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From “beef” to “naked,” it’s safe to say that many members of Generation Z have their own language.
Now, a Harvard-trained linguistics expert has revealed how Generation Z (those born in the late 90s and early 2000s) has started using video game terms.
Just as previous generations have used sports metaphors as part of everyday language, video games are now becoming part of the way young people understand the world, according to Adam Aleksic.
So whether they call you NPC, ask you “where are we going?” or do side quests, it turns out Generation Z might be talking about you behind your back.
Fortunately, help is available, as we’ve compiled a list of some of the most common gaming terms and what they mean in the modern Gen Z dictionary.
A Harvard-trained linguistics expert has revealed how Generation Z (those born in the late 90s and early 2000s) have started using video game terms (file image)
Aleksic, who publishes under the name Etymology Nerd, says that Gen Z’s use of video game terms in real life is actually a new type of etymological category.
In the video, he explains: “It’s like all the sports metaphors that we have built over time.”
Terms like “swing and miss” or “left field” originate in the game of baseball, but have now taken on more serious or abstract meanings.
“We’re now in a whole new ball game where people share a shared cultural understanding of video games, so we’ve started to leverage that as a way to express our reality,” Aleksic explains.
This is not a new phenomenon, as our use of game metaphors dates back to the 12th and 15th centuries with the importance of chess.
Mr. Aleksic says: “We started using chess terms like ‘pawn’ or ‘gambit’ to describe non-chess situations.”
Even the term “check” evolved from the literal attack on the king in chess to meaning to stop and consider as we use it today.
While video game terms might be used primarily by Generation Z today, Aleksic says they could become much more important in the future.
nerf
If you’ve talked to members of Generation Z or spent a lot of time playing online games, you’ve probably heard someone say the classic refrain: “PLS Nerf.”
Nerf is one of those video game terms that has taken a convoluted path to its ultimate meaning.
The term originates with Nerf foam darts and swords that became popular in the 1990s.
From there the term arises. to make the leap to video games in the 1997 MMORPG Ultima Online.
When the game’s developers released an update that greatly reduced the strength of the swords, some players complained that it was like using ‘Nerf swords’.
The term has now spread far and wide to refer to any great reduction in strength, power, ability or ability.
Someone might call something “nerfed” in the sense that it’s gotten a lot worse, or complain that something needs to be “nerfed” to be fair.
Nerf is also the flip side of the term “buff,” which means to make something stronger or generally better.
The term nerf, which means to weaken or worsen, appears to originate from the 1997 game Ultima Online (pictured), where players complained that weak weapons appeared to use ‘nerf swords’.
Nerf foam darts and guns are so soft and safe that they have become synonymous with weakness or ineffectiveness in terms of gameplay.
NPC
This might be the most notable example of how a video game term has seeped into real-life conversations.
The term NPC or non-player character dates back even before the era of computer games and pen-and-paper role-playing games (RPGs).
One of the earliest known examples of this term can be found in the 1974 first edition of Dungeons and Dragons by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
There, the term was simply used to describe any story character who was controlled by the game master rather than one of the players.
NPCs were used to flesh out the world and make it feel more alive to players.
As role-playing games went digital, so did NPCs, and computer games began to be populated by automated characters.
Some NPCs can now be extremely sophisticated, but the term as used colloquially primarily refers to the style of NPCs found in games like Skyrim and Oblivion.
In games like Skyrim (pictured), NPCs (non-player characters) walk awkwardly along pre-established paths while repeating common phrases.
These NPCs usually walked somewhat clumsily along pre-established paths or remained frozen in place for hours while repeating strange inconsistencies.
From these early, clumsy NPCs, the term has evolved to refer to people who live their lives as if they are on a pre-programmed path rather than thinking for themselves.
Generally, someone can be called an NPC for being boring or having a lack of spontaneity that the PC (player character) enjoys.
As an equivalent term, you might think of descriptions like “drone,” which is used for someone who simply goes through the motions of life.
It can also imply a level of insignificance since, while they may be an important part of the game, NPCs are never as important as the players.
secondary mission
Another term that comes from role-playing lore is “side quest.”
As the name suggests, this refers to any quest or quest that is not part of the main story or objective.
In games like The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2 or Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, these missions can take up dozens of hours of gameplay.
The importance of side quests also ranges from mundane tasks like helping someone find a lost pot to large quests of truly epic scope.
In games like The Witcher 3, a lot of the game is spent doing things that don’t contribute to the main story. The term side quest now means doing unrelated but enjoyable tasks that don’t contribute to your main goals.
Because of this, the term sidequests has come to mean any type of task, hobby, or activity that is tangential to the main “missions” of life.
For example, someone who starts doing a lot of new activities over the weekend might describe themselves as doing side quests.
In pop culture, the term is also frequently used to describe people who have been very successful in one field and suddenly branch out into unrelated ways.
For example, you could say that Snoop Dogg, with his appearances on cooking shows, nature documentaries, and even WWE, is doing side missions.
Where do we fall?
While other terms often arise from gaming culture in general, this term comes from a very specific source.
The phrase “Where will we fall?” comes from Fortnite (pictured), where teams of players choose where to land on a map where they must fight to be the last one standing. It has now evolved to simply mean “where are we going?”
‘Where are we going to fall?’ It arises entirely from the incredibly popular video game Fortnite.
In this game, teams “fall” from a flying bus into an arena where they must search for weapons and resources, fighting to be the last player standing.
Because resources and weapons are clustered in key locations on the map rather than evenly dispersed, choosing your starting location is key to success.
For this reason, you’ll often hear players ask their teammates “where are we going to leave it?” while planning their strategy.
From this very specific use, the term has spread and become less specific, and now generally means “where do we want to go?”