­I hate the word “gamer.” To me gamer describes someone who enjoys video games, but it also suggests an unhealthy obsession with them. While I use that term sometimes, I prefer “players,” just as I wouldn’t refer to anime fans as “otaku” unless they use the term themselves.

This makes me a strange person to cover Geektionary, a book that collects over a thousand terms from video games, comic books, anime, and other sources. But like choosing between gamer and player, what words we use tells a lot about how we describe our hobby.  

For example, one of the words I never heard of before reading Geektionary was "chew toy," a tough, role-playing-game character who can absorb a lot of damage. I thought those avatars were better known as tanks, but that isn’t in this text. The meanings are the same, but which is more memorable?

Everyone knows what a tank is, but the noun is so overused that it's become flavorless. Chew toy, however, conjures images of a dog ripping your hero apart. It’s more unique and fun. In massively multiplayer role-playing games, "kiting" means throwing a bunch of projectiles at enemies from a distance. One can call that action "spamming" as well, but spaming sounds tedious and annoying while the latter, a play on "flying a kite," is clever and acceptable.

Our word choice can tone down the severity of our actions as well. Compare "griefer" and "troll" to bully and jerk, words that describe people who annoy others in real life. Personally, the former expressions lacks the punch that bully does, but it may be for a good reason. Does calling someone a griefer make his or her actions sound less negative, or is its usage a defense against people who want to see you react to them? 

It's also interesting to compare gaming and chess terms, which are also covered in the book. Naturally, the vocabulary of Bobby Fisher is more formal than that of the average World of Warcraft enthusiast. Video-game players "pwn" opponents. Chess players execute a "brilliancy." Video-game players alter their titles using "mods." Changes to chess rules are called "variants."

Aficionados of the game of kings might not like this comparison, but the two are using different words in the same context. A brilliancy is classier and more dignified than a "M-m-m-monster kill" in Unreal Tournament, but both indicate great play. Long before people cried after losing to a random Ultra Combo in Street Fighter 4, chess neophytes fell to “cheapo” tactics that snatched victory from certain defeat. Chess even has its own term for "n00b": a "wood pusher."

Most of the lingo in Geektionary originates from RPGs and shooters, but inspecting other genres reveal more language comparisons. Wood pusher and n00b are in Geektionary, but not "scrub," a word favored in fighting games. While n00bs just don't know what they're doing, scrubs are bad players. Instead of learning from their losses, they accuse their opponents of using overpowered characters or cheap tactics.

We can also make up a new term to describe something special. In SF4, a mixup game refers to how someone can crack an opponent's defense using crossups, overhead attacks, and throws. Akuma, however, has a ton of ways to a squash opponents when he knocks them down that can be nearly impossible to predict. He has more than strong mixups: He has a "vortex."

It is easy to peg the gaming lexicon as message-board chatter that will chop “aggression” into “aggro” because 10 letters takes too long to type. And Geektionary itself is more a fun trivia book than a scholarly venture. When people do start researching our lingo, however, the context these words are used in may matter as much as than the definitions.