Language of the (Minecraft) Gods

So, you’re just playing a quick game of Bedwars on a Minecraft server and out of nowhere, someone shrieks in the chat, “BHOPPER!” What do you do? Is this “bhopper” a good thing or not?? What happened?? To clear up any confusion, a bhopper is another word for a hacker; this person just randomly accused you of hacking! Will you fire back with an equally bewildering phrase like “shut up duper” (a duper is someone who abuses a glitch to get more items) or simply leave it be?

Choosing the proper vocabulary is a key part in a Minecrafter’s experience, in-game or online, which is shown by the experience of user Cvthe on Reddit: “i was godbridging in bedwars and these kids think I was hacking and they were like bhopper bhopp hacker lmao its jhust godbridging”. While this post may seem indecipherable to someone less familiar with the game, this user is trying to explain how someone used Minecraft slang against them to accuse them of cheating, as I explained above.

This post is a prime example of the way most users speak to each other on Reddit and in the game. The amusing misspelled words and grammatical errors along with the use of general internet slang terms, such as “lol,” and “pls,” and emoticons like “:D” signal that players aren’t concerned with being proper or “mature.”

Where Are The Memes???

One of the rules of the Minecraft subreddit very bluntly states “NO MEMES”, so sadly, not many humorous posts are shared there, but there are many references to general pop and meme culture. One way Minecrafters share the laughter is through skins. Similar to many other video games, your skin is your avatar, how people see you, and one user Cryptic-Chaos666 posted a picture and a download link to a Walter skin they found or made (If you’re not familiar, Walter is the meme of the dog facing the camera with his ears back).

Creeper? Aw Man!

Not only are Minecraft players in the loop of general internet culture, but they also make references to the community’s own memes (rather than making more of their own). A perfect example of this is “CREEPER? AWWW MAN!” This strange phrase is a direct reference to the 2011 YouTube video, “‘Revenge’ — A Minecraft Parody of Usher’s DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” by CaptainSparklez. Players will often quote this song because it was a part of so many of their early experiences with the game and it is considered to be a part of “The Golden Age of Minecraft”. The song-turned-meme is almost like the community’s scripture, and often, Reddit users will write out all of the song lyrics with emojis for “aesthetic effect”.

The usage of emojis in the Minecraft community also lines up with when emojis became popular in general internet usage; Gretchen McCulloch states in Because Internet:Understanding the New Rules in Language that “In the plain text of late 1990s and early 2000s… people also made the text multicolored, upside-down, or used emoji… for aesthetic effect.”

MLG

A common phrase in the general gaming community is “Major League Gaming,” otherwise known as MLG. Minecrafters have taken and adapted the definition of this abbreviation to better fit their game. Typically, in other gaming communities, MLG refers to any number and variety of difficult skills; in Minecraft, when someone says MLG, they’re almost always referring to “clutching” or narrowly avoiding death by falling. An example of a Minecraft MLG tactic is placing a water bucket under you right as you’re about to land so you don’t take the fatal fall damage (yeah, water physics in the game are weird). This phrase is crucial to the community because many times, MLG abilities are what makes a “true” Minecraft player, forming a kind of social hierarchy. The players who are new or just aren’t as good at the quick thinking required to clutch are at the bottom, and the better players are at the top.

GG *crouches repeatedly*

So let’s go back to that Bedwars game; your team wins, so now what? You’ll mostly likely get a chat full of the abbreviation “gg” (good game) and the server will be full of players crouching rapidly, a physical sign of friendliness (it’s also used to get a player’s attention). “GG” is very important to the community because it shows good sportsmanship and creates a sense of unity, which is important in a completely virtual game.

Keepers of the Gate (or just Gatekeeping)

The vocabulary used by members of the community preserves the history and culture, but what about the noobs? Not knowing the language makes it much more difficult to get involved, and the veterans certainly aren’t making it any easier. The Minecraft community is supposed to be a wholesome space (I mean, the game is about a little pixel guy just doing his best), but it has turned into a place where you get shamed for not knowing about culturally significant things from ten years ago. For example, players get angry if they encounter someone who doesn’t understand the “Creeper?” reference; when replying to a Reddit user who didn’t understand the hype, user awesome952 exasperatedly explained, “It’s from a song called revenge. It’s a Minecraft parody. You uncultured swine”. Luckily, though, not all veterans act like this, using Hail_theButtonmasher’s reply as an example: “Forgive them! They likely were not present during the Golden Age of Minecraft”. This gatekeeping and ridiculing from the community makes people afraid to post or even start playing the game. The vets make everything look harder than it needs to be so that they can prove that they know what they’re talking about.