I turned off my computer during the “don’t turn off” symbol in five different games to see what would happen and boy was it an annoying experiment

We’ve all seen it. The small rotating symbol that warns players against impatient power-down actions. “Do not turn off your system when this symbol appears,” says the message often seen when launching a game (or some other version of these words). The implication is clear. The backup process is delicate, and if you interrupt this invisible ritual, the data being written to a folder deep inside your computer will be corrupted, destroyed, corrupted. You will lose all your progress, all your precious swords and achievements.

But is this true? How likely are you to? really suffer a catastrophic loss of shells? To find out, I decided to spend a very annoying afternoon turning my gaming rig off and on during multiple games. Was this a good idea? I do not know. I’m a gamer, not an ideas guy.

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To protect America from erroneous scientific speculation, Thomas Jefferson turned to the moose

A print depicting Cervus alces in the collection of 19th century zoological prints entitled Iconographia Zoologica. (University of Amsterdam Special Collections via Wikimedia Commons) Part of a continuum weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to … Read more