Sideshow & Syrana

Buff                         FPS                    Newbie                 Lore                     KOS

Main                     Progression                 WTB                   Lowbie                Guild

WTT                Raid                      Server                    Elitist                              PvP

Crafting                     Own                     Casual                  Alt               kk

Cap                 Levels                WTF                    Hardcore                    WTS

Professions                     PvE         EPIC            Gathering                           DIAF

Spec                    Race                        MMO              RP                          Faction

Talents                     Griefer                   FTL                       Noob                   Skills

Nerf                           Min/max                           FTW                          LFM

Class                  Realm                     RPG                  Role                 Spells

Pwn                  LFG             Endgame              PST

ClockWorkGrue @ Flickr

… minus the blood.

SanFranAnnie @ Flickr

Indeed.

(To the tune of “On The Road Again” by Willie Nelson – which, by the way, is totally outside my normal musical selection)

I’m a noob again

Just can’t wait to figure it all out again

The game I love is adventurin’ with my friends

And I can’t wait to figure it all out again.

I’m a noob again

Questin’ in places that I’ve never been

Rollin’ things that I might never roll again

And I can’t wait to figure it all out again.

That’s right.  I, Syrana, controller of demons and dark magic artistry, am a noob again. (continue reading…)

While Brajana at Mend Pet likes to help broaden our vocabulary with her WoW Word of the Week posts, we like to take a look each month at a little bit of gamer vernacular history.  (We do enjoy her posts and if you haven’t checked them out yet, I suggest you do so!)

Considering it is July… hot, fireworks, Midsummer Fire Festival… I figured DIAF would be an appropriate word (well, phrase really) to look at this month.  (And yes, yes, I know I skipped June with the hiatus and all.)

DIAF

DIAF stands for Die In A Fire.  When we throw insults at others we like it to be something short and quick to type out in case they leave group or logout before we can sputter our anger at them.

Or we’re lazy. (continue reading…)

While Brajana at Mend Pet likes to help broaden our vocabulary with her WoW Word of the Week posts, we like to take a look each month at a little bit of gamer vernacular history.  (We do enjoy her posts and if you haven’t checked them out yet, I suggest you do so!)

Newbie/Noob

We’ve all seen this one.  Heck, we’ve probably all used it at one time or another.  But where did it come from?  The answer may surprise you.  The term ‘newbie’ has been around long before MMO’s and cyberspace.  It was actually used as a term in British public schools and the miltary to mean “new boy” or a new soldier in the unit.

This fits pretty well with the objective meaning of the word newbie.  With the advent of cyberspace interactions, it was a term used to identify someone new.  Often those who are new are given some slack for making mistakes.  However, that takes us into some of the variations of the word newbie.

(continue reading…)

While Brajana at Mend Pet likes to help broaden our vocabulary with her WoW Word of the Week posts, we like to take a look each month at a little bit of gamer vernacular history.  (We do enjoy her posts and if you haven’t checked them out yet, I suggest you do so!)

Good Game aka GG

Examples:

GG Blizz.

Oh, you died again, GG noob!

I actually haven’t seen GG used as much lately as I used to.  Then again, I’m not in general or trade chat as much as I used to be.

This phrase seems to have evolved from a nice friendly comment at the end of an online game into a more sarcastic and condescending phrase.  And I think it has evolved.  Interestingly enough, I cannot find much on the way of “history” of this phrase.  Everything just leads to the definition of the acronym or says it is a sarcastic phrase.

But back in the day, many of us liked to acknowledge a good game that was played and would say so with both parties either typing it out or shortening it to GG.  Especially after a great challenge of chess or somesuch.  Of course, people like to shorten things to acronyms because we get lazy at the keyboard (admit it!) and you want to get that last word out before the other player leaves.

Nowadays, especially in WoW, people usually are being sarcastic by saying GG or good game.  They are either complaining (as in the GG Blizz example) or berating someone’s lack of leet pwnage.

What are your thoughts? Do you think GG was always intended as a sarcastic “good job” comment? Have you ever used GG?  And what word/phrase/acronym would you like us to explore next month?

This Wednesday is debuting a new series of posts.  The first Wednesday of the month will feature a gaming word.  This idea started from a few different guild chats where someone would ponder the beginnings of this or that word that has become a part of gaming culture.  We’ll start with 2 words this time, since we’re startin’ this off “late” and many of the words that will be featured here branch out from a form of “leetspeak.”  Let’s have fun with this, shall we?  Oh and if anyone has any suggestions or requests, post ‘em up in the comments.  I will gladly address those!  (A special thank you to guildies Blood and Gabb for gettin’ this idea started!)

Leet

Also known as “elite,” “1337,” “l33t,” and other variations.  Leetspeak started out as a form of communication for hackers across the internet.  They would utilize numbers, symbols, and misspellings to create cryptic messages to each other or as an attempt to bypass different filters.  This type of communication was used a lot in the 1980s over bulletin board systems (BBS).

Leet, shortened from elite, was often used as an adjective to describe or boast about one’s knowledge of computers and accomplishments.  However, leetspeak has evolved in the gaming world to provide short hand in chats and/or sarcasm.  Although, you will still see some people using it to boast about their “leetness” in the gaming world.

Example: I’m a 1337 blogger that can look up these words for your amusement.

Pwn/Own

Now we get into the meat and potatoes… the fun stuff!  I’m sure most of you have “heard” these words used in game and possibly spoken in daily conversation.  (No, maybe that’s just me? hehe)  So what does it mean to be owned? or pwned?  And why do they mean the same thing?

Own/Owned:

This is a slang term to describe a defeat.  It is meant to be humiliating.  You didn’t just lose, you got OWNED!  This has evolved though.  Owned previously was used by hackers to refer taking control over another computer or network.  However, it has become a way of describing victory against a mob or another player.

Pwn=Own:

There are a few different suggestions, if you will, as to how own evolved into pwn.  I’m not sure there is any one right answer and it is quite possibly a culmination of several of the following scenarios:

1.  The “o” and “p” keys on the keyboard are close together, making it a common typo that eventually became its own word.

2.  In the olden days of gaming across a BBS and playing chess, winning by use of checkmate with a pawn.**

3.  In a Warcraft game, a designer apparently made a typo of “player has been owned” but entered “player has been pwned” instead.**

4.  As an homage to early hackers that tampered with phones, as other hacker slang start with the letter “p” to purposely misspell words.***

There ya have it.  I hope you enjoyed yourself and maybe learned a little gamer history!

Sources:

Leetspeak, Leet, Pwn***, Own**, Owned, Pwn(2)