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People call shootem up games shmups? I want to know when this started becaus I never heard this term back in the 80's and 90's. They where always called shooters. It was not until the 2000's that I heard this term and it has always bugged me. I seriously would like to know.

Also what irritates me is when people say the abbreviation Bros. instead of brothers, example; Super Mario Bros. instead of Super Mario Brothers. It just irritates me. I can not be the only person that feels this way.

Any way I thought it would be interesting to list your top video game annoyances. Lets hear them. Vent fellow rackateers.

You mean pronouncing "Bros." as like "Brahs" or something?

I think the term schmup was born to disambiguate the different kinds of shooters that are out there. To most people nowadays a shooter is an FPS.

I use the term shmups frequently when I'm in discussions with people who think of stuff like first person or third person shooters if I were to say "shooter." It's just an abbreviation of "shoot'em up" to me.

I know lots of people think it sounds stupid, I used to, but it's been an acceptable term for well over a decade now so why fight it?

The only problem comes from people's definition of the word with some people having tighter or looser interpretations than others. For instance some people include chase-camera on-rails games like Star Fox and Panzer Dragoon or horde shooters like Robotron 2084 and Smash TV while others feel that "shmup" should apply only to 2D vertical or horizontal shoot'em up games.

Some more liberal definitions also include run'n gun games under the shmup label. It seems like everyone I talk to has a different opinion on it.

bj79 wrote:People call shootem up games shmups? I want to know when this started becaus I never heard this term back in the 80's and 90's. They where always called shooters. It was not until the 2000's that I heard this term and it has always bugged me. I seriously would like to know.

Also what irritates me is when people say the abbreviation Bros. instead of brothers, example; Super Mario Bros. instead of Super Mario Brothers. It just irritates me. I can not be the only person that feels this way.

Any way I thought it would be interesting to list your top video game annoyances. Lets hear them. Vent fellow rackateers.

Shmups? Yes. They're shooters. FPS' are FPS', not shooters.
Super Mario Bros as "bros"? Doesn't bug me. But it did make my head turn when my friend from Boston suggested we play the new "Merrio" game (I can't even type out how that sounds ) way back when.

D.D.D. wrote:Shmups? Yes. They're shooters. FPS' are FPS', not shooters.

So First Person Shooters aren't shooters?

To me, "shooter" is just a very broad term that accurately describes the basic gameplay of all sorts of games. Shmup, bullet hell, rail, first person, third person/cover based, etc are just ways to narrow down what you're actually talking about.

Using more specific terms doesn't tend to bother me.

It bugs me more when a Thread has a non descriptive title, a pain when there are a list of posts to click. Maybe out of courtesy, rename the OP to something like "Do game acronyms such as SHMUPS or Bros bother you?"

I also do not care for acronyms, but SHMUPS does not bother me. It is a known description for the Genre. As for Bros, if it is the game title no big deal either.

There is even a very informative site named this way.


http://www.shmups.com/

CRTGAMER wrote:It bugs me more when a Thread has a non descriptive title, a pain when there are a list of posts to click. Maybe out of courtesy, rename the OP to something like "Do game acronyms such as SHMUPS or Bros bother you?"

This!

OP, change your thread title. It bothers us when people make threads with non-descriptive titles.

It's true that "shmups" became a common term just in the past decade or so. It's just easier to type than "shoot 'em up". Shooter is now a term that covers too many sub-genres to use for a certain style of game. I don't like it either, but that's just how it is.

The term "Bros." in Super Mario Bros. is part of the title, so it doesn't bother me in the least.

I dislike the term "ness" and "s'ness" for NES and SNES. It sounds stupid to me.

Breetai wrote:I dislike the term "ness" and "s'ness" for NES and SNES. It sounds stupid to me.

Do you dislike it when someone says ray-dar or lay-ser for the acronyms RADAR and LASER as well?

Stark wrote:

Breetai wrote:I dislike the term "ness" and "s'ness" for NES and SNES. It sounds stupid to me.

Do you dislike it when someone says ray-dar or lay-ser for the acronyms RADAR and LASER as well?

Those acronyms were made with the intention of being pronounced by their acronyms. That's not the case with NES and SNES. That's not really a relevant comparison. When did people start pronouncing it as "ness" and "s'ness" anyway? I'd never heard that until the late-90s at the earliest.

In fact, for the longest time, it was "Super NES" and not "SNES." There was even a period when people wrote "S-NES" instead of "SNES."