• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

“Shoot bang” “pew pew” “shooty bang bang” “dude bro” “sports ball”

Secretofmateria

Secretofmateria

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,424
Why do people feel the need to use these terms when describing genre's they don't like? Does it come from a place of some sort of superiority complex?

Like "oh i don't have time for your pew pew games because im busy playing the latest visual novel or 2d indie narratively driven puzzle platformer" or someone who comes into a madden announcement thread and goes "ugh another sportsball game?" Now obviously these are genralizations but i've definitely seen language very close to this in shooter and sports game threads.

Im aware it happens with other genre's, visual novels often get called porn games and jrpg's get called weeb games. But i definitely dont see those as much as the aforementioned ones.
 

Deleted member 5334

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,815
...

"Shooty bang bang"? That's a new one.

I know some people joke about some stuff (notably the "dude bro" bit), but I do know people who absolutely use that language a lot to describe stuff they hate. The above user also describe something I did notice here a bit is how the moment they see something that "looks anime", they're immediately turned off. I'm not talking specifically about a lot of problems often found in Japanese media (which is a good point to discuss and it's something the Feminist topic on this section does discuss a lot in particular), but specifically the moment it looks anime, they want nothing to do with it.

I've even seen people wanted to, the point, change the writing to western writers for Kingdom Hearts, even though it'd rip out a part of it that makes the game by doing so (though I won't lie the games are getting very convoluted, despite my enjoyment of the series).
 
Kace

Kace

Member
Feb 10, 2020
207
the system
You pretty much hit the nail on the head, people who say stuff like that are nothing but narcissists with unwarranted superiority complexes, good thing is they are easy to ignore
 
Roytheone

Roytheone

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,156
Trying to put other people down because of the things they enjoy so that they themselves can feel superior.
 
ThreepQuest64

ThreepQuest64

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
5,735
Germany
Secretofmateria said:
Why do people feel the need to use these terms when describing genre's they don't like?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Because you convey your opinion about this genre with very few words and without actually saying or elaborate your opinion. People do that all the time in other areas of live, with irony or sarcasm, with body language, with facial expressions. Sometimes they can't help it and sometimes they simply want you to know they feel about it.
 
astro

astro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
56,969
Secretofmateria said:
Why do people feel the need to use these terms when describing genre's they don't like? Does it come from a place of some sort of superiority complex?

Like "oh i don't have time for your pew pew games because im busy playing the latest visual novel or 2d indie narratively driven puzzle platformer" or someone who comes into a madden announcement thread and goes "ugh another sportsball game?" Now obviously these are genralizations but i've definitely seen language very close to this in shooter and sports game threads.

Im aware it happens with other genre's, visual novels often get called porn games and jrpg's get called weeb games. But i definitely dont see those as much as the aforementioned ones.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
They don't somethjng so they're using a reductive term to express that?

Not sure why this bothers people, really.
 
Vincent Grayson

Vincent Grayson

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,862
Mount Airy, MD
I feel like it happens more with things that are dominant in the culture at large (like "sports ball"), and comes from a place of being tired of feeling ostracized because you don't connect with popular thing people like talking about. It's a clumsy rejection of the narrative that *you* are the odd one out, because these plebs are all so boring and lame with their generic "sports" and "shooty games".

And I mean, I get it. It's like why you see such anger in the atheist community towards Christianity more than other religions...because it's generally the one they're dealing with dominating the conversation and/or making them feel bad for being an outlier. It's immature and I don't think particularly justifiable, but I get it.
 
Euler

Euler

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,843
Secretofmateria said:
Im aware it happens with other genre's, visual novels often get called porn games and jrpg's get called weeb games. But i definitely dont see those as much as the aforementioned ones.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Really? If anything, weeb games get thrown around all the time as opposed to the things you say in the thread title.
 
pink

pink

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,083
yo when assholes say sports ball i immediately think they're horrendous people


(i don't give a shit about sports but really?)
 
Jawbreaker

Jawbreaker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,411
New York City
They think they're above these things they don't enjoy, and they like putting people down. They think they can form some sort of special, elite identity out of the shit that they hate.
 
Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,380
shoot bang and sportsball are attempts at elitism by feigning ignorance as to 1.) why somebody would like those things and 2.) what those things actually are. It's so dumb. As far as nerds go, the faux-elitist nerds who peddle these terms are insufferable.
 
AllEchse

AllEchse

Member
Oct 29, 2017
4,125
I love myself some shooty McPew games.
I kinda do that as fun self deprecation.
Weeb games and Vroom games are also my favourite.
But doing that too much or to put others down is pretty assy.
Even then some games feel just feel very samy, gaming is just not holy.
 

Deleted member 29682

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 1, 2017
12,290
'Walking Simulators' is another one, wholly unsuitable for everything except Death Stranding and QWOP. Though it's weirdly prevalent in a non-derogatory way these days.

However I will continue to call grand strategy and management games 'Spreadsheet Simulators', no matter how many hundreds of hours I pour into them.
 

Absolute

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,090
Is "walking simulator" not the same thing? I see that way more than any of your examples.
 
Protome

Protome

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,688
Because people like to say silly things to show their lack of interest. It's not worth getting upset about because it literally doesn't impact you at all.
Absolute said:
Is "walking simulator" not the same thing? I see that way more than any of your examples.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Walking Simulator is a weird one because it caught on as the accepted name for that genre of games but also yes, does fit into the thing the OP is talking about because there's people on here who'll refer to any game with plot as a "walking simulator."
 

Deleted member 13798

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,374
because such a thing as a nuanced take no longer exists, you're either calling something the greatest thing ever made or you have to demean and diminish anybody who might like it just because you don't.
 
Gay Bowser

Gay Bowser

Member
Oct 30, 2017
17,708
Brian Damage said:
'Walking Simulators' is another one, wholly unsuitable for everything except Death Stranding and QWOP. Though it's weirdly prevalent in a non-derogatory way these days.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It clearly started as a derogatory phrase for combatless games that "weren't real games," but then the community co-opted it and started using it.
 
LavaBadger

LavaBadger

Member
Nov 14, 2017
4,988
mysocksarepink said:
yo when assholes say sports ball i immediately think they're horrendous people


(i don't give a shit about sports but really?)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't understand why someone would get offended by this. The very use of "sports ball" is both mocking and self deprecating. It implies a lack of interest, but also a lack of knowledge in the sport. Seems like a bit of an overreaction.

To the OP, yeah people use these generalizations to throw shade at games they aren't interested in. There is better language to explain what is really meant, but alas, communication on the internet seems to value attention and instigation over actual information.
 
Mirage

Mirage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,566
Absolute said:
Is "walking simulator" not the same thing? I see that way more than any of your examples.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Walking Simulator is kind of a weird one. Since it started as a negative description for stuff like Gone Home and the like but then eventually has become what people in to those games refer to them as.
 
Etrian Darkness

Etrian Darkness

Member
Oct 29, 2017
4,515
UK
But what do we call the person who only plays FIFA and CoD though? Sport ball is a catch all term because there's too many sports with balls to mention.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.