This is a SYTYCB entry from Jen who made it to the top 7.
WoW language… where do I begin? So being a fairly new “gamer” (zomg it’s been a freakin year!) I was lost when I first read trade chat in Darnassus. So many acronyms and so many words I had never heard of in my life. I majored in Literary Studies, so it was incredibly frustrating to me to not understand wth anyone was saying.
For the most part, I’ve overcome these frustrations (thanks to my sponsor and 12-step program,) but there are still things that irk me about WoW-lingo. I honestly don’t know if these terms are exclusive to WoW or part of all MMORPGs, anywhozzle here I go!
Misspelling
I’m kind of a spelling snob; I have a habit of pointing out spelling errors in trade chat on my server, especially if it’s a guild recruitment spam! I have noticed a lot of these WoW terms are just misspelled words that caught on and became accepted gamers’ lingo.
Pwned, Pwn, Pwnt
Is this pawned or owned or a combination? I think either way it’s over-played and over-used, it’s like “Burn” from that Friends episode. If you tell me you pwned me in-game, be prepared for a /glare /slap combo, cause that’s how I roll!
Leet, Leetsauce, 1337
I can only assume this came from elite, but where do we get the sauce? It sounds messy and somewhat disgusting; I get all kinds of visuals that I’m not going to explain here.
And are we really in 5th grade where we are playing with our calculator and trying to spell words with numbers? Remember 55378008…if you don’t, type it in your handy dandy calculator (not the one on your computer you n00b!) and turn it upside down.
Hai
Is this to be cute? Like the “I can haz” crap? Sorry I just don’t get it, first time I saw it I thought the guy was from Hawaii and maybe it was some cultural thing =/
Oh noes!
Admittedly I use this often, especially when I’m trying to get away from CAPSmonster (he’s the rare elite mob that strikes in trade chat and burns everyone’s eyeballs out of their sockets, he’s also the namesake of my 2v2). But where the hell does it come from? Instead of shortening the phrase to make the typing faster we actually add two letters for silliness?
Acronyms
These are probably carried over from other games, but for those who didn’t play these so-called “other games” it’s incredibly annoying and frustrating! The very first day I started playing WoW I saw the acronym LFG and I was too nervous and n00bish to ask what it meant for the longest time.
Common txt lingo (wth, wtf, omg, lol)
I don’t really have any problems with these, I txt probably more than I talk so I’m used to it. Moving on…
WoW specific (dps, cc, wtb, dungeon names)
I know these are necessary, especially in a game where you want to spend more time pew-pewing than typing. Btw dungeon names are normally a no-brainer but for all that don’t know Magister’s Terrace is MrT – nothing else (nightelf mohawk ftw.)
I almost quit the game a couple of times as a low-level since I felt like I entered a world where I didn’t speak the language and I was not given a translation guide.
Hey WoM, make a guide! 😉
Asshats who think they are cool they can acronym anything
These are the people that were put on earth to make me want to go punch a kitten in Elwynn Forest. Stop trying to act like you are cool by making everyone else in the world figure out what the hell you are saying, you suck! Noone is going to pick up on your acronym and start using it; you are not a trend-setter. NP2SW is not the new cool way of saying “need portal to Stormwind”. I’m determined these are the gamers who are 42 years old living at home with their parents trying to get their band off the ground. I hate them, and I put them on ignore!
Emotes
/start rant
If you put a / in front of something it means this is what you or your character is doing or feeling right now. In a game where you can’t convey your true feelings with absolute strangers and you don’t want to type it out just put a / in front of a word and everyone will know what it means. You can also say “slash (insert word here)” in vent and it makes sense!
/rollseyes
/facepalm (spoiler! Coming in wrath!)
/end rant
Vent
There is really only one thing people say on vent that makes me want to QQ and that is “lawls”. Lawls is a misspelling of an acronym that means to laugh-out-loud. If you are laughing out loud and you press your vent key wouldn’t everyone hear you laughing? Apparently not. Instead you press your vent key and say “lawls” which just makes you a freakin liar! You are not laughing out loud at all so don’t say that you are. It doesn’t make any sense. This bugs me cause I love to hear people laugh, it makes me laugh more, and I LOVE to laugh! I laugh a lot and often and I press my vent key when I’m doing it. I NEVER say “lawls”. I also press my vent key when I sneeze…that’s a whole other topic I suppose.
Uber and n00b
I separated these out because I despise them especially. For one, they just sound gross, they both remind me of the word booger and it makes me want to vomit in my mouth. I understand what both terms mean, but I have no clue where they came from so I made some assumptions. Uber comes from some idiot trying to spell super and failing in epic proportions. He was obviously not uber and now he’s doomed to endlessly sift through the trash in the Ironforge Deeprun tram station (dirty, dirty Haggle!). N00b/nub comes from “new player” or “new person” being shortened to save typing time. Nub (rhymes with rub) I think I hate more because again it’s a visual thing and it’s not even pronounced like newb but it means the same thing.
What WoW terms do you love/hate or love to hate? Am I absolutely nuts for the assumptions I made?
With all the “wth” and “anywhozzle” and “QQ” I see, I can only conclude that the lady doth protest too much.
Slash wink.
Doodles last blog post..NEA’s Big Read Program
Is it just me or are all the ‘ shown as ? in your text?
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Eglador: You’re right, they are. It’s a CSS formatting thing. Word and WordPress recognize different styles of “s and ‘s. Fixing those as I write this. Its a font issue I believe.
Personally, I agree with a lot of this stuff to an extent. In a real-time chat situation like WoW chat, acronyms and lack of capitalization, punctuation, and grammar are less bothersome to me, as the person might not be a fast typist.
What really bothers me is when people bring that shit into a non-real-time environment like forum posts or emails where you can slow down and proofread. I don’t want to see ‘thx’ in a professional email, thanks.
I can help you out with the “uber”.
It is actually a German word, correct spelling would be “über”. It simply means that something is totally overpowered, awesome, simply the ultimate. 🙂
As I just found out, it is also listed on the Urban Dictionary online: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=uber
Men, I love that page and can only recommend it.
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I absolutely hate people who speak acronyms. “O.M.G.” Because saying it out loud is just as hard as typing five extra letters.
I’ll admit to saying “lawls” due to watching a series called “pure pwnage” and pwn came from mistyping own. It’s not cool, but it’s funny to watch other people make idiots of themselves by typing it.
I also use “Oh Noes!” all the time in mock-worry.
Wiki searched Ãœber. It’s German and for the most part translates to super (or if you’re from boston: wicked). And nub came from people not using the proper ü for pronunciation, it should be read as nüb. Just kids trying to appear hip in the eyes of others.
And one that last thing, one of my best friends actually spoke “slash sigh” without realizing it.
Well, I mostly agree. 😉
As I play on a German server, some of our acronyms are different, but frighteningly people use mostly the same acronyms and leetspeech and don’t even understand where the words originate.
One issue I could illuminate is the use of the word “uber” or “über” as we’d say here. 😉 Maybe wikipedia does it better than I could:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber
Sincerely,
Ãœberdruide Myna
*cough* I don’t think enough people commented on über yet. *cough* ;D
Doodle wins.
I think the lady doth protest too much is seconded.
I’m stirred, frustrated, irate even!!! I even sent Matticus a msg on gmail! Good rant. I completely disagree with you on many fronts about leet speak, lawl cat and general MMO lingo.
I’d love to give you a history lesson. In fact, I may blog about it!
I suppose since you’ve compelled me to comment that you are the leetsauce and should get a spot on WoM!
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@”uber”commenters: thank you, I feel enlightened 😉
@doodles/dogofwar: I wanted to poke fun at my rant and myself by including those things, sarcasm doesn’t come across well in this post, unless you know me 🙂
@plaid: 100% agree!
@apoptygmaa: you are the 2nd person who has pointed out LOLcats to me, guess I will be forced to endure checking it out now!
@Matt/Wyn: thanks for posting mine today, awesome bday present (I turn crazy old today!)
If you’re to say “Oh noes”, you must say it in the style of that character from Family Guy. His name eludes me. But it has to be said in a way like:
“Oooohh Noooeee!”
When I get my cam and I set up the vlog, I’ll actually say these things out loud, hah!
I’m torn!
On one hand, as you said, I totally don’t want to type “Hi, I’m looking for two more damage dealers to run Heroic Magisters’ Terrace with, please send me a tell if you’re interested,” when “lf2m dps H-MgT pst” is comprehensible by all.
On the other hand, “i wnt u 2 sheep {star}” DRIVES ME UP THE WALL AARGHRGHRGRHGRH.
It is rare, the person who does it just the right amount, and doesn’t anger me with just sheer laziness. 😉
Also, I hate you, as I’m going to have that “doot dooo de doo doo… rofflemaow” STUCK IN MY HEAD ALL DAY AAAARGHRGHRHGHAHRGHG AGAIN.
I enjoyed this in a sort of “Eats Shoots and Leaves” sense… the ‘lawls’ part was a riot. Well done!
As much as I frown on using linguistic abominations myself, I can appreciate a good cultural meme and be curious about it. LOLcats, for instance, and that whole “I can haz” nonsense.
‘Hai’ cracks me up, though.
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The lack of research made this post frustrating to read.
The post starts with a declaration that the writer did Literary Studies and from some comments one would take it that this is a person that is interested in language – to the point of commenting in trade on how people spell. That then rings very badly with picking on words/expressions and randomly assigning possible origins to them. Just a quick visit to Wikipedia or Urban Dictionary would have given the origins/background for many of them.
As a rant I don’t think it worked very well, but if researched could be converted into a good guide to WoW lingo. 🙂
However, the style and tone were good, so looking forward to the writer’s next installment.
While I understand (and share) some of the frustration the writer was feeling (your or you’re, not ur please), this went to the opposite extreme of the previous post. If that was “so ranty, it had no focus” this was “so nice, it didn’t work as a rant.”
You were very thoughtful and organized in your approach, it just left it feeling there wasn’t much feeling behind it. :\
I say “oh noes” and hai and “I r” 🙁 Maybe it’s stereotypical, but I often thinks it makes things more fun to read. It actually rubbed off on me from a friend, and while my typing isn’t littered with it, I still like it in general – it doesn’t annoy me unless it’s being done for the sole purpose of being “cute;” I just do it to add “flavor” I guess, and only with people I know well, who don’t mind it. Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks.
Overall though, I agree. One thing I -really- dislike is when people say “thx” or something similar when you do them a favor. I did something nice for you, least you can do is type it out!
I cracked up reading this post. The title alone was enough to get me smiling ’cause this world we live in (in WoW) has given us this sad language that we’ve all sadly enough adapted to. I understood completely what the writer was saying. They weren’t lazy in their research, rather they were pointing out all these crazy things we’ve all gotten accustomed to and it’s hilarious when you sit back, such as the writer did, and poke fun at all of them. I loved it and can’t wait to see more from you. I lawled at it the whole way through! But I is uber like that. =P
I like this blogger!!
I’m actually sitting at work cracking up reading the post with my coworkers looking at me like I’ve gone nuts.
Not much actually makes me laugh out loud, but when it does it’s definitely a good thing.
I’ll admit to using pwn…and lawls or lawl does bother me because, why aren’t you typing LOL? But I’ve never actually heard anyone say it in vent, I think I would die if I heard that. I like hearing the laughter as well.
But honestly, the comments on what certain abbreviations make you think about (I think you have a dirty mind) are what really cracked me up, because let’s face it…I do too. 😛
Hooray for a Literary Studies major with an interest in WoW!
I’m a language major, myself. Lolspeak is my dirty little secret. At first, like you, I was in the dark, but I’ve become fluent, and I mostly use it to talk to my cat. I try to keep it off vent and out of writing.
I see no reason to allow oneself to become upset or angered because of the way in which people around them are communicating.
It might not be what you learnt in school, or how you communicated at home, but it is still communication and should be looked upon as such.
If you don’t understand it, that isn’t the fault of the person using the acronym or leetspeak or whatever, that is you being out of touch with form of communication used by gamers today.
NP2SW is perfectly legit in my book, as is people saying things like “TY or QQ” out loud on vent. Lawl = laugh a whole lot. See what I mean?
It sounds as though learning new meanings or usage for acronyms and such isn’t something you are willing to do, however if you did, I’m sure you would discover that it’s not that hard to speak the language of the times.
Less time being angry, more time learning how to communicate effectively and efficiently in online games IMO.
urbandictionary.com is your friend.
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This post earns my vote for the day! As a Comm major in college, and a huge literary buff – WoW and /2 chat make me cry often. rawful/lawl in Vent has always confused me.
I’ll unite with you in correcting silly little guild promo people. Heck, I know 12 year old players who have better grammar than some of these adults.
My pet peeve: people who put lol after every sentence, regardless of whether it’s something actually lol-worthy or not. “hey are you gonna use that green, my alt could use it lol”… “gotta go, my grandma just died lol”… ARGH STOPPIT STOPPIT STOPPIT.
My other pet peeve: “u” and “ur” instead of you and your/you’re – they just make it a hell of a lot harder to read.
Apart from those two peeves, I don’t get too frustrated – although I must admit that I do think less of people who don’t communicate properly, especially in situations like guild apps and recruitment.
(Random reader comment, since this is SYTYCB: I think this post would have been a lot stronger had the blogger in question done her research, rather than making wild and obviously inaccurate assumptions. The basic point was good – that the way people in WoW communicate can often obscure their meaning, not clarify it – but the execution was lacking.)
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I really like the wowian language. I’m fascinated by how language is just like flood – it always find the shortest, quickest way to get the job done. Actually I DO think Blizzard provides a little dictionary. But then it’s a part of the charm to step by step conquer this domain, to understand what they say in the chat channels. The abbreviations are convenient and I applause new inventions in the area. There’s only one I can’t stand: plz.
I wrote a rant about this in March myself:
http://pinkpigtailinn.blogspot.com/2008/03/defending-wowian-language.html
Teh rant is really about the internet terminology on its own, and the whole sub-culture of language that exists through its development and the evolution of games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn
Leet is a semi-valid set of replacements, and indeed misspellings, such as teh, which is a more common spelling for the on the web due to the rate at which typing is typically performed, common mistakes with no inline correction tend to become well understood and expected.
Pwn, is if I recall correctly a derivative from Pistol Owned, or being killed using the pistol in Counter Strike. Typically its not simply being Owned but being done so in a manner which is from far below your level (Pistols typically being weak weapons).
Oh noes… Lemmings, 1 lemming goes Oh No, multiple lemmings go Oh No…es. (since they all go off at slightly different times, its a slight extension of the oh no and sounds a lot like oh noes).
Language evolves to fit the surroundings, MgT, SH, SH, MT, UB, SV are all things to let us get away without typing huge texts in a limited text bar, many of the annoying things that appear to serve no purpose are useful in the context in which they are applied.
1337 S|o34|< 1s |\|07 34s13r 70 7y|o3. 3rg0 17 1s |\|07 1|\| c0|\/||\/|0|\| us4g3.
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<– Says “pwn” IRL
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Thanks for all the feedback, y’all rock!
To those who commented on the lack of research, I agree I could have definitely done more, but it would have turned it into a guide more than a rant and might not have been as entertaining.
I have to admit the style of “rant†is a hard style to pull off when you aren’t in a ranting mood. I think it was an awesome choice for the 1st submission because of that challenge. Being a very laidback person, it was difficult for me to come up with a topic to rant on about the game/world I spend a lot of my time playing in. If I didn’t immensely enjoy WoW I wouldn’t spend so much time there 🙂
I found it very humorous reading the comments by Joveta and Zupa since one said I was too nice and the other said I was too angry.
@Joveta: I’ve been accused of being too nice to a fault in the past, so I can agree with that. It’s hard for me to be super complain-y, just not in my character, oh wells.
@Zupa: As far as too angry and too rigid to learn how to communicate properly in WoW, the purpose of this was to rant about one of the very few things about online gaming that bugs me. Keywords there is “bugs me†not something I lose sleep about. I understand the acronyms and the leetspeak and I use some of them, which I pointed out in post. If I was unwillingly to learn I would make everyone who whispered me spell everything out instead of using these terms/acronyms, this would be ridiculous and waste a lot of time. Thanks for the tip on Lawl, good to know it’s not just a misspelling of an acronym >.<
@Crutch: sorry =/ but I feel your pain…every time I even see the word ROFLMAO it triggers a “Pavlov’s dogs†response and I can’t get the tune out of my head the rest of the day!
@Allindra: who me? I’m just a little innocent holy priest *bats eyes*
@Larisa: Just read your post, it was great! Love the term wowian, totally gonna start using it 😉
@2ndNin: That last line made my head spin! Took me forever to figure out what you were saying, hehe, it was like a puzzle to me.
Lastly, it is awesome to get feedback from some of these bloggers that I troll frequently. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside so thanks again!
ugh…all the ? instead of ‘ or ” that’s what I get for trying to get to everyone by typing it in word first =/
/shakes head
Jen, it’s you (heart fills with sadness) that makes us dyslexics not want to play…it’s like cyber bullying. /teases you can’t spell /teases you’re a retard /teases learn to spell idiot
Spelling snobs are my bane of the game. While it may make you feel good to correct, it makes the correctee feel crumby. I am dyslexic and not ashamed of it. But its getting a little stale having to defend all the time.
Just remember many great literaries such as Agatha Christie,F. Scott Fitzgerald,Fannie Flagg,
Hans Christian Andersen were also dyslexic.
Imagine if that person you were correcting was actually someone famous playing the game such as Orlando Bloom, Charles Schwab, Richard Branson or Jay Leno.
/public service message is now over
Other than that part of your blog I rather enjoyed reading the rest. I did crack up quite a bit. When I first started playing the pwned confused me greatly also. 🙂
PPS this post took me over 20 min to spit out due to my LD…/sigh
@Jenny: I really appreciate your comment, but I am never harsh with my “spelling elitism”. I don’t spam trade chat with “you’re an idiot” or “L2spell”. I don’t think that helps anyone and just wastes space being rude. Normally I pst the person or will just say “I think you meant _____”. If I were trying to recruit for my guild I would hope my message came across clearly w/o misspelling. I’m not worried if they are famous or not, to me the cool thing about WoW is everyone is anonymous for the most part, from all different walks of life. I see people as just people, not by their job or titles. Unless their really hot or have an armored netherdrake, then I see them as gods….j/k
lol ok I totally suck cause I wrote “their” instead of “they’re”, epic fail!
I epic failed also…
I meant to make reference that those famous people also have dyslexia.
I’m so glad your not one of those types I was referring too.
But of course your awesome you’re a Jen (Jennifer) too!
Wow is a lifestyle!
Our chat and one liners are a part of the culture that we have developed and are proud of. Yes it can be annoying when you first start, like figuring out what an “AH” is, but learning the lingo is the gateway to being let “IN” the culture. You either catch on or CYA!
Personally, I take an affront to anyone dissin’ my lingo. I’m a teacher and I love the evolution of our chat. After all, WOW has given a whole new meaning to the name Mr.T!
I agree that the lady doth protest a little too much. I was left mostly with the impression that your main beef was that you entered an environment where you couldn’t immediately understand the language used and thus experienced discomfort.
I’m assuming that as a literary student you may have been exposed to the work of Edward Said, Michael Foucault and other writers on Cultural Theory. I would posit that the theories presented by this school of thought are as applicable to internet culture as they are to ‘RL’ culture.
It’s human nature to tend to disparage anything we don’t understand, or which seems ‘different’ and ‘strange’. It’s also human nature to use our understanding of, and familiarity with, a cultures mannerisms and expressions to exert power over others. On the one hand you have the ‘noob’ players who feel overwhelmed by all the acronyms and what have you flying around and on the other you have the ‘uber leetsauce’ players who use that language to demonstrate their ‘belongingness’ as part of the culture and as such their power over those who don’t. That’s the two extremes of the spectrum however. There are a lot of people in between.
From a theoretical stance it’s very interesting to see how the theories applied to cultural studies can be seen operating in WoW, MMO’s, and the internet in general. But it isn’t anything new.
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