"Try hard..." why is that an insult again?

[lordmardok]

So I've been wondering about the phrase "try hard" in online gaming. I've seen it crop up with increasing regularity for a few years now. For those unfamiliar with the term, it's usually a derogatory term used to describe someone trying hard to win.

...

I'm sorry, but am I missing something here? Why is calling someone a "try hard" supposed to be an insult? Isn't winning the match the goal for most online games? At least the "try hard" is actually, y'know, TRYING instead of being a griefer and trolling.

Someone want to clarify for me why trying to win is apparently a bad thing now?

The definition of 'Try Hard' that I am personally familiar with originated in Fighting Games like Marvel vs Capcom and other arcade titles. A 'Try Hard' character is a character that requires little to no skill to play, that no real effort needs to be put in to learning the character's abilities. If you've ever played Super Skrull from MvC3, that's the definition of a Try Hard as I've been given to understand it. I believe that online gamers use the term in a similar manner, implying that the person who's playing has absolutely no skill and is relying on playing an unbalanced character of some kind to win at all, at that if their skills were ever actually challenged, that they would fail.

 

[Agayek]

So I've been wondering about the phrase "try hard" in online gaming. I've seen it crop up with increasing regularity for a few years now. For those unfamiliar with the term, it's usually a derogatory term used to describe someone trying hard to win.

...

I'm sorry, but am I missing something here? Why is calling someone a "try hard" supposed to be an insult? Isn't winning the match the goal for most online games? At least the "try hard" is actually, y'know, TRYING instead of being a griefer and trolling.

Someone want to clarify for me why trying to win is apparently a bad thing now?

From what I've seen (I don't use it myself), "try hard" as an insult is not "you're trying hard to win, hah hah hah". It's "wow, you're so fucking bad that you really need to try hard at this activity I find easier than breathing".

 

[DasDestroyer]

The way I see it used and use it in Dota 2 is to insult people who do every little thing to win, rather than just playing for fun. Don't get me wrong, everyone wants to win, but when you pick the easiest character, use the easiest build on that character and then use the easiest pub strategy you're crossing a line.

 

[Shpongled]

I use try hard differently from most. I use it to refer to people to whom losing is physically painful. Where winning is literally their everything and it isnt enough that they win. Everyone needs to know they won. And every mistake or loss needs to be blamed, or deflected or excused on someone else. Every victory MUST be gloated about and every mistake a team mate makes MUST be mocked to the enemy team. These people validate themselves on others "Knowing" they are the best and its never their fault they lose and they are perfect. I hate these people a lot. THESE are try hards to me. Whiny attention seekers who demand fealty for the victories and sympathy for their "plight" should they lose and its OBVIOUSLY something/someone elses fault.

So it's another way of saying they're an egocentric poor sport. I see where you're coming from.

A try hard is someone who goes to extreme lengths to win, always using the latest over-powered build or character or class etc, rather than just playing what they like. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, but multiplayer games can be very unbalanced, and facing the same overpowered characters over and over can make multiplayer games very unenjoyable at times.

It is also kind of tongue-in-cheek, we all like to win.

Okay, that makes sense. Speaking as a longtime TF2 player, there are definitely certain builds for classes that have been somewhat OP or plain annoying to fight.

Still though, sometimes it's good to "take one for the team" in a game like TF2. Nobody likes the player that fills the role of Spy/Sniper #4.

Yes, but based on Shpongled's post, what if that is what you like to play as? I've always been on the side of winning is the goal. Of course, I take my winning attitude to the actual field and tend to play video games solo, but in the gaming world why should anyone feel bad for picking the over-powered character? If its a problem, then the game is at fault. Jim Sterling once called foul when the devs of Hydrophobia accused him of playing their game wrong. If I find a way to win with a higher success rate, then it is my choice to do so. I'm not playing it wrong or being a try hard, I'm using the system to my advantage.

Yes, you have the right to abuse the imbalance in games, no it doesn't make you wrong.

Still makes you a douche if you do it though. You can say that's just how you like to play etc so it's the developers faut not yours if your gameplay that they allow makes the game shit for everyone else, but imbalance isn't an intended feature of games, it's an unfortunate inevitability. People who get their kicks from abusing this are douche's who bring down the fun for everyone, thus deserve some sort of insult. "Using the system to my advantage" just doesn't really cut it. Just because something isn't expressly illegal or banned, doesn't mean it isn't a douchey thing to do.

Of course, the insult reflects the severity of the crime, so to speak, and "tryhard" isn't a particularly strong insult, there's much worse things people could say. Sometimes people just need to express their anguish at being beaten again purely because they aren't playing the current flavour of the month.

 

[loa]

Because they will yell at their "inferior" team, relentlessly commenting every mistake since they are the self-proclaimed moderator of your team maybe?
They will kindly inform you of your status as a "noob", oftenly begin sentences with "omg" and frequently suggest that you uninstall.
Play a few games of league of legends to see what I mean, tell me that isn't obnoxious.

The best part is that those people can't even see why "just telling others that they suck" would be abrasive in any way since they're just "helping".
Also, "tryhard" does not even equal "good player" in any way as you will soon find out when playing league of legends.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I think I heard it used once. I was curious so I looked into this thread to see why I should be offended (insulting people over the internet is always stupid its only a matter of why its stupid). Apparently nobody has one definitive definition here either so its a nebulous insult of debatable meaning. That makes it even sadder.

 

[Starik20X6]

I've not seen the phrase used in any sort of gaming context. As I understand it, someone is a 'try-hard' when they go to extreme lengths to prove how cool they are, despite it being painfully obvious that they aren't cool at all. Someone who will do almost anything in order to gain the approval of their peers.

 

[Jandau]

There are two main meanings for it:

1. A person who puts winning ahead of everything, even if it brings down the quality of the game for him and/or others. He'll constantly play only what he deems are THE MOST powerful characters or use only THE MOST powerful weapons. What is deemed most powerful or effective is usually a general consensus and the Tryhard is only following the herd. He'll be playing a character in LoL or DotA not because he likes it or because he's good at it, but because he was TOLD it's the best one.

Tryharding may or may not correlate to actual winning. The term isn't about that, it's about desperation. The people it describes are desperate to win and only win and nothing else matters.

2. An insulting term roughly equivalent to "no-lifer", usually used by people to deride players who beat them. The implication here is that the only reason the "Tryhard" won a game or an engagement was because he was using overpowered game mechanics instead of playing for fun or normally.

Personally, I've found plenty of examples of the first meaning. There really are some people who really only care about winning. Not so say that I don't (I do, quite a bit), but to them it is literally the only motivation and they seem incapable of understanding why someone would play in a way that they perceive as non-optimal.

The underlined part is key here, since Tryhards are often wrong. One of the key components of tryharding is the lack of personal input. They aren't playing in a certain way because they found it to be good or fun or effective, but rather because they were TOLD that's the best way. They likely have characters or gameplay styles they like, but those are disregarded. Heck, they might even get better results with other methods, but will ignore that because they were TOLD this way is better.

And that's the sad thing about Tryharding...

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

In my experience, a tryhard is someone who plays the metagame, abusing overpowered weapons or mechanics knowingly to get an unfair advantage. The last part is important, because I know players who have been forced to adopt overpowered weapons or mechanics in order to have a level playing field, notably the pre-patch USG-11/H gatling gun in Armored Core V. I will generally refrain from using broken elements of the game on principle, but I can't expect others to do the same.

 

[Radoh]

I was under the impression it became a thing because of DeliciousCinnamon's Vietnamese Crystal Let's Play. Am I not correct in assuming this?

 

[Reevesith]

Only times I hear "try hards" is when I'm on TF2 & trying to seed the server. One guy out of four is trying to cap all the points when the rest are tickle fighting heaves, waiting for more to join.

 

[A.A.K]

My interpretation, agreed upon by my mates, is 2 things:
1. You care more than your opponent, much more than your opponent, then you're trying too hard.
eg. If we're playing CoD, and I don't really give a shit...as in, I'm playin for shits and giggles - and you're trying your best to win, you're trying way too damn hard.
2. You care more than you're opponent, you gush and carry on - and then proceed to get slapped into the ground - you 'are' a try-hard.

 

[Strazdas]

To me a try hard is a person who concentrates on the win only and forgets that you can also have fun with a game.

 

[Naeras]

It's an insult because the person saying it is insinuating that, because you beat him, you have no better things to do than play games all the time while everyone else is out having sex with women. Which is quite ironic, because if you need to be a tryhard to beat the person in question, the person is probably also spending too much time behind the keyboard.

 

[Legion]

I always thought it was troll try harder? I couldn't see this as an insult, just patronizing.

That was my assumption as well, but based upon what people have said I think it's like "noob" where you use it aimed at somebody. Like "You are such a try-hard." and it seems to be used to imply that somebody is trying too hard, as opposed to telling them to try harder.

It's not one I have come across personally.

 

[Idlemessiah]

I always took it to mean "you try hard yet you still fail"
A friend of uses it a lot irl.

 

[Panorama]

For me this term goes back to Xan from Unreal tournament, i was never able to kill him even when trying hard, and one of his responses was try harder. I thought this wasn't calling me a 'try harder' which is a terrible insult.
I thought it was him telling me to try harder, which was insulting as i was already trying hard. So i just had to do better. (Sorry that is a bit of a ramble but it makes sense in my head).