This is not true. You're declaring objective history from what seems to be your personal anecdotes (and you say you're guessing in another comment).

HIBP links to this article which shows the history of the term before any of these games: https://www.inverse.com/gaming/pwned-meaning-definition-orig...

That's an enjoyable article, but geez is it light on details.

The one tangible instance mentioned is the Spice Girls hack — but follow the link to discover they didn't even use pwn, but 0wned!

I tried searching a few pre-00s bbs/usenet archives but could only find a couple of gaming-related instances. [1][2]

It'd be pretty interesting to see some hacking groups usage in the 80-90s. Maybe someone with better access to archives could see some trends?

[1] https://groups.google.com/g/alt.games.everquest/c/GN9tm8Esrw...

[2] https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.computer.ultima.online...

Funny, WoW nerds have this exactly same origin myth about the term, and that came out 4 years after CS 1.0.

Ah, the youngsters... I started playing Counter-Strike at beta 6. You could be pwned years before that.

I'm not the person you're arguing with originally, but you may want to do some research before being quite so pompous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet#Owned_and_pwned

>The term was created accidentally by the misspelling of "own" in video game design due to the keyboard proximity of the "O" and "P" keys. It implies domination or humiliation of a rival,[21]

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/buzzword/entries/pwne...').

>There are various theories about the etymology of pwned. >One of the more popular accounts is that it originated in the online computer game World of Warcraft, where a map designer misspelt owned (where own was intended to be used in the sense of 'conquer' or 'dominate').

What was that about being "confidently incorrect" again?

The comment you replied to is the first and only one by that account, and not the original user either.

The term "pwn(ed)" was popular before any of these games existed. Here's a much more thorough history lesson, linked from HIBP itself: https://www.inverse.com/gaming/pwned-meaning-definition-orig...

"At this point, pwn allegedly meant to demote or dethrone someone, but the slang was quickly picked up by early computer-users that exchanged messages on FidoNet, a system created in the 1980s for exchanging emails or text on digital bulletin boards. This is where pwn slowly transformed into the insult we know today."

Is there something about HIBP that makes them more authoritative than anybody else other than having 'pwned' in the name? Genuine question, not being facetious. All I can find is conflicting reports all over the place so I'm trying to understand why, if this is the "true" etymology, this isn't the explanation given in Wikipedia for example? I guess I just don't understand who I should trust, or more importantly, why.

I'm not backing any particular account (in fact the two links I provided disagree with each other), my point was just that it seems silly to be so overly confident on ANY account. Unless, again, there's something special about HIBP in this regard? I'm definitely no internet historian so you'll have to fill me in a little further. :)

>One of the more popular accounts is that it originated in the online computer game World of Warcraft, where a map designer misspelt owned (where own was intended to be used in the sense of 'conquer' or 'dominate').

I'd say the fact that the author of the text obviously doesn't know the difference between World of Warcraft (an MMO) and the Warcraft series (a set of RTS games) casts some doubt on this "popular account". Especially since the games are some ten years apart.

Likewise, my good friend.