Cool words you've learnt from videogames

[MarkN]

1 hour ago, Uncle Nasty said:

The first time I ever read the word "psychedelic" was in a Jeff Minter article.

 

"Parallax" learned from the game Parallax by Sensible Software.

 

"Inertia" learned from a Julian Rignall article about Defender's controls.

 

 

I sort of remember Parallax. With hindisght it strikes me as an Indie game idea. Something that someone had to get out of their system, but actually wasn't that good, as it turned out. Maybe I'm being harsh, but I wanted to like it and remember almost nothing about it. It had a hook. That turned out to be rubbish, I think.

[Ry]

Albert Wesker in Resident Evil 5 is an absolute delight but I had never heard "Winnowing" before. 

 

"Do you really believe the world is worth saving? Natural selection leaves the survivors stronger and better! Humans have escaped this winnowing for far too long!"

[Nick R]

Games have taught me the names of at least three parts of the gastrointestinal tract:

 

Earthworm Jim taught me duodenum. (Doc Duodenum, the boss of the level Intestinal Distress.)

 

Earthworm Jim 2 taught me villi. (The level Jim's Now a Blind Cave Salamander has the alternative title, which IIRC is listed in the manual, The Villi People.)

 

Metal Gear Solid 2 taught me jejunum. (The sections of Arsenal Gear are named after parts of the digestive system.)

[Sureshot]

Some that spring to mind from playing Pokemon Red/Blue back in the day were the colour-themed city names. Obviously had heard of Pewter, Lavender, Fuchsia etc. but I didn't actually twig that Viridian, Vermilion, Cerulean and Celadon were also related to colours - I just thought they sounded cool.

[MarkN]

12 minutes ago, Sureshot said:

Some that spring to mind from playing Pokemon Red/Blue back in the day were the colour-themed city names. Obviously had heard of Pewter, Lavender, Fuchsia etc. but I didn't actually twig that Viridian, Vermilion, Cerulean and Celadon were also related to colours - I just thought they sounded cool.

Cerulean is one of the best words. It's the name of one of the blue paints I used to use in art class at school. Paints often have beautiful names. I guess the people who named them were made of the right stuff.

 

[BadgerFarmer]

Had I ever heard of an ocarina before Zelda? Probably not.

[acidbearboy]

Child me had to look up the word Penninsula from Zelda 1. 

 

[Uncle Nasty]

12 hours ago, MarkN said:

I sort of remember Parallax. With hindisght it strikes me as an Indie game idea. Something that someone had to get out of their system, but actually wasn't that good, as it turned out. Maybe I'm being harsh, but I wanted to like it and remember almost nothing about it. It had a hook. That turned out to be rubbish, I think.

 

Bought the cassette from Boots and didn't get on with it - I just remember it being insanely difficult, even for the time. Had a lot of pre-release hype.

[smac]

See, I don't think I have ever learned a new word from a video game.

 

But that's because, as a kid, they did not exist. But I was a voracious reader - anything I could find, I'd read. So I'd built up a pretty large vocabulary by the time I owned my own computers.

 

I love that this thread validates that video games support discovery and learning; are valid ways of encountering new knowledge and transmitting culture. I mean, we all knew that already, but I personally would never have considered that they could expand my vocabulary, because I was so bookish.

[MarkN]

1 hour ago, smac said:

See, I don't think I have ever learned a new word from a video game.

 

But that's because, as a kid, they did not exist. But I was a voracious reader - anything I could find, I'd read. So I'd built up a pretty large vocabulary by the time I owned my own computers.

 

I love that this thread validates that video games support discover and learning; are valid ways of encountering new knowledge and transmitting culture. I mean, we all knew that already, but I personally would never have considered that they could expand my vocabulary, because I was so bookish.

So not one of the words anyone has mentioned was new to you? You knew about Estocs, Poleyns, and Peristyle?

To suggest I'm dubious would be an understatement. I always claim I grew up in an arcade, and that's partially true. Until the age of 13 I lived in a seaside town with a brilliant arcade, and adored the videogames I could play there. When I was 13 we moved about as far away from the sea as you can get, so good arcades were gone. I always had computers though, so always had access to videogames, but my new home became the library. The two things aren't in any way exclusive. I learnt an awful lot from games that I never learnt from books, including lots of language. And if there's one thing that's really my thing, it's the English language. (Not saying I'm an expert, but I adore it, and adore learning about it.) Games are great for spreading language. Yeah - you probably knew cerulean already, but how many kids learnt it from a game?

[smac]

True, but those words I recently learned from a gaming forum, not through playing a game.

 

I personally cannot recall learning a new word from a game I have played myself, which is the point of the topic. But I won't be surprised if I'm in the minority, these days.

 

But that's purely down to the amount of relative exposure to the different media - books pretty much got a 15-year head start for me. And also books benefit from being all about words, unlike video games, especially in the early days.

 

I don't think they are exclusive, and I think this topic is fascinating; I wish there was a great example of a word I had to look up as a result of playing a game. Maybe I have just forgotten.

 

I absolutely expect games to be one way kids learn new words these days.