General Category > AI War II - Lore, Vfx, Sfx, Code, & Meta

Can we retire the term "Whipping Boy"?

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Nuc_Temeron:
Somewhere along the line someone used the term Whipping Boy to refer to a defended frontline system. Can we please retire this term? It's completely bizarre.

Can we refer to them as Chokepoints, or some other sensible term, in AI War II? Really, anything but Whipping Boy.

Captain Jack:
Unfortunately "chokepoint" is insufficiently descriptive. A whipping boy isn't just a defensive position, it's one that you actively invite trouble to the way a English princeling might.

Now that I think about it, wasn't there a movie called The Whipping Boy?

Anyway, that's on the community. Be convincing!

Pumpkin:
I'm completely okay with no more using it, unfortunately, as Jack said, it's a word deep-routed into the community as it describes a specific strategy. Chokepoint sure could work but it imply more the narrowing of the frontier than the pile of hard-hitting stuff in it.

Maybe, as the community slowly expand (and it will, with AIW2) and the "old hardcore player-base" (which I'm only half part of) becomes more and more diluted, the terms like "whipping boy" might fade out.

But right now, changing the community will be hard.
However, your point is interesting. I'll try to avoid that indeed confusing term.

Toranth:

--- Quote from: Pumpkin on September 24, 2016, 11:57:26 am ---I'm completely okay with no more using it, unfortunately, as Jack said, it's a word deep-routed into the community as it describes a specific strategy. Chokepoint sure could work but it imply more the narrowing of the frontier than the pile of hard-hitting stuff in it.

Maybe, as the community slowly expand (and it will, with AIW2) and the "old hardcore player-base" (which I'm only half part of) becomes more and more diluted, the terms like "whipping boy" might fade out.
snip

--- End quote ---
Yeah, I've noticed the term hasn't been showing up nearly as often as it did years ago.  I suspect a big part of that is that the strategy itself has changed, so it isn't as relevant to current discussion of the game.

In the olden days, your whipping boy system didn't have to be a chokepoint; it was just the system you tanked incoming waves on - usually by putting almost all of your turrets there..  Frequently, it WAS a chokepoint (easiest to solve multiple problems at once) but you could also put it on the default Exo path with just a little gate raiding.
These days, there are still stronghold systems (where Fortresses or HBCs might go) but since other systems can survive a wave or two occasionally, it isn't as essential to take all your abuse in one place anymore.
Hence, no need to use the term, because there's no need to use the strategy.

chemical_art:
I haven't used the term myself. But the moment it is discouraged that will make it appealing to use again.

Best way to phase it out is to not mention it at all.

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