In computer games,
gibs , short for
gibletsGiblets are the edible offal of a fowl, typically including the heart, gizzard, liver, anus, and other visceral organs: the term is culinary usage only. Giblets is pronounced as a voiced postalveolar affricate as opposed to a voiced velar stop .A whole bird from a butcher is often packaged with...
, are variably-sized body parts or fragments produced when
non-player characterA non-player character, often shortened to NPC, is a character that is controlled by the gamemaster in role-playing games. When this definition extends to video games, an NPC in a video game is usually part of the program, and not controlled by a human....
s or
game playersA player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
are damaged or killed.
Adrian CarmackAdrian Carmack is one of the four founders of id Software, along with Tom Hall, John Romero, and John D. Carmack . He had worked there as an artist. He was a major stock owner of id Software until he left the company....
has been credited for coining the term "gibs".
Gibs feature prominently in many
shooter gameShooter games are a subgenre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. Because shooters make up the majority of action games, it is a fairly wide subgenre. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of...
s where gameplay generally focuses on killing large numbers of enemies. One of the first games in which gibs appeared was
Smash TVSmash TV is a 1990 arcade game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams. Home versions were developed for various platforms and most were published by Acclaim Entertainment...
(1990), although they were also a feature of the pioneering
first-person shooterFirst-person shooter is a video game genre which centers the gameplay around gun- and projectile weapon-based combat through the first person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits...
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 a slurry of flesh and blood.
In computer games,
gibs , short for
gibletsGiblets are the edible offal of a fowl, typically including the heart, gizzard, liver, anus, and other visceral organs: the term is culinary usage only. Giblets is pronounced as a voiced postalveolar affricate as opposed to a voiced velar stop .A whole bird from a butcher is often packaged with...
, are variably-sized body parts or fragments produced when
non-player characterA non-player character, often shortened to NPC, is a character that is controlled by the gamemaster in role-playing games. When this definition extends to video games, an NPC in a video game is usually part of the program, and not controlled by a human....
s or
game playersA player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
are damaged or killed.
Adrian CarmackAdrian Carmack is one of the four founders of id Software, along with Tom Hall, John Romero, and John D. Carmack . He had worked there as an artist. He was a major stock owner of id Software until he left the company....
has been credited for coining the term "gibs".
Use in games
Gibs feature prominently in many
shooter gameShooter games are a subgenre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. Because shooters make up the majority of action games, it is a fairly wide subgenre. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of...
s where gameplay generally focuses on killing large numbers of enemies. One of the first games in which gibs appeared was
Smash TVSmash TV is a 1990 arcade game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams. Home versions were developed for various platforms and most were published by Acclaim Entertainment...
(1990), although they were also a feature of the pioneering
first-person shooterFirst-person shooter is a video game genre which centers the gameplay around gun- and projectile weapon-based combat through the first person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits...
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 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 engineA game engine is a software system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and desktop operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X...
must render.
As well as describing the fragments as gibs, the word may be used as a
verbkalleah hit meIn syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice...
, and killing a game character in this manner is to "gib" them. "Gib", and the related term "
fragFrag is a computer and video game term originating from the word fragment, "To break apart". A frag is roughly equivalent to "kill", with the main difference that the player being "fragged" can respawn , i.e. the "kill" is only temporary. In games it is mainly used as a kill count and score system....
", are most commonly used in multiplayer
deathmatchDeathmatch is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games. The goal of a deathmatch game is to kill as many other players as possible until a certain condition or limit is reached, commonly being a frag limit or time limit...
es, where human player characters primarily kill one another rather than non-player characters. Introduced first in
QuakeQuake is a first-person shooter video game that was released by id Software on June 22, 1996. It was the first game in the popular Quake series of video games....
, some games feature an
InstagibInstagib is an alternate gametype in many first-person shooter games where a single shot can instantly kill an enemy from any range. All players carry only a single weapon, which usually has unlimited ammunition and can fire lethal shots at incredibly high velocity, but with a slow rate of fire...
gameplay
mod or mutatorMod or modification is a term generally applied to PC games, especially first-person shooters, RPGs and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and require the user to have the...
in which a hit on an opponent results in instantaneous "gibbing". When a "gibbing" happens in the past tense it is know as being "gibbed," "he got gibbed!"
There has been a decline of the use of simple gibs in games due to the development of
ragdoll physicsIn computer physics engines, ragdoll physics are a type of procedural animation that is often used as a replacement for traditional static death animations.-Introduction:Early video games used manually-created animations for characters' death sequences...
, 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 limbsA limb is a jointed, or prehensile , appendage of the human or other animal body....
as gibs to add to the dynamic effect of gibbing.
Notable gibs
- Smash TV
Smash TV is a 1990 arcade game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams. Home versions were developed for various platforms and most were published by Acclaim Entertainment...
(1990) was an early game to include gibs. When enemies that are equipped with explosivesAn explosive material is a substance that either is chemically or otherwise energetically unstable or produces a sudden expansion of the material after initiation, usually accompanied by the production of heat and large changes in pressure . This event is called the explosion...
are killed by the player they would be gibbed. Similarly, when the "Rapid Fire" power-up is used, all enemies are immediately gibbed when hit.
- Doom (1993) was one of the first games to use gibs within a 3D environment. Enemies in Doom had sprite
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional/three-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene....
animations that would ordinarily crumple to the ground when killed. However, attacks that cause significantly more damage than what would've been required for a simple kill, most often explosions, would break apart certain enemies (including players during deathmatch) into bloody chunks containing identifiable parts such as a space marineSpace marines are fictional soldiers that operate in outer space. Space marines are common in military science fiction-themed action movies and action games. Historical marines fulfill amphibious roles: ship defense, landing parties, and general high-mobility deployments...
helmet. A slushing sound effect accompanied the animation.
- Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins
Rise of the Triad: Dark War is a first-person shooter video game that was first released on February 17 1995 and developed by Apogee Software...
, Rise of the Triad: Dark WarRise of the Triad: Dark War is a first-person shooter video game that was first released on February 17 1995 and developed by Apogee Software...
(1994, 1995) was the first 3D game to feature flying gibs, flashing a prompt at the upper left corner of the screen that proclaims "Ludicrous gibs!" whenever an enemy is badly gibbed.
- Quake
Quake is a first-person shooter video game that was released by id Software on June 22, 1996. It was the first game in the popular Quake series of video games....
(1996) was the first FPS game where polygonal gibs were literally flying in all directions when an enemy is mightily shot. Enemies can also be gibbed by using non-explosive weapons.
- Quake II
Quake II, released on December 9, 1997, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake; it merely uses the name of the former game due to id's difficulties in acquiring a trademark for alternative titles.The soundtrack for...
(1997) allowed the corpses of friends and foes to be gibbed. This introduced tactical advantages in certain levels since one enemy, the Strogg Medic, could fully resurrect the corpses of its fellow Stroggs. Gibbing the corpses before the Medic could reach them was the best way to prevent enemy resurrections. A mod for Quake II also introduced InstagibInstagib is an alternate gametype in many first-person shooter games where a single shot can instantly kill an enemy from any range. All players carry only a single weapon, which usually has unlimited ammunition and can fire lethal shots at incredibly high velocity, but with a slow rate of fire...
gameplay.
- Unreal (series) The instagib mutator provides all players with a modified shock rifle that upon impact reduces whatever it hit to gibs.
- Soldier of Fortune
"Soldier of Fortune" is another term for a mercenary or adventurer. It may also refer to:* Soldier of Fortune , a publication purportedly aimed at mercenaries* A video game series:** Soldier of Fortune...
(2000) Is the first game where enemies can be dismembered or beheaded by a shooting a limb or head at close range with a shotgunA shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
or repeatedly hitting it with other weapons, including combat knivesA combat knife is a knife designed for military use. A common misconception is that "combat knives" are specialized for close combat, whereas since the end of trench warfare, military knives have been primarily designed for utility/tool use...
.
- State of Emergency
State of Emergency is a controversial 2002 action-adventure video game released by Rockstar Games. It was developed by Polish firm VIS Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows...
(2002) allowed the player to pick up the limbs of a gibbed enemy and to use them as a weapon.
- House of the Dead III (2002) Because of the use of a shotgun enemies can be blasted into mush even after the target has been killed.
- Doom 3
Doom 3 is a science fiction horror video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. An example of the first-person shooter genre, Doom 3 was first released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004. The game was later adapted for Linux, as well as being ported by Aspyr Media for Mac...
(2004) Close range shotgun blasts or explosives would literally explode enemies apart, the limbs and other body parts would be sent in all directions and then fall to the ground
- F.E.A.R. (2005) uses gibs commonly depending of the impact of the weapon used.
- Resistance: Fall of Man
Resistance: Fall of Man is a science fiction first-person shooter video game for the PlayStation 3. The game is set in an alternate history 1951, and puts the player in the shoes of Sgt...
(2006) Larger enemies, and the small swarm like enemies gib apart upon death
- Gears of War
Gears of War is a 2006 third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was initially released as an exclusive title for the Xbox 360 in November in North America, Australia, and most of Europe and included a "Limited Collector's Edition" with...
, Gears of War 2Gears of War 2 is a third-person shooter developed by Epic Games with lead design by Cliff Bleszinski, and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. It is the second installment of the Gears of War series. The game was officially released in North America, the United Kingdom, and...
(2006, 2008) Gibs are very commonly displayed in both titles. Often the result of a close up shotgun blast, grenade, mortar, and many more. It is actually very uncommon to see a player die and not have a "gib" take place. Also notable is the physics engine, as stated above, that allows the chunks of persons be moved with the momentum of the occurring strikes.
- TimeShift
TimeShift is a sci-fi first-person shooter developed by Saber Interactive and published by Sierra Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was developed using the Saber 3D engine, v.S-3 and Havok. On August 31, 2007 a demo of TimeShift was released on Xbox Live Marketplace...
(2007) The Player could pick up a crossbow that shot explosive arrows, when enemies were stuck with these or other explosives, they would be blown to chunks of meat. They were very detailed.
- Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to Valve's previous Team Fortress Classic, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows and the Xbox 360. A PlayStation...
(2007) A player will gib when killed by an explosive weapon. The player's body parts are often labelled on his deathcam, e.g. "Your spleen!".
- House of the Dead: Overkill (2008) using powerful weapons, the shotgun in particular mutants can be reduced to pools of blood or have their arms and legs sent flying across the screen.
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 systemA video game content rating system is a system used for the classification of video games into suitability-related groups. Most of these systems are associated with and/or sponsored by a government, and are sometimes part of the local motion picture rating system...
s. In most games containing gibs, the ESRB rating is an "M" for Mature, and is recommended only for audiences aged 17 and above. In Britain, some games featuring gibs are rated 15, but more realistic ones are rated 18.