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A newbie (written in 1337 as: n00b) is a newcomer to a particular field, the term being commonly used on the Internet, where it might refer to new, inexperienced, or ignorant users of a game, a newsgroup, an operating system or the Internet itself. The term is generally regarded as an insult, although in many cases more experienced/knowledgeable people use it in purposes of negative reinforcement, urging “newbies” to learn more about the field or area in question. Newbie itself is usually considered truly to be a person who's new at these events and not really an insult as opposed to n00b.

Variant spellings, such as newb, noob, and, in Leetspeak, n00b are numerous and common in Internet use.




Internet Relay Chat

In IRC, newbies are both discouraged and encouraged, depending on the particular channel. There are channels on any of the major networks dedicated to catering to newbie questions and getting into the IRC community. However, beyond the scope of these introductory rooms there are many channels where common newbie mistakes are not tolerated. This may include, repeating the same sentence, begging for pirated software, immature insult slinging, attacking an operator, usage of color, and the use of channel bot search and file list commands (such as !find or @search). Most channels have rules that are posted as a link in the topic or sent to the user as an on-join message. Breaking said rules or established policy by someone who does not take the initiative to find out the rules can result in an instant kick-ban.


U.S. Navy usage

The term "non-useful body", or N.U.B. was coined in the submariner world. A brand new sailor reporting aboard a submarine had to earn his "dolphins" (submarine-qualification: learning everything about a submarine in order to quickly and decisively assist in damage control). Until the sailor became so qualified, he could not do his assigned function aboard the submarine. During this time, he was declared a non-useful-body, and was generally harassed until he completed it. The term has since migrated to the surface fleet, and is used to negatively refer to new sailors, who are not as experienced and useful as their shipmates.

U.S. Army usage

A 'Newbie' was a term to describe new arrivals in the Vietnam theater of war, decades before its popular use on 1980s bulletin boards and subsequent internet message boards and chat rooms.

"It was very tough to be a newbie in Vietnam. When you get to your unit, the other men look so angry at the world, they look tired and unmotivated."

Rough etymology

The following is the likely etymology of n00b:

  1. newbie (new person)
  2. newby (variation of newbie, although rarely used)
  3. newb (shortened version of newbie)
  4. noob (a variant probably both for phonetics and Leetspeak, also sometimes used as slander)
  5. n00b (partial Leet speak of "noob", and considered the most correct usage of n00b)

Newbies in Internet culture

Since the internet has long been an attractor of people, especially children, to sophisticated areas of expertise (programming, gaming, system administration, etc.), there have been certain cultural and behavioral patterns that result as a conflict of newbies against veterans, veterans against newbies, and newbies against newbies; these clashes typically result in newbies showing childish behavior. Newbies have the bad habit, whether accidental or purposely, of asking obvious questions in online forums and chat rooms that could be quickly solved by use of a search engine. For example, a newbie on a Yu-Gi-Oh! card game forum could ask this obvious question: "What are the green cards called?" even though it states in the rulebook, anywhere on the internet and on the card what they are.

Noobs in Internet gaming

In gaming, noobs tend to exhibit one or more of the following behaviors:

  • Poor sportsmanship: noobs might communicate explicit/racial/prejudicial comments to the victorious parties, in situations where the newbies lose. Blame might be redirected to an external phenomenon, such as a latency (a.k.a. lag) spike. Other poor sportsmanship actions include: disconnecting in a game once victory is deemed impossible (albeit this may prevent statistics from being recorded, both for the victors and the losers). In team games, newbies might team kill (sometimes called gank, meaning 'Gang Kill') friendly players as a vent of their frustration.
  • Giving personal information that is fabricated or is not actually true. For example, a "noob" may claim that they are "football players" and "could beat you up in real life", and countless other claims of "real life" superiority.
  • Noobs look for opposite or same sex companionship online. It is common to see a "noob" requesting a "gf" or "bf" (girlfriend/boyfriend), especially one that is advanced or at a high level (e.g. RuneScape).
  • The inclination to shout random phrases when voice is enabled, that may be nonsensical and/or use an overwhelming amount of explicit language. Some "noobs" even do strange things such as playing on the piano or impersonating celebrities or people with ethnic accents. This is especially a problem on Xbox Live and Counter-Strike. This can drown out aural environmental indicators, which could lead to a detrimental gameplay effect to the other parties involved. Some games have options specifically made to drown out the voices of other players.
  • Little or no use of team tactics, or understanding how to cooperate. This is especially critical in games with players assuming specific roles on a team, such as Battlefield 2 or TeamFortress. Moreover, a tendency to be 'greedy' in regards to personal user experience versus the team objectives, i.e. always using a vehicle without being inline with objectives.
  • Not understanding the game environment. This includes not understanding the concept of friendly and hostile players, combat/trading zones and non-combat/trading zones, or ignorance to game world rules regarding player conduct, e.g, team-killing.
  • Not understanding how to play without breaking some basic formal rules, created by the players a long time ago, such as in games like Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.
  • Not understanding why they get owned so soon or why they cannot kill anyone, such as in games like Counter-Strike or Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.
  • A tendency to use only the most powerful weapon possible, such as always using the rocket launcher when possible in Doom 3, even if the situation would call for a different approach.
  • A tendency to utilize cheating programs, after a period of frustration experienced from getting beaten by veterans. This is most frequently seen in Counter-Strike and Diablo.
  • A tendency to require the quick fix solution. In computer role-playing games for instance, this would include such actions as begging for free in-game items off other players.
  • A tendency to act like a certain place in a map belongs to an individual. This occurs very often in MMORPGs, as a lot of players want to level up their characters quickly without being bothered.
  • A tendency to impersonate a Moderator in order to obtain "free stuff" (this mostly on games like RuneScape) or "res (ressurection)"(this on games like World of Warcraft). Newbies do this very often when being hazed by veterans, who in turn haze them even more. Impersonation often leads to their removal from the game.
  • A tendency to claim the possession of various kinds of resources, this usually occurs in multiplayer games when players are competing for resources and supplies. One common example is to steal supplies from their allies in RTS games.
  • A tendency of turtling (Turtle (strategy)) in RTS games. This may be due to their "concern" in losing the game or just simply a lack of tactics.
  • In a modification for Elite Force called RPG-X, a n00b is defined as someone who violates the server rules (fragging, language, using the wrong rank, etc.) and/or n00bing with the functions of the map (such as: turning functions on/off repeatedly or at the wrong time, making stupid plots (as it's a Trek RPG game), spamming, formatting their name incorrectly (most servers don't allow clan-tags), and asking for admin class.

Noob talk

An underground joke is "noob talk" or "NUB/NOB TALK". Noob talk is when an individual uses harsh spelling errors and terrible punctuation to insult noobs. A lot of "real" noob talk is found on games such as Gunbound, Ragnarok Online, Counter-Strike, and RuneScape. Also, there are many examples of noob talk on game-related websites, especially forums. An example of this dialect is "ITAM PLZ" (translated into "Items Please") (In RuneScape, the higher leveled players usually use the term "PLX/PLOX/PLZ" when imitating N00b Speak."). Other examples of "noob talk" is randomly shouting "i 4m t3h pWn!" and "t3h d00m!". Noob talk is mostly used to make fun of players who whine and ask for money or items. More advanced players might mockingly walk up to a low-level character and plead "moses plz!!" or "i wnat godl! plz!?". "M3 Wn4t M0n3y!!1!!!!!!11111111" Noob talk is fairly simple to grasp. The main characteristic of noob talk is to make numerous spelling mistakes and overuse common Internet slang. It is easy to discern between "real" noob talk and "joke" noob talk. In many ways, this is similar to the 1980s B1FF postings on Usenet.

Example of real "noob talk":

OMG LOLOLOLO U SUK!!!!!!!11 Translation : You suck!
OMFG R U SERIUS??? <<PERSON>> IS SUCH A NEWBIEz0r$!!!1!!!11!!!1! : Are you serious ? <<person>> is such an newbie!
OMG KAN I HAV SOME FREE STUFFS PL0X!1!@!! : Can I have some free stuff please
OMG I KILLZ0RZ U, G1V3 ME MONEY!!!@21111! : I kill you, give me money!
NUB!!1! IM UR GF! GIV3 ME PHR33 ST00F! : I'm your girlfriend ! Give me free stuff!

Example of joke "noob talk":

OMGWTFBBQ U SUK11onehundredeleven11!one
omfgkthxbai11one1+shift
OMFG <<Insert character here>> gots <<insert weapon here>>!!11 He winzar!!11111 LMAOROFLawlz

Utilization of noob or n00b as an insult is very similar in act being called a troll; certain actions trigger someone's "noob" or "n00b" label, as a form of group insult.

Noob generally describes a player's current behavior rather than his level of game experience. Although apparently originating from reactions to the ignorance among new players, its usage extends to high-level players who act similarly, and invalid with new players who lack apparent foolishness. For low levels the more correct term Newbie is used, altough not always. Someone online may call someone a "n00b", who offline would call him or her a loser or idiot.


Usage in popular culture

Doctor Cox in the TV show "Scrubs" continuously refers to his protége John Dorian (J.D) as "Newbie" as a way of breaking his spirits and constantly reminding him who's in charge.

In The Sims video game, the tutorial family with which you learn how to play the game are called Bob & Betty Newbie.

In the online game Kingdom of Loathing, one enemy that the player may face in the Valley of Rof L'm Fao is a "Lamz0r N00b." Their attacks include "omgwtf"ing the player, a reference to noobspeak.

In the game Baldur's Gate, there is an NPC called Noober (obviously from noob), who talks to the party for a while before running out of things to say. His purpose in the game is to annoy the player (and give experience if you wait long enough). Also, there is a character in the sequel, Baldur's Gate 2, called Neeber (variation of newb), who is commonly thought as the brother of Noober.

References

Resources to help newbies to the Internet include:

Categories: