Sunday, June 24, 2012

Red squiggles, red squiggles everywhere.

***
 
Gamecommunodramatica

Genre arguments rival in-game quests of princess dilemmas;
no one tires of slaying dragons on this open topic landscape.

The Hardcore flames the Elite as the Casual throws popcorn;
regular lurkers register innuendeous nicks to log-on.

Bug exploiters circumvent vanilla game rules,
modders recreate worlds, restoring desired balance.

1337 overpowered PKers test the limits of moderation,
otherworldly faces grimace as job classes are nerfed.

Pseudo-intellectuals battle the hyperanalogicious,
clarification of facts leads to arguments on definitions;

aggressive IAPs in freemiums, hidden DLCs on discs
-- signs of greed or necessary self-sustainability?

All it takes is a pirate to trololololol by to steal the show.



***

The poor word processor is screaming red squiggles. The prompt at dVerse pub (hosted by Anna this week) sounds so fun, I had to try. I had to go with something I am exremely familiar with, so I went with gamer community forum drama (Gamecommunodramatica). It pretty common for drama to happen when passionate arguments over game terms and rules, along with a lot of one-upmanship are going on. Before you know it, everyone is off-topic and throwing all sorts of analogies about to show what they mean. I chose to term "hyperanalogicious".

The following are commonly encountered gamer terms:

*vanilla game rules -- 'vanilla' in game terms refer to the game as it is shipped in original form, without expansions or add-ons, or player modifications.
*1337 -- is number code for "Elite", which means "of the top skilled".
*PK -- player kill;  PKers are gamers on multiplayer games who make the choice to play offensively against other players. They may also be referred to as griefers.
*nerf -- weaken 
*freemium -- a game that is free to download but one which you need to pay from within the game to make reasonable progress.
*IAP -- in app purchases, purchases made from within an application. This term is probably one that came up recently as mobile gaming gained popularity. Alternatively: in-game purchases.
*DLC -- downloadable content. Additional content such as character equipment or game levels may be downloaded after a game is bought but they are sometimes already included in the disc or in the install, just not accessible until you pay for them.
*trololololol -- imagine an internet troll laughing out loud as he runs through the room.


I have found a new appreciation for those who create words that are easy to understand even when first encountered.


20 comments:

Dave King said...

Superb. This is really great fun and a splendid response to the prompt.

Dulce said...

WOW This is a talented piece!
Greatly done, Raven

aprille said...

So glad you had a key handy for us below the poem.
Wonderful words and terms. We shall see some of those again no doubt :-)
BTW, I think you came by just when I was struggling to get mine in place. I am hopeless with links and they usually go astray, but I reckon they are safe now.

Brian Miller said...

haha...i picked up on the gaming lingo fairly quick in reading...but very cool...thanks for the key, i know some from the kids i work with but...its pretty funny how these little side languages develop...very cool response ...

Anonymous said...

This is very cool - I do not know the gaming lingo but it's colorful and effective here and I love the pirate troloing at the end. Some red squiggles are great. k.

Claudia said...

ha..this is fabulous...read the footnotes first, so was well prepared for the poem and could enjoy it even more..

Marbles in My Pocket said...

I have zero knowledge of gaming and its lingo, but I really enjoyed this, in spite of that fact. Wonderful write!

Scarlet said...

I am not familiar with the gaming lingo so thanks for the notes and comments. I thought for a moment they were arguing about the soccer games as my boys were shouting over the game yesterday ~

Happy Sunday ~

Ravenblack said...

Dave, Dulce, Aprille, Brian, K, Claudia, Charles and Grace: thanks for your comments. Much appreciated.

@Aprille: I guess it gets a bit tricky with blogger when you try to have a bit more than just straight text. Went to look and appreciated your links, though I had used google to find the meaning of those I couldn't figure out. Very meaningful illustration that it does matter the words one choose. I tend to go as common as possible but now I see the value of using more complex words through these exercises and works.

@Grace: I can see how it can be similar. :)

ds said...

Wow. I've no experience with gaming, much less its lingo, but I enjoyed this greatly. Could apply the analoglicious(?) aspect to politics too...
Great write. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I am glad you joined in the fun, especially after reading this stellar piece. The couplets help keep the density of new words from throwing off the reader and the lingo adds such character to the poem. This is my point precisely and you rose to the challenge with flair, wit, and colorful style, truly enjoyable.

Anonymous said...

great use of tech words in poetry!


bonus track

Unknown said...

this is great Raven. Glad you put a key in afterwords, as there were a few I never heard before, actually I've never been to a gamer forum before, but I have a techsland dictionary and have seen many of these in there, but again, not all. Really cool piece.

Just a quick aside here. I first learned how passionate gamers can be when I was at a comic shop a whiles back, and I can't remember how the conversation got started, but I made a comment about world of warcraft, as to why would people play it with all the negative associations that have been made about it, endless etc… and well, lo and behold this kid stood up and despite being about 150 lbs lighter than me, defended his game as well as he could, and I was shocked. I think his parting shot was to go play some madden, and I just had to laugh because a week earlier I bought the then latest madden game. funny story, thought I'd pass it on.

Great write. Thanks

Mary said...

Raven, I enjoyed this so much!

Ravenblack said...

dsm Anna, Tammy, Fred, and Mary, thanks for your feedback.


@Anna: I'm glad I was able to join. This was truly fun.


@Fred: Thanks for sharing that. I think you met a fanboi (a truly foaming-in-mouth rabid fanboy) and struck a nerve! So funny how they think their insults mean anything outside of their world.

Dark Angel said...

Thank you for the list of terms... I was lost.

Ravenblack said...

Thank you for reading, Dark Angel. :)

Liz Rice-Sosne said...

This is fascinating Ravenblack! I love the "Glossary of Terms." Actually I could not have done without it. ;)

@ami said...

Great fun and wonderful use of the jargon.

{Ami}
http://sundrysumthins.wordpress.com/

Ravenblack said...

Thank you Raven and Ami, for coming by and reading. :)