Gaming Terminology

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Tuberski


It doesn't look particulary intelligent typed either.

ACK!

I'm pretty sure the point of that sort of talk is not to look intelligent. It's the natural response of the geek, after all, evolved from the Geekus Sapiens, who is the normal, smart-aleck, more-brains-than-smarts, geek (like myself ), to the Geekus Leetus, who is smarter, because he (or she) acts stupid in whatever way possible, to avoid the automatic picking on by bullies, and also adopts a code that is nearly unbreakable by anyone not of the species, or at least one who interacts regularly with them. Finally, they have finally managed to make an aspect of geekdome ... cool, earning copycat praise from vandals everywhere. Geekus Leetus is the true future of geekdom, everyone ... be afraid, be very afraid ...

[Tassadar500]

Originally posted by snoopy369


I'm pretty sure the point of that sort of talk is not to look intelligent. It's the natural response of the geek, after all, evolved from the Geekus Sapiens, who is the normal, smart-aleck, more-brains-than-smarts, geek (like myself ), to the Geekus Leetus, who is smarter, because he (or she) acts stupid in whatever way possible, to avoid the automatic picking on by bullies, and also adopts a code that is nearly unbreakable by anyone not of the species, or at least one who interacts regularly with them. Finally, they have finally managed to make an aspect of geekdome ... cool, earning copycat praise from vandals everywhere. Geekus Leetus is the true future of geekdom, everyone ... be afraid, be very afraid ...

That post achieves new levels of geekiness.

[vovan]

You know, speaking of leetspeek leaking into regular english... One of the programming classes I took a couple years ago, we had these extra credit assignments, and they were called the "Leet Haxxor" assignments, and the professor would literally say leet haxxor, and that was pretty funny. But in the same vein, when someone tries to show off their programming skills and I want to mock them, I'd literally use the phrase 1337, like I'd say "Oooh, that's sooo one three three seven!". Or "Man, you are like a thirteen thirty seven haxxor!". At first people go like wtf, but then they kinda get it.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by BustaMike

http://pwned.nl

the pronunciation according to this guy is pooned, and he looks like he knows

OMFG A FOURTH POSSIBILITY!!11!

[BustaMike]

STFU Joo NOOB. I R 1337 HAXXORZ, I PWNZ Joo, OH NOES!!1!!1!!1!1!eleven!!!!1!11!!!!!oneoneone

[Skanky Burns]

ZOMFG!!!

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by vovan
You know, speaking of leetspeek leaking into regular english... One of the programming classes ...

Nothing seen in a pgroamming class should be used as an example of regular behaviour.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by BustaMike
STFU Joo NOOB. I R 1337 HAXXORZ, I PWNZ Joo, OH NOES!!1!!1!!1!1!eleven!!!!1!11!!!!!oneoneone

Joo - he said Joo

[Woody Allen mode off]

[DrSpike]

Sigh. You've all gone and turned my thread into a spamfest.

[Skanky Burns]

It was the fault of the first person to start speaking in all caps and using "gaming terminology". Hmm, I wonder who that person was...

[vovan]

Originally posted by General Ludd
Nothing seen in a pgroamming class should be used as an example of regular behaviour.

Well, yes, it's just that I didn't really expect a lecturer who is almost 60 to go around saying things like haxxor.

[Urban Ranger]

Lots of spam here

[DrSpike]

Well then stop and tell us how you would pronounce pwned!

[joncha]

I vote "powned".

[Dry]

http://www.answers.com/topic/pwn

Etymology

The most widely held theory is that "pwn" originated from a typo in first-person shooter games, the common mistake occurred from a hand position. The user, using his mouse right-handedly, would hold three of his fingers on the keys, "a", "w", and "d", along with the mouse in his right hand. When prompted to make a comment upon fragging his opponent, a quick motion to type the word "owned" resulted in a typo. Due to the proximity of the keys "p" and "o" on a standard QWERTY keyboard the user hit the "p" instead of the "o" key, resulting in the word "pwned".

One story reports that in the game StarCraft, someone made a custom map where losing players would see a special message. However, instead of typing in "YOU WERE OWNED", a typo resulted in "YOU WERE PWNED", or "j00 g0t pwnt". It is said that every use of the word "pwn" therefore comes from this one hapless misspelling, or a similar one occurring in a Warcraft or Unreal Tournament game. One possibility exists in a mispronunciation, in Diablo: Hellfire, where an enemy claims he will “own” you. The word is pronounced more like “puh-own”. This may be somehow related to the “Starcraft Theory”. Pwn's past tense can also be "pwnd" instead of pwned.

Some people believe that the word was originally a contraction of the term "power-owned", "pure ownage", "pistol-owned", "ping-owned", "player-owned", or "properly owned". These are probably backronyms.

It has been suggested that the word resulted from a rendering problem from a specific game that made the word "owned" look like the word "pwned". As a result, gamers considering themselves superior in skill started using the word as an obscure reference.

It is likely that "pwn" is actually the result of a carryover of the phrase "0wned" used by hackers on IRC to declare that they have successfully hacked a computer or target (i.e. "I just 0wned that Windows box").

Another theory suggests that "pwned" is a version of "owned", with supposed blood dripping from the "o".

Still another interpretation makes the case that "pwned" was not an accident, but instead a contraction of the word pawned. This theory is based upon the idea that the person who was defeated was "owned," and then pawned off, as an item would be at a pawnshop.

Leetspeak

Main article: Leet

"Pwn" has become part of the sub-language of gamers called leet(short for elite) speak. While mostly used by gamers, this language is also used by those who commonly partake of Internet Relay Chat programs and other chat mediums such as AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

"WTFPwn!" is derived from the contraction of the internet slang term "WTF" (what the ****?!) and "Pwn" and is intended to suggest that a player was not just "pwn'ed," but that such pwnage happened so quickly that the other player was left wondering what happened (and saying: "what the ****?!").

Pronunciation

There is no uniform way to pronounce "pwn" as it is most often encountered in text. Possible pronunciations include:

* pōn (rhymes with "moan")
* pān (as "pawn" in chess)
* pwǐn (as "pwin")
* pōōn (rhymes with "soon", this comes from pronouncing the "w" as in Welsh)
* pwôn (rhymes with "on")
* prān (as prawn)
* pēwǐn (as "pea win")
* pēōn (as "pea own")
* pyōōn (similar to pōōn, but with a "y" sound included)
* just as "own," ignoring the typo
* in some cases, with two syllables, as pay-ween or puh-ween.