Gib
Gib is a video game term used to describe when a body is blown into pieces, typically from an explosion or severe blunt force trauma. From a development perspective, gibs have a lot in common with particle systems. The word is short for "giblets," the culinary term for the internal organs of poultry, and pronounced with a "j" sound. Those unfamiliar with its etymology sometimes pronounce the word with a "g" sound or spell it "gibb."
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Personal
While I loved the gory visuals of earlier games like Wolfenstein 3-D, it was mostly cartoon blood without the body explosions. The Mortal Kombat games included lots of body parts flying about, but it was meant to be silly. Doom, on the other hand, was much more atmospheric and creepy, so, when I saw my first zombie explode from a rocket, I was shocked at how awesome it looked. I loved seeing how gruesome games could get when I was in my teens and twenties, but, I find gratuitous violence a bit childish now.
Terminology
The term can be modified based on its usage:
- gib - a fragment of a body.
- gibs - multiple body fragments.
- gibbed - the process of being blown into fragments.
History
Graphic artist Adrian Carmack coined the term "gib" in 1993 during the development of Doom to describe when an alien was blown into bloody chunks.
Gory video games had been around long before the term "gib" was used, but the popularity of gory video games in the mid-1990s, such as Mortal Kombat II and Doom, led to many subsequent action games using explosions of gibbed bodies. Tom Hall, who was part of the initial development on Doom made extensive use of gibs in Rise of the Triad: Dark War. Later first-person shooters like Half-Life had even more detailed gib systems.
Media
A lot of the fatalities in Mortal Kombat II result in bodies being gibbed.
A Doom zombie turned into gibs from a close rocket blast.
In Rise of the Triad: Dark War, body parts can fly everywhere.
Turning a soldier into gibs with the gluon gun in Half-Life.
