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I'm doing a presentation in my sociology class on the society of gamers,
the language (shmup's a word?), symbols (1337 4/Vcl $7|_|ph),
and the cultural hiercharcy (frat boy halo worshiper, madden subscribers, general noobs)
It would be great to have your input, or just discuss in general.
More specifically I'm looking for some examples of commonly used language to give
an example of how lost someone not initiated can be.
I think leet speak is lame, but back in my hayday of constant CS, short hand was a neccesity. If you find any dedicated subculture of society, you're going to think their vernacular is insanse or purposefully cryptic. Also just like any other group of people hierarchy and commonly used language depends on where your viewpoint starts from. For example, a FPS junkie might use the same words as a MMORPG head but with different meaning.
More specifically I'm looking for some examples of commonly used language to give
an example of how lost someone not initiated can be.
Diablo 2 is an excellent example of this, especially the Battle.net or diabloii.net forums (although the former are usually much worse). Not only are they often filled with leet-speak, but every other term will be an abbrievation of some sort for some skill, stat, build, or piece of equipment (many of which are identical and only decipherable via context).
Oh god, I remember going out to a concert one night with two of my friends, when we got back they broke out their laptops and started playing WoW. We were all drunk, but they knew what they were talking about, and I swear if I stayed there any longer I woulda thrown up I was so confused.
I recommend you join a WoW Ventrilo server (it doesn't matter which one) and just record 30 minutes of WoW-oriented chat. To anyone who doesn't play the game, it sounds like people speaking in tongues.
It's the same for any MMORPG, but WoW's the easiest example at the moment.
Oh god, I remember going out to a concert one night with two of my friends, when we got back they broke out their laptops and started playing WoW. We were all drunk, but they knew what they were talking about, and I swear if I stayed there any longer I woulda thrown up I was so confused.
I remember this one night after work we all went back to a friends house for a smoke, and three guys present including me were big into Oblivion at the time, and this one other bloke wasn't.
There he was stoned as fuck not able to understand a single word we were saying. It was hilarious.
Posts
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=2
And do your own homework.
It's the same for any MMORPG, but WoW's the easiest example at the moment.
I remember this one night after work we all went back to a friends house for a smoke, and three guys present including me were big into Oblivion at the time, and this one other bloke wasn't.
There he was stoned as fuck not able to understand a single word we were saying. It was hilarious.