‘What is it?’ We snooped around in our favorite gaming characters’ inventories: can you identify the weird stuff they’re carrying?
PC Gamer has published a lighthearted feature exploring unusual items found in video game character inventories, drawing inspiration from the popular r/whatisit subreddit. The concept mimics the Reddit community’s format, where users share mysterious objects they’ve encountered and crowd-source identification using niche expertise.
In this gaming spin, PC Gamer invites readers to identify peculiar and nonsensical items that characters carry throughout their adventures—objects that often defy logical explanation within game worlds. The feature celebrates the quirky gap between game design logic and real-world practicality, where characters can accumulate everything from practical tools to completely absurd items with no clear purpose.
The publication leverages the appeal of community participation and gaming knowledge to engage readers in an interactive guessing game. By showcasing mystery items from beloved gaming characters, the feature highlights both the intentional and unintentional absurdities embedded in game design. Some items may have hidden purposes that players never discovered, while others may genuinely represent inexplicable design choices by developers.
This format taps into the broader cultural phenomenon of inventory management in games—a mechanic that often becomes the source of humor as players notice the impracticalities of what their characters can carry. PC Gamer’s feature invites the gaming community to collectively decode these mysterious belongings, celebrating the encyclopedic knowledge of dedicated players and the sometimes bewildering creative choices of game developers.