The Labels

[sageoftruth]

Because it's a very stupid name? ;p

Well, more the irony of someone losing their shit trying to beat me and then accusing me of trying too hard. Like, I'm a fairly casual player of most games I play. I don't play LOL or DOTA, and most of the online multiplayer I play to play with friends. I play without them to get better, but I don't put significant effort into it. And I'm not all that good. My KDR in BLOPS2 was just baaarely positive.

I mean really? How is "you put too much effort into things" really that much of an insult?

I think it's a leftover from the 90s. Growing up in the 90s, caring or trying were like, cardinal sins. You see a lot of both on the internet, still.

But yeah, it's a dumb insult. Just not the part that made it funny to me.

It's the first time I've heard Tryhard used in online gaming. Normally I've heard that word used on people trying too hard to fit into a certain group or subculture. The important word was "try". Just like a person with way too much makeup, going too far, or "trying" too hard tended to reveal that the person wasn't really being his or her natural self, but instead was being driven by a desire to impress everyone.

 

[The Apple BOOM]

I thought the important part about being a scrub was always telling others how they should play the game.

Me too. My personal definition of scrub, and what seems to be the one of most east coast Soulcalibur players, is someone who complains about game mechanics. You can be really good, and still be a scrub for complaining about ring outs or throws, or you can be really bad, but not be a scrub because you accept those things as part of the game.

 

[Something Amyss]

What is TLC?

A band from the 90s. they had a reality TV show. While they didn't coin the term 'scrub,' they made it mainstream and so I draw direct lineage between its modern use and their introduction.

For further research, see:

Spoiler: That Band Weird Al Parodied That Time

And yes, as I said, it's not the same definition. But words change, and there was a fairly straight line from its use here to the idea of a scrub in gaming.

You make a good point.
xD Makes it seem even more silly even. What will they think of next?

Also, why is it that whenever someone mentions the 90's on the internet, it seems to be bad?
As someone born in the 90's, this is discouraging. ;p

[sub]P.S. I have seen enough of MovieBob's shows about "old" things to know "why".[/sub]

Personally, I love a lot about the 90s. Not specifically because I grew up during them, either. It's just that, in every generation there's a lot to mock, and we tend to remember the bad. Big hair and spandex in the 90s, Kurt Cobain dressing like the Indigo Girls in the 90s, boy bands into the 00s. Hell, it even starts earlier. People may be nostalgic for the 70s, but for everyone who remembers Led Zepplin, there's like 5 people who remember John Denver. The 60s had some awesome music, but also some of the most pretentious wank you can imagine, often both the good and the bad being under the umbrella of "psychdaelic."

Also, obligatory 90s kid mention:

Spoiler: DUUUUUUUUUUDE!

 

[JaceArveduin]

Also I think 'Tryhard' is among the silliest insults to ever come out of this hobby's community.

Eyup, the silliest has to go to the guys that call you a "nerd" though. Every time that happens, I end almost end up losing just cause I can't stop laughing.

 

[Erttheking]

I think the moral is that sometimes gamers care a little too much.

 

[Scorpid]

Nothing new here. People like thinking that they themselves are perfectly balanced. They alone are doing stuff the way it's meant to be done.

You game more than me? You're a No-lifer!
You game less than me? You're a Casual!

You put in more effort than me? You're a Tryhard!
You put in less effort than me? You're a Scrub

You play better than me? You're a Cheater!
You play worse than me? You're a Noob!

The list goes on and on...

Ragers are the only ones that matter to me. I can deal with no skill because I can get some friends together and know what to expect but if someone start screaming expletives nonstop because they died or insulting their teamates justified or not, that's when the multiplayer game gets ruined for me.

 

[Ticklefist]

When did a tryhard become derogatory term for someone focused on success? I'm only familiar with the term being used towards people trying too hard to appear as something they clearly are not.

Sorry for missing the forest for the trees here. I did laugh, this one little thing is just tugging at me.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I play to have fun but maintain a high level of difficulty and options. Most games fail to be fun and difficult and most have little options to change the default game.

 

[RaikuFA]

Nothing new here. People like thinking that they themselves are perfectly balanced. They alone are doing stuff the way it's meant to be done.

You game more than me? You're a No-lifer!
You game less than me? You're a Casual!

You put in more effort than me? You're a Tryhard!
You put in less effort than me? You're a Scrub

You play better than me? You're a Cheater!
You play worse than me? You're a Noob!

The list goes on and on...

Now, how do you call a guy who is having more fun than you?

A true and actual gamer who gets the point of gaming. Anyone not having fun and calling people these names as a result? Not a gamer at all.

They're called filthy casuals.

OT: Why isn't this brought up more? I've been trying to bring it up for quite some time and yet it falls on deaf ears.

 

[Dollabillyall]

Everybody who calls someone a tryhard is just redirecting frustration over his own failure towards those who can accomplish more with the same effort.
Also, the names that go down in history all almost exclusively tryhards. Einstein tried hard, he became the patron saint of intellectualism. Bill Gates tried hard, he became a billionaire. Jimi Hendrix tried hard, he became one of the greatest guitar players of all time. Dschingis Khan tried hard, he became emperor over the largest empire in the history of the world. Fatal1ty tried hard, he is still paying rent from gaming dollars. I tried hard, I won games and got into gold where life is good.

Dschingis Kahn is a pop band, you mean Ghenghis or Ogedai?

I mean the guy who was the great khan of the mongol empire. Spellingwise... they had a different script all together and we don't know exactly how to write or pronounce it but I can see the confusion my spelling has brought.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Also, "scrub"?
Is this really a thing?

Ayup.

And has been for quite some time. I blame TLC.

I don't know what TLC is, but I remember seeing the word scrub thrown around in C&C, WarCraft and StarCraft a lot back in the 90's. Though I didn't see it get particularly popular outside of those games until Pure Pwnage got popular in around 2004.

Way to make me feel old now.
OT: So now there's an insult to throw at people who play video games to win them. God, what is wrong with us?

 

[MoeMints]

Once again I don't get these opinions containing anything past MOBAs and FPSs.
I think the fighting game community still uses these right and actually added more.

Scrub means someone who thinks they're professional/expert level but is only average and unwilling to have manners or learn from anyone. Basically almost anyone who generalizes entire groups as scrubs is 99.99% of the time themselves a scrub.

Tryhard doesn't mean accepted glitches and stuff that would be tournament legal. Its like intentional lag drops that make you invincible in some TPS games, or never swapping out of top tier in MvC1 in casual matches just because you can.
There's no real level to achieve or skill overbearing opponents, its just the same thing that if they do the same will be no less boring and breaking the game.

While lets not even for one second pretend casual doesn't have context in both classification and as a deragatory term.
The DmC fiasco at the start of the year had a huge chunk of the drama come from the the split between the casual audience and core audience.

 

[Requia]

Everybody who calls someone a tryhard is just redirecting frustration over his own failure towards those who can accomplish more with the same effort.
Also, the names that go down in history all almost exclusively tryhards. Einstein tried hard, he became the patron saint of intellectualism. Bill Gates tried hard, he became a billionaire. Jimi Hendrix tried hard, he became one of the greatest guitar players of all time. Dschingis Khan tried hard, he became emperor over the largest empire in the history of the world. Fatal1ty tried hard, he is still paying rent from gaming dollars. I tried hard, I won games and got into gold where life is good.

Dschingis Kahn is a pop band, you mean Ghenghis or Ogedai?

I mean the guy who was the great khan of the mongol empire. Spellingwise... they had a different script all together and we don't know exactly how to write or pronounce it but I can see the confusion my spelling has brought.

That was both of them... and they had no script at all.

 

[Pinkamena]

Of course we need labels! How else are we going to fling uninspired insults at each other?

 

[Psycomantis777]

Nothing wrong with tryharding in a ranked game.

Not to nit-pick or anything, but isn't "tryharding" just... "trying hard" but wrong? I mean I don't play online so I didn't know any of these names, (aside from noob), but seriously, is "tryharding" a thing? If so I wouldn't worry about being insulted or labeled by these people, there's something wrong with their brains...

 

[Naeras]

Nothing wrong with tryharding in a ranked game.

Not to nit-pick or anything, but isn't "tryharding" just... "trying hard" but wrong? I mean I don't play online so I didn't know any of these names, (aside from noob), but seriously, is "tryharding" a thing? If so I wouldn't worry about being insulted or labeled by these people, there's something wrong with their brains...

It's usually a term used for someone who's either playing way better than you, or using strategies that may be overpowered or hard to deal with. It's used as a "you don't care about having fun, you just care about winning", implying that winning at a video game is something you put all your pride in, even if you have to do it in a "boring" or "dishonorable" way, and you must therefore have a sad life.

Leaving aside the issue that someone insulting you across the internet because you're beating them at a video game clearly indicates that they are the ones that are too emotionally invested into winning: complaining about someone beating you with a strong tactic/strategy/character is ridiculous. These players have the option of using said powerful feature as well, and if they choose not to because they don't like it, that doesn't give them moral superiority.

Of course, a lot of the time the strategies in question aren't really that powerful either. I remember using Darius in League of Legends when I played back in the day. The amount of rage I got for that was ridiculous, especially since he didn't even use to be that good. He was just great at punishing positional errors, and he snowballed really hard if he got a kill or two early. Apparently adapting your strategy to your opponents' picks was harder than complaining about them.

 

[The Great JT]

My label is "I DO WHAT I WANT!"

 

[Someone Depressing]

Reminds me of when I once repeatedly killed a 9 year old in Call of Duty.

Oh god, his tears and isults. Funniest expreience I've ever had in online gaming.

 

[major_chaos]

In my experience when I see someone called "tryhard" its because they are absolutely devoted to winning, fun isn't allowed and if they lose they rage hard. Also as an aside: I'll stop calling people bads when they stop being bad, stop calling them scrubs when they stop being under the delusion that they know what they are talking about, and stop insulting people in general when they stop being amusingly mad. Nothing makes my day like killing someone in LoL for the third time in a row and saying "having fun?" in allchat and watching them throw a tantrum.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Tryhard.. truly a label I just don't understand at all. Yep, trying to actually win in a competitive game that ends with those on the winning side and those on the losing side sure is a bad thing.