| Computer games and video games have spawned | | | | as part of a team. Each player has a microphone and |
| another language - one which is littered with either | | | | either headphones or speakers, and can then talk to |
| words that have meaning only within the game itself, | | | | the other players, wherever on the planet they may |
| or have a specific meaning to the game that would | | | | be. The problem with this, of course, is that in a very |
| be difficult to understand outside of the game, or a | | | | busy battle there can be a great many people in a |
| mass of acronyms and abbreviations that make an | | | | group - sometimes as many as fifty, and voice |
| average conversation between two gamers look as | | | | communications becomes impossible. A few text |
| though somebody took away all almost the vowels, | | | | commands using key words is still a preferred |
| shook the letters up together in a big box, ditched | | | | method in these situations. |
| about half of them, and then took two or three out | | | | To provide a few explanations of some of the most |
| randomly at a time to construct a sentence. | | | | common video game abbreviations, the word 'lol' is an |
| The test of a true gamer would be to understand a | | | | acronym for 'laugh out loud' and is used to express |
| sentence which might run along the lines of 'lol, | | | | humour, usually in response to something funny that |
| pwned - is drop bop? Do CoT later? Brb' - what looks | | | | someone has said or done. Extensions to this are 'rofl' |
| like garbled rubbish. Translated into proper English the | | | | which means 'rolling on the floor laughing' which |
| sentence might read - 'That was funny - that | | | | denotes great humour, and there are other, less |
| character just got heavily defeated. Can you sell the | | | | repeatable alternatives beyond this. |
| item it dropped, or will it be limited to whoever picks | | | | The word 'pwned' has a strange heritage, and comes |
| it up? Shall we do the part of the game called | | | | from a misspelling on an old, but very popular |
| 'Caverns of Time' later? Hang on a minute, I just | | | | computer game. The word was supposed to be |
| have to go - I'll be back in a minute.' | | | | 'owned' and denoted the fact that one team or the |
| The reason that gamers use abbreviated words in | | | | other had conquered territory and now occupied, or |
| this way is partly because it saves time when you | | | | owned, the opponent's base. This has remained a |
| type the same few words a great deal of the time, | | | | popular word to use, and now refers to a situation |
| and also, it means that you can talk or communicate | | | | where a player, monster or group has been |
| more quickly. This allows gamers to discuss tactics | | | | conquered or defeated, at which point they are said |
| whilst very busily involved in a complex battle. | | | | to have been 'pwned'. 'I pwned you' would mean 'I |
| Many gamers are now starting to use advances in | | | | have defeated you', and is usually said within the |
| internet technology to use voice communications | | | | context of either humour or derision. |
| instead, which can improve game play when working | | | | |