Pure ArcadeDad(tm) Pride

[CheffoJeffo]

Today the Cheffo family went to my nephew's birthday party at a roller rink. Kinda retro, bad pizza, but fun stuff.

Well, after the little Cheffos are done skating, they all want to go to the arcade (swell of pride!). Decent mix of drivers, shooters and classics. I take note of the games and who the op is because, well, that's what I do and somebody should tell him to fix the coin mechs on that Tekken 3 machine.

There are a few teenaged rinkrats hanging out, crowding the machines, bragging rather loudly on how easy Donkey Kong is and how they "pwned" that game. (Does anybody else hate hearing people pronounce "pwned" ?).

I watch with some trepidation as my 10 year old son navigates between the braggarts to insert his quarter. He tripled the high score on his first jumpman. Rinkrats go silent. I smile quietly in the corner.

Repeat process for PacMan, this time quadrupling the high score.

Now, these were not record-setting games by any stretch, but I got to see my kids choose to play classic games in front of their peers (as opposed to within the safety of Cheffo's basement) AND kick the snot out of the loud-mouthed teenagers in the process.

I am currently basking in pure, unadulterated ArcadeDad(tm) pride.

[opt2not]

Today the Cheffo family went to my nephew's birthday party at a roller rink. Kinda retro, bad pizza, but fun stuff.

Well, after the little Cheffos are done skating, they all want to go to the arcade (swell of pride!). Decent mix of drivers, shooters and classics. I take note of the games and who the op is because, well, that's what I do and somebody should tell him to fix the coin mechs on that Tekken 3 machine.

There are a few teenaged rinkrats hanging out, crowding the machines, bragging rather loudly on how easy Donkey Kong is and how they "pwned" that game. (Does anybody else hate hearing people pronounce "pwned" ?).

Not as much as hearing kids say "O-M-G".   

I watch with some trepidation as my 10 year old son navigates between the braggarts to insert his quarter. He tripled the high score on his first jumpman. Rinkrats go silent. I smile quietly in the corner.

Repeat process for PacMan, this time quadrupling the high score.

Now, these were not record-setting games by any stretch, but I got to see my kids choose to play classic games in front of their peers (as opposed to within the safety of Cheffo's basement) AND kick the snot out of the loud-mouthed teenagers in the process.

I am currently basking in pure, unadulterated ArcadeDad(tm) pride.

hahaha, nice! 
I love the "shutting up the spectators" moments. Classic.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

  Lovely story. It's nice when things like that happen.

[javeryh]

Awesome story.  I can't wait for something like this to happen to my kids.

[Hoopz]

Next, they'll be saying something like:

"I've never played this game before.  How about playing for $1?"

 

[ammitz]

Fantastic story, 

[wp34]

That's a great story.

[shmokes]

I've never heard pwned pronounced in any way other than, "owned."  I don't spend any time around teenagers, though.  Are people actually pronouncing the P?  O-M-G I hear frequently enough, even on a law school campus.  Not a lot, but I hear it.

[drventure]

Great story!

I rather liked that when I took my 6yo daughter to the texas pinball festival, at the end of it all, she said her favorite game was a "southern bell" pinball machine from 1954.

Seeing your kids lay down the high scores and school some braggarts is good stuff!

[Ginsu Victim]

I've never heard pwned pronounced in any way other than, "owned."

I've heard people say "pwned". It's annoying.

[shmokes]

I can't even imagine what "pwned" would sound like pronounced    Is it like "powned" at least?

[protokatie]

I can't even imagine what "pwned" would sound like pronounced   Is it like "powned" at least?

Poen'd would prolly be closer to how it is said.

A break down would be, like the last name of Edgar Alan Poe with an n sound at the end. Immediately followed by either an "Ed" sound or more obviously simple followed by a "d" sound. There is no "pow" involved, ie no "w" sound.

And yes I hear it too often, to the detrimental point where i have caught myself saying it.  

[SavannahLion]

That's a moment where you just go, " yeah!" I said that when my 2 1/2 year old beat the pants off of a six year old and stole his water pistol. I had to sit there and listen to the daycare provider give me the crimes act and inside I'm just laughing and cheering my son.

I can't even imagine what "pwned" would sound like pronounced   Is it like "powned" at least?

Poen'd would prolly be closer to how it is said.

A break down would be, like the last name of Edgar Alan Poe with an n sound at the end. Immediately followed by either an "Ed" sound or more obviously simple followed by a "d" sound. There is no "pow" involved, ie no "w" sound.

And yes I hear it too often, to the detrimental point where i have caught myself saying it.  

I intentionally avoid any netspeak in RL. A few of my friends speak it though and I understand it equally.

I've heard the gamut of speak, but pwned is an interesting one since different circles enunciate it differently. When pwned was first hitting the scene, most of my friends at the time enuciated it as "prawned", as in "prawn that little thing you eat from the water." It was said in mock because most of the people who used pwned were members of groups like myg0t or pigs.

Now most people say it as "p-owned" as in poe, not pow. That seems the norm. I have never heard it followed by an "ed" sound or if it I did, it was too subtle.

Personally, I think it's detrimental to use any netspeak in RL. All too often I come across applicants who fill their applications out with netspeak as if it was some sort of badge of honor. Are these people that ---smurfing--- stupid? One stupid ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- even put down his alias as a name he wanted us to publicly use.

[protokatie]

Are these people that ---smurfing--- stupid?

Yes

[CheffoJeffo]

I rather liked that when I took my 6yo daughter to the texas pinball festival, at the end of it all, she said her favorite game was a "southern bell" pinball machine from 1954.

I love when they choose to love games that play well and are off the beaten track. 

[shmokes]

Actually when I wrote "powned" I just meant "owned" with a p in front.  So I at least was imagining the "poe" sound correctly.

[shmokes]

BTW, I sometimes say, "shrug," to my wife instead of, "I don't know."  I just do it to piss her off, though.  I'll say LOL every now and then too.  Same reason.  She won't even get, "pwned."

[RayB]

I'm sure that "awesome", "lame", "tubular", "wicked" and "bogus" annoyed the crap out of adults in the 80s. 

[shmokes]

Tubular was always retarded.

[Ninten-doh]

That's great.  We shall see if my kids catch "the fever".   

[SavannahLion]

I'm sure that "awesome", "lame", "tubular", "wicked" and "bogus" annoyed the crap out of adults in the 80s. 

Uh... I doubt very many people put those words or words like "fly", "brutal", "the bomb", "bitchin", or "bunk" in any resume or application in the 80's or 90's.

It's not really about using those or any words in every day speech. It's using those words in formal writing like resumes, reports, applications and what not. On a forum it's rarely expected to have perfect grammar or spelling. Some forums less so than others.

Problems arise out of using slang in formal speech. Imagine twenty or thirty years down the road when the president of the U.S. meets up with whomever is in charge in Russia or China and starts tossing down netspeak?

Oh God, what if their president is a moron too? I can just visualize the discussion.
U.S. President:WTF! LOL! U noob prez! Gimme warez!
PRoC President:gogogogogogogogo
U.S. President:huh?!? ROFLOL u newbie. weres ur nuke?
PRoC President:gogogogogogogo
U.S. President:STFU m10r!!!!11111
PRoC President:gogogogogogogo

[shmokes]

Uh... I doubt very many people put those words or words like "fly", "brutal", "the bomb", "bitchin", or "bunk" in any resume or application in the 80's or 90's.

Nor is there any greater problem today of people putting current slang into their resumes or applications.  Slang making its way into formal writing is always a problem (when it doesn't belong).  But there it's not like there's a phenomenon of kids who are unable to communicate without using netspeak.  It's not like we're seeing resumes that say, "Pwned customer flow by 30%, Mad Power Point skills, Developed a sick new time reporting app."

[SavannahLion]

You must deal with a more intelligent group than I do. My office handles between 300 to 600 applications, resumes and BGCs each day. I figure we've gone way past scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[massive88]

It's not like we're seeing resumes that say, "Pwned customer flow by 30%, Mad Power Point skills, Developed a sick new time reporting app."

Sounds like you need some l33t3r applicants, I'm already excited about this time reporting app.

I have a friend who is the first round of review for job applicants and he recently saw this on a resume:
"Former World of Warcraft guild master of 200 people (lots of loot!)"
To which he asked him on the phone interview: "So, tell me about your work for World of Warcraft, what kind of company is that?" ...  "Oh, it's a game...why is it on your resume?"

[SavannahLion]

Yeah, I have friend with moronic tendencies that put something like, "assistant moderator of blahblahblah" on his resume and it was his hobby's equivalent of BYOAC.  Gave me a slight headache when I was passing that along with a personal recommendation.

That is exactly what resume builders will tell you to put on your application if you're a little light on the bullet points. When I got laid off at one company, I was moderator and/or admin of three sites at the time. Because of so many people getting laid off, the company brought in a group of expert resume builders. The ---tallywhacker--- told me to put my "moderating" down as bullet points. Something along the lines of, "volunteer employee of such_and_such.com" or some ---That which is odiferous and causeth plants to grow--- nonsense. Wouldn't help me if I didn't put it down. I brought the resume home that night and redrafted it without that nonsense.

I look back on that resume now and there's no way any fruitnut would ever hire me base on it for any job. Ah, who am I kidding? No fruitnut would hire me now based on my resume.