Gib (video gaming)

This article is about computer game content. For other uses, see Gib.

Gibs, short for giblets, is a humorous term referring to the variably-sized body parts ("guts"), fragments, and offal produced when non-player characters or game players are damaged or killed in video games. John Romero [1] has been credited for coining the term "gibs". To "gib" one's opponents is to hit them with such force (often with explosives) that they rupture.


Use in games

Gibs from OpenQuartz game
Doom '​s level of graphic violence made the game highly controversial. Here the player purees demons by launching a rocket at them from point-blank range. Note the giblets.

Gibs feature prominently in many shooter games where gameplay generally focuses on killing large numbers of enemies. One of the first games in which gibs appeared was Narc (1988), although they were also a feature of the pioneering first-person shooter Doom (1993) and have been a mainstay of gaming titles ever since.

The use of "gib" is reserved for instances when a game character has been killed with such force that their body is reduced to chunked body parts, and perhaps a slurry of flesh and blood. In some games, the resulting gibs disappear after a short period to improve game performance by decreasing the number of objects that the game engine must render.

As well as describing the fragments as gibs, the word may be used as a verb, and killing a game character in this manner is to "gib" them. "Gib", and the related term "frag", are most commonly used in multiplayer deathmatches, where human player characters primarily kill one another rather than non-player characters. Introduced first in Unreal Tournament, some games feature an Instagib gameplay mod or mutator in which a hit on an opponent results in instantaneous "gibbing". When a "gibbing" happens in the past tense it is known as being "gibbed" (e.g., "He got gibbed!").

There has been a decline of the use of simple gibs in games due to the development of ragdoll physics, which is better able to represent the effects of high-powered attacks. Many modern games that retain gibbing use dynamic ragdolls that can separate bodies into gibs that the physics system can then control. Some games even include jointed limbs as gibs to add to the dynamic effect of gibbing.

Notable gibs

Criticism

Gibbing in computer and video games, mostly in first-person shooter titles, has raised legal issues for child protection and led to titles being age rated in accordance with video game content rating systems. In most games containing gibs, the ESRB rating is an "M" for Mature, and is recommended only for audiences aged 17 and above. In Great Britain, some games featuring gibs are rated 15, but more realistic ones are rated 18.

References

See also