Welcome to the Leet Beat.
Leet-speak (stylized as 1337-5p34k) arose in the 80’s as a way to obfuscate and gatekeep information from the uninitiated. Utilized by hackers and geeks during the Internet’s earliest days, replacing letters with numbers or other symbols was a way to show you were an “elite” (leet for short) member of the community. New members or text-filters weren’t as likely to be able to discern information contained within leet-speak coded messages (7h3 m0r3 5ym6015, 7h3 b377er 7h3 3ff3c7). Thus, those in-the-know could chat on message boards about what they pleased without having to deal with pesky plebs or automatic moderation systems.
As the Internet evolved and became widely accessible, leet-speak found its way to the mainstream as one of the earliest internet memes. The dialect lended itself well to online-gaming communities, with lots of overlap between both the leet-speak lexicon and those who understood it. Geeks and gamers continued to use it in much the same way, as a way to separate the n00bs from the epic h4x0rz.
It’s all very cringe worthy now of course, partially because leet-speak’s popularity died shortly after it became so widespread. Once everyone was in-the-know, it was no longer cool. The n00bs had officially infiltrated the 1337 community.
In retrospect, the principles behind its exclusivity were always cringe worthy. Newcomers should be welcomed to niche communities, whether it's online gaming in the age of dial-up or programming in the days of DOS. Bringing in new perspectives is a boon to any burgeoning community, not a pitfall to be avoided.
Why subscribe?
I was there in those early days of online gaming, using leet speak as a tongue-in-cheek way to celebrate being a member of that community. That last era of leet-speak, during its death throes, was gaming culture at its best. Instead of a way to push newcomers out, leet-speak transformed into a way to draw them in and celebrate the hobby we all shared through a common language.
World of Warcraft was the first game I ever played online. I had to ask someone in Barrens chat to explain what “pwn” meant (and how it would even sound if you said it out loud). I didn’t know it at the time, but that conversation with a complete stranger was my initiation into a lifelong love affair with gaming and gaming culture.
My goal here at Leet Beat is to provide a space where that moment can occur for others. A place where the circle of conversation can open, welcome those who are uninitiated or out-of-the-loop, and bring them up to speed.
Gaming, decoded.
You don’t have to be able to decode 1337 5p34k or even know anything about gaming to read Leet Beat. Just subscribe (it’s free!) and I’ll send you everything interesting I find going on in gaming, why it’s significant and what you need to know.
Subscribers get full access to the newsletter and website. You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.
