They posted in a gaming forum back in 2011 asking users how anyone playing a game could seriously call anyone a “tryhard” when the point of gaming is to try and win. This contradictory use of the word confused many gamers who were originally familiar with the wannabe-version of tryhard, like Ando85. Give your jellybean a sweatband, because tryharding isn't going anywhere. If I did the same I would crush you, but I don’t want to.” Instead of being synonymous with wannabe, tryhard in gaming became more of an insecure dig to say, “Wow, look how much effort you’re putting in to try and beat me. It was somewhere around this time that gaming’s confusing definition from tryhard took shape. The user provided multiple definition, but included one in the context of online games: Tryhard: an insult blatantly misused by 12-year-old kiddies in online gaming who, ironically, try very hard to win themselves and take it too seriously when they lose. The first gaming-centric definition for tryhard on Urban Dictionary was posted by Rider of Brohan in 2010. This laid the blueprints for other online competitive games for years to come and allowed tryhard to be thrown around in voice chats and gain traction in various gaming communities. Halo 2 was released by Bungie and Microsoft in 2004, the sci-fi shooter revolutionized online matchmaking with an algorithm that would calculate points earned and lost by players based on a match’s results and each player’s individual ranks. If would only take a few more years before gamers adopted tryhard and put their own spin on it. They defined it as “someone who attempts to be cool, but fails to achieve this status.” The earliest non-gaming definition for tryhard on Urban Dictionary was posted in 2005 by user Lex Madtown. Wannabe is still thrown around today, and since “trying hard” is part of the insult’s definition, people eventually began using it as a synonymous diss. In this context, wannabe was hurled as a derogatory description to call out someone who puts in a considerable amount of effort - or tries hard - to put on a contrived persona through imitation. It reached peak popularity as a synonym for a “poser” or “copycat” in 1985 after writer John Skow used the term in a Time cover story to refer to diehard Madonna fans that would dress up like the pop singer. Tryhard is synonymous with the insult “wannabe,” a mash-up of “want to be” that was first used by surfers in the early 1980s. Madonna wannabes outside Madison Square Garden for the Virgin Tour in June 1985. But this hasn’t stopped gamers from using tryhard as an insult for opponents or teammates they believe are taking a game far too seriously. The main objective of most online games is to win and players have more fun if they walk away with a victory. Should you play to win exclusively or should you just sit back, relax, and hope the wins come naturally?Īt a glance, this question is counterintuitive. Momodu claimed these types of players suck the enjoyment out of every game they play for everyone else, and just like that, the TikToker rehashed one of the most contentious arguments in online gaming over the past decade. But there are also “tryhards,” the gamers with their sleeves rolled up and headset hugging their skulls who won’t accept anything less than first place. “You lose the fun in the game once you turn everything so competitive.”Īs Momodu sees it, there are the casual players, who log on to Fall Guys as a pastime and have fun whether they win or lose.

“This is the reason why I stopped playing video games, this game has been out for a week and people are this tryhard at a party game,” he said in disbelief. On August 13, TikTokker Mubeen Momodu split the Fall Guys community in half after he reacted to a Twitch clip of streamer Robert “BOBBYWASABI” Wilson playing the explosively popular, gameshow battle royale.

Gamer lingo try hard