I normally write rants that are directed at the Guild Wars developers, but this one is going out to a certain group of players. You know who you are. It basically goes like this, I don’t think the Guild Wars community understands the definition of the word “noob”. Even though I clearly explained what “noob” means, WAY BACK IN ISSUE #2, a lot of players seemed confused.
For those of you too busy (or too lazy) to download the PDF, a noob is a derogatory term for a player that is a beginner. Noob is a short version of the slang word ‘Newbie’. That’s why I don’t understand the comments that I hear in Hero Battles. My opponents will often call me a noob when they lose. Imagine that… ME… A NOOB! They’ll be dead on the floor, but I’m the noob?!
That’s when I started asking the question, “Does noob mean winner?” I mean really, I played Guild Wars for over a year… BEFORE IT WAS RELEASED! How could someone running a generic Assassin build call me a beginner? It’s not just one player. This is a disturbing trend.
My build is annoying, but it’s original. The “Four Goalie” build (see Issue #33) is even more fun with three primary monks. Hooray for the new dwarven hero! I based my build on years of experience with Guild Wars. My strategy is not only designed to win, but to do so in a way that frustrates my opponent. Why? It’s my form of protest against Guild Wars PvP. I believe that Monks are overpowered. Your target can go from near death to full health in less than a second. That’s not very fun for a Warrior, especially while watching your sword attacks heal your enemies. I decided to use that frustration to my advantage.
…and it works 🙂
It’s not a friendly strategy, but this is war. That might make me a jerk – or many other colorful adjectives – but it does not make me a noob. So, not only is this poor sportsmanship, it’s inaccurate.
Noob used to mean that, but it evolved to a derogatory adjective that no one really cares what the meaning is, and that people use in whatever occasions they feel like, just because it sounds bad. One day I even got someone calling me noob just for standing in Shing Jea Monastery. That person ended up being the first in my ignore list. 🙂
I hate ignorance -_-;
it’s unfortunate that the world is full of it
Noob isn’t exactly a shortened version of the word newbie, since the two (in common use) have vastly different meanings. Noob is most commonly used to refer to – possibly new, but not necessarily – players who display idiotic, unreasonable or obnoxious behavior. People like intentional teamkillers, chat spammers, etc. are generally considered to be noobs.
A newbie on the other hand is not by definition a noob. Most newbies are perfectly normal, reasonable and intelligent people. Noobs generally are not. Furthermore a newbie has to be new to a game, a noob can play a game for years and still be a noob.
The word has been used predominantly in this manner for over a decade. The ‘short for newbie’ explanation is generally considered to be false, since the term is (almost) never used in that manner.
— Alright, off to write an essay on the word ‘noob’, thanks for the inspiration 😉
As for random hero battle opponents calling you a noob: in general the person calling someone a noob tends to be one themselves.
From my understanding, there’s a big difference between “noob” and “newb”.
A “newb” is a newbie, a new guy. With proper care they grow into decent community members and players. I like newbies. I think you can see the real newbie right away. Those are usually the guys who ask politely, without extensive use of caps.
A “noob”, no matter how long he plays the game, is just a moron who thinks he knows something, yet he’s just full of hot air and would get killed by a lvl 1 River Scale even if he’d bring a lvl 20 character (and after that he’d tell everyone that this was the right way to play the game). Noobs usually ask like this “WERE IS TEH STORGAE?” or “PLZ! IM NEW! GIV ME MONY!”
Obviously, some noobs have no idea what a noob is. Amazing. Though, not a surprise. After all, they are noobs, how should they know?
And Photics, everything is allowed in love and war. Maim them, frustrate them, cut out their livers…
Pfft people will call anyone Noob Newb NUB newbie or and other variation there of for any reason they feel like lets face it online games are like a cess pool for jerks and general butt holes. The ego maniacs, pedophiles and what not all join online games with the sole intention of abusing power and saying what ever they want w/o the risk of serious consequences. Noob is just another term that this general populous of butt holes have decided to use primarily because it gets a rise out of people. We’ve all been there the New guy in a game just learning the ropes and you get your butt handed to you by a player or some critter and newb pops up on the screen. It’s unpleasant and it’s something that everyone of us can relate to.
I’ve heard “Noob” is a derogatory term used for players who are jerks or jerkish players who are calling you noob because they didn’t get their way.
I know a “nEWb” is a cute widdle newbie player who’s new to a game.
So I always thought there was a difference between Noob and Newb.
Problem is that people can pull anything out of there head so they pick noob and start to use it like a 4 letter word 🙂 which is real cute. It happens a lot on online games.