Editor Note: Guest editor Princess Twilight is working to bridge the gap between casual and hardcore gamers. In her first blog, she stood up loud and proud to say “I am a casual gamer. And I’m okay with that!” She is now turning her attention to translating l33t speak for those less familiar with the online language. While some of the below terms have been (sadly) integrated into everyday speech for several of us, others still might only nod and smile when their geek friends baffle them with the alien terms. Read on to receive the first of several lessons (hopefully) to keep us up to date on our geek speak!
Ever been called a n00b? Ever been pwned? Ever wanted to know what the hell that meant?
Trust me, I’ve been there. Two of my best friends are hardcore gamers, and when I’m at their house for game night, with all their gamer friends, I feel a bit…lost.
Gamer speak has swept the nation. The proof? Merriam Webster Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2007 was “w00t,” an expression commonly used by gamers to convey joy or victory.
So, allow me to break things down a bit. Here is some commonly used gamer slang (which in certain instances is also referred to as leet (l33t) speak.)
n00b: Derived from ‘newbie.’ In other words, if someone calls you a n00b, they’re basically calling you an amateur.
pwned: To be owned or dominated in a game (since the letter “o” is next to the letter “p” on the QWERTY keyboard, the letters are often inverted).
Kekeke: Korean equivalent of the laughter expression “hehehe” or “hahaha.”
ftw: For the win! Used at the end of a sentence or phrase for emphasis (can be genuinely
excited, or sarcastic).
teh: Commonly mistyped, “the.”
Fragging: killing someone (who can generally respawn, such as in a first person shooter).
GLOMP: An expression derived from Anime/Manga which means a forceful, bear-hug-like greeting.
Those are just a few expressions/translations that may make you feel like less of a n00b when hanging around your gamer friends or visiting gamer message boards.
More suggestions? Any important ones I missed? Bear with me…after all, I’m still just a n00b myself…but I’m learning!
February 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
oh, there are many you missed. some/most may not be suitable for this website.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
HAHA…yeah, we might need to put up a “Mature Content” tag on one of the later posts as she gets more in-depth about other terminology. I thought I knew almost all l33t speak, but I had no idea what Glomping was till Ms.Naru told me not long ago, and I have never heard of the “Kekeke”!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Man, I am so sad that with the exception of GLOMP, I knew everyone of those. And I hardly ever play online:P
February 1st, 2008 at 2:31 pm
HAHA…I know. Is it a good thing or bad thing that we know these?
February 1st, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I just remember phat l00t from the EQ / DAoC days. Hey if I get the OLED keyboard, I can map those keys exactly…
February 1st, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I’m gonna go wit the everything in moderation rule with this one. Nothing wrong with 133t speak, so long as we don’t go around using it all teh time!
I think I might go online now and frag some n00bs. I’m so sick of getting pwned all the time!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:45 pm
This reminds me of a blog I did about 2 years ago.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2171/2235654144_44d7fb24e4_o.jpg
This should definitely be used in your advanced class, PrincessTwilight!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Thanks Aktrez! It may take me awhile to translate that!
I know this was definitely the “basics” lesson. I’ll try to dig up some more difficult ones for you all next round!
February 1st, 2008 at 3:03 pm
“This reminds me of a blog I did about 2 years ago”. That link just made my head explode.
February 1st, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Oh man, I was able to read that entire thing without a single stumble! Now I am really worried about my sanity!
February 1st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
ROFL LMAO
I will say my fave is UR PWND!
February 1st, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I prefer the glomp. *glomps post*
February 1st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
You know what’s funny? I was at work and I bumped into a wall (I’m pretty clumsy ^-^;;) and I mentioned to my superior, who usually seems pretty condescending to me that the wall pwned me, and he got all excited and called me l337. And then he rambled on and on about WoW and other geeky things. It was pretty amusing, as if it was some secret language! And oh.. it is.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Argh! This is one of my pet peeves. I really hate the pidgin language used online! I also wrote a blog about it- but on the other side of the issue (against the use of such non-language) that’s on my old blog site (my new blog site is getting close to launch and many of my old blogs will get transferred, yay!)
http://druidblue.blogspot.com/2007/09/death-of-english-language.html
I don’t try to bother correcting anyone online anymore though- I know better than to get in the way of the “1337 machine”. ;P
February 1st, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I want that keyboard so badly.