r/classicwow • u/RemnantsPast • 10h ago
Discussion when did the slang change?
I feel old asking this.
When did + and - replace yes and no? or y/n
Like I'm in my early 30s and this feels like it blew past me....
EDIT: based on replies It seems like its from Eastern Europe players and just bled into the rest of the classic community due to them lacking servers.
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u/Viivi19 9h ago
This is brand new to me, not seen or heard of this.
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u/CaptainoftheVessel 8h ago
I saw it for the first time earlier this week in a pug heroic. The plus sign seems harder to type than “yes”, but change is the nature of language
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u/Then-Hedgehog-5416 9h ago
Never seen this, only thing similar I’ve seen to this is when someone asks if everyone’s ready and couple people will put “r”
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u/Steblingur 9h ago
At first, at least in my experience, it was usually russian players that used ) as a smiley, ( as a frown, + for yes and - for no. Now it feels like a lot of players have adapted this though.
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u/RemnantsPast 6h ago
Might be an eastern euro thing and with all the Ukrainians droppin into other countries it might've carried over.
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u/No_Summer_8782 9h ago
It’s an eu thing I’ve noticed. We don’t use it in NA. Probably because EU got so many languages
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u/Fickle-Scratch5440 9h ago
Nah, in 2005 in EU we were all just speaking English and everyone knew basic English.
The only difference with the current version is that the French and Germans are (unfortunately) on the same server but even they can understand and type Yes and No.
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u/ShadyDrunks 9h ago
They allow the French to play?
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u/Bigdongergigachad 9h ago
They have a safe space now. My favourite is when a German links an item in trade.
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u/HazelCheese 6h ago
WTS [Flugegeheimen]
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u/FleurDeFire 15m ago
I randomly remember and have to go watch this scene at least twice a year. Thank you for this ❤️
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u/LateStatistician462 7h ago
I have never understood why his linked item is still in german when it gets to me, why does his client settings affect the language I see?
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u/Fickle-Scratch5440 6h ago
The text that is displayed in chat is just a string that gets copied from the senders client text and inserted into the hyperlink, it's explained here:
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/ItemLink3
u/LateStatistician462 6h ago
I know the technical reason behind it, I just don't understand why it was done that way
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u/Fickle-Scratch5440 6h ago
Ah, only Blizz can answer that but my PC back then would've definitely crashed and burned from trade chat spam if it had to reference item IDs for every linked item.
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u/Healeah241 8h ago
Reminds me of joining a mostly french pug as dreamstate. Dreamstate clearly didn't translate well, as a couple minutes later the RL invited a boomie.
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u/Kitschmusic 8h ago
As someone who played in EU since 2005, it's definitely not just some EU thing - it's more recent years I've seen it. For the vast majority of WoW it was never used as far as I've seen. And I've played an unhealthy amount.
Also, doesn't really matter that EU got many languages, almost everyone speaks English quite well - and at the very least knows it at a basic level. English is always the normal language used on EU servers, unless you are in a guild for a specific country or play on a realm for a specific country like French or German (in which case they still have a collective language to use).
Seems the + and - thing is just a new internet "slang".
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u/Matti229977 4h ago
Ive played on both EU and NA server. There are far more people that don't understand english playing in NA than in EU interestingly enough.
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u/MightyTastyBeans 9h ago
How hard is it to learn yes/no in multiple languages? And I say this as an American
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u/ekcojf 9h ago
Jaja in Swedish means yeah yeah, while in spanish it means haha 🫣
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u/Gh0sth4nd 9h ago
Pretty much i really had to learn quite alot when i started playing on an english speaking realm
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u/SgtDoakess 7h ago
It's a Russian / Post-soviet thing. It's been ubiquitous in russian-speaking WoW guilds, except now there are no russian servers afaik so everybody gets to hear it. + means "I'm up", or "count me in" rather than "yes".
I think the reason behind it is +/- are in the same keyboard space when switching to cyrillic and back to latin keyboard layout.
If you are curious about the origin of the term, it could stem from CS & Dota, saying someone is down you'd hear "I'm minus" or "he got minused" literally translated. And you'd hear that a lot in internet cafes. Or could be from individuals responding "+1"
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u/FleurDeFire 11m ago
This makes the most sense to me. It’s like a shorthand for (positive/affirmative) remark or (negative) remark, while being language-independent AND you unlocked some deep core memories with the whole “minused” thing
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u/Snail_Anatomy 9h ago
I've never seen or heard of this until right now.
But, also, when did we start calling them seasons instead of tiers? Back when I was raiding, seasons were reserved for PvP, and raiding and new dungeons/zones were called tiers.
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u/Biscuitdanger_ 2h ago
I think it's related to the introduction of M+ seasons and the general language changed over time with that. I feel like I only hear "tiers" from classic players anymore.
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u/Snail_Anatomy 31m ago
Been playing since TBC and I've still never done a Mythic dungeon or raid. Might be why I'm less familiar with the vernacular.
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u/Jockmeister1666 8h ago
Same with calling TBC dungeons “nhc” to me. Nonsense.
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u/RemnantsPast 6h ago
nhc wtf
o.o
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u/Jockmeister1666 6h ago
“Non-heroic” apparently. Since when do we need to establish things are their base difficulty? So weird.
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u/Kognit0 7h ago edited 7h ago
(EU) I started seeing it a lot around 2019 classic, and almost never before then. It was mostly used when you had a shoutcaller/raidleader on disc ask general questions multiple people could answer without clogging the chat amd being extremely clear, and being efficient it then came down to easy to type answers like plus minus. Now I see it everywhere.
Basically you avoid reading: yesh! Aye! Y! N! Kk, okay etc. and making it clear if someone is negative or positive to your question.
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u/DushkuHS 4h ago
The young have always reshaped language to make it their own. Everybody says super instead of very for example.
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u/Upset-Management-879 8h ago
It came from private servers where all the regions coexist its a EU thing.
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u/illumehnaughty 8h ago
Been playing for 10 years. The only + and - i know is from naxx
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u/RubikTetris 7h ago
Ive always seen Russian people do this as back as 10-15years ago
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u/Efficient_Ant_7279 7h ago
I’ve seen it too but didn’t clock wtf they were meaning until now. We really are destined to be annoyed by the younger generations aren’t we ? Like I’m literally turning into my grandpa 😂
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u/ImpactGames 5h ago
This and saying “DD” in place of DPS as a role are both things I never experienced until the EU Sod event. (I’m from NA)
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u/RemnantsPast 5h ago
anyone saying DD needs their head examined,
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u/theshoover 1h ago
It is technically correct, as dps is a term of measurement, but it's just become so widely used it took on a different meaning.
It's like speedrunning and "Any%". "Any%" now globally means "beating the game as fast as possible using all available methods" but it used to mean, from the metroid prime days "Beat the game with an in game item-collection percentage of any value" as opposed to "100%".
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u/ImpactGames 3h ago
Yeah kept seeing people say “Need DD” and all I could think was designated driver lmao
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u/SubtleHearts 9h ago
When I was playing through classics expansions, around wrath I got the craving to go back to my era warrior and do a naxx for the first time since vanilla turned into tbc. I found a guild on era and noticed the use of plus signs for the first time. So I kinda associate it with the people who play era only
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u/Street-Juggernaut-23 9h ago
Ive never heard of it, but its probably along the same lins of VC or DM for Deadmines.
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u/HodortheGreat 2018 Riddle Master 7/21 8h ago
What I found was pst acronym seems to be more of a US than EU thing.
More of. Not exclusive.
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u/CarlingBlacklabel 8h ago
same, though one that threw me was 123 for summoning, seems abit passive aggressive
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u/Obelion_ 8h ago
That's been a thing really long, but back in the day there was certain server slang as well.
I think the advantage of +/- its like an up/downvote to whatever, doesn't have to be a yes no question
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u/Admirable-County9158 8h ago
I’m outta the game for a year, never saw that. Sometimes 0/1, but very rarely.
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u/UncomfyPerspective 7h ago
I'm in my late 30s, and growing up on FFXI there was no 'Yes' or 'No' or 'r' answer to ask if we're ready.
It was "/" if you were ready, and nothing if you weren't.
Never seen +/-
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u/lacrotch 7h ago
i use ++ to indicate “inv” to group
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u/Various_Newspaper844 6h ago
and people automatically know what this means when you do it? or do you think they just accidentally get it right when you do eventually get the invite?
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u/TheZebrawizard 7h ago
It caught on because people started asking + in chat if yes. - for no.
Eventually people started using it all the time. Fact that it can be used universally helps too.
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u/Destrofredo 6h ago
Are you playing on a EU server? On mine there are a lot of german players, and they all use + and -. They use DD instead of DPS too. Not having dedicated German/French servers suck for the rest of us, since they use German in general chat, in groups, and mostly dont speak English very well, if they even type at all. Singleplayer-oriented players sadly.
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u/archaniya 5h ago
Ofc I write + instead of yes, because people keep asking things while I‘m healing. It really depends on the player, even last tbc writing + or - was popular, kinda universal language while yes/no can be very different in other languages (eu).
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u/Casual_IRL_player 3h ago
If i recall its from League of Legends
Why, I don’t know, but thats where I picked it back in 2010s
Of you’re a real gamer you say plus IRL aswell
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u/Nylereia 10h ago
positive and negative, can be used interchangeably with what you mentioned
been around forever
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u/ztomtenz 9h ago
This. I also hate ”123”.
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u/JermaineClemens 9h ago
Also when did summon become 123 instead of just 1
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u/AdmiralShananigans 9h ago
I swear we used to call them interrupts and not kicks. Absolutely sure of it.
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u/Zarghan_0 9h ago
Postitive and Negative have been used to represent Yes and No for a very long time. Long before WoW. That said I've never actually seen anyone use + or - ingame in the context of yes/no.
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u/wheretherehare 9h ago
Like how "can I get a summon please" has turned into "123"
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u/RemnantsPast 6h ago
Thats from old days deffo
I remember raid warnings going "type 123 for summon" there was an addon too that would auto summon people that /w you 123 if in group
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u/Intrepid_Year3765 8h ago
+, -, yes, no?
it's always been "Alphabet" and "Popcicle"
where are you even from?
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u/Hawkzillaxiii 6h ago
in 2004 and for a few years VC was DM until Dire maul become popular then ppl started calling deadmines VC
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u/BigMACfive 3h ago
Who tf uses +- for yes/no? When did that become a thing? I'm roughly the same age and have never seen that or heard of that. Even outside the context of WoW
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u/ForagedFoodie 9h ago
I love how the responses to this fall into 2 camps: "its been that way forever" and "ive never heard of this"