Five Glitches & Moments That Caught My Eye in 2025
- Jane Dillinger
- Dec 30, 2025
- 5 min read
This isn’t a “most important things of 2025” list. It’s a collection of glitches—moments I ran into by accident that refused to stay unnoticed. A crowdfunding campaign that broke the numbers. Games known worldwide that somehow missed the trophies. A forgotten piece of animation history, legendary loot in Borderlands, and one word trying to capture the year’s mood. Five unrelated drops that, together, form a surprisingly clear snapshot of what 2025 felt like.
8,612% Completed: Crowdfunding on Hard Mode
Czech streamer and author Radek Starý, known online as Sterakdary, turned his LitRPG trilogy Exarie into one of the most extreme crowdfunding success stories of 2025, reaching 8,612% of its original funding goal. What began as a modest campaign ended at 25.8 million CZK (about $1.25 million), placing Exarie not only at the very top of Czech literary crowdfunding, but also in the global Top 5 fiction campaigns of all time.
For readers outside the Czech gaming bubble: Sterakdary is one of the country’s most prominent gaming creators. He’s a long-time YouTuber, streamer, and former game journalist, who has gradually expanded into fiction writing. His earlier fantasy series Arila and sci-fi cycle Legacy of the Human Mind built something more valuable than sales alone—a dedicated community ready to back his next quest.
Exarie itself is a LitRPG story about a mysterious video game hovering above Prague, one you don’t log into with a keyboard, but with your mind. Sterak wrote the project as a complete trilogy and skipped traditional publishing entirely, offering it as a limited collector’s edition through crowdfunding. The more people joined, the higher the production quality climbed: better materials, richer editions, and increasingly generous rewards. The final stats? 10,739 backers, a single pledge of nearly $15,000, and a campaign that proved books can still feel like endgame loot—if you design the system right.
On a personal note: in April 2025 at Comic Con Prague, I had the pleasure and honor of moderating a book talk with Sterak—easily one of the highlights of my spring.
Two AAA Drops from a Small Country
In 2025, two Czech AAA games dominated the conversation far beyond the country’s borders: Mafia: The Old Country and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Plenty of interesting games were made in my homeland this year, but these two titles were the ones that truly resonated worldwide—both because of their scale and the weight of their legacy.
Mafia: The Old Country, developed by Hangar 13, returns to the series’ roots with a story-driven crime drama set in early 20th-century Europe. It leans heavily into atmosphere, narrative, and slow-burn storytelling, positioning itself as a deliberate, cinematic experience rather than an open-world sandbox.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, developed by Warhorse Studios, continues its historically grounded medieval RPG saga, doubling down on realism, player choice, and systemic storytelling set in 15th-century Bohemia.
While KCD2 earned several Game of the Year award nominations, it ultimately walked away empty-handed. No trophies, no categories won—just nominations. For Czech fans, this hit harder than expected. Social media turned into a shared mourning space, filled with disbelief, frustration, and the familiar feeling that even global success doesn’t always translate into industry recognition.
On a personal note: I had the chance to playtest the very first playable version of Mafia: The Old Country directly at Hangar 13’s studio in Brno. I was under NDA for more than half a year, so the experience lived quietly in my head for a long time—but it remains one of those rare moments where you realize you’re touching a game long before the rest of the world even knows it exists.
130 Pages from the Beginning
In Japan, 2025 delivered a quiet but amazing discovery: 130 pages of unpublished scripts and notes by Isao Takahata were found at his home. Takahata, known for Grave of the Fireflies, Heidi, and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, passed away in 2018—but these writings date back to his early twenties, long before Ghibli.
Among them: Oeyama, a take on the demon Shuten-dōji where the villain is comical, not evil, and Moratta Hoseki, a children’s story where a rabbit learns from mistakes rather than being punished. There are also early ideas for a prequel to Princess Kaguya. Even here, Takahata’s humanity and subtle contradictions shine through, proving his vision was there from the start.
Whether these scripts will ever be animated is unknown—but finding them feels like uncovering a lost save file in animation history.
Personal note: Thanks to my Japanese teacher, I received NHK’s easy-to-read version—and it turned out to be a story I actually loved translating.
Borderlands 4: Loot, Glitches & RNG Hell
In 2025, Borderlands 4 arrived as one of the year’s most anticipated games, delivering the usual mix of over-the-top action, colorful explosions, and hundreds of guns. Fans expected loot, chaos, and, of course, legendary items.
One player, Siphonicfir, pushed the system to the extreme: over 3,000 bosses killed to check the legendary drop rate. The result? Only 5 %, meaning roughly one legendary per twenty bosses. The longest “cold streak”? 96 attempts without a single drop.
Personal note: I tried the game, but after about two hours I quit—so many new and more interesting games were out at the time. Plus, I love Claptrap. Why can’t we play as Claptrap anymore, like in the Pre-sequel?
Words That Defined 2025: 67, Rage Bait & Slop
Every year, dictionaries pick a Word of the Year to capture a cultural moment. These words are more than popular terms—they reflect what shaped conversations, anxieties, and humor across the globe. They act like a linguistic time capsule, showing how language adapts to our reality.
For 2025, three major dictionaries highlight very different trends:
Dictionary.com: 67
Yes, a number. Pronounced “six-seven,” it blew up in searches starting in summer 2025. Some parents were confused, Gen Alpha smirked, and everyone wondered what it really meant. It’s a snapshot of generational divides and how culture can make even numbers feel loaded with meaning.
Oxford Word of the Year: Rage Bait
Defined as online content designed to provoke anger or outrage, “rage bait” exploded in usage in 2025. With social unrest, debates about regulating online platforms, and a surge in digital engagement tactics, rage bait captures a shift in how attention is sought and given. The word’s growth reminds us that language evolves alongside the platforms we inhabit.
Merriam-Webster: Slop
Merriam-Webster went for AI commentary: “slop” describes low-quality digital content, often mass-produced by artificial intelligence. From junky AI books to absurd videos, “slop” became shorthand for the messy, ridiculous flood of content we couldn’t ignore in 2025. Its evolution from “soft mud” to modern online chaos shows how history sticks in language, even in a tech-saturated world.
These words don’t just tell us what was popular—they reflect the anxieties, humor, and contradictions of 2025. Numbers, anger, and AI: our culture distilled into three single words.
Looking back at 2025, it wasn’t just one big headline year—it was a collection of small, oddly specific moments that stuck. A number that became a word. A book campaign that broke expectations. A drop rate that quietly tested everyone’s patience.
Those are mine.
What was your unexpected highlight of 2025? A game, a book, a sentence you couldn’t unsee?
Share it in the comments.
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