I like to collect words (or terms). Especially words that sound like what they are, or uniquely express a concept that doesn’t already have a word. I’ve made up one term that has been published in many sources:
I coined the term “glossyware” officially in 2004 and published it on Wikipedia. It has subsequently been removed, but can now be found referenced throughout the Internet.
Glossyware – is a slang term referring to marketing materials produced on high-gloss bond paper. Typically, the content of this material provides an abstract description of a product often too vague to obtain a solid understanding of the product and often lacking any relevant substance or evidentiary facts. Rather, the intended impact is to impress the reader with vibrant colors and loaded industry buzzwords in hopes of motivating a sale.
Glossyware is most commonly found in use marketing computer software. Often glossyware is developed from the original design documentation and may include features that have not yet been completed. Such uncompleted features run the risk of ending up as Vaporware. Other examples of glossyware use the Golden Hammer principle to illustrate how the marketed product will solve all of your problems, or at least most of them, often with brilliant use of bullet points.
But back to the topic. My other favorite words:
Ricockulous – something that is far fetched. Popularized by Adam Carolla in the late 1990s on syndicated radio program Love Line. “Your new Eldar army list with a Dark Edlar Archon, Eldrad and a troupe of Harlequins is a ricockulous notion within the context of the fluff; that list is pure pwnium.”
Pwnium – an object used to conquer or gain ownership of someone else (my noun version of the popular leet-speak verb pwn). “My four kill piont Draigo-wing is pure pwnium at the BAO; so what if I’m a douche? I still auto-win one of the three objectives in every game. Isn’t that all that matters?” — Some WAAC gamer.
Obtainium – materials used to create art work or sculpture that wasn’t bought new, but obtained in other ways, such as second-hand, dumpster diving, chance findings or donations. Alternative definition: something you acquire to use one-way, find out it isn’t any good and later find another use for it that is much better. “Check out this obtainium. I’ve had all these Screamers of Tzeentch sitting on my shelf because they looked cool, but sucked. Now they are useful again!”
Okay, so maybe my example sentence for obtainium is lame, but you get the point. The purpose of this article is to discuss gamers who are always going after the next killer list vs. those gamers that are loyal to what they like and get rewarded later when their old crappy codex (Necrons) or mid-tier codex (Chaos Daemons) gets better. The gamer that started playing Necrons after the new codex came out may likely have been looking for pwnium, but the old school Necron player who gets a bump finds that he has some obtainium. I guarantee the later will get MUCH more joy out of the codex/change/update/etc.
If you can’t tell, obtainium beats pwnium in my book every time.