Gamer Jargon

1337music.tv

In the video game world, there is a distinct language used. Some of it makes sense. Some of it is complete nonsense. This language is used heavily in the forums, blogs, and Youtube videos of the gaming community. Here is just a few of the many, many words used.

1337: If one takes the number 1337, flip it upside down, then read it backwards, it spells 'LEET', which looks like ELITE. As you may know, the elite are the highest order in anything, so people decided that if they use 1337, then they think that they are the greatest. This number has spawned a whole style of language called "Leet Speak", which replaced letters with numbers. For instance, Sir Galahad would be S1R G4L4H4D in Leet speak, and computer would be C0M9U73R. Tricky to use, the only gain from doing this is saying to people "Hey, look what I can do".

T-Arty.com

N00B: A n00b is leet for a newbie, or someone who has just started playing a game. Used as an insult, the term has shifted from describing  a novice to someone who uses cheap tactics in games. Some common tactics are bunny-hopping (jumping up and down constantly to make the jumper harder to shoot), camping (hiding out in one spot waiting for another player to go by, then the camper shoot the player in the back) and n00b tubing (using a rocket launcher to overkill a player). Although these tactics are frowned upon in the gaming world, practically everyone has been a n00b at one time or another.

Wordpress.com

PWN3D: Pwn3d, or Pawned, is the act of being utterly defeated by an opponent. Pawned (pronounced Poned and just shortened to pwn) is best remembered by the Spanish word Poner, which means to put. Just add to the definition 'to put into its place' and you have pwn down pat. Pwn is generally yelled by the victor after a difficult victory, or if the victim is defeated in a spectacular way.

 

That is it for this week. There are plenty of terms out there, and I'm not going to even try to learn them all. Well goodbye everybody.