Annoying Video Game Terms or Pet Peeves

[motley6]

Game Paks- Nintendo Power insisted on calling cartridges this silly-assed name. I never heard anybody else call them that in my life

Master a game- Maybe this is a regional thing but when I went to school up north everybody said they mastered a game rather than what we said in Texas which was simply beat the game. I don't know but it just sounds funny to me when somebody says, "Yeah, I mastered Bubble Bobble," as if it were some kind of mathematical mystery theorem.

Cinemas- I can't stand it when people call the animated interludes between levels, cinemas. I knew a kid growing up who had a lisp and would say, "Ooo, I love the sthinemas!" which made it even worse.

Super "Mayrio" Brothers- Another one of my pet peeve terms is when people mispronouce this series. It is supposed to be Mar-(rhymes with bar)-io

[thetoxicone]

It's always bugged me when adults call every game system a Nintendo...but thats big for me in other areas as well since I also hate when everyone call every Mp3 player an Ipod and every brand of tissue a kleenex as well.

[strassy]

due to my status as an old-fashioned codger in the world of video games (i'm really not that old, 26, but i very rarely enjoy any game made past the 16 bit era), i hate all new terminology. the other day i was talking about the Incredible Crash Test Dummies for NES, and i couldn't remember the term we used to use for when you backtrack a bit and sudden enemies reappear, so i had to say "re-spawn"...i hated myself for a good ten minutes because of that.

[spoon]

Game Tapes-I hate this. EGM seems tto like pushing this one. They were called cartridges last I knew.

[James8BitStar]

One word:

"Storyline"

I don't get how that's become such a flipping buzzword. Today I caught a commercial for a new Advance Wars game and I can swear the announcer dude actually said it had a "grittier storyline." Yeah, so what? Movies and books have had gritty storylines for centuries but you don't see them actually calling them that.

[debian4life]

I would have to say when people say they have "pown" or "own" someone for beating a game or someone in a game. I especially see this in the MMO world. It definitely makes me role my eyes

[PentiumMMX]

One word:

"Storyline"

I don't get how that's become such a flipping buzzword. Today I caught a commercial for a new Advance Wars game and I can swear the announcer dude actually said it had a "grittier storyline." Yeah, so what? Movies and books have had gritty storylines for centuries but you don't see them actually calling them that.

That's probably because games didn't have storylines in the old days, and want to push the fact games have storylines now. The closest thing to a storyline most Atari games had was "You are guy. Shoot asteroid in space. A Winner is You!" (The exception is Adventure, which has a better storyline than the first Zelda IMO).

Anyway, some things that annoy me:

- People who don't even know the names of the games they like
(They either tell you made-up names like "Mario Fight" (Super Smash Bros.) or poor descriptions like "It's that game where you run around, shooting things")

- Calling the Nintendo 64 the "64"
(It's N64!)

- Called the Sega Genesis a "Sega"
(Sega could mean anything)

- Calling NEC "Neck"
(It's N-E-C. Off topic, but I never had a TurboGrafix-16. I have a NEC PowerMate VP75, though (Their desktop PCs kick ass))

- Spelling "video games" as "videogames"
(Annoys me more than anything, tied closly with the below. Since the '70s, it's been spelled as 2 words, and should stay that way. Learn to use the space bar!)

- People who talk trash about a game they've never played
(Tied closely with the above. I hate it when someone talks trash about a game they never played, just based on either a few screen caps and a brief description in a magazine or on a website or what they've heard from someone else)

[ReaXan]

Game Tapes-I hate this. EGM seems tto like pushing this one. They were called cartridges last I knew.

LMAO!

[Meltd0wn]

I'm a fan of the PSX over PS1/PSOne. I do not know why but that has stuck with me. I always say PSX system and then someone will say "Wait. They released another system?"

Actually SONY used PS1 when they released the newer smaller version of the Playstation. this was how you can tell the 2 systems apart in retail.

I had a friend that always called controllers "paddles." How freakin' lame does that sound? I don't know if that was derived from Atari or whatever (I really have no idea, just blatant speculation), but either way, it's stupid.

How old is your friend? I ask because the original home video games "Odyssey", "PONG", "Odyssey2000" called the controllers Paddles because thats basically what they controlled, on screen paddles.


Ok now for mine.

This is my BIGGEST pet peeve in video games and I know im going to get the haters after me for this but I hate hearing any video game being called a RPG. Even games that are actually based on RPGs don't even live up to any true Role Playing Game. Until I have complete freedom of choice for my characters actions like I do in real RPGs I will never accept the term for any video game.

I also hate when people call the Nintendo DS a Gameboy or worse a Gameboy DS. I've even had customers ask me back in my days of retail for "Gameboy PSP's" I had to fight back the urge to laugh at them. Of course then I would have to ask them if they were looking for Gameboy SP's or if they were looking for PSP's? and usually I would get a blank or confused expression as a response.

Oh and another big one for me is calling anyone who uses a 'Game Enhancer' a "HACKER". Um no!! it doesn't take any hacking skills to type in a code to activate a game enhancer.
I also don't like the term 'cheater' for using game enhancers. Most people don't even realize that many of the codes on game enhancers actually make games more difficult and challenging. thus prolonging the play value.

I also hate all the attachments for the Wii Controller. (tennis racket, baseball bat, golf club, blaster, etc) Even the Guitar Hero III controller requires the wii controller to be stuck inside of it. Come on people do you really need all the extra plastic crap stuck to your controller to make it work better? not only a waste of money, but a total waste of storage space as well.


For those who don't like the term "wiimote" blame Nintendo, even the top executives were calling it the wiimote back before the system was even launched. I guess because it resembles a entertainment system remote.

There are many more things that annoy me, but I don't have the time to list them all.

[thom_m]

Game Tapes-I hate this. EGM seems tto like pushing this one. They were called cartridges last I knew.

Using the portuguese word "fita", which is the same as "tape", to refer to a game cartdrige ("cartucho", in portuguese) is very common here in Brazil too. Back in the 2600 days, I asked my dad for "Atari tapes".

Why do people (worldwide, it seems) think cartridges are similar to tapes, I'll never know. But it was - and still is - the most common term for them in my homestate.

[j_factor]

Some games actually were on tape.

[DeputyMoniker]

Using the portuguese word "fita", which is the same as "tape", to refer to a game cartdrige ("cartucho", in portuguese) is very common here in Brazil too. Back in the 2600 days, I asked my dad for "Atari tapes".

Why do people (worldwide, it seems) think cartridges are similar to tapes, I'll never know. But it was - and still is - the most common term for them in my homestate.

My wife calls CD's "tapes."
I guess it's no different than me calling a Dr. Pepper a Coke.

[Rickstilwell1]

Game Tapes-I hate this. EGM seems tto like pushing this one. They were called cartridges last I knew.

Technically, if you had a Starpath Supercharger for your Atari 2600, they were indeed game tapes. The very first console RPG, Dragonstomper was on cassette tape. A version of Frogger was on cassette tape. There were various others as well, including a Breakout style game called "Fireball".

EGM should do some research and see that there is such thing as a game tape. They are just very old or were made for computer systems like the TRS-80 which had a tape drive as well.

But if the people are referring to cartridge games as tapes, that's where a line should be drawn.

[Rob2600]

if the people are referring to cartridge games as tapes, that's where a line should be drawn.

Maybe it was just a northeastern NJ thing, but throughout the 1980s, everyone I knew (adults and children) said "Atari tapes" and "Nintendo tapes."

I think my friends and I started calling them cartridges in the very late 1980s or very early 1990s.

[Famidrive-16]

the other day i was talking about the Incredible Crash Test Dummies for NES, and i couldn't remember the term we used to use for when you backtrack a bit and sudden enemies reappear, so i had to say "re-spawn"...i hated myself for a good ten minutes because of that.

I always thought it was 'respawing'...

[emceelokey]

I don't like anything other than an actual joystick being referd to as a "joystick".

[rpepper9]

It's always bugged me when adults call every game system a Nintendo...but thats big for me in other areas as well since I also hate when everyone call every Mp3 player an Ipod and every brand of tissue a kleenex as well.

Slightly off topic but what about every bandage being called a "Band-Aid"? (Clerks flashback)

[Atarileaf]

It's always bugged me when adults call every game system a Nintendo...but thats big for me in other areas as well since I also hate when everyone call every Mp3 player an Ipod and every brand of tissue a kleenex as well.

Or calling photocopying "Xeroxing"

[8bitgamer]

Shmup for shoot-em-up
Noob for newbie

[klausien]

"I'm a fan of shooters."
"Really? That's awesome, I love them too. What's your favorite?"
"I play a lot of Counter Strike and Halo."
"Oh. I thought you meant like Galaga or Gradius." (Cue mumbling under breath)

Calling an FPS a "shooter" is understandable and acceptable, but it just irks me for some reason. Maybe its because every 2nd game nowadays is an FPS? A shooter is a scrolling shoot 'em up.