2 - Perf and the Birth of a Gaming Glossary

Juke introduces their first very special guest and they discuss a few common terms and abbreviations used by gamers : BM / Noob / GL HF / WP / GG.

Episode Transcripts offered on gettinggamers.com

@GettingGamers (Twitter and Facebook)

@Juke_ish (Instagram, Twitch, Twitter)

Perf’s plug: loudbowl.com & berrybaker.com

Art by Arielle:  

twitter @ProphetPossum

instagram @ProphetOPossum

Transcript

Juke  0:10  
Hello humans and welcome to getting gamers Your Guide to Understanding the gamers in your life. I am Juke, my pronouns are they them and today we are talking about the terms noob, BM,  GG, GL hf and WP. But first, let me introduce today's guest, Perf. 

Perf  0:29  
Hi, this is me. My full gamertag is Perfection 

Juke  0:33  
Perf is my boyfriend his full gamertag is indeed perfection, but he goes by Perf, a slightly more modest.

So

Before we get into our topics, tell us about your gamertag and your your journey with your gamertags and how you came up with them.

Perf  0:55  
Sure, my very first gamertag was my own name. At first I didn't understand correctly the concept of a gamer tag. So that's why I ended up using my real name. And then my first real gamer tag was Godlike. And then I had various ways to write it down. And then, after having some feedback from my friends, that it was not so original or maybe not modest enough. So I decided to downgrade it a bit. That's why perfection came out. I am called Perf. By most of them now. 

Juke  1:38  
Yeah, so my experience of learning about gamertags and really seeing how, how it is used in day to day life is getting to meet Perf's friends and really, even though his gamertag was something as cocky as Perfection and Godlike. His friends call him Perf, like even friends that he has known since high school or since college call him Perf. When they're chilling. He still has some friends that do call him Goddy like Godlike, Gody stuff like that. And and it's these are people that that knew him from outside of the gaming sphere to like from work, from college, from other places but still used the gamertag as his nickname even though something that people might find more like, outrageous or, like, no one's ever gonna call you that. But it's so common to use gamertags as nicknames that even something like Perfection or Godlike, they still use it and it feels so normal. So I think the first term that we should cover is the term noob. Because in Episode One of the podcast, I mentioned that I'm a noob. And I think it's a term that is pretty common. Even in the non gaming world, people started using noob a lot.

Perf  3:06  
For sure comes from the gaming world, it's mainly used when someone is very new at the game. But the person doesn't have to be new, it's not the only characteristic of the person you call a noob. If you can be a longtime gamer on a certain game and just doing a bad play, can earn you the noob title, even if it's only for a few seconds. But it's always related to being either new or bad at one game. 

Juke  3:41  
And I remember in in a game that we were you were helping me with a game called Hearthstone which we will cover in an upcoming episode. And you were making me a pack of like a deck a pack of cards, basically. And I called it like a noob Pal like Paladin and I called it I called the my deck. I called it a noob deck. And you were like oh, well, you don't have to be pejorative. Or is that the word? Yeah. 

Perf  4:09  
That's right. 

Juke  4:10  
And, and I had never thought of it that way. But yeah, and in some situations it is used or seen very negatively.

Perf  4:21  
Oh, it is a negative word for sure. In most cases it is. But if you want to be more polite about it, you just say it's a casual gamer or new gamer.

Juke  4:32  
Because like for me, I just I've always been like yeah, I'm a noob or this is a noob. I never saw it as like a negative or mean word. I just saw it as like a because I didn't know much about that world. I just thought it was just the way of saying a new player. And I think it took me a long time to understand that like, most of the time it's pretty negative and pretty pejorative, even though like if I call myself a noob. I'm not trying to be like pejorative about myself or being like, mean about myself in any way. And I think I think it's, it can be common for people to be like, Oh, I'm a noob. And it'd be like commonly accepted. 

Perf  5:14  
Yeah, it is it is a very widespread used term. And so new or casual gamers call themselves noobs because they know the meaning of it. And it can, it's not as pejorative to use it by yourself, or, mainly 'cause you know, you're a beginner at something. So,

Juke  5:36  
Yeah.

Perf  5:37  
it can be okay. But in most cases, it's, it's considered an insu.., an insult. 

Juke  5:43  
Yeah. I think also for like beginner players or new players, as such as me, calling yourself a noob kind of makes you feel more included. Because you're like, Oh, I know the lingo. And like I'm saying a word that's in their sphere of vocabulary. So it makes you feel more included, even though normally it's like an attack or an insult. But like using it, and saying that you yourself are a noob when you are noob, but like, when you are a new player, it kind of makes you feel more included, in a sense. But..

Perf  6:18  
 Yeah, but it's using our, the gamer terms. So I understand that you feel more included. And we even if we are really good at some games, we call ourselves noobs to when we try a new game, and when we are with friends, so it's all good. 

Juke  6:35  
But that leads me to because we're talking about, you know, pejorative and insulting and stuff like that, to a term that I did not know existed. Neither did I think that that concept existed in the gaming world, BM. Because in the normal world, when people say BM, it means bowel movement. But in the gaming world, BM means something completely different and it's something I don't think people know that that gamers have in their culture. 

Perf  7:04  
To be honest, I thought that BM was also referred as bad manner and in real life, but yeah bad manners, comme.. it can be just calling someone a noob even if you don't know the person can be considered it is it is considered being bad manners. And in general just being toxic, being an oppressive, being anything that's negative and related to insulting another gamer is considered bad mannered. And it can be via text message and it can be voice messages and, or it can be actions that you do towards another player in the game.There's.. hehe.. .what we call Tea bagging that can be ..hehe considered bad mannered which is the action to..hehe go up and down on the corpses of an opponent to well put your balls (Juke laughing) in his face. It's just by crouching and going up very fast with..

Juke  8:13  
So just that simple like.. that simple action of in my in in what I would see as teasing like you kill the guy, and then you go make your character crouch and get up really fast, up and down on him. To me that would look like teasing or whatever. But it could be characterized as bad manners or BM.

Perf  8:33  
 If you're with friends, it could be just only teasing. But if you're playing against anyone else, really, especially in competitions, it's considered bad mannered, or bad sportsmanship. 

Juke  8:49  
Yeah. So that's, I think something a lot of people are surprised I remember talking to a lot of other non gamers about learning about the term BM and people being surprised, because that's really not the impression that people have like, people forget that if you're gaming. sportsmanship is a huge part of that, because a lot of the games he plays his playing in a team. And, but we don't, we don't really hear of of that aspect. Like I remember watching a tournament that you guys were having. And it was clear that someone had the win, the other person had a certain amount of life points left and the other person had the exact amount to attack him. But he was making the turn the he was making his final turn last longer than necessary. And I remember you telling me like that that person was BM'ing or that that could be considered BM when..

Perf  9:42  
Yeah, for sure.

Juke  9:43  
Yeah, I think for me, when I saw that I was like, I don't know if I have like, cool cards that I want to play and I didn't get to play them and now I'm about to win. I would just play the card because I'm like, I want to play my cool card. But I don't think about the fact that making the tournament or the game lasts longer than it needs to be when you know you're gonna win is rude? In a sense.

Perf  10:06  
It is it's showing off that you.. actually this is what it is, is only showing off and making it last longer than what it should be. It's a form of disrespect.

Juke  10:18  
 Yeah, that was fascinating to me that that there was actually a term and a culture around manners and rudeness and respect. I know I'm repeating myself, but it's just not what a lot of people that are not in the gaming world.. Expect because well you like, like I said, In Episode One, gamers really have this reputation for being violent and toxic and stuff like that. So you forget that there are positive there are people who are who care about being polite, and people who care about creating a culture around gaming that is actually healthy. 

Perf  10:56  
Yeah, but it's just like with any other sports, really just politeness rules that we follow, like everyone else, it's just the world where, since it's a cyber thing, where people can hide behind their nicknames, the gamertags they maybe permit themselves to be less polite and in some other sports we know.

Juke  11:20  
But that the fact that the term BM exists shows that there's this type of like, self regulating behavior within the community. You're right it is like sportsmanship like like any sport at the end of a soccer game or a hockey game when all the.. the teammates like the two opposing teams line up and give each other a fist bump or a handshake. And and most of the time they do say good game.

Perf  11:43  
Yeah, that's a good image actually, the gg stands for good game. And it is the fist bump ofthe gaming world. It's always something not not always but most of the time at the beginning of the game, and at the end of the game GG is used as a show of good manners. 

Juke  12:06  
Yeah, so I remember someone had lost once in a game and and you said all they're.. they're they're sour they're salty, they didn't say GG at the end of the game. And not saying GG at the end of the game is basically kind of BM.

Perf  12:21  
It is. It is considered so especially in competitions.It happened at the LAN ETS and when we defeated the one of our oponent and it was another person from Quebec that we knew and played with and that's what he did, he just.. that's another term we use rage quitting. You rage quitted. Mm hmm. Didn't said GG and heard about that. He just quit the game early. Yeah, this is this is BM.

Juke  12:56  
Yeah. And so I think GG is also a term that people might know more than other terms. GG being good game. I think that in the non gaming sphere, it's maybe more known what GG means. But still always important to know, as this podcast is called Getting Gamers there is a GG theme to this podcast.

Perf  13:18  
 You're a genius my love!

Juke  13:20  
Thank you.

Um, and so you mentioned it is. I've always seen it at the end of games. You mentioned that it's at the beginning of games also. But I've seen a lot of beginning of games, like when we watch grubby they'll say GL hf.

Perf  13:36  
Yeah, we see sometimes GG too, but GL and HF stands for good luck. Have fun. Which are the terms that are mostly used at the beginning of the game. And gg, gg is used also, but if you go deeper in our, into our terms, GG could also be seen as bad manner at the start of the game.

Juke  14:04  
This thing like like you're cocky when you're saying.. 

Perf  14:06  
Yeah, it's.. it could be being cocky, exactly. 

Juke  14:09  
But people do.. do use it just because it's easier to just write GG real fast than writing four letters when you're like at the beginning of the game.

Perf  14:18  
Yeah, that's it. Hmm.. in RTS game and we're gonna probably cover that in another episode. There are a lot more.. heavier mechanically, so people are just writing GG for what you just said. Instead offour letters. 

Juke  14:37  
Yeah, cuz then just typing the same letter twice. 

Perf  14:39  
Yeah. 

Juke  14:40  
Especially if I think of myself at the beginning of the game. I'm immediately nervous because I don't know what I'm doing. I don't have time to be looking at the keyboard and finding for different letters. I was just like, fuck that. But I and I think for me was it was something to get used to to not just end the game, but to be like, okay, I ended the game. I click enter, I type GG and I send it or if we're playing Hearthstone, I left click on my little person, I and I write, I send the like, Well played message before even if I'm.. even if.. I lost you know,

Perf  15:12  
Yeah yea, even if you lost that that's, that's the point of being good mannered.

Juke  15:17  
 Yeah. And yeah, the sportsmanship is is way more there than than people might expect and alongside of GL HF and GG we also see people type WP at the end of games.

Perf  15:32  
Yeah, WP stands for well played. And it's also good manner turn. 

Juke  15:37  
Yeah, so you'll I'll I rarely have seen and I don't play a lot or watch a lot but I rarely see WP alone. I often see it with GG.

Perf  15:48  
Yeah. It's usually GG well played. 

Juke  15:51  
Yeah. 

Perf  15:51  
Or GG weepy.. WP weepy! (french canadian accent nonsense)

Juke  15:56  
So if there are terms that we have said in this episode that you don't understand, don't worry. We will be covering all of it. But just in case I missed any of it. Why don't you write to us on Twitter or on Facebook with the handle getting gamers with an S to let us know what terms you don't understand and any other questions that you may have about that side of the world. Make sure to check out our other episodes for any terms we have already covered and our website gettinggamers.com, where we build a glossary that gets updated with each episode. If you yourself are a gamer, and you have noticed that I have gotten something wrong, please do not hesitate to write to us too, so that I can make sure that the information I give out is as accurate as possible. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Twitch with the handle juke underscore ish J U K E underscore I S H and you can find the podcast on Twitter and on Facebook at getting gamers with an S. Perf is there is there anywhere people can find you not really right you're not a public socials person.

Perf  17:00  
Hmm no I'm not but you could go follow the loudbowl, which is good recipe reference if you need..

Juke  17:08  
For sure, so loudbowl.com is a good friend of ours. My best friend runs a website about how to make edibles, vegan edibles. She also runs BerryBaker.com, which is for vegan French pastry. That is going to be it for today. Thank you guys for coming. Thank you Perf for joining us.

Perf  17:30  
It's a pleasure.

Juke  17:33  
I hope you guys have a good day and stay tuned Subscribe for any upcoming

Perf  17:40  
Many GGs

Juke  17:44  
The artwork for this podcast was made by my dear friend Ariel you can find her on Twitter @prophetpossum. And you can find her on Instagram @prophetOpossum.

Our intro and outro song is made by David Feslyian from  feslyianstudios.com.

Perf  18:09  
Job's done.