What is a "try hard"?

Ando85

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I notice when a team loses on an online shooter such as Black Ops every now and then a guy with a crappy ratio will accuse the other team of being "try hards". I just don't see how this makes any sense. Do they expect me to play worse on purpose so it won't look like I am trying hard? Aren't you supposed to try your best?
 

NinjaDeathSlap

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Rule Number 1 of online gaming:
Everyone you meet is a total and absolute window-licking fucktard until proven otherwise.
 

Gladiateher

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There's this weird stigma growing like a cancer in my fellow Americans. I've noticed it quite often in fact. Many people these days seem to believe that effort of any kind is somehow "uncool". It's pretty disgusting actually people judging others negatively because of excellent grades or athletic performance. I suspect it all has to do with some form of jealousy or another. Very alarming indeed sir i'm glad you brought this up.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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A "try-hard" is someone who will do anything to win at the game, regardless of how unsportsman-like it may be. Tryhards are the people who start camping together in one building, and put up 5 claymores at every entrance when they begin to lose so that they can't die, or who go one-man army n00btube and spawn camps, or someone who only uses the most overpowered weapons in the game because they HAVE TO have the advantage over everyone. They don't care how they win so long as they win, as opposed to someone to plays the game for fun (at least this is how I understand it). It's basically a way of saying that the other team played like cheap bastards.
 

godofallu

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Well in L4D it's someone who tries way too hard. Normally it consists of an entire team that ghosts the entire map (couch walking slowly) and takes every slow precaution to ensure as little damage as possible.

Car alarm, don't run around it. Simply find a closet and hide in it while you intentionally shoot the car alarm from safety. Make sure to wait in the saferoom until the other team quits too.
 

Midnight Crossroads

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Try hards are people who sacrifice fun for an edge over the competition. They're the type of people who kill spy crabs deliberately because it will push their score higher. When you play pokemon with them, they stack their teams with legendaries because, for them, winning is all that matters. When you play Marvel vs Capcom, they pick Sentinel, Dante, and Whesker. They only get fun out of winning instead of actually enjoying the game.
 

Kleingeier

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One who tries hard at something that means very little in scope.

In calling someone a tryhard, one is accusing them of putting extra work into something meaningless and/or stupid. A Black Ops tryhard would be someone who devotes themselves to Black Ops because they are cheaters or totez nerdz or some nonsense.

One of the reasons I don't play games like COD or Halo is the constant interaction with mouth-breathing borderline retards who use words like "skinny" and "nerd" and "smart" as derogatory terms.
 

alittlepepper

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Pretty much all of the above. Mainly it's an insult...I assume it's a sort of subliminal throwback to yoda's iconic statement "No. Do, or do not. There is no try". Or at least I choose to believe it is. In short though, it's a slam against someone that isn't good enough even though they "tried their best". A puerile slam, but a slam all the same.
 

Laser Priest

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You willingly enter the realm of online gaming, you leave logic and reason far, far behind.
 

Silva

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"Try hard" is an insult that originally meant people who put on an image of a certain style and end up looking fake or contrived. It didn't make much sense in that context anyway.

In this case though, it seems to have been taken up by people who can't handle losing and therefore want to accuse others of being "try hards" i.e. putting in too much effort. But usually, of course, it means that they're the ones trying real hard and still losing, can't deal with it and so yell insults.

Do your best and ignore what people say, trying to win is what most people are doing in a game.

Next, they'll make "winner" an insult just because of how hard it is on people who care too much if they lose. "Damn you, you, you... WINNER!" I can totally see "winner" as becoming a word that means "selfish" someday.
 

Fappy

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Necromancer Jim said:
You willingly enter the realm of online gaming, you leave logic and reason far, far behind.
Quoted for absolute and total truth. Online gaming is the teaser trailer for eternal damnation.
 

FoolKiller

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Dirty Hipsters said:
They don't care how they win so long as they win, as opposed to someone to plays the game for fun (at least this is how I understand it). It's basically a way of saying that the other team played like cheap bastards.
Winning isn't fun? I like to win. I will find ways to win. If the rules are broken that is not a player's fault. I find winning more fun than losing. If that makes me a tryhard or any other derogatory term, so be it. I'm still in the winner's circle.

Note: I do not condone cheating to win. I play fairly within the intended bounds of the game. But if there is something that gives me an advantage and an opportunity for victory, I will use it to my advantage.
 

onewheeled

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Dirty Hipsters said:
A "try-hard" is someone who will do anything to win at the game, regardless of how unsportsman-like it may be. Tryhards are the people who start camping together in one building, and put up 5 claymores at every entrance when they begin to lose so that they can't die, or who go one-man army n00btube and spawn camps, or someone who only uses the most overpowered weapons in the game because they HAVE TO have the advantage over everyone. They don't care how they win so long as they win, as opposed to someone to plays the game for fun (at least this is how I understand it). It's basically a way of saying that the other team played like cheap bastards.
Pretty much this. They take the game WAY too seriously, and sacrifice the fun of the game for raw, completely un-fun, brutal competition. The people who consider people who are just playing for fun to be dragging the team down and don't deserve to be in the same server as themselves.
 

Doclector

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I believe this is essentially the opposite of people calling anyone with negative KD n00bs. A person who didn't do very well accusing the other team's best players of being tryhards, people who obsessively try to make themselves better players. This insult is usually followed by claims of the opposite team having no life, and a claim from the accuser that they don't practice alot because they are do busy getting laid/going to parties/etc, which is probably a lie.
 

Dr. wonderful

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NinjaDeathSlap said:
Rule Number 1 of online gaming:
Everyone you meet is a total and absolute window-licking fucktard until proven otherwise.
I like this guy thinking.

Of course you do Gig, Of course you do.
 

TheECP

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onewheeled999 said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
A "try-hard" is someone who will do anything to win at the game, regardless of how unsportsman-like it may be. Tryhards are the people who start camping together in one building, and put up 5 claymores at every entrance when they begin to lose so that they can't die, or who go one-man army n00btube and spawn camps, or someone who only uses the most overpowered weapons in the game because they HAVE TO have the advantage over everyone. They don't care how they win so long as they win, as opposed to someone to plays the game for fun (at least this is how I understand it). It's basically a way of saying that the other team played like cheap bastards.
Pretty much this. They take the game WAY too seriously, and sacrifice the fun of the game for raw, completely un-fun, brutal competition. The people who consider people who are just playing for fun to be dragging the team down and don't deserve to be in the same server as themselves.
I absolutely HATE it when people get mad at you for trying to win at a game. Playing games is fun. Winning games is the goal when you're playing games. Why would I purposefully hinder myself just because you're too much of a sore sport to accept that the other team played better than you? I don't get mad when the other team beat me using "cheap" tactics. That means they played better.
 

Lord Beautiful

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Arontala said:
Tryhard, in the general gaming community, is used as a derogatory term for someone who is beating a team by not sucking. That's it, really. People on the Escapist may have a different view on it, but that's how it's used by the majority of people in online gaming environments.

So, it's essentially saying "Stop trying and let me kill you, or else you're a tryhard who only plays for wins!1!!1!!11!!one!".
That seems to be the case to me. I recall watching a Street Fighter IV gameplay vid where a guy used throws in the middle of some of his combos and won. Some of the comments found this distasteful and accused him of being a "try-hard." There I sat thinking to myself, oh god forbid he uses tactics that work.

So, I'm guessing it's a catch-all term for people who play games with some semblance of skill.
 

TheTim

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The term tryhard is just an excuse for getting owned in a game, like saying you have no life.