came down to sheer pettiness. In fact, the pettiness got so bad that many players began developing weird conspiracies as to why their randomized loot wasn’t as good as they were hoping. The most popular conspiracy was that the game gave better loot to players who had certain names and were playing with particular character classes. You don’t hear much about this sort of thing anymore, but back then, oh, the conspiracies got wilder than this.

The Game Was Rigged From the Start

“Mario Party” series (1998-)

Granted, the newer titles may not function this way anymore, but the earlier “Mario Party” titles used to be more fixated than you might have thought. Prior to each turn, every player’s dice roll is already determined by the game. For some reason, players actually believed there was a way to cheat this and get the dice block to always choose the number you want just by waiting for a few seconds before hitting the block. In reality, all you were doing was wasting everyone’s time. It didn’t matter if you waited two, five, ten, or fifteen seconds, you were always going to roll the number the game chose for you. It isn’t like blowing on a pair of dice in a game of craps or shaking the Yahtzee cup longer than you need to.

Min-Maxing Halloween

“City of Heroes” (2004)

Unlike most online games, “City of Heroes” didn’t give players a lot of reason to believe they were getting cheated out of rewards. However, there was some strange behavior happening during the game’s Halloween event. Word started going around that wearing a particular costume would net you more candy than the average player. Another rumor going around was that saying “trick or treat” out loud when trick-or-treating would net you bonus candy as well. No evidence ever suggested this was remotely true, yet some folks fell for this anyways.

Holding out for Hope

“Pokemon” series (1996-)

If you grew up playing “Pokemon”, chances are you caught wind of this playground theory back in the day. No one knows how or where it started, but people believed there was a way to increase your chances of catching a Pokemon. Hold A or B just as the Poke Ball snatches the pocket monster. Press A or B when each wiggle happens. Press EVERY button and hold it until the Pokemon is captured. There were so many different variants of this superstition, none of which had any legs to stand on as legitimate methods for catching every Pokemon. So, why was it so common to hear about? And how did anyone fall for it? The world may never know.

Matchmaking Hates You

“Dead By Daylight” (2016)

Despite how competitive players treat the game, “Dead By Daylight” is about as heavy on the RNG as “Mario Party” can be. However, there are times where players have felt that the “skill-based” matchmaking is actively working against them. How many times did we load into a match thinking we had a great build only to find the Killer or the Survivors brought perks that coincidentally countered everything we had? It's one thing to bring all locker-based builds only to find out you’re facing a Dredge. It's another to bring pallet-based perks like Smash Hit and Dance With Me only to go up against a Vecna player running Hubris, Enduring, and Spirit Fury. It really is purely coincidence, but sometimes, when it happens in quick succession, one can’t help but feel slighted or persecuted. Just a bit.

Gandhi’s Nuke Rep

“Civilization II” (1996)

While it isn’t much of a superstition compared to most of our other entries, we still believe this falls within our criteria. Many sought for some explanation as to why Gandhi was so nuke-happy in “Civilization II”. One common belief was that there was a glitch that caused incorrect integers, making Gandhi behave incorrectly and become unreasonably aggressive in his AI. This would be one of the very rare instances where the developers would soon dispel the rumor. Lead game designer Brian Reynolds revealed in 2023 that “Civ 2” only featured three aggression settings and that the game’s source code didn’t utilize the system the rumor was suggesting. Others have pointed out how strange it was that this superstition wasn’t widespread until “Civilization V”, a game where Gandhi is way more nuke-happy than he ever was in previous games. Yeah, not sure why “Civ 2” got caught in the crossfire here.

Present Paranoia

“Webkinz” (2005)

With a game as wholesome and innocent as “Webkinz”, one would never have expected as much turmoil to occur as it experienced in its first few years. For those unfamiliar, “Webkinz” were a line of plush toys that came with a code to use in the “Webkinz” game, letting you see your toy come to life and play minigames with your new friend. Unfortunately, panic overtook the community when a rumor spread about Webkinz potentially dying. The rumor was that if you received presents of letters in black wrapping from certain characters, it meant that Death was at your Webkinz’s doorstep. The fear got so bad within the community that Ganz, the company that owns Webkinz, had to make a public statement clarifying that it was impossible for a Webkinz character to die as the game had no implementation of death in any way.

Fishing for Success

“Ultima Online” (1997)

It can be especially easy for a player to believe fishing is randomized, though the “Ultima Online” community has tried to rig the odds in their favor a couple of times. If only their methods were true. For a while, the belief was that your Luck stat would determine your odds of catching rare fish. Of course, there has been no evidence to suggest this. At one point, some players started thinking that certain hats had a hidden bonus attached that increased your chances of catching better fish. Again, no evidence ever suggested this nor did any hat. Who is cooking up these wild theories?

The Diplomacy Meta

“Dungeons & Dragons Online” (2006)

“Dungeons & Dragons Online” found itself in a unique situation, one that was like a blend of what happened in “World of Warcraft” and the crackpot theories surrounding “Ultima Online’s” fishing. A sizable chunk of the community was once obsessed with the Diplomacy stat as they believed Diplomacy was what affected the level and quality of loot you’d earn from treasure chests. This quickly birthed a very toxic corner of the player base as made-up rules became an expectation. “Your Diplomacy stat isn’t good enough for me!” Player disconnected. “Only this player can open chests because they have the highest Diplomacy! Don’t touch it or I’ll quit!” Isn’t this a skill meant for dissuading enemies from fighting you? Where on Earth did the connection between this and opening treasure chests come from?

The Madden Curse

“Madden NFL” series (1988-)

This might be the most famous superstition in gaming history (outside of hardware-specific things like blowing into cartridges and the Red Ring of Death’s “solution” that requires a towel). The Madden Curse is a superstition that has haunted both athletes and sports fans. The belief is that whoever is chosen to be on the cover of the next “Madden NFL” game would see a tumultuous season the following year. And this wasn’t a one-time thing! This happened almost repeatedly across several years almost without fail! Several NFL players would either see a drastic dip in their performance or even fall victim to a career-ending injury. This curse eventually wound up plaguing other sports video games like “EA Sports UFC 2”, where Ronda Rousey was announced as the cover athlete the day before her upsetting loss against Holly Holm in 2015. The curse has become dormant in recent years, but many still see the signs here and there.

Which of these superstitions do you think was the most ridiculous? Let us know down in the comments below, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!