/v/

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In reality, of course, /v/ loves the vidya.
/v/ also loves the RAGE.

/v/ is most commonly known as the video game board on 4chan. It has counterparts in 7chan's /vg/and 420chan's /vg/, but as they are slower moving and parts of less popular chans, nobody really cares about them.

/v/ is essentially a SFW /b/ with a slight flavor of video games. It somehow contains more shitposting per inch as well. While it is technically SFW, there is a large amount of crudely edited or cropped furry or loli porn posted by degenerates.

It is filled with underage fanboys, trolls, former /b/tards, and people that were banned from GameFAQs, none of whom would know a good game if it cock slapped them in the face. /v/ is well known for its constant and never ending trolling and flaming due to the complete ineptitude of its mods. It is 4chan's second most populous board, second only to /b/, and is quite possibly one of the worst places on the internet. To spot someone who is new to /v/, simply look for threads where people are actually discussing the vidya, rather than bickering about console wars or jacking off to shotacon. Any discussion actually related to video games is often ignored or shitposted into oblivion.

One of /v/'s biggest claims to fame is being responsible for launching the Rickroll onto an unsuspecting internet, and is thus responsible for much of the real world's awareness of Anonymous. As such, no matter how shit /v/ becomes in the future, it will always live on in infamy.

Although occasionally incorrectly referred to as /v/tards (those are /b/tards living in /v/), residents of /v/ are usually called /v/irgins, due to the unlikely possibility of them ever having sex with anything.

/v/ has a text board compliment at /games/, but no one goes on the text boards. Ever.+

Brief History

/v/'s story starts in October of 2004, making it one of the older boards that's still around in its original form. Since video games have always been a popular discussion topic amongst nerds, it quickly became one of the most frequented boards on the site, and after a few years overtook /a/ as the second most popular board. The board has been one of the busier of those on 4chan, frequently subject to stickies, background/title changes, and other mod wankery.

From 2009 to early 2011, /v/ was called "The Vidya", a title which was commonly employed long before it became official and stands as /v/'s most recognizable title to date. "The Vidya" is most representative of /v/'s retardedly unique subculture, as calling it "Video Games" is pretty misleading. In January of 2011, moot and a few of his faggot friends got drunk and played some Metal Slug, then decided to change the title to "RAWKIT LAWNCHAIR" and embed a sound clip into the board, an act nobody found funny. Shortly after, the title was changed back to "Video Games." Disregard that; on September 9th, 2011; /v/ went back to being called "The Vidya" once more. Disregard that as well, it was changed back to "Video Games" sometime between then and the February 14 sitewide update.

Modus Operandi

/v/ has developed a reputation as the angriest and most down-putting board on 4chan. No matter what your favorite game is, someone will claim that it's shit. There are a few games/series that are almost immune to this rule, such as Kirby, Ace Combat and Metal Gear Solid, but for the most part nothing is sacred on /v/. Most of the discussion on the board, regardless of topic, revolves around flame wars in one form or another. Part of this hate comes from try-hard faggots who think that being cynical will make them appear less noobish, yet most of the hate comes from the fact that /v/ is simply filled with bitter, socially retarded assholes.

"bro complex"

The Bropasta

One of /v/'s favorite words of all time is "bro." Originally used sarcastically to mock the stereotypical frat boy jock "mature games for mature gamers" crowd, it has come to be a term of camaraderie amongst /v/irgins.

This is backed up by the fact that the /v/irgins can be a pretty cooperative and enjoyable bunch when they actually play video games together (as opposed to flinging their shit at each other). Unfortunately, almost nobody on /v/ plays video games.

The mark of brotherhood is the ASCII brofist:

...........
..................__
............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`•¸
........../'/.../..../......./¨¯\
........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...')
.........\.................'...../
..........\............... _.•´
............\..............(

Supplement with triforce for added effect.

The Great Tripfag Orgy of 2007

Moar info: Tripfag Orgy.

A somewhat notable event, as it marks the first time tripfags were banned en masse for posting off topic shit and generally being faggots.

HARMONY, HARMONY, OH LOVE

Riding a unicorn of love into friendship

Moar info: Robot Unicorn Attack.

Probably the only thing capable of bringing /v/ together in peace and love, HARMONY refers to when /v/ discovered the wonder of Adult Swim's flash game Robot Unicorn Attack. On February 27, 2010, Moot tiled a rainbow yaranaika image on the background, embedded an mp3 of Erasure's Always, and all were happy. Any dissenters to the changes were promptly banned and cast to a hell where their dreams will never come true. Moot has put the harmony theme up on /v/ a few times since, much to the delight of the board's residents.

April Fools' Day

On April Fools' day 2010 moot changed /v/ to /babby/ and made Girls' Generation's Gee loop over every thread. This was shortly after either him or a mod or someone with hax made a post in which the babby image was not thumbnailed, but shown full size in a regular thread. This caused /v/ to shit a great deal of bricks and dump their reaction image folders in response. Also, those that didn't know how to adblock were pissed off for several days.

April 2010

Sometime after the previous event, moot realized that /v/ was a pile of shit, but rather than do anything about it he made a pair of useless stickies. One of these stickies eventually resulted in the creation of /vp/ a few months later. In the other sticky, moot basically confronted /v/ about being /b/ with a blue background, something that was apparent for like 4 years prior. Although some were worried this would mean an additional split similar to that of /a/ and /jp/, moot seems to be moving on /v/'s chemo with the speed of a crippled tortoise in line at a theme park, and proceeded to split the board an additional two times, into /vg/ (for lengthy, long-term general threads, but it mainly serves as tripfag quarantine and SC2/virtual novel threads) and /vr/ (A non-cancerous board for retro games). So needless to say, /v/ continues to be shit.

YouTube Independence Day

Moar info: Youtube Independence Day.

/v/ was also instrumental in the event known as "YouTube Independence Day," being involved in the event even before /b/.

Content

In spite of the rumors, /v/ does sometimes talk about video games. Unfortunately, most of the discussion is repetitious as all hell, with the majority of threads being devoted to a continually shifting group of only a few topics. Examples of these are the obligatory half dozen console war threads going on at any time, the never-ending supply of Minecraft threads, and that chain of Mass Effect generals that lasted for over 100 fucking threads.

There will occasionally be decent threads of rarely discussed games, but these will usually be buried under ten servings of the same old shit. To have good vidya discussion on /v/, you pretty much have to show up at 3:30 AM once all the kids go to sleep, in addition to hiding half the board's content and having a strict post filter in place.

At any other time you should be prepared for every thread to be filled with posts of CASUAL VIRAL HIPSTER WEEABOO SHIT LOL NO GAMES RROD 8.8 CHECK MY DUBZ!!1 Don't go in with high hopes, since everybody on /v/ hates all games, game consoles, companies, software, fandoms, and themselves.

Also, don't let the yotsuba blue background fool you; one should never assume that /v/ is worksafe. You'd be better off browsing a legitimate porn site while at work.

The Golden Rule

YOUR OPINIONS = SHIT
MY OPINIONS = FACTS

/v/ summed up with one post

typical /v/ content at any given time

A general list of most (not all) of the shit you're likely to find on /v/:

What /v/ has nightmares about
/v/ in book form

However, due to the fact that the above material is related to video games, it only comprises about 20% of the board's content. The other 80% is a slew of completely off-topic bullshit, briefly detailed in the section below.

non-vidya things that /v/ enjoys

REV UP THOSE FRYERS

Specifically, anime that is either too mainstream or too manly for /a/ to openly admit to liking. Some examples of which are DBZ, FotNS, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Cowboy Bebop.
/v/ fucking loves Spongebob. They usually find creative ways to make their discussion vidya-related, but it's not uncommon to have successful Spongebob threads that have shit-all to do with video games. Despite the lack of board relevance, many of /v/'s most memorable threads and best original content over the past few years stem directly from Spongebob. Some of this content can be seen below:
Old Who is Best Who!
Another favorite of the average /v/irgin. Nobody ever seems to question why /v/ even has Dr. Who discussions, and the threads are surprisingly free of negative comments (unlike 99% of other content).
Come on, who doesn't love the Fresh Prince? Basically more shit that belongs on /tv/.
  • Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
There is always at least one person streaming Kung Pow, and there will always be a link to that stream on /v/. ALWAYS.
  • Protomen
For those that don't know, The Protomen are a rock "band" that are making a multi-part rock opera based around the Megaman series. Because it is part opera, it should be noted that they use their songs to tell a compelling, plot driven story. It's as lame as it sounds, and the two albums that have been released thus far are pretty fucking terrible, apart from maybe one or two songs. Also note that their costumes look more like some third party Power Rangers ripoff, and don't at all resemble the characters in the series. Despite being only tangentially related to the vidya (aka they couldn't come up with any lyrics that links their opera with the games), there are Protomen threads on /v/ ALL THE DAMN TIME, making the subject kind of a hot button issue on the board, for some unknown reason. It's also worth noting that /v/ actually discusses The Protomen more than they discuss the Megaman games, which is pretty sad in itself.
  • SNSD (Girls' Generation)
Being ronery, unloved, and fairly weeaboo, it is only natural that /v/ be drawn to female Korean pop groups. /v/ talks about SNSD more than /mu/ and /jp/ combined.
Recent studies reveal that anywhere between 97-100% of the board's population is either gay or bisexual. One is actually more likely to encounter a female than a straight man on /v/. As such, /v/ has more trap threads than the boards on 4chan that are explicitly devoted to having NSFW homo threads. See also: A Game of Pretend.
Since most of the board is in the process of masturbating at any given moment, hentai threads are incredibly popular, particularly the more fucked up ones (this is 4chan, after all). To illustrate, the Mega Milk meme has the most presence on /v/ despite having nothing to do with the board.
  • Horror manga
Threads where someone will dump manga screens while everyone shits their pants and wears out their F5 keys, with a post about video games tossed in every now and then. Junji Ito is a favorite, and /v/ even made their own edit of The Enigma of Amigara Fault.
  • The Enigma of /v/
    The Enigma of /v/
  • part 2
    part 2
  • Deep sea threads
These are basically offshoots to threads about /v/'s imaginary epic deep sea survival horror game, Pressure (a game which will never be made, unfortunately). People have long since stopped pretending that these threads are vidya-related and are now content to simply repost the same dozen images of fucked-up sea creatures and try to scare each other like they're on /x/.
NO YOU DON'T YOU IDORT!
  • Sink/stair/interior design threads
Exactly what it sounds like. Why this is such a popular topic is anybody's guess. These threads are somehow almost completely free of trolls and sagefags.
People freaking the fuck out at pictures of bugs followed by people bitching at others for killing spiders. Usually devolves into Japaneses bug fighting discussion.
A /v/ classic that is so much tied to the board's nature that it's practically considered on-topic. People post screencaps of forum posts or links to YouTube videos, then /v/ releases its pent up aggression and shows their disgust with angry responses and their best reaction images. Occasionally they'll actually rage about peoples' taste in video games, but more often than not they just look for examples of children being stupid on the internet and women being whores.
  • Relationship bullshit/BAWWWWW threads
Like most all of 4chan, /v/ is comprised of lonely basement dwellers with severe relationship problems. Threads of "Why am I so alone ;_;" or "Why don't I have a girlfriend?" are as common as anywhere else on site, though /v/ has the added element of waifu threads (much like /a/). It's really quite sad. And since /r9k/ is now dead, the problem is even worse. Green text stories typically fall into this category.
Any frequent readers of ED are well aware of the amazing aspie known as Christian Weston Chandler and his various misadventures. For some reason, Chris-chan has always been a very popular topic on /v/, perhaps due to his totally original vidya-related creation Sonichu, or perhaps just because /v/irgins were looking for someone even more pathetic than themselves to laugh at.

Moar info: filename thread.

The essence of /v/
  • Food/Drink threads
There's a kind of unwritten rule around the *chans that you should never start a thread with an image that is more interesting than the thread's topic. On /v/, this is basically an infallible law. If you're looking for an unrelated pic to use for a thread, NEVER use anything that could be seen as edible. /v/ discusses food with a focus and passion that would put any cooking forum to shame.
  • /b/ shit in general
Religion debates, America vs. Europe shitfests, circumcision arguments, political drama - you name it, /v/ will argue about it. While some would state that most of /v/ doesn't actually enjoy this kind of shit and is only given a bad reputation by a few newfags with no self control, the overwhelming success of shit threads on /v/ shows otherwise. A thread with so much as a picture of an American flag is certain to spark a 300 post flame war.

The Many Faces of /v/

The typical /v/ avatar is that of "the RAGE guy," the minimalistic figure who always has a pissed off expression (the one seen in the RAGE flash /v/ vs. /b/).

However, the second most iconic figure is trollface, which was likely first posted on and propagated in /v/, and also has its largest presence there. In addition to being the subject of a million and one shops, the image is representative of the board's overall nature.

The third would have to be "Grafics Cat," aka Starecat, the strangely alluring picture of a British short hair feline that is posted to no end on /v/. Her real name is Helia, though she received the name "Grafics" mostly due to being used to look down upon games that /v/ perceived to have poor graphics. /v/ thought it was amusing enough to start reposting every ten seconds and then made about 600 shoops of it.

The final face of /v/ is the aforementioned babby.jpg, an image that has inexplicably gained the adoration of /v/ and was even once featured as the title and background of the board. Unlike most image-based memes, nobody is really sure where the hell this pic came from. The sepia filter leads one to believe that the image is quite old, and the strange appearance suggests that the babby in question probably has some kind of disorder, but beyond that it is a mystery.

  • RAGE
    RAGE
  • Trollface
    Trollface
  • Grafics
    Grafics
  • Babby
    Babby

/v/-related memes and individuals

Below are most of the memes, in-jokes, and other notable shit associated with /v/. There's quite a bit not mentioned, but listing every little trope on /v/ would require its own damn wiki.

/v/ compared to various gaming communities

/v/ and moderation

Even moot admits it.

It is commonly believed, due to the ridiculous amount of off-topic threads, that /v/ has no mods. This is actually incorrect, as 4chan mods are site-wide and do occasionally ban people on /v/. It might seem more accurate to say that /v/ has no janitors (who are board specific and have the power to delete posts), but this would also be false. In fact, /v/ was the first board to receive janitors, dating back to December 2005 when moot first implemented janitors (showing that /v/ has been shit for quite some time). Thus, it can only be concluded that the moderation staff in charge of /v/ is simply

INCREDIBLY FUCKING LAZY.

The other primary contributing factor of the "/v/ has no mods" mentality is that /v/ has absolutely no ability to self-moderate. While most other boards are capable of stemming the flow of shit by not responding to troll threads and just talking about their goddamn board topic, roughly half of /v/ is populated by retarded underage fanboys who are too stupid not to feed the trolls, with the other half being composed of bitter, jaded oldfags who simply like to argue about anything and everything.

The result is that you can post just about anything (except video games) on /v/ and get a shitload of replies. And since /b/ moves too damn fast for anyone to talk about anything, this has created a situation where it's arguably more productive to post random shit on /v/ than on /b/, earning /v/ its nicknames "/b/ lite" or "/b/ with video games." The problem has gotten to the point that nobody even tries to deny it, even moot himself, who has openly stated that /v/ is /b/ lite.


/v/ - /b/ with video games

An accurate account of /v/'s current situation.

Due to its size, when overwhelming faggotry began to destroy /b/ years ago, many "oldfag" /b/tards fled to /v/. Subsequently, /v/ became known as "/b/ with video games." /v/ also began to create lulz and quality content much faster than any other 4chan board at the time, even /b/, presumably due to this influx of users.

Every /v/irgin tries desperately hard to distance himself from /b/, as being compared to a /b/tard is a great insult to most of /v/. The thing about their relationship is that modern-day /v/ is actually quite dissimilar from modern-day /b/, but is almost identical to the "old /b/" spoken of in legend. In reality, /v/ is made up of groups of people who present semi-rational arguments on a retarded topic, whereas /b/ simply swims in its own shit.

Pros and Cons

This status of being "old /b/" has both benefits and consequences for /v/. On one hand, /v/ is the most frequent target for lazy trolls who want to cause mayhem with as little effort as possible. Even the slightest implication that one's opinion is of questionable value will sting with the same venom as if you had posted pics of yourself raping the Pope. So there's lots of off-topic shit and a complete disregard for the rules.

On the other hand, /v/ has built up a sort of tolerance to shit-posting. Terrible posts will still cause controversy, but this controversy is only skin deep, and truly troubling or raiding /v/ has proven to be nearly impossible. Evidence of this can be seen during the "Puddi" debacle of December 2010 - in which moot embedded an annoying YouTube video into every page on site and filtered every post on /b/ to PUDDI PUDDI PUDDI. Looking for someplace else to hang, /b/'s restless forces quickly swept through /x/ and /tg/, ruining them to the point that posting needed to be disabled. When some fag whose post ended in consecutive numbers chose /v/ as the next target, /b/'s legions were stopped cold. It took about half an hour for anyone to even notice that /v/ was being raided, then shortly after moot removed the wordfilter and /b/'s troops retreated.

Additionally, /v/ is not overly serious and is quite capable of taking the piss out of itself, something /b/ hasn't been able to do since Anonymous became a household name. /v/'s ability to make fun of itself is similar to what made /b/ famous in the first place and also likens /v/ to an old school Something Awful (before both of these entities got their panties up in bunches). This leads to /v/ being able to turn almost anything into amusing and memorable discussion (albeit usually off-topic).

Cooperation

Although /b/ and /v/ have a very hostile relationship, they do often collaborate if the need arises. As /b/ loves to raid and /v/ loves to troll, one will often call upon the other in times of need. /v/'s slightly higher computer efficiency coupled with /b/'s overwhelming influence makes for a sort of commander/soldier relationship. One such collaboration was the rigging of the Gamespot poll of "greatest video game character ever," where /b/v/ mass-voted popular characters such as Master Chief out of the running and pushed relatively unknown characters such as Bub and Bob deeper into the contest, resulting in plenty of tears from Gamespot members.

RAGE flash

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A level-headed and unbiased view of the tension between /v/ and /b/.

Download the original flash: V-rage.swf (watch it in quality)

There's also a sequel: Bullshit_ending_to_V_vs_AR_by_3_Angled_Blue.swf

/v/ - /a/ with video games

Finding a #23 on /v/ is like trying to find a living Steve Irwin in a pit full of stingrays.

Like all boards on 4chan, /v/ has strong leanings towards Wapanese culture, and has been this way since the board was created. JRPG discussion, threads of random, untranslated Japanese games, visual novels, and anime/manga discussion is all very common on /v/, often making one wonder just what fucking board he's on.

While a mostly benign issue, the problem does occasionally get bad, as you get plenty of neckbeards that take their love of glorious Nippon a bit too far, which usually results in lots of trolling and rage. Hatred for the hardcore weeaboos is accepted and encouraged, but there are still those fags that take it too far in the other direction and refuse to tolerate anything even related to Japan, probably because they fear being weeaboos themselves. Thus, calling something or somebody a weeaboo, even with little or no reason, is a great way to cause controversy on /v/.

/v/'s actual relationship with /a/ is sort of a rivalry, and much less hostile than the /b/v/ relationship. The anthropomorphic characterizations of the boards drawn by /co/ usually depict /v/ picking on /a/, yet secretly having a crush on him (tsundere). Oh yeah, and /a/ is a trap.

Most of the reason for the /a/ and /v/ rivalry is that the boards share a number of traits, most notably their intense hatred for their respective media. Like /v/, /a/ hates all anime and will troll any fandom in a heartbeat. This, coupled with the fair amount of overlap in content, creates the interesting situation where /v/ can often have better anime discussion than /a/, and vice versa. The two boards also both have disturbingly high amounts of ronery and waifu threads.


/v/ - /co/ with video games

/v/ has a more friendly relationship with /co/, as the two frequently try to find common ground instead of pissing each other off. /v/'s unexplainable love of Spongebob and the various video game adaptations of comic and cartoon series set the stage for mutual sharing of content. The Doom comic is also a topic of shared interest.

Additionally, /co/ and /v/ are the two leading contributors of MS Paint comics (one of the few good things to come out of the shithole that is 4chan). The third leading contributor would arguably be /r9k/, who brought forth much of the relationship-driven content. However, as Arcanine has finally fainted, the task of making comics about unfortunate love lives now falls to other boards. Things have soured recently, however. The rise of Neo-/v/, the group of children that has taken over /v/ and spammed it with console wars and off-topic bullshit who belive that /v/ truly does hate everything, and /co/'s morph into //tumblr// has put the two boards in a state of war.

/v/ also has similarly friendly relationships with /g/ and /tg/, due to the overlap in board content.

/v/ - Prison

This is what happens when a 4chan user from /v/ goes to prison.
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Previous Video | Next Video

/v/ - Pokemon

Moar info: vp/.

It has long been established that /v/ loves their pokemans. As one of the few vidya topics that remained constant throughout the years, /v/ became the go-to board for anything Pokemon-related, which eventually led to some problems. The release of the fourth generation of games brought with it an increase in regular game discussion, but also people wanting to discuss competitive aspects, card game discussion, people wanting to dump their pokeman alt-art, people looking for battle and trade hookups, furries looking to post porn, and even people wishing to discuss the animu/mango (since discussing the pokemon anime on /a/ will you get you saged into oblivion).

All-encompassing "general" threads were no longer enough to hold everything together, so in addition to a few of those you'd also have a thread or two active at any time for all other aspects of the fandom. The board basically became overwhelmed with pokemans. After a bunch of fags spammed moot's inbox with requests for a Pokemon board, /vp/ was finally created.

The results have been somewhat mixed. On one hand, the range of topics on /v/ has increased by a bit, (most of) the furries left, and the front page is now free of Blaziken dicks pressing against your screen. On the other hand, /vp/ took with it about half the board's vidya content, leaving the vidya content primarily in the hands of whining fanboys and shitty trolls. In the end, both boards still suck ass, but things are at least a bit less hectic.

Although there are some overzealous haters that will talk down on /vp/ and pretend to live in fear of the terrible days of old when pokefags reigned supreme, most /v/irgins still remain on good terms with the pokefags and treat /vp/ like their (bastard) child. Naysayers are likely just butthurt that /vp/ can actually stay on topic.


/v/: The Musical

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If you didn't read anything in this article, here is /v/ summed up in a single video:

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Galleries

some good /v/ screencaps About missing Pics
[Collapse GalleryExpand Gallery]


/v/ making fun of itself About missing Pics
  • If Google Suggest was accurate
    If Google Suggest was accurate
  • The entire board in a nutshell.
    The entire board in a nutshell.
  • Life of a /v/irgin
    Life of a /v/irgin
[Collapse GalleryExpand Gallery]


[Collapse GalleryExpand Gallery]

External links

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Article of the Now November 28 & 29, 2021
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