The History Of The Word "llama"
<div class="IPBDescription">An English assignment I'm sharing</div> The following is a story I made up for an English assignment. We had to make up the history of a word that we use in our hobbies. I chose "llama". Enjoy!
Billy was one of those kids that every geek aspires to be: rich parents, T3 Internet access, and, of course, eternally the fastest computer known to man. He was a spoiled little kid. His parents bought him everything the day it came out or sooner (they had industry connections). He beta-tested Half-Life (including ALL of the supported mods), Doom 3 (yes, 3), Warcraft 3, Age of Mythology, and so on. He had it great. He absolutely LOVED Internet gaming. His favorite game was Counter-Strike.
Billy, of course, wasn’t that different from everyone else that plays Counter-Strike. He used the standard progression: buy MP5’s for a couple rounds, then work your way up to the better weapons. He also was one of the best players to grace the servers. He rarely got fragged, and quickly shot to the top of the list. People quickly learned to fear +h3 4|/\/\1+y K1||eR (The Almighty Killer, for the non-l33t).
But +h3 4|/\/\1+y K1||eR was unhappy on the normal servers. He got bored of headshotting everyone in sight. He could play against one hundred, twenty-seven others and beat them all in less than five minutes. So, he went a step further: he created a clan. He scoured every server in the window for the best of the best of the best C-S players. When he found a candidate, he gave him his IP address, and told them when to go on. After trying out all his “Chosen Ones”, he took the top fifteen and created the “||4/\/\@$” (llamas) clan, named so because that was what Billy found when he opened a dictionary.
The “||4/\/\@$” became, almost immediately, a famous clan. Gametiger.net, which offers a service to find anyone with a specific name, said, “One month after they were founded, the number of searches for ||4/\/\@$ was in the millions.” Everyone wanted to be on the side of a “||4/\/\@”. Servers quickly filled up when one joined.
But the ||4/\/\@$ didn’t like it like that. They became reclusive. Their server became password-protected. Only ||4/\/\@$ members could join. Occasionally, a non-||4/\/\@ would be allowed in. When they came back, they told of the wonderfulness of the server. “They have the coolest maps I’ve ever seen. It’s the only place to get them.” “They have the lowest ping anywhere.” And so on. The ||4/\/\@$, however, didn’t like that. They saw their maps on the open servers, and changed their rotations regularly.
And then, one day, something happened. The ||4/\/\@$ server was no longer password-protected. It was set up for thirty-two players, twice the size of ||4/\/\@$. Half of the ||4/\/\@$ were CT’s (one side of a C-S game), the other half T’s (the other side). The server stayed up for four hours, before a hacker destroyed it. Why would a hacker do such a thing? The actions of the ||4/\/\@$ speak it clearly.
Were you one of the “Unlucky 16” who managed to join, you quickly would have understood what happened since they left the normal servers. The Message of the Day is unprintable, as it was almost entirely obscene. Immediately when the rounds began, the ||4/\/\@$ killed off their team members. They hurled obscenities at the non-||4/\/\@$ at near-constant rates. A few people who joined actually required psychiatric help afterwards. Somehow, one of the players managed to get word to a friend, who took the server down. Immediately, they logged onto as many servers as they could and told the Admins (people who run servers) to ban the ||4/\/\@$ from their server. Three of them contacted PlanetHalfLife.com, which is the place to go for Half-Life and its mods (including Counter-Strike) information. They posted a bulletin telling people to avoid the ||4/\/\@$.
A little later, Billy went onto PlanetHalfLife.com, just to see what happened. He noticed ||4/\/\@$ in the News section. Upon reading it, he jumped onto the forums. His post went like this:
“I am [||4/\/\@$] +h3 4|/\/\1+y K1||eR, leader of the ||4/\/\@$ clan. Earlier today, we appeased your ungrateful hearts by opening our server to your pathetic, whimpering selves. We didn’t even gang up on you. Why you think we are obligated to lower ourselves to your level is beyond me. You people deserve to have 14.4 modems (an extremely slow Internet connection, unsuitable for gaming).”
A response came back:
“[||4/\/\@$] +h3 4|/\/\1+y K1||eR, I am |\|3wB H4><00R (newbie hacker). I shut down your server at the request of a friend. Your actions were unworthy of anyone who can consider themselves a player of Counter-Strike. Your server would have been shut down, had it been public, because of its arrogance. You should be ashamed.”
There was more commentary, with Billy trying to defend himself. It eventually fizzled away, but he had made his mark. Counter-Strike update 1.04 removed the IP address 23.17.416.93 (the ||4/\/\@$ server) from its list, and all admins banned the prefix [||4/\/\@$] from their servers. Eventually, when a particularly offensive newbie (new player) hater would be playing, he would be called a llama, the non-l33t version of ||4/\/\@, as that was considered an obscenity.
Billy was one of those kids that every geek aspires to be: rich parents, T3 Internet access, and, of course, eternally the fastest computer known to man. He was a spoiled little kid. His parents bought him everything the day it came out or sooner (they had industry connections). He beta-tested Half-Life (including ALL of the supported mods), Doom 3 (yes, 3), Warcraft 3, Age of Mythology, and so on. He had it great. He absolutely LOVED Internet gaming. His favorite game was Counter-Strike.
Billy, of course, wasn’t that different from everyone else that plays Counter-Strike. He used the standard progression: buy MP5’s for a couple rounds, then work your way up to the better weapons. He also was one of the best players to grace the servers. He rarely got fragged, and quickly shot to the top of the list. People quickly learned to fear +h3 4|/\/\1+y K1||eR (The Almighty Killer, for the non-l33t).
But +h3 4|/\/\1+y K1||eR was unhappy on the normal servers. He got bored of headshotting everyone in sight. He could play against one hundred, twenty-seven others and beat them all in less than five minutes. So, he went a step further: he created a clan. He scoured every server in the window for the best of the best of the best C-S players. When he found a candidate, he gave him his IP address, and told them when to go on. After trying out all his “Chosen Ones”, he took the top fifteen and created the “||4/\/\@$” (llamas) clan, named so because that was what Billy found when he opened a dictionary.
The “||4/\/\@$” became, almost immediately, a famous clan. Gametiger.net, which offers a service to find anyone with a specific name, said, “One month after they were founded, the number of searches for ||4/\/\@$ was in the millions.” Everyone wanted to be on the side of a “||4/\/\@”. Servers quickly filled up when one joined.
But the ||4/\/\@$ didn’t like it like that. They became reclusive. Their server became password-protected. Only ||4/\/\@$ members could join. Occasionally, a non-||4/\/\@ would be allowed in. When they came back, they told of the wonderfulness of the server. “They have the coolest maps I’ve ever seen. It’s the only place to get them.” “They have the lowest ping anywhere.” And so on. The ||4/\/\@$, however, didn’t like that. They saw their maps on the open servers, and changed their rotations regularly.
And then, one day, something happened. The ||4/\/\@$ server was no longer password-protected. It was set up for thirty-two players, twice the size of ||4/\/\@$. Half of the ||4/\/\@$ were CT’s (one side of a C-S game), the other half T’s (the other side). The server stayed up for four hours, before a hacker destroyed it. Why would a hacker do such a thing? The actions of the ||4/\/\@$ speak it clearly.
Were you one of the “Unlucky 16” who managed to join, you quickly would have understood what happened since they left the normal servers. The Message of the Day is unprintable, as it was almost entirely obscene. Immediately when the rounds began, the ||4/\/\@$ killed off their team members. They hurled obscenities at the non-||4/\/\@$ at near-constant rates. A few people who joined actually required psychiatric help afterwards. Somehow, one of the players managed to get word to a friend, who took the server down. Immediately, they logged onto as many servers as they could and told the Admins (people who run servers) to ban the ||4/\/\@$ from their server. Three of them contacted PlanetHalfLife.com, which is the place to go for Half-Life and its mods (including Counter-Strike) information. They posted a bulletin telling people to avoid the ||4/\/\@$.
A little later, Billy went onto PlanetHalfLife.com, just to see what happened. He noticed ||4/\/\@$ in the News section. Upon reading it, he jumped onto the forums. His post went like this:
“I am [||4/\/\@$] +h3 4|/\/\1+y K1||eR, leader of the ||4/\/\@$ clan. Earlier today, we appeased your ungrateful hearts by opening our server to your pathetic, whimpering selves. We didn’t even gang up on you. Why you think we are obligated to lower ourselves to your level is beyond me. You people deserve to have 14.4 modems (an extremely slow Internet connection, unsuitable for gaming).”
A response came back:
“[||4/\/\@$] +h3 4|/\/\1+y K1||eR, I am |\|3wB H4><00R (newbie hacker). I shut down your server at the request of a friend. Your actions were unworthy of anyone who can consider themselves a player of Counter-Strike. Your server would have been shut down, had it been public, because of its arrogance. You should be ashamed.”
There was more commentary, with Billy trying to defend himself. It eventually fizzled away, but he had made his mark. Counter-Strike update 1.04 removed the IP address 23.17.416.93 (the ||4/\/\@$ server) from its list, and all admins banned the prefix [||4/\/\@$] from their servers. Eventually, when a particularly offensive newbie (new player) hater would be playing, he would be called a llama, the non-l33t version of ||4/\/\@, as that was considered an obscenity.
Comments
He did. I got an A, 93.5%. And it was part of an assignment about slang, and we had to do some other stuff as well. It was really quite fun to do.
That was a interesting read. Good job <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
If the assignment is on the history of the word, then I suggest a heavy rewrite to be less a story about a llama, and focus more on the history of the word. If you need w/ the words history, you're in luck cause the NS forums has a large collection of people that know about this stuff. :)
The story itself is good though, so if you decide it is appropriate and you want to keep it, here are some suggestions:
However, many elements of your story will be very very confusing to your teacher. The guys here don't think nothing of it, but a lot of terminology you use that you wouldn't even think twice about your teacher won't have a clue on.
First and fore most, lose or at least simplify the leet speak. Explain WHY there's a 3 in place of the e in the name, why people feel the need to do it. Again, keep the l33t speak pretty simple, lose the ||'s and the /\/\'s as it won't come out well in print and your teacher will feel uncomfortable, and just give you marks off by default.
- Your teacher won't know what a T3 is. Explain that its a very very fast, expensive way to connect to the internet.
- Your teacher won't know what beta testing is either. just leave out the word "beta" and just use "was hired to test" or something instead.
- Don't assume the reader knows what Counter-Strike is. Take 1 (but only 1) paragraph and explain the very very very basic concepts of the game. The same goes with terminology such as map (though I bet if you use the word "level" they'll know that one), MOTD, and etc.
Don't take these points to mean that its a bad story, its not. I'm just giving you some ideas to make it even better. :)
[edit]
And I just now noticed that you already turned it in and got an A anyway. Good job. I'll leave my critiques here so you can make your NEXT paper better then. :P
[/edit]
I feel sorry for the person who marked it really.