Meaning of word 'scrub'
What does the word 'scrub' mean?
I have seen friends use it in chat and people use it in public games, but I am still confused about the meaning of it, and the uses.
A scrub is a synonym for a bad player rather than a noob/newb (whom is not always a bad player.)
The word is most commonly used by arrogant/aggressive players.
The uses:
- Be arrogant
- Think you are better than the rest
- Rage
- Contribute to the toxic part of the community
- Become troll food because you show a ragey nature
- Or more positive: use it as an obvious joke (hard to do)
For most of the "scrub"users it is the exact opposite of "hacker" (arrogance)
There's not much good about the word so try and refrain from using it.
A scrub has two main traits:
- They aren't very good at the game (Or, at least, no better than mid-level)
- They think you're playing it wrong, and are annoyingly vocal about it
Playing the game wrong is whatever the scrub doesn't like: abusing bugs, playing with overpowered characters/races/traits/strategies, not being "fair", or whatever. In real-time strategy games, he insists on No Rush and ragequits if you rush him. In first-person shooter games, he is adamant that sniping is wrongbadfun. It's one thing to say "hey guys, this game is more fun if we leave off the cheesy strategies," but the scrub mandates that all games must use His Chosen Rules Of Fairness, regardless of whether he's playing with his friends at home or a random pick-up game on the 'net.
Of course, since this is an insult, the term "scrub" isn't used with the greatest precision. There's some overlap with "noob", since some noobs complain about cheesiness when they lose.
He occasionally overlaps with Stop Having Fun Guy, who demands that all games are Serious Business, and thus Fun is not the goal.
A scrub is a player who has played a game "a lot" but does not improve. Usually because he
- does not take the game seriously (even though he invests a lot of time in it)
- does not want to learn the basics
- repeats the same mistakes over and over again
A good example for a scrub back in the days was a Warcraft 3 player that only played "Custom Games". Technically he is not a noob, but he is worse than average considering the time he invested in the game.
While Merujsx points out the negative meaning of the word there is no better word to explain the situation of a player that "plays a lot but does not get better at a game". Then again it does not benefit anyone to point this out in front of everybody.