Literally Unplayable

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About

"Literally Unplayable" is an expression indicating that a video game is so badly broken that it prevents a player from progressing or enjoying the experience. While it is sometimes used earnestly to complain about game-breaking issues, it is often used sarcastically when pointing out minor bugs, glitches and mistakes.

Origin

The exact origin of the phrase is unknown, but early instances of the phrase appear in complaints about buggy, glitchy or unfinished games.^[5]

Spread

On September 3rd, 2014, YouTuber 3kliksphilip uploaded gameplay footage of the game Counterstrike titled "le_cbble – Literally unplayable" (shown below).

On October 11th, 2015, Redditor 2ez4edbtz submitted a post titled "Dota in the UK is literally unplayable" to /r/Dota2, which complained about several bugs in the game Defense of the Ancients. On November 12th, Redditor guitargod327 submitted a screenshot titled "Literally unplayable," featuring a typographical error from a load screen in the game "Fallout 4": (shown below, left). On November 27th, Redditor beren0250 submitted another Fallout 4 screenshot titled "Literally unplayable," featuring a picture of an in-game pool table (shown below, right). Within two months, the posts gained more 5,200 votes each on /r/gaming^[2]^[3]

On December 1st, 2015, Redditor IamSilke submitted a post asking about the popularity of the phrase "literally unplayable" on gaming subreddits to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[4] On December 31st, the /r/unplayatale^[1] was created for "game breaking mistakes" that make Undertale "literally unplayable".