In the world of gaming, pronunciation is key, and what better language is there than that of action? What happens when someone from a different gaming background infringes upon the local turf with jargon so wild it sends your head reeling faster than Kabal’s spin dash, spike summon to six hit combo?

I am a freshman at Quinnipiac, and, after setting foot on campus, I’ve noticed the various videogame vernaculars indigenous to one’s own area that students apply without rhyme or reason.

Ever since my roommate, Steve, who happens to be from Long Island, uttered the word “board” during a game of Super Smash Brothers, in reference to my question of what level to fight on, have I been bothered by this issue. But everyone knows you don’t have to warp too far via green pipe to realize that people speak differently from one another.

The case here is not of accents. The civil minded gamer will adapt to the current situation at hand, but some people are stubborn in their ways of labeling different videogame environments.

Chris Dunn elaborated on the subject trying to separate right from wrong.

“Mario Party: Boards; Mario: Worlds; Goldeneye: Levels; Mortal Kombat: Stages.”

Rob Lista hesitantly agreed.

“Mario: Worlds, but Donkey Kong, that’s a board.”

It was only after I pointed out that a board was a 2-D plane, and not a 3-D environment that Rob saw the light.

“I’m having an epiphany right now,” Lista said.

The question of proper gaming terminology, or the existence of one, still stands. Why do some people insist on generalizing about the way they speak about different gaming zones?

For many games it is clearly pointed out at the start whether it will be broken down into a world, map, board or level.

But each gamer hails from a different background in which they were most likely subjected to one form or another of this labeling, influencing themselves to adopt the speech without question.

In no doubt will the topic of videogame terminology forever be an ongoing debate, especially at a school that draws students from all over the globe. As long as videogames continue to propagate around campus will there forever be different connotations attached to the labels we use to distinguish between what is what in video gaming.