Eliminate confusion, introduction to gamer slang and culture

The release of Eliminate to the app store has really contributed to the more committed gaming section of the App Store. Through it we get a glimpse of these ‘hardcore’ gamers, their culture and language. I hope this thread can serve as an introduction to those uninitiated members of the Touch Arcade community, and allow them to navigate more steadily within this sometimes confusing group.

Games have always influenced the language of the players who play them, jargon and slang words abound and these can be almost opaque to the new gamer. Let’s begin by sampling a few choice words that can help you along in your playing.

n00b - a new player, possibly you. Most people start off as newbs – and their choices decide whether or not they then become n00bs. A newb is an inexperienced player, learning the ropes of a game, and often dying quite often (or getting pwned; see pwned below). Most gamers actually like newbs, as they allow high kill counts and easier games. Becoming a n00b however should be avoided, as these are annoying players or lack common sense and are unwilling to just play the game to figure things out for themselves – they ask often ridiculous questions in forums and want other people to do all their work for them.

owned – to be soundly beaten in an online game, possibly because you are a newb. You have been owned if you end up at the bottom of the results table at the end of the round. The good player knows this is a chance to learn and perform better next time. Who knows, someday soon you could be the one doing the owning.

pwned – powerfully owned. Being killed so often you can’t figure out whether you are dying or spawning. Having a negative score in the results table. Could be due to lag. (see lag below)

frag – to kill an opposing player. A chance to celebrate and taunt the other player without mercy.

w00t – an exclamation of surprise or celebration. In modern gaming usage it translates to: we owned the other team.

lag – an increasingly less common phenomenon of slowdown in the game being played. Originally due to bad/intermittent connections. Often causing players to exclaim: “Damn lag!”

Now lets see these terms in action:

If you wanted to say: “Hurray, we did exceptionally well in that latest round, I myself killed several less experienced players!”

Instead you could say: “W00t, we totally pwned! I fragged those newbs good.

I hope that this small introduction is helpful to players out there, please contribute more about fps culture and expressions, and use this knowledge to increase your enjoyment of Eliminate.

-arhb

 

That's true. And w00t used to be subtley different too. Wow loot anyone?
This was meant to be a bit tongue in cheek.