I've asked myself the same question after recently playing Battle Isle 1 again... Seems to me like the learning curve of modern games was so much shallower. But this is of course only one example and not representative as such.
It's an indication to scroll to the right that masquerades as link to see more, then leaves you annoyed that it didn't work if you're actually foolish enough to try and click on a link to see more wee little people icons.
Designed in USA, crafted somewhere cheaper, and finally sent back to the US so it can be sold to you for a prodigious amount of money. Hell yeah, I'll buy one.
It was going strong when I submitted the link, albeit a bit slow, but I would guess the poor server is now taking quite a beating from being on the Hacker News front page.