When I was a kid, there was a board game that was always advertised on TV, it was called ‘Mouse Trap’. It was “…one of the first mass-produced three-dimensional board games. Players at first cooperate to build a working mouse trap in the style of a Rube Goldberg machine. Then, players turn against each other to trap opponents’ mouse-shaped game pieces.”
It was super expensive, and wasn’t something I was about to ask my parents for. So when I went over to a friend’s home, and they had the game, I’d always ask if we could play it.
The funny thing was their response—every single friend—was always that Mouse Trap was broken. The game seemed to have a fundamental flaw that all its small moving pieces left it susceptible to breaking. Til this day, I think I may have only played the game once, and I’m pretty sure that one play through was on a broken set.
If it happens once, it’s an isolated incident.
If it happens all the time, it’s a pattern.