pwned: whats that about?

[[STO] Killer Dragon]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

You're confusing things that came from different places Shadow_Wolf. LOL, ROFL and such aren't part of 1337.

As for a lot of people using it for being out of style, that's exactly the death-knell for just about all styles. It's started by a sub group in order to define themselves from the mainstream. Once the mainstream adopts it, they run like hell from it. Then it's looked upon as old school and then fades into obscurity.

We're at the point where the clueless mainstream still thinks it's cutting edge, but the reality is that it's only the clueless mainstream that's using it now (and that's why it's amusing).

:salute: sir yes sir.... Are u a teacher? loloz

[boogernaut]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

actually pwned comes from an early video game....although i cant remember the name of the game, it went something like this......when you lost/died, the computer would display a message that goes like "(name of game) pwns you". it was a typo that made it through development.....much like that of the japanese game which use incorrect gammar to say "all your base are belong to us".

[whoster69]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

:salute: sir yes sir.... Are u a teacher? loloz

As a matter of fact, yes, I am.

[rtgbs7k]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

Interesting reading, kept me busy for a good 30 sec

Anyone who think that writing "l337" and whatever mixed up words are cool then I,and most normal people, think you're really really gay and pathetic

[ptegan]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

This is a link for a great write-up on leet speak.

And if you've ever wanted to try using Google in Leet then here you go :) Google

[Robmysters]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

who likes pure pwnage?

[Marwin_42]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

I think it's humorous that some poor clueless fools still use this. It was originally used by the hacking/phreaking community. As soon as it became mainstream several years ago they got as far away from it as possible. Most of the people using it now are just clueless as can be but like to think they're "with it" because they use it.

It's the equivalent of wearing a leisure suit. Those went out of style a long time ago too.

Waaaaaaathsuuuuuuup???!

[[29ID]B|Pvt.Mickd]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

or we forgot about:

STFU!

[x2pixel]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

actually pwned was used in Hacker circles before most video games

it comes from the phrase 'password owner', which refers to a hacker owning a pc on which he was the password owner.

Although I prefer the theory that it is l337 speak, and means I own where the 'i' and 'o' are both in the 'p'

pwn3d u!!!

[ICPO]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

i agree with all that. when i see that stupid language i automatically think tiny p*nis teenager that gets picked on at school. Or an extremely immature adult that gets picked on at work, and takes orders from his wife, and has to try to be special in his own little world.

So, to all the "people" that use this language. YOU ARE LAME and NOBODY LIKES IT.
It just shows the maturity level.

Lets see, would you rather spell out LOL or'Laugh out Loud' Still not convinced? Okay how about np or 'No Problem' Still thinking that way, huh? Okay jk or 'Just kidding' There I think I made my point.

[Karl]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

hmm, on the Topic of WTF does that mean,

WTF does leet / 1337 mean ? lol. I have never known

[HF_Martini6]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

i think 1337 is some sort of trend Language/type of writing that will disappear in some years but, till then i'll use it.

w4yn3 w4s h3r3 : www.1337.net www.urbandictionary.com for those ppl who realy want to know what lol is and what 1337 is.

[David Champion]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

It is fun, in a way, we use it on our servers as a way of Mocking the so called "1337" sprak. Sort of a comic relief... :)

Say stuff like 1447, which is way cooler the 1337 :).

And OMGzz!!!11onestothenthpower!11 or Y NO CAPS?! when no one uses Caps... proly' more fun if you were there :)

[imported_Carwash]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

text speak is much much worse than leet speak

(txt spk is mch mch worse than leet spk)

[Finalheaven]

Re: pwned: whats that about?

The verb pwn (past tense: pwned, pwnd, pwn'd, pwnt) as used by the Internet gaming subculture, means to beat or dominate an opponent (pwned can mean "to be made a fool of"). While it probably originated as a typographical error of the word own, it is now used intentionally by many members of the subculture. The term has become so ubiquitous in Internet circles that it is often used outside of gaming contexts- for example, "He just got pwned in that debate", "The bears pwned that hunter." or "Chelsea opened a can of ultimate pwnage"

Other theories of origination

* A widely accepted origin of the term traces back to the misspelling of the phrase "owned" by a top (or highly skilled) player of the game Quake. The term quickly spread to less significant players; eventually expanding to virtually the entire population of online gamers.

* One story reports that in an RTS game (either WarCraft II or Starcraft), someone made a custom map where losing players would see a special message. However, instead of typing in "YOU WERE OWNED," a typo resulted in "YOU WERE PWNED." It is said that every use of the word pwn therefore comes from this one hapless misspelling, or a similar one occurring in another game.

* One explanation is that the word's development mirrors the development of names given to popular programming languages. The 'C Programming Language' was given its name as the next letter after an even earlier 'B'. 'C++' was the name given to the next iterative revision of C, an inside programming joke whereby '++' increases the referent (in this case C) by a value of 1. By the same logic [with the letter 'p' acting as a '++'], the word pwn represents own incremented by a value of 1.

* Some people believe that the word was originally a contraction of the term power-owned, pure ownage, pistol-owned, perfectly owned, personally owned, ping-owned, player-owned, professionally owned, powerfully owned, or properly owned or the words Pimped and owned combined. These are probably back-formations.

* Still another interpretation makes the case that pwned was not an accident, but instead a contraction of the word pawned. This theory is based upon the idea that the person who was defeated was owned, and then pawned off, as an item would be at a pawnshop (see pawnbroker). It can also be a reference to the weakest piece in the game of chess, the pawn.

* One of the ideas of its origin comes from the hacker subculture. Password Own meant that a person owned the root password, and thus no one but the password owner could access that machine any longer. Password owning is such a powerful way to lock down a Unix machine that it explains how pwn could have gained popularity in online gaming as a more powerful version of own.

* Another theory supports the idea that pwned originated on gaming forums after the word owned was banned. Administrators banned the word to try to keep flame wars down, and as a result, forum users merely changed the spelling to get past any auto-censors in place. (See also article on Pr0n).

* An extension of 'owned', the idea being that you cannot pawn something/someone (sell it to a pawnbroker) unless you have already owned it/them. "You didn't just own them dude, you pawned/pwned them". The popular DOTA Allstars custom map for Warcraft III pops up a message saying "A just pawned B's head for C gold" everytime a player kills another player.

* There are some who also believe that pwn is actually a 1337 way of typing "I own." The p is simply the 'I' and the 'o' combined into one letter. Hence, pwned joo could be directly translated as "I owned you"

Of all these theories, the most probable origin is hacker subculture. Examples of its use can be traced as far back as 1986 in an early issue (volume 1, issue 7) of the hacker zine Phrack. That would place its usage well before games like Quake or Warcraft were played.


And the only people who don't use pwn are the ones getting pwned. So without further ado....


PWNED