At the 29:22 mark, we witness the Jank spreading through the vocabulary of Gametrailers journalists...it's finally begun. Whilst talking about Crackdown 2 no less, so they definitely understand its definition well enough too.
I've been using janky for around six or seven years now. To be sure, I was stoked when I heard the GB crew use it, I don't hear it elsewhere much, but it's been around.
I wasn't even aware that Janky was a particularly prominent term on Giant Bomb. Sure, the staff have said it, but it's not a super common Giant Bomb phrase or anything.
I heard Tobin and Yuzo of Noobtoob use it long before I heard any of the GB crew use it. They're also in the southern California area, though. Maybe it's just a buzzword that cropped up among certain individuals in that neck of the woods? I personally have never heard it used here in Florida.
" I wasn't even aware that Janky was a particularly prominent term on Giant Bomb. Sure, the staff have said it, but it's not a super common Giant Bomb phrase or anything. "
I genuinely thought it was one of GB's many own meme's. Heard it so often ad nauseam when they discuss open-world games on the bombcast.
" I've been using janky for around six or seven years now. To be sure, I was stoked when I heard the GB crew use it, I don't hear it elsewhere much, but it's been around. "
This. I've used Janky for a long time, it was just refreshing to know that someone else out there used the term too.
I don't think the original poster meant that Giant Bomb had invented the word per se.
I believe that Giant Bomb staff use the word more frequently than some of the other game journalists. Though, I don't think the staff actually thinks it's OK to use the word janky. The actual word janky is a little bit janky.
This is from Tested's most recent mailbag article:
The main difference, is memory. Running 64-bit versions of Windows lets your PC use more than 4GB of RAM without any janky hacks. There's also some security stuff that changes, and you'll need to run 64-bit versions of the drivers for all of your favorite devices. This was a big hassle when 64-bit was new and there were no drivers for, well anything, but today, there are 64-bit drivers for all your major peripherals.
If you notice, the second sentence features our favorite word. Understandable since Will has been spending so much time in the proximity of the GB guys lately.
Not only is "janky" not invented by GB, it's probably offensive to some group or culture at its origin. Like how "square" or "lame" originally refered to the handicapped. Etymology is fun. I just recently found out where "flaming faggot" came from.
Janky, durger, duder, neither of those terms were invented by the staff. Just wanna get those other two out of the way before someone tries to credit them for inventing it.
" Janky, durger, duder, neither of those terms were invented by the staff. Just wanna get those other two out of the way before someone tries to credit them for inventing it. "
Bloody fuck...Next thing you'll be telling me there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny. So many pieces of my heart broken this day.
Janky is not a popular word, at all, and the only place I've heard it, inside and out of gaming news circles, is GiantBomb so I'm going to credit them with popularizing it in this context.
Log in to comment