Are the terms "n00b" and "scrub" tossed around too frequently?

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
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It might also be a case of who ends up resorting to self-help methods like pills, if you get what I’m saying. Then again, I guess to some degree, I should be thankful that I prefer the arcade scene over the online experience.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m a kind of stereotypical FG newbie. Supers/Ultras/whatnot come out with, like, a 15% conversation rate on my twitch, and I can’t 360 on a pad or even a stick for my life. However, even when I beat someone (which in most cases is a miracle), I don’t try to stick it in their face. I’ll shake their hand, tell them “good game” or something along those lines, or just concentrate on the next opponent. People in this sector of gaming understand that. If they want to talk trash or whatever crap they can think of, they can go play FPSs: mandatory post-match waiting was made for people with mics and large egos.

I’ve always saved the terms “n00b” and “scrub” for two different situations not necessarily standardized by the general community. “n00b” is a term I rarely use; my experience with MMOs in past years have already taught me to only use the word as a indication of incompetence, not inexperience. Everyone starts out at some time (ergo, “newb”), but it takes some kind of idiocy to claim that you’re better than someone else when you’re clearly inflating your head, and even more idiocy to claim the opponent was hacking or being “scrubby” on the off-chance that s/he beats you.

That leads me to my use of “scrub,” which has oddly appeared more in my dialogue after an overly frustrating session of MvC2 today. To me, “scrub” isn’t always a move/combo/whatever that’s cheap; it’s when it’s intended to be cheap but doesn’t work at all against you. For example, a player is losing at 3S against you. Not being well-versed in the game, he decides to go for the obvious j.rh.->cr.rh–>lather, rinse, repeat. Of course, being a bit more experienced, you Tech both kicks every time and ultimately KO him. He’ll come to realize that his approach was ineffective and will try out something new next time, you’ll gain some small experience towards your parrying, everyone’s all the better.

You can classify moves/combos/whatevers (tick Ochirou throws, Sagat’s juggle->st.rh->Ultra, Ryu’s Juggle-> Ultra) as annoying. If they don’t work yet they insist on doing it still (spamming QCF+P is a classic example), then it’s really scrubby.

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Some of them would insult you. Street fighter is like every other “geeky” hobby out there. A lot of childish grown men still play this shit and think cause they have some REGIONAL TALENT they’re godlike. They don’t want to lose whatever small edge they have by helping somebody out, either consciously or subconsciously.

Also online there is a lot of confirmation bias. People generally forget the nice ones and remember that SRK is full of assholes because the assholes are more memorable. If you look for something to confirm your belief, your belief will be confirmed. If you AIM guys, even top players like Watson, you generally get a respectful nice guy. These are the ones winning tournaments because they know collaboration has to be there to grow skill.

I must admit though, some newbs do not use the search function. There is “Search” and the Shoryuken wiki out there for a reason. Some questions asked especially for old games have been answered back in the '90s on Alt.Games.SF2 for chrissake. I definitely think some people overdo it though.

The guys who are the biggest dicks on SRK are usually the biggest DICK RIDERS come tournament time. They will stand behind their “Godlike player of choice” screaming all kinds of bullshit and talking trash, when they aren’t even the ones playing. The dude playing in tournament/money match/whatever usually a nice enough guy.

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don’t be a jabroni

eat your chef boyardee ravioli

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Back in my day the term scrub was short for “mall scrub”, which was someone who didn’t go to an arcade to play arcade games, but just walking by a mall machine (or arcade) and decided to waste time and lose their quarters.

I guess there are many definitions now.

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Dude I’d buy premium just so I could rep you…this guy speaks the truth…I couldn’t agree anymore… I’ve seen everything he’s said firsthand. Some top players have their groupies that talk wayyyyyy too much shyt…but they ain’t the one playing…

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Yeah everyone’s got their own way of defining this word don’t they? Yet we are a big constant in all of this, and frankly, I think we’re all full of shit, basically.

I always use one word to remind me of this: Upper. That was Capcom listening to the paying customer of A3, fixing something the players called “broken”. But we’re full of shit. We like broken, and we like to abuse the hell out of it. Soon after release, people actually-- for once in their lives-- did not gravitate towards the shiny new game Upper, but instead chose to go right back to what was broken. Oh sure, we talk a good game about “those other guys, the scrubs over there, but we’re not like them”. Maybe we are, maybe all our talk of “balance” is just different words for the same thing, and we just like to rationalize it away.

Oh, and somebody said Capcom guys would trade their souls for SSBB sales? I can think of one that I bet would not, so all hope is not lost. And because he works for Capcom he is not likely to tell you himself, so I’m going to just take the liberty and tell you instead.

btw one word for the person who is not a top 3 tournament placer is “player”, or the guy’s handle or even real name. Those all seem like good options to me, and I’d encourage others to use them instead of “scrub” as has been suggested.

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I think that these words are used too much. I mean not everyone is a pro, and not everyone is going to be the greatest at this game. I love this game and still get called a noob after 15+ years of play.

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they are usually nice unless its marvel and u get punched in the face…

My general definition which a lot of people have said is that noob is someone new, they probably suck, but I have respect for them to learn and enjoy the game, basically someone that doesnt understand the game on a competitive level…Scrub is someone that knows a few gimmicks and thinks they are really good…they dont even need to know gimmicks, they could jus be a local town hero, and when they get beasted by a outside veteran they basically complain and whine…

on XBL i usually get to talk to the good players and they are generally nice, but then again I got a random message in spanish the other day saying somethin along the lines of "Learn to play, you suck, i hate you, insert creative use of profanity here, and he sent the message because he lost because he sat there afk :confused: and i played him before that match and all he did was fp srk from liek full screen :confused:

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what? you mean some of these tournament players actually attract an entourage of shills and fanboys. ROTFLMAO…now that’s just plain disturbing. it’s definately a console generation thing.

i made that statement. BTW, it was a sarcastic remark not an actual poll. the point being the success of SFIV (and future projects) is more dependent on the seemingly reviled “casual” market than the so-called “hardcore” market like SRK.

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Yo its the truth…take a look at the groupie Justin Wong brings in any game he plays…

You got people in every game saying "Justin Fucking Wong " on camera Like he’s God or something… :confused: :wonder: like hes guaranteed to win in any game he touches…

And these are the ones talking all the shit when things get hype (See the MagManiac vs. Justin thing and plenty other examples)

That’s not reality. These people need to stop sucking that dick and start doing something themselves.

Yes I said it…Justin Wong’s GROUPIE… So yes a lot of these players have their dick riders that believe the player just can’t lose at all… Just because of their name… I can hear it now some of them are like “Cum on me Justin CUM ON ME!!!” :rofl: :rofl:

And while you may not have anything wrong against the player (I think Justin is cool as hell, respect him also)…you do against the groupies and fanboys…

-DG

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I had a friend who had a theory, he wanted to blow Daigo and Jwong to see if their fighting game abilities transferred through their load.

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I’ve always heard scrub used to describe people who talk a mad game but can’t back it up.

Also, I’ve never really thought there was a difference between ‘noob’ ‘nub’ and ‘newb’. They’re just different internet-spellings of the same word. Just like kik got huge on CS servers for a while by mis-spelling lol. it still means lol, just spelled differently.

The difference is, the words noob and newbie and stuff, at least in an online gaming context, come from the whole l337 movement that hit with TF and CS years and years ago. That’s while I’m a believer that there is no difference between the spellings. Kids were just finding different ways to spell it and look cool :wink:

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That couldn’t be put any other way, I definitely Had my experiences especially when I first got on SRK

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What I think is pretty ironic is that this whole “Owning N00bs” thing was actually sort of a joke that became popularized from gameplay vids and flash movies where basically they were making fun of people who acted like that. It was a distortion of Owned which is what would happen if someone hacked you and took control of your computer.

|33+ speak wasn’t meant to be cool, it was supposed to be a stupid joke of how hacker wannabes talked, yet it became popular and ‘cool’ to do it.

Basically it’s a poor attempt at ASCII art and lettering – which real hackers (or any power user) used because the web and text docs were not as graphic intensive as today. Real hackers always used encryption and private servers if they wanted to hide something (common sense these days I hope).

The bottom line:

If anyone saw you talking in |33+ you were either an idiot pretending to be a hacker or making fun of someone who did that.

‘N00b’ is |33+ for ‘newb’.

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STFU n00b.

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:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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The thing I will never understand is if you are winning then why resort to name calling you are already beating there ass. The worst though is people who lose and call the person who beat them noob or scrub. It makes absolutely no sense if a scrub rapes you then you turnaround and tell them they suck. The real shame of the whole name calling mess hits you when you look at the average age of the posters on srk most are in their late 20s early 30s.

What should be like a game of chess becomes more like a game of basketball at the park a lot of trash talk and gimmicks.

I think the only words that should really apply are amateur (for the love of the game) and professional (tournament winning players) players.

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Yeah but even your “professionals” are still amateurs… cause no one’s ever really made a living off of fighting game tournaments. Everyone plays the game, so everyone’s a player. (How about “non-competitive” and “competitive”?) In any case I think a bigger issue than “scrubs”, is increasing the total player base itself, then worry about attracting more over to the competitive side (like what’s happening with the GameStop tournament). For one example, if you want to convince someone that throws are part of the game and his house rules shouldn’t apply, I think you’d have better luck with different tactics than hate.

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@naster_amado
because scrubs have a bad attitude and can be annoying
and because nubs can make ppl laugh that its hard to contain teh lulz

(not that i agree that the above should resort to name calling…but jus my opinion on why ppl do it)

also trash talk is somewhat synonymous with anything competitive
u have ppl who have good sportsmanship, and ppl who dun

although many times ppl can trash talk for fun and dun mean it
i kno many friends that do it wit each other

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It’s been my experience that the folks who talk the most shit play the worst.