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Old 2003-07-30, 12:44 PM   [Ignore Me] #1
GammA
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Evolution of the word "PWN"


first of all i am starthing this threat in response to a side tracked post that was made in the general discussion forum, but i felt it more appropriate to give those who are interested insight in the evolution of the word "PWN" and how it came about to become into the h4x0r language.

the word pwn obviously has evolved from the word own. often used as a verb to show your own superiority over another player.

the phrase "i just owned you" or "OWNED!!!" did't really come into play or was vastly used until the late 1999 till 2000. During the early Quake and Duke Nukem era back in 96 - 97, most people simply used the word FRAGGED as showing superior skill. "I JUST FRAGGED YOUR ASS" phrase lost its appeal slowly considering the word fragged was strictly used for FPS games and was a longer word to type, and was replaced by OWNED when applied to more team games such as Team Fortress or Counter-Strike, at that time many FPS players also played strategy where the word OWNED applied more to territorial take over and the take over of bases. and such the word OWN was adapted to fit much better as a common term then simply fragged, because fragged was strictly only applied to one catagory. Afterwards this is where the "all your base are belong to me" hype came in arround 2000 and lasted for acouple of years. in short to sum up the entire phrase of AYBABTY it was easier to say "I OWN YOU". Then during the early to mid 2001 the RPG game Baldur's Gate 2 online community put a turn to the word OWN and and changed it from "I OWNED YOU" to, "i OWNZOR j00" (sidenote: yes that is where the word "you" was replaced by "j00" - not to common yet but still.) the word ownzer was then taken to more of an extent than simply own considering it made the person who said it more "1337" (side note, the word 1337 was originally simply typed l33t but was changed to all numbers by some radicals from CS - i know i was there, and its a story for a later time). the word "ownzor" didnt have that much of a like span due to its longness, and the baldur's gate community sort of broke away. Afterwords game the new generation of FPS games which hit shelves and the word "OWN" was still pretty commonly used until the arrival of WARCRAFT3 hit the shelves. then from the "i ownzor'd j00" phrase was changed to "i pwnz j00". yes pwn is a mistype of someguy that was then rapidly adapted as more popular than simply own because it had more of a effectiveness and individuality and as well as distinguished itself as more of a h4x0r language then a normal common english word own*. so the word pwn was most largely use in warcraft3 as a way to express a players ability to micromanage their units in battle. therefore when i say" i just pwnd you" it refers that my skills in microing my units on my HUD is much more faster/better than yours. From their it took its way into planetside. In Planetside i havent seen it used that much, but now and then you see people who use it, and easily you can identify what it is referring to.

There are alot of details i missed as far as how it went through MOHAA and SOF2 and unreal tournament but those arent the main turns of the word so i skipped on mentioning them, i only have a *brief* history on how the world evolved and its durastic turning points.

if any of you have any other *questions* on how something related to game phrases become or evolved post a thread asking and ill see if form my experience i can tell the history of it :P
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Old 2003-07-30, 12:47 PM   [Ignore Me] #2
EineBeBoP
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hmm very interesting
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Old 2003-07-30, 12:49 PM   [Ignore Me] #3
Strygun
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yup.

how do you pronounce 'pwn'

I say

Poe wn (the wn in own)
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Old 2003-07-30, 01:13 PM   [Ignore Me] #4
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no No NO! You have it all wrong. pwn is not a mispelled own, it is a misspelled pawn, as in to make someone your pawn. At least thats how I use it. /em feels special.
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Old 2003-07-30, 02:01 PM   [Ignore Me] #5
Onizuka
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Originally posted by Strygun
yup.

how do you pronounce 'pwn'

I say

Poewn (the wn in own)
i say it pawn.... cause it looks like it...never thought of poewn. of course, my friends dont talk l33t speak, so i dont know how its said.
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Old 2003-07-30, 02:07 PM   [Ignore Me] #6
xuur
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PWN is NOT a word.

'nuff said.
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Old 2003-07-30, 02:09 PM   [Ignore Me] #7
Onizuka
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Originally posted by xuur
PWN is NOT a word.

'nuff said.
neither is l337, it just means a word.
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Old 2003-07-30, 03:01 PM   [Ignore Me] #8
Cease
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I figured pwn was from Jeff K who made teh suck quite the popular phrase.
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Old 2003-07-30, 04:18 PM   [Ignore Me] #9
NCG JMan
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Thanks Gamma. Will posted in another thread similar to yours explaining the derivation of own/pwn etc.... I will reply by saying what I said in that thread. I feel 3|\|1i6h73|\||).
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Old 2003-07-30, 04:50 PM   [Ignore Me] #10
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you are all wrong, pwn is pronounced "poon", 'nuff said
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Old 2003-07-30, 05:34 PM   [Ignore Me] #11
AsylumX
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i just pronounce it "own"

and i'd guess pwn is a typo for own, since p is right beside o, and that if it was a typo for pawn, would be neater if it was pWN


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Edit: Spelling, ironically enough
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Old 2003-07-30, 06:25 PM   [Ignore Me] #12
JonnyK
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that's not the way i've heard it. some site (csnation.net i believe) had an article on the first time "pwn" was ever used in the video game world. it was at a scrimmage or match between two pretty good or popular cs clans, lots of people spectating the match or whatever through hltv. and one of the best guys typed "pwn" instead of "own" and didn't mean to, and then after that, everyone just started using pwn. that's how it all started from what i've heard
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Old 2003-07-31, 09:18 AM   [Ignore Me] #13
GammA
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what you heard was wrong, because ive been through the entire evolution of the word, not just *heard* something happened, actually went through game to game during its evolution through the times.
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Old 2003-07-31, 09:26 AM   [Ignore Me] #14
Revenant
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It's just "l337" speak.

Take the line off a "p" and you get an "o".

Originally posted by xuur
'nuff said.
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Old 2003-07-31, 10:43 AM   [Ignore Me] #15
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me t00, i've been playing CS for about 4 years now, never wc3 or baulders gate though
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