terms the gaming community is overusing/causing to lose meaning

Definitely. I find the idea of making light of such a thing revolting. I wish the people who use that one would grow up.

Ahem.

...I don't get it.

Rape can be funny in the right context. Ergo, I don't have a problem with it being used in the gaming community.

edited 25th May '12 9:36:59 AM by MasterInferno

Well, I'm not about to start a debate over that, so I'll just make one thing clear: I disagree in several aspects. I'm going to leave it at that.

Back on topic, "Elite" is thrown around a bit too much for my taste. Specifically clans and groups claiming to be elite.

Elite and the related words are actually one of the few I like, because it gives me a clear indicator of when I should steer clear and avoid getting into servers or matches involved with them. It's also usually a good indicator as to where all the GIFTS and Stop Having Fun Guys tend to hang around. So by all means, let it spread so they may better mark themselves for the public to avoid!

I agree about the elite word being overused.

but that one sounds downright mysognistic

Nah, it is just horrible, not sexist as that can be insulting to anyone

That would be a nice topic for a derail or for a new thread: Rape in the videogame medium. From how it is portrayed in stories that want to be Darker and Edgier to the use of the word as slang, etc.

"Fanboi"

Same overuse as Troll but about people that dare to like something. Basically visit a game forum and any topic about the game devolves into "Trolls" vs "Fanbois" name calling.

"Old-school" can mean almost anything, depending on who says it, and in what context. A lot of people use it to refer to Retraux graphics, sometimes specifying graphics that would have existed on a specific system. Others extend it to mean Nintendo Hard difficulty, or gameplay concepts that are no longer common.

Two days ago, Anfauglith said the following:

Darker and Edgier and "All Sunshine and Rainbows". People seem to think either that "happier" things are more immature or that "darker" things are. It's rare to see people acknowledging that both can be executed poorly or in an awesome way, so it's easy to see variants of those two terms tossed around as if they were something negative.

Agreed. I thought that Darker and Edgier had died with the '90s Anti-Hero, but it either survived or made a comeback. These days, it seems that if your game development studio has talent, if your game company has a pretty good amount of money, and if your marketing department has any skill, then you can make any sort of GRIMDARK game and sell millions of copies. (Then again, I'm biased... since I tend to like cute and upbeat games...)

Fanboy/fanboi is used sometimes as an insult from what I've seen. Someone will try to dismiss a fandom of something they dislike and/or don't understand by calling its fans "fanboys".

I feel like "waggle" is also mis/overused for Wii games.

Oh, and I also second "rape" being overused... It's disturbing to make light of it by equating it to victory over an enemy/rival.

This thread is gettin' downright political, I daresay.

Actually I'm the opposite, I love GRIMDARK, downer storylines, etc. and tend to dislike "cute and upbeat"; but of course it all depends on the execution. The problem is when they insert some silly attempts at making a game darker and then think it will make it deeper, this only manages to make the story seem immature. It takes skill to create a nice working Grey-and-Grey Morality setting without going into "everyone is shallowly evil and/or a moron" territory, and it takes skill to create compelling drama. Another problem that is loosely related to this is giving the player the option of saving puppies or using them to fuel a weapon of mass destruction and call these sort of things "complex moral dilemmas".

—

I think the issue with the "fanboi" is related to how customers tend to go from one extreme belief to the other... for example sometimes it seems that they either hate something with the rage of a thousand suns or defend everything about said work and think criticism is an affront to the author and all the true fans. This also happens with what I said about Darker and Edgier vs Lighter and Softer: Many will just pick one and decide that the other is inherently wrong somehow, as if a Third Option where both can be done well or badly just didn't exist. I think the derisive meaning of the word "fanboy" and also "<insert company here>drone" is about those that are the polar opposite of the Hate Dumb: criticism isn't allowed because there can't possibly be flaws in their beloved game.

I think this is worrying and I'm seeing it a lot in these dark times... people are either Hate Dumb that drown rightful criticism below the white noise of a lot of "lol sucks" comments (or they have nice criticism but don't bother in actually trying to make arguments to back it up) or they think that criticism (even well-thought criticism) is always Hate Dumb; and that being a fan is only about liking stuff. No matter who wins, literacy loses

edited 25th May '12 8:26:23 PM by Anfauglith

As a former World Of Warcraft player, Waggle means something entirely different to me.

But carry on.

Welcome to the internet.

On the thread subject, I think pretty much everything that I'd say has already been said, so I think I'll just leave it at the above snark.

@Shadow Scythe: I actually enjoyed the UI of Skyrim a great deal. Other than the map, that was ill conceived, but the inventory, the magic inventory, and the skill system worked well for me.

Certainly the font didn't go with the aesthetic they were going for, but I think it was quite easy to understand, and was very readable. At the very least it was more understandable to me than the UI in Oblivion, where I couldn't make out what the hell the compass items were supposed to look like.

I do think streamlined is a bit of an over-used term, though. Things can be both streamlined and dumbed down, like in Deus Ex 3, where instead of buying advances and enhancements for your body, they're the same pool of points, Praxis, which is given out based on how well you do. It removed the attachments to your body from the first game, insead opting for the praxis which takes up no space in your inventory.

Also, by making experience points go purely towards Praxis instead of having it go to upgrading your performance with some things, it removes the penalties for trying to use items you're not used to, such as playing a stealthy character for a few levels and then deciding to try and play an assault type character. In the first game, you were useless at weapons unless you purchased levels in that class of weapon. The result was that you were pigeonholed into that set of items for a long time until you got the experience to purchase weapons from other sets.

As for dumbing down, I'd say that Fable 3 would be a good example, as it removed the experience system from the previous games, opting for doing everything with "medals." All of which were in a straight line, so all the advancement was basically in a straight line, no choice involved.

By the way I made a thread closely related to what I said above about criticism, haters, fanboys, etc.

It can be found here. It has yet to be opened for discussion though.

'Realistic' or 'Realism'. I've noticed many people have their own Personal Dictionary definition when it comes to this term, making it completely meaningless on it's own. I've seen people hate on Call Of Duty not for its Michael Bay-ness, but because it's 'realistic', where areas in my and many others' eyes it's not even close to realistic. Some may even define the word 'realistic' as 'any game set on Earth in the present or past with real locations' and somehow cite this as a flaw, ignoring how the game may use physics and science unrealistically. Never mind that many action movies also use real locations but don't get the same treatment.

That's not even mentioning the fact that, like everything else, realism done well can be incredibly awesome to play anyway. It's also somewhat rare compared to the games that botch it somehow. And Real's NOT Brown. There's plenty of other colors thrown in there. Unless they think flowers, grass, and the very sky itself aren't real? O.o

The bigger problem is that a lot of the crowd that asks for realism don't understand what is actually realistic or not. A good example is bullet drop and velocity in FPS games. They don't realize that the ranges most FPS gunfights take place in would make those mechanics unnoticeable unless it's a civilian pistol they're using, even within Battlefield 3. Or how "realistic" supply lines and logistic issues would likely lead to a VERY sluggish and turtle-prone game.

edited 28th May '12 4:50:57 AM by SgtRicko

Dunno if this is mentioned here already, but the terms "Nostalgia", "Nostalgic" or anything like that is starting to get really old. Especially when combined with the Zelda-series, where I hear always whining of "A Link To The Past / Ocarina Of Time are the bestest Zelda-games in existence, nothing will ever, ever top those games" and that other titles like The Wind Waker, Majoras Mask and Twilight Princess get flac for "not being like them", or in the case of Twilight Princess, thanks to the Fan Dumb / Broken Base, considered "too much like Ocarina Of Time". Make up your minds, damn it. I understand that those two titles were very influential, and I won't deny that they are very good games, not only for the Zelda-series, but for Videogaming as in general (I think), but please, stop it with the Nostalgia-glasses. This only makes you unable to let go of the past instead of look cool and hip.

edited 28th May '12 5:00:16 AM by Jaryl

While we're on the subject, I'm getting pretty sick of the term Nostalgia Filter being thrown around whenever someone says they favour older games. Apparently it is unthinkable that people actually like old games, and are somehow deluding themselves or faking it. It basically boils down to "you like a game I don't like, therefore Nostalgia Filter."

edited 28th May '12 5:44:36 AM by Talby

I think Noob is also an over used term. Before, it meant someone who knows of the rules/standards of the game, server, forum, etc. but continues to break them (it still does). However, now I see the term noob getting thrown around in non-related things. Go to any online game like Team Fortress 2 and someone is bound to say -insert non-stock weapon- is noob weapon. Not to mention, the amount of times where I see on a forum and some newbie (someone who is new to a thing) says, "Sorry, I'm a noob."

Dunno what community you've seen to come to that conclusion. Personally, most cases I've seen of nostalgia filter are pretty spot on. The funniest (or perhaps dumbest) example I've ever seen was the reaction to the recent Transformer movies on the Game FA Qs boards a few years ago. A lot of the hardcore fans were stating that the cartoon they watched as kids was grittier, written better, and more mature than Bay's works. Seriously. It took somebody to give them a free link to download and view the older G1 episodes in all their hammy glory to finally convince them that the nostalgia filter was in full effect on them!

@ 75: Agreed. (Not even going to debate the VG Cats strips or how they came off to me.)

Most of 'em have been listed already, but I'd like to mention hater, lazy, and all synonyms for "cry" and "whine."

It bothers because I'm the one who's frequently on the recieving end of Nostalgia Filter accusations. That guy who likes A Link to the Past and Fallout more than Skyward Sword and Fallout 3? That's me. It has nothing to do with seeing the games through a Nostalgia Filter, just having different taste in games.

A lot of the time, and on this very forum, people play the Nostalgia Filter card to dismiss peoples opinions about older games. If you like the old Zelda games (to use them as an example, since they were brought up by someone) more than the latest ones, it is assumed you are looking at the games through rose tinted glasses, and if you'd just look at the games objectively, obviously you'd realize that you were wrong all along and the new games are much better. It's quite condescending, really.

edited 28th May '12 6:24:09 AM by Talby