Conceding to Game Terminology

[Tulpa | 3,576]

8 hours ago, Sumez said:

Now it's not just my claim, phart is backing it up too

You mean the self proclaimed forum pot stirrer?

 

[phart010 | 1,714]

12 hours ago, Tulpa said:

You mean the self proclaimed forum pot stirrer?

 

[Andy_Bogomil | 816]

On 1/23/2023 at 3:20 PM, Gloves said:

Hollow Knight-like.

That's more like a metroidgaidian™. 

[Tulpa | 3,576]

13 hours ago, phart010 said:

 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,664]

[AirVillain | 500]

On 1/20/2023 at 9:57 AM, CasualCart said:

I’ve always avoided the word “shmup” because I thought it sounded goofy, but I’m ready to concede to the term. It’s the most direct, understandable designation for my favorite game-genre, and substitutes like “space-shooter” don’t always communicate as well. 

Does anyone else have a contentious gaming expression that they’ve come to accept for some reason? “Metroidvania”? “PSX”? “Retro”?

(Note that I’m just curious about your own use of these terms - If you want to debate any of them, feel free to make a separate thread for it.)

-CasualCart
 

I can't ever imagine saying "shmup" in an actual sentence. I guess if you were typing, maybe... but still.... I hate it and think it sounds dumb.

Of course "space shooter" doesn't work well... what about cowboy-shooter, or dragon-shooter, haha.

"Shooter" is just fine! I mean... of course there's different styles. Scrolling overhead shooters, scrolling horizontal shooters if you NEED to get really specific about a certain game, haha, but I think shooter works well overall without having to say something dumb like "shmup". 
 

On 1/20/2023 at 4:33 PM, docile tapeworm said:

It’s a “shooter” 

die shmup!

I can't imagine hanging out with one of "those people". Walking around saying "shmup." 

[fcgamer | 4,798]

1 hour ago, AirVillain said:

"Shooter" is just fine! I mean... of course there's different styles. Scrolling overhead shooters, scrolling horizontal shooters if you NEED to get really specific about a certain game, haha, but I think shooter works well overall without having to say something dumb like "shmup". 

I've been hearing a lot of this "shmup" sounds dumb or whatever, though I'd be curious why people think so.

I'd much prefer shmup to hearing stuff like "Let's take a deep dive into xyz" or whatever, which people generally say in YT videos and stuff before giving an extremely shallow analysis. Now that's dumb.

[Sumez | 3,025]

4 hours ago, AirVillain said:

I can't ever imagine saying "shmup" in an actual sentence.

Nobody does that though. It's an abbreviation of shoot'em up, which people do say in sentences.  

[Tulpa | 3,576]

9 hours ago, fcgamer said:

I've been hearing a lot of this "shmup" sounds dumb or whatever, though I'd be curious why people think so.

Because it's an ugly word. It sounds ugly, it looks ugly, and is used by ugly people.

Speaking as someone who's so brutally handsome the Greek gods weep with jealousy.

 

 

(To be clear, I'm not as hung up on it as I may appear. Maybe that's the "evil Tulpa" persona.   But I do think it's not a very pleasing word. And it's not much of an abbreviation. Shoot-em-up doesn't take that much longer to type, unless you're a total hunt-n-peck typer with the speed of a tortoise.)

Edited January 30, 2023 by Tulpa

[G-type | 2,654]

I'll add myself to the anti-"metroidvania" contingent. I'd prefer Metroid-like if you want to give credit or "Exploration-platformer" if you want to be formal.

Another pet-peeve of mine is when "RPG" is conflated with "fantasy theme". I'm not really big fan of calling any videogame a "role playing game" when what they really mean a character-stat based game. Some newer games, like Cyberpunk 2077, have a more rightful claim to the RPG label.

Another term I never found really apropos was "adventure game". Adventure is such a broad term, that I don't agree it should be tied to story-based exploration/inventory-puzzle games.

[AirVillain | 500]

15 hours ago, fcgamer said:

I've been hearing a lot of this "shmup" sounds dumb or whatever, though I'd be curious why people think so.

I'd much prefer shmup to hearing stuff like "Let's take a deep dive into xyz" or whatever, which people generally say in YT videos and stuff before giving an extremely shallow analysis. Now that's dumb.

It just sounds bad. "SHMUP".   Plus there's just no need for it, so to me it's unnecessary. 

And it isn't a very good acronym as for as I'm concerned. Lazy, at best. Shoot 'Em Up. In fact.... it's a terrible acronym. 

It should be SEU.... But "see-you" sounds like shit and sounds like someone is leaving? "Going to play a little 'SEU' here!" "Ummmm... bye?" "No... SEU!" "Yeah.... See.... you! BYE!" "No.... the game style SEU".  It's basically "Who's on first."

 

12 hours ago, Sumez said:

Nobody does that though. It's an abbreviation of shoot'em up, which people do say in sentences.  

Hmmm.... we appear to be at a semantics impasse. But the OP specifically says they don't like the term because is "sounds goofy". This indicates that they do, indeed, hear it in person. 

Since I would not say "shmup" in person, I wouldn't type it either.

[cj_robot | 557]

Honestly, even "shoot-'em-up" sounds weird to me. When did that phrase come around, anyway? I thought they used to be referred to as simply "shooters" back in the day.

[Tulpa | 3,576]

I generally call them shooters more often than shoot-em-ups, but then you run into issues of confusion with first person shooters, etc.

[phart010 | 1,714]

1 hour ago, Tulpa said:

I generally call them shooters more often than shoot-em-ups, but then you run into issues of confusion with first person shooters, etc.

How can you confuse shooters with firpershes?

[fcgamer | 4,798]

4 minutes ago, phart010 said:

How can you confuse shooters with firpershes?

Just call them "fire purses".

I'm gonna play some fire purses.

[Tanooki | 4,965]

I'm sure they make a cream for that.

[Hammerfestus | 3,955]

I like Shmup.  I liked him then and I like him now as Brickman.  
 

Seriously, I don’t know why this bothers people.  It flows pretty well, it’s got that nice full Germanic mouth feel.  It’s short and to the point.  Bonus points for being 1 syllable.  It’s immediately clear to everybody what you mean.  What more do you want?
 

Metroidvania is fine too.  

[phart010 | 1,714]

47 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Just call them "fire purses".

I'm gonna play some fire purses.

/imagine fire purses, cartoon style

[MagusSmurf | 577]

On 1/24/2023 at 12:20 AM, Sumez said:

Ding ding ding!

Now it's not just my claim, phart is backing it up too  Like I already said, the "Metroidvania" term dates back to before it started being used as a broader genre term, and originates from the Castlevania fan community, as the opposite of the "Classicvania".

It's really just classic memetic mutation, so no reason to be all fired up about the castlevania series being represented in a genre description clearly defined by the metroid series alone, due to the devious manipulation of zealous Sony fanboys

This matches my memories of how things went down as well.

And in particular, I don't think SotN itself mattered much in the coining of the name. Back in the 2000s Konami was cranking out another "Metroidvania" on GBA/DS every year or two to rave reviews so it wasn't like people were trying to hearken back to SotN when the term started to apply more broadly - the "Metroidvania" Castlevania games were at the time simply some of the most current, popular, and well-known games in that style and there weren't a ton of notable recent competitors then with any western popularity outside, like, GBA Metroid and maybe Cave Story until around 2009's Shadow Complex or so.