What's Up with the term "Try Hard"? Rant

[Tanya-Fan-28]

I literally found out about this derogatorive term last week because as soon as I connected with someone on kasual, the dude over the mic started yelling "ITS A TRY-HARD" in an intentionally goofy loud voice & repeated over the 3 matches. He must have saw I was level 61 & he was 27 or something, because he started before the match even began. Today there's a room called "No Pros or Try Hards". To me the root of this name is basically "I can't punish a lot of these players, so I'm going to call them a type of player, try hards". Isn't avoiding getting poked, juggling combos, & well trying to win the whole point? What's even the pointing of practicing anymore. Y'all come up with names for anything that inconveniences you.

 

[M.D.]

It's basically people that want to play Airsoft without the balls in the gun.

Sure, it's legal and allowed to put balls in the gun because that's why Airsoft was invented, but this group wants just to play shootout without getting hurt at all and they try to get an isolated group that want the same thing.

Now, when a tryhard comes in their group with his gun locked and loaded and sprays everyone, they naturally reject him and spew hate on him.


It's like going to your friends house on a Saturday and waiting for him to pick his char so you can counterpick him with a 7-3 so you can just take the win with no money on the line.
It's like playing casually with your friend and hitting him with Cyrax 99% reset over and over so you can just win.

These people don't want and don't care to win, they want to have fun. So if someone doesn't block low, they don't do 247 sweeps in a row and take the win, they play differently so they both have fun.


It's however baffling that they expect this kind of understanding from random online matches.

 

[Tanya-Fan-28]

It's basically people that want to play Airsoft without the balls in the gun.

Sure, it's legal and allowed to put balls in the gun because that's why Airsoft was invented, but this group wants just to play shootout without getting hurt at all and they try to get an isolated group that want the same thing.

Now, when a tryhard comes in their group with his gun locked and loaded and sprays everyone, they naturally reject him and spew hate on him.


It's like going to your friends house on a Saturday and waiting for him to pick his char so you can counterpick him with a 7-3 so you can just take the win with no money on the line.
It's like playing casually with your friend and hitting him with Cyrax 99% reset over and over so you can just win.

These people don't want and don't care to win, they want to have fun. So if someone doesn't block low, they don't do 247 sweeps in a row and take the win, they play differently so they both have fun.


It's however baffling that they expect this kind of understanding from random online matches.

I guess it was because I was on kasual mode. Its just really good players tell scrubs to stay off ranked, and kasuals tell semi-good players to stay off kasual ranked. Maybe I need to grow thicker skin & think for myself rather than creating rants because its not going to change anything.

 

[M.D.]

Yes you just need to pour spam in them until they quit.

We have private matches for what they want.

 

[NothingPersonal]

So?

 

[ColdBoreMK23]

People are underachievers in life so they have to bash people who are better than them at something to make themselves feel good.

 

[Jynks]

Try Hard is a common Aussie slang... it means someone that is disproportionately putting effort into something. It is just another term for looser.

So a guy that wear knee long trench coats in summer and dark glasses at night and says edgy shit all the time is a Try Hard.. maybe a modern US equivalent would be "Hipster".

Or say that guy who is on the fringe of your friend group, like the guy who isn't your friend but you see at the pub all the time. You know the type, always over eager, laughing to hard at something, spending to much money on others, offering to give people lifts everywhere. If someone gets annoyed they get 5 times as annoyed.. there is just something a little off and desperate about them. Try Hard.

I think it comes, in Australia anyway, from our cultural "she'll be right, mate" attitude. It isn't cool in Australia to put to much effort into anything, it should be natural. "Oh she spent 4 hours on hair gel and makeup? She's a Try Hard, I just wack on some lippy and out the door."

 

[Sazbak]

Try-hard = really focused on playing to win but in a way that your opponent doesn't approve.

A more specific version of this can be the "tier whore" who always pick the strongest/easiest character because that's what gives him the most chance at winning.
You can be a "try hard" in other ways as well e.g. doing "cheap" moves that are easy to execute but hard to defend against.

Look up the "Introducing the scrub" chapter in this e-book for more info.

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw

 

[ShadyHeart]

Scapegoat.

 

[Jynks]

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw

The entire problem with that "Introducing the Scrub" text, is that it assumes people enjoy "playing to win". This dude is just projecting his own likes on others. He only enjoys winning, so anyone that plays in a way that dose not maximise winning is "playing wrong"... that is pretty scrubby thinking itself imo.

Do not get me wrong there is a lot of cool points in that blog, but the conceit is that winning is the only point to playing, and it is not. LOTS of people, myself included like to have fun in other ways while playing, and the truth is that often the best tactics are the least enjoyable. I would rather loose a 100 games and connect some awesome swaggy combo with Bane than zone as deadshot or Starfire all day in ItsJustAss for example.

I play Shao Khan and Kano and not Jacqui, by his logic I am a scrub as I am gimping myself because I chose a char I think is cool, not one that is s-Tier.

 

[Sazbak]

The entire problem with that "Introducing the Scrub" text, is that it assumes people enjoy "playing to win". This dude is just projecting his own likes on others. He only enjoys winning, so anyone that plays in a way that dose not maximise winning is "playing wrong"... that is pretty scrubby thinking itself imo.

Do not get me wrong there is a lot of cool points in that blog, but the conceit is that winning is the only point to playing, and it is not. LOTS of people, myself included like to have fun, and the truth is that often the best tactics are the least enjoyable. I would rather loose a 100 games and connect some awesome swaggy combo with Bane than zone as deadshot or Starfire all day in ItsJustAss for example.

It's been a while since I last read Sirlin's article so I don't know if there is a hint of condescension in the article against people who don't "play to win" or not. Anyway 'playing to win' is not a black or white matter to me. E.g. I always pick the character I find the coolest regardless of tier placement(Tira in SC6 was absolute bottom tier yet she was the most stylish for me). So you can say I don't play to win in this aspect. However I do play to win when it comes to everything else in game. There is no such thing as cheap stuff in my book.

Bottom line: doesn't matter where you are on the scale from 1 to 10 when it comes to 'playing to win' don't let other people tell you how to play this game.

 

[TaserFace007]

This is one of the reasons I always start a private party before going online. I have no idea what anyone is ever trying to say, so I can just ignore worthless fools like this.

 

[DixieFlatline78]

An actual try hard would be a person who wears a hat and sunglasses to a friendly low stakes poker game with his family

I dont see how someone could be a try hard in a fighting game. Maybe if you do fake button presses when playing with your eight year old brother. But online? It's just two people and the game

 

[Vslayer]

I feel like that term started in CoD, at least when I played it was used pretty often and I played those games for 10 years. To be honest, games like CoD are more casual overall, there are competitions, but most people just play it for fun and nearly never have a competitive mindset, so when they're against a team that works together and they lose because they probably don't communicate with their team, they call them try hards, as if winning in a game made to work in a team is a bad thing. And playing together with friends is actually the best part of those games.

I never heard that term used for fighting games, he's probably just a troll.

 

[stokedAF]

People have really lame insults these days. I find that most of them are projection and a lack of self awareness. Like the guy screaming out “try hard” because he’s a try hard and mad that he’s getting bodied.

 

[STB Sgt Reed]

Basically, in fighting games, "try hard" is an "insult" used by casual scrubs to indicate to their scrub mates that a person who actually practices, learns frames, knows their punishes and bnbs, setups, when to use meter and when not to, how to AA, how to zone, etc is now present and they must all flee to safety in other scrub friendly rooms where they can all mash and teleport freely to their hearts content with no consequences.

 

[magandi]

top players in starcraft use barcodenames, so others can't watch their replays. now some bronze players do the same. they usually just autoplay a cheesetactic. i call them tryhards. no one will ever watch a replay of a scrub lmao.

 

[FonicSox]

I don't think there's an internal logic to those types of responses. I think there are just players who need to rant and vent when they lose and will spout off the first thing that comes to mind as an excuse. Lag, you were mashing, you're a tryhard, my hamster ate my controller mid-match, etc. These people need to recognize something: if they're not trying to win why do they even get mad? If you're just goofing around how are you upset? You apparently take these matches more seriously than I do since I'm not swallowing a microphone in a blind rage.

 

[Matador Fiend]

They just suck. I have my own definition of a tryhard, but i dont go around calling people it lol. Basically its ok if geras is your favorite character. But if your "mains" just so happen to be Sonya, Geras and Scorpion, then yeah to me you are a tryhard lol

Like i said though its just what i will think of you. Im not gonna rant if you win or anything.

 

[Under_The_Mayo]

Full respect to anyone who's just having fun and doesn't wanna play pro players. But insulting them for playing pro is really stupid.

 

[Juxtapose]

Try-hard = really focused on playing to win but in a way that your opponent doesn't approve.

A more specific version of this can be the "tier whore" who always pick the strongest/easiest character because that's what gives him the most chance at winning.
You can be a "try hard" in other ways as well e.g. doing "cheap" moves that are easy to execute but hard to defend against.

Look up the "Introducing the scrub" chapter in this e-book for more info.

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw

I read the articles from "Playing to Win" posted here on TYM years ago, and I think it's a fantastic read and an excellent look at a state of mind for more than just games, but many aspects of real life as well.

It's not the kind of mentality for everyone though, and the articles mention that there's nothing wrong with being a scrub, that 99% of the world's population is a scrub and that's fine. I don't think the article is meant to be derogatory, but rather uses terms already in existence and describes how to go about truly improving and winning if that's what you wish to do.

Having said that, I play characters in fighting games because I like them, not because they're tops. I'm currently playing Highborn Kitana, and I want to pick up Shao Kahn next, and then Jade. I'm also currently playing Towers of Time and Single Fights against the Hard AI; no Online in Mortal Kombat 11 for me just yet.

 

[true_koshak]

I guess it was because I was on kasual mode. Its just really good players tell scrubs to stay off ranked, and kasuals tell semi-good players to stay off kasual ranked. Maybe I need to grow thicker skin & think for myself rather than creating rants because its not going to change anything.

I'm using following solution when playing on PS4 -> Create Private party with only you in there -> You will no longer hear what opponent says over the mic -> PROFIT

P.S. This however doesn't stop them from sending you hate messages telling that you are 'try hard'. I just block that user after first message like that and it's done. It's not even worth starting a conversation with people like that. IMO

 

[Buster Skruggs]

Never understood the term neither. Most of the time against these players you don't even try hard lol.