Pook's Place

The Secret Language of Dueling
By Pook

8.31.04  Hey all. Sorry about last week – my internet was down until late Thursday night so I couldn’t post. But I’m back, so fear not.

I was going to write this article last week, but with my lack of posting ability, I have just been sitting on this idea for a little longer than planned. What I’m going to talk about this week is the language that has arisen from Yu-Gi-Oh and dueling in general. Let me explain.

If MST, CoH, Harpie’s, Geki, Tinzo, and Yata are common words that you not only know the meaning of but also use frequently, you speak the secret language of dueling. Same thing goes for if you know what it means to “run Chaos” or “run (another deck type)”. As we all know, Yu-Gi-Oh is a pretty fast paced game, and usually a seasoned player will dash through two rounds in no time flat, very similarly to those professional chess players who look like they are in a slap-fight with the counter/clock. Because of today’s get-up-and-go-world, the average player has found quicker ways to express actions and names of cards. It’s the same phenomenon that went on when the Internet and instant messaging came about – MST is the duelist’s LOL. CotH is ROTL. So on and so forth.

Is this abbreviating of cards necessarily a bad thing? It doesn’t have to be. For the most part, too many of the cards have really long names to say. I play 3 The Thing That Lives In the Crater, and 7 word monster. I just call it “Thing in Crater”. See what I’ve done? I’ve increased my productivity by more than 50%. As for Levia Dragon – Daedalus, it is just called “Levia” for short. To quote Homer Simpson, “I’ve just tripled my productivity.” Sure, rattling off all of these abbreviated names make it seem like most players are hooked up to a caffeine IV drip, but it helps add to the intensity of the game. The only downside is that when you are playing newer players (and no, I will not call anyone a n00b, thank you very much – we were all new players at once and at some point, someone was nice enough to you to help teach you the game) may have some trouble picking up on the slang. I know that even when I say MST against some newer players, I get a puzzled look from them, so in that case, I will take the time to not only say the whole title, but also explain the effect of the card. Think of it as being a duelist language tutor.

Now as I’m sure you are all aware, it is quite easy to become rather obsessed with this game, so much so that other aspects of it start to invade other things in your day-to-day life. The duelist language is no exception. I smirk every time I see a car license plate that involves one of the many three-letter abbreviations from the game, such as PSV, IOC, DCR, etc. Stand up comedian Dane Cook’s latest CD even makes me think about the language, because at one point during his routine, he says “MFC” (I can’t tell you what it stands for on the CD because there are children who read these articles, but don’t worry, it is a little bad but not as bad as you’d think). Cracks me up every time, not just from the jokes, but from what MFC has come to stand for in my mind.

Why should this language stop with just words and minor phrases? I say we run with this idea and put it to some good use. What I’m talking about are a couple of key phrases, that when said in front of regular people, they have no idea what it means, but to other duelists, it means something more. For instance, to express to someone that you are a duelist, you could say something along the line of that you “roll with Yami” or “visit the Realm.” It would be so much fun to have covert ways of letting other duelists know that you too are a player without having to come right out and go, “Hey, do you duel?!” Think about if you were at a big meeting or event, or something being led by someone with some authority over you, and then over the loudspeaker, they slip into the conversation that they “flip Cyber” and only a select few in the crowd know what that means. This is also a good strategy for some of the older players, especially those who have emailed me regarding my very first column. It’s always good to find new people to duel against, but it is hard to approach people in the middle school/high school/college/real world setting about it, so try one of these phrases. The key is you have to do it really smooth, like the way James Bond uses codes to verify if a person is his contact. Don’t run around going, “Anyone Yata-lock?!” Play it cool with something like “I can chain it.” Feel free to think of your own and pass them along to other people. After a while, we really will have a whole language going, no like Star Trek fans who speak fluent Klingon, think of this as the Ebonics of Dueling if you must – a variation on the lingo and slang we all use. Until next time, keep your field clear, watch those LP, and Jam that Spell, foo. Happy dueling.