Gaming related Lingo/Phrases/Words that drive you nuts?

"GG" used to be used sarcastically in the early 2000's.

Now it tends to be used sincerely, which bugs me lol.

@Kerned said:

• Ludonarrative dissonance

This, sometimes shortened to 'narrative dissonance', but still, this...

@GetEveryone said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

Basically any business term annoys me, as games are more than that.

Not to the publishers they aren't.

(Yes, it's a generalisation, but you'd be hard pressed to find one pushing art over profit)

That is the issue with big publishers like Activision, ubisoft and EA, after Mirror's Edge failed. It is the whole reason we see tacked on multiplayer and day one DLC like the prothean from Mass Effect 3. I think games quickly changing and will become like movies and music where the big stuff is mostly safe and boring and to get the real substance and quality you need to go indie, or at least in between. Like Platinum or From Software.

@hermes said:

Its like saying all FPS should be called "hexenlike", or all horror movies should be called "white-zombielike".

To be fair, all genres go through this. Sonic clones? Mario clones? They became platformers. FPSeses were called Doom clones for a while, and open world sandbox games were called GTA clones for a bit.

On that note, though, I am annoyed that open world and sandbox have basically become synonymous. They're not. Incredipede is sandbox (or at least has strong sandbox elements), and Fallout is open world.

Game of the Year Edition.

@Branthog said:

@doosmacleod said:

@hermes said:

@Demoskinos said:

@hermes said:

@Branthog said:

@TobbRobb said:

All genre terms. All of them. They are terrible.

ROGUELIKE is a fantastic genre name.

No, its not. "Roguelike" literally means "a game like Rogue". Most people that are into games now doesn't even know what Rogue means so, as a genre description, is as useful as "gearslike", "godofwarlike" or "halolike"...

OT: "casual". Together with noob and hardcore are words defined merely by the speaker's standards.

You're not wrong but it often IS used as a genre descriptive term. If you asked someone for example what Dungeons of Dredmore more likely than not that term is going to be the first thing thrown out.

Which, to me, only proves we need some better description to that mechanic.

If the best way to describe it is throw the name of some 30 years old game (that was niche when it was new) and say "its like that", maybe its not very descriptive. I have been playing games for some time, and I only recently stumble upon the term thanks to games like Binding of Isaac and FTL (and have to search for its meaning)

Its like saying all FPS should be called "hexenlike", or all horror movies should be called "white-zombielike".

You know.

Now that I think about it, I'm all for changing "MMORPG" to "Wowlike". It's just as dumb, but doesn't look like someone just punched their keyboard to come up with a genre acronym.

Except WOW didn't spawn the genre.

Also, I'd be a big fan of changing MMORPG to something else, since they usually have about as much to do with RPGing as a Guitar Hero does.

Also, I could do without ever hearing "visceral" again.

But that is not a genre... which takes us to the center of the discussion.

If adding or taking away some mechanic or feature (in this case, the capacity to save your status) is all it takes to spawn a new genre, there would be hundreds of genres on gaming alone. E.T. introduced context sensitive buttons, so "etlike" should be considered a valid genre, and Ocarina of Time and Kingdom Hearts are etlike game. Bosconian is one of the earlier examples of a game with an open world setting, so "bosconianlike" could be used to describe games as dissimilar as Assassins Creed and Dragon Quest. All bullet hell games should be called "Gladiuslike", and all games with powerups should be called "pacman-clones". If extended to other mediums, romantic comedies in black & white would be a different genre than those in color; and music with electric guitar would be a different genre than music with drums.

Bottom-line, genres in gaming is broken, full of lingo introduced by marketing and the public used to separate games with even the most simple differences as new things, entirely different and completely particular, but most times it means nothing. MMORPG is pointless when it includes things as disjointed as World of Warcraft, Dust 514 and Need for Speed World. Naming a genre with an example (like Roguelike or Dota) is just a proof that specificity has gone too far.

@Pr1mus said:

Game of the Year Edition.

@kgb0515 said:

The more I think about the phrases that bother me, the more I feel like a complete curmudgeon. I guess the thing that bothers me the most is when games titles are constantly broken down into acronyms. I know it saves time when typing, but seriously. I can only stand so many LOTRs, CODs, and DoTAs before I want to pull my hair out. It's worse when they are used repeatedly in reviews or video game articles.

This so much. I hate that one of the first things that comes up is "How are we going to abbreviate this title?".

The other thing I hate is the word "gay" used to call something/someone stupid or an asshole. Then people try to say that it has nothing to do with the original word but they'll call themselves an asshole or stupid but NEVER gay. It obviously means something else.

Edit:

Oh and "no homo". If you say "no homo" then just fuck you.

@Branthog said:

Hell, even one of the most praised games of 2012 was a Roguelike (and was even promoted as such) -- FTL.

Technically, it was promoted as a "roguelike-like" which is hilarious and calls out how deep up it's own ass genre classification can be. It's also a completely apt descriptor for what kind of game FTL is :/

I hate when people are like its a sub and I'm like naw dawg its a hero. Cuz sub is short for submarine sandwich and I don't see a periscope on there, but I certainly feel like a hero when I eat a nice chicken parm. I quite partial to sand-bone as well. As you can tell, I'm having a weird fucking day. Please help.

I hate people who use "mats" instead of "crafting materials", especially when Brad says it in non-MMO games (Far Cry 3, for example). MMOs have shorthand for everything because people spend so much time in those gameplay systems, but it irritates me when those terms leak out into all games and suddenly there's shorthand for every imaginable term, even ones I only use like once a month.

@Bell_End said:

i hate the words 'boring' 'disappointing' and 'overrated'

Fuck yeah. Just what I wanted to say!

I also hate calling games "brown" people are clearly colorblind.

PC Master Race

Consolized

"Real game"

I hate asking someone if they want to play a game. Like "Hey man. Feel like playing something tonight?" or "Wanna play a game of _____?" No idea why it bothers me, but when I say it to people I feel like I'm a child asking someone if they want to play in the sandbox or something. What else can you say though?

There are only a couple I can think of where I actually cringe when I hear it, but one is when people call their avatars/playable characters "toons". What the fuck is that?!?

The other is when Brits call Resident Evil "Resi", normally I like most UK slang but that's fucking stupid sounding.

One to one, it makes sense but I hate the term one to one anyway, mostly because the moment someone says one to one; one to one ends up repeated 10 more one to one times.

Living breathing world. Makes me cringe

"Real Game". Everytime I see people post this term (often in relation to discussions of mobile/indie gaming and usually claiming that mobile platforms don't have said "real games") I ask them what it means. I have never received a response.

janky, setpiece, iterate, tonal shift, (player) agency, vanilla

'Girl Gamer'! Especially when used by Girl Gamers! Why bother saying your gender!?

Definitely all the MMO terminology, especially referring to characters as "toons"

@NinjaBerd said:

@TobbRobb said:

All genre terms. All of them. They are terrible.

I will second that. Gaming has the worst genre designations.

I dunno man, Metal has some fucking idiotic sub-genres.

I always wonder why the acronym for "Downloadable Content" is DLC as opposed to just DC.

Sometimes I get worried that stuff like this bugs me...

Pwn is a terrible word and anyone that uses it is a terrible person.

The term RPG being associated with Mass Effect. This shit needs to stop.

@Dacnomaniac said:

Raped. Since it was used by some 'popular' commentators. Not sure why I just fucking hate that word. No uncle jokes...

@Dave_442 said:

I always wonder why the acronym for "Downloadable Content" is DLC as opposed to just DC.

Sometimes I get worried that stuff like this bugs me...

I have to assume that DC had already been "taken" by Dreamcast, or even Direct Connect (as in DC++).

pwned and newb

racial slurs

ip

"gamer"

metagame

@AuthenticM said:

metagame

the word "meta" is just as gross.

i.e. Fez is so Meta...

makes me throw up in my mouth a little

@AuthenticM said:

metagame

What else would you call it?

I don't hate any lingo or shorthand stuff. Though, I guess Toon did sort of bug me. That said, I don't like most of the meme phrases that pop up "hue hue hue" and such.

edit - Don't like =/= Hate

I really hate "overrated". It's an Easy Button for people who want to bash a game without having to have a good reason.

"Casual" or "console gamer" used as a pejorative is terrible as well. It always makes me think of a bunch of obnoxious children in a clubhouse, or a group of hipsters throwing a tantrum because the radio played a song that they like.

"Troll" is a recent one for me. It used to be fine, but it has lost all definition, and is now just shorthand for "I disagree, but expressing why would require thought or a reason".

"Toons". Just... toons.

"Visceral". Another one that doesn't actually mean anything anymore.

"Go back to COD". Fucking stop, people. There are more than two genres out there. If somebody doesn't like "Shining Face Star Sengoku Gaiden no Belltaco III-2: Golden", that doesn't mean they only play COD. And if they do, that's their prerogative.

"lrn2(insert skill)". ... Ugh.

So many others, but I'm ranting already.

Pwned and newb/noob are words I would find annoying if I ever heard them in real life. I mean I see them in forums but come on, people say all kinds of dumb stuff on the net they would never say in real life. I don't play high player base games like COD or WoW where I guess you would hear those terms more? I don't hang out with people that use those terms in their everyday vocabulary... I guess those people exist but to me they seem more like stereotypes perpetuated by game media and advertising.

@ShaggE: Yeah people calling their characters in a MMO or something "Toons" instead of "Characters" or even "Avatars" is irritating to me ugh!

Triple A is pretty bad, not just because it puts specific games on a pedestal, but also because it's just a dumb term. Really the only way to counter this is to refer to every non Triple A game as a Triple S+ game.

Also using the words "Noob" or "Owned." makes people sound like they're twelve.

Hardcore and midcore gamer.

The abbreviation of critical as CRIT. "Shooting Crits are so satisfying". The first time I heard that word, I thought they were talking about a snack. Then I realized it was shorthand for critical shot.

"For people who like to play games ironically". I do not understand why people in general would play games that way.

Chugging frame rate, frame rate issues or frame rate dips as the first negative criticism of a game. The obsession of most games having to be 60 frames a second is annoying. I just want a game to work normally and not have to restart the system when it freezes.

Overuse and misuse of the word Triple A title to describe the quality of a game.

Some users on the forums using the word butthurt as a adjective to describe others users as upset.

Toons is a new one to me.

I don't like metroidvania. It should just be metroid-like. Wait, no, that's also terrible. Words are tough.

I also don't like achievements. For the most part they're only achievements in the strictest sense, ie "You played the game! Congrats! Here's an arbitrary amount of meaningless points as a reward!"

I was watching the Kickstarter video for Spicy horses new game (American McGee kickstarting a nearly finished game? that's, well that's something) and the guy kept saying ARPG, and the more he said it the dumber it sounded..

I hate most phrases that PR firms/ Producers/ Mainstream news use that just make them sound uninformed and out of touch of the gaming community..

@laserbolts: Mid-core especially like... seriously what does that even mean? Even though "hardcore" is dumb at least I can read that and kind of "get" what is being said.

Yeah, the only time I've heard "toon" for an MMO character is when people I knew were playing Toontown.

@Demoskinos said:

@laserbolts: Mid-core especially like... seriously what does that even mean? Even though "hardcore" is dumb at least I can read that and kind of "get" what is being said.

Not quite hardcore but more hardcore than casual? Fucking hell.

Gamer also hate how commercials portray people playing games on the couch with the controller all hyper and looking stupid like they just one the fucking lotto.Also hate how Geoff Keighley says the COD players is the hardcore gamers lmao.

@Kerned said:

• Emergent gameplay
• Player agency
• Ludonarrative dissonance
• Entitlement
• Entitlement
• Entitlement

Player agency, nice. Such a gaming journalist word-drop.

@BisonHero said:

@JoeyRavn

PC Master Race

Consolized

"Real game"

I think "consolized" is a useful term to convey "streamlined/simplified to appeal to a broader audience", because that audience is almost always the console audience, though sometimes it can be the F2P audience. That IS what happened when you compare older games in the Deus Ex series, Hitman series, etc. Part of it is because devs just try to avoid the clunkiness of the way those older games were made, but the shift to console does often accompany the drop of a lot of gameplay systems that a series previously had. With XCOM it was all worth it, but with most series you get a more shallow game.

Well they could still just call it casualized instead (since thats a better word for it anyway) but it still goes back to the whole "PC mustard race thing"

Noob is the worst. I was watching a gameplay video of a game I was interested in on youtube and the dude said "nooblet" on his commentary.

Just end it dude. Or don't procreate at least.

@s10129107 said:

the word "meta" is just as gross.

i.e. Fez is so Meta...

makes me throw up in my mouth a little

This isn't a gaming term and it is necessary. I think people use it wrong sometimes but it has uses in games and out of them.

Anytime someone tries to say a game is "important" 

Gamer, Gaymer, Girl Gamer.

It's really stupid, think about any other hobby really, they aren't given (or give themselves) a stupid label.

Oh and toon because it sounds like garbage and alternatives are readily available, MOBA because it describes almost all multiplayer games ever and was only invented by LoL to distinct itself from DotA when it was first introduced, and people who still say noob just invoke cringes (or are very foreign).

Janky and risk-reward

The latter especially because people use it incorrectly.