Gibs

"This article refers to pieces of the internal organs of a computer character. For other uses see gib."

In computer games, gibs (pronEng|ˈdʒɪbz; occasionally pronounced with a hard 'G' sound, IPA|/ˈɡɪbz/ short for giblets [Mahood, Andy, [http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/half-life-2/682881p1.html Modify - Issue 12: Half-Life 2 on Steroids (PC)] "GameSpy", Jan. 26, 2006, Retrieved on Feb 27 2008] ), are small or large chunks of human flesh, skin, bone matter, body parts or simply chunks of body in particular.

Introduction

Gibs feature prominently in some first-person shooter (FPS) computer games that generally focus on killing large numbers of enemies that try to kill the player's character. One of the first games they appeared in was "Doom", and have been a mainstay of the industry ever since. They also appear in several of the "Mortal Kombat" games, and the arcade shooter "Area 51".

The use of this word is reserved for when an enemy has been killed with such force that they have separated into multiple body parts. To kill someone in this manner is to "gib" them. The terms "frag" and "gib" are most often used in multiplayer deathmatch.

On some games, gibs disappear, to save on processing time, as a level full of monsters can quickly fill up with gibs.

Some games may feature an Instagib mod or mutator. If this mode is selected, all hits to an opponent result in instantaneous "gibbing".

There has been a decline of the use of gibs in games due to ragdoll physics being able to show the effects of high-powered attacks. Many modern games that include gibbing use dynamic ragdolls to sever different parts of the body and use the physics system to control gibs. Some games even include joints on the gibs to add to the effect dynamically.

Notable gibs

*"Smash TV" (1990) "Smash TV" was a very early game of the time to include violence as well as gibs. When the enemies that are pictured as the larger ones are equipped with explosives and the player fired at that enemy, they would be gibbed, more animations of gibs would also include when the "Rapid Fire" power-up is used, where all enemies are immediately gibbed when fired upon.

*"Doom" (1993) was one of the first games to use gibs, along with the sequel, "Doom II". "Doom"'s enemies were sprite animations. When a monster or player character died, still-contiguous body parts would crumple or fall to the ground. A second animation would be shown when a rifle grunt zombie, a shotgun sergeant, a fireball-throwing imp, or a Space Marine player character was killed by, among other things, radius damage from the explosion of a rocket blast or from a container of combustible toxic waste. Both of these objects deal an incredible amount of damage, to the point where the character does not only die, but breaks apart into bloody chunks, with a few identifiable parts such as a Space Marine helmet. A slushing sound effect accompanied the spectacle.

*"Heretic" (1994) and "HeXen" (1995), both of which used a modified Doom engine, featured multiple gib objects, which fell and slid apart as the enemy exploded. Additionally, a frozen enemy could be shattered into many shards.

*"Rise of the Triad" (1994) expanded on the concept, by making the gibs fly in every direction according to the laws of physics and splatter on the ground. These gibs included chunks of charred flesh and eyeballs. Sometimes if an enemy was shot with a rocket their gibs would run down the screen. If a certain cheat code was used, there would be far more gibs than usual. This was known as Ludicrous Gibs mode, after a message that occasionally popped up in the middle of particularly bloody battles that said, "Ludicrous Gibs!" The entire area would be splattered by gibs, which rained down from the sky.

*"Duke Nukem 3D" (1996) utilized some source code that was interpreted, not compiled, and thus could be edited by the user with a text editor. It was a simple matter to add as many gibs as the user wanted to the death sequence of any character, or more excessively, as in several modifications, whenever a character takes any damage whatsoever. These also flew in all directions. It is interesting to note that in the aforementioned user-editable code, gibs are actually referred to as "jibs".

*"Quake" (1996) continued the innovative use of gibs. Any character was gibbed if an attack or other damage reduced their health to below −40 (with the exception of the bosses Chthon and Shub-Niggurath.) Without the Quad Damage, only the double-barreled Super Shotgun, the Grenade Launcher, and the Rocket Launcher could do that much damage in a single shot. With the Quad Damage, any weapon except for the Nailgun could gib. The gibs dripped blood while flying in all directions, and bounced several times before coming to a stop. Of these gibs a severed head would be most noticeable and upon close inspection of the larger gibs, the appearance of a spinal cord. In multiplayer deathmatch, the severed head was the viewpoint of a player whose character had died; it was not unknown for the gibbing player to stand over his opponent's head and gloat. Gibbing is necessary in one case: the Zombies would only outright die if killed through gibbing through explosives or, with Quad Damage, other weapons; as the undead, they would simply regenerate if damaged any other way.

*In "Quake II" (1997), corpses of friend and foe could be gibbed. This actually had a tactical advantage in certain levels. 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.

*The Lithtech engine, first seen in the game "" (1998), was the first game engine in which gibs were dismembered portions of the character's actual polygon model, rather than unique objects created by the game to replace the destroyed character model.

*"Half-Life" (1998) had gibs notable for being easily-identifiable body parts. Gibbing a human NPC would allow the player to find parts such as a fleshy skull, heart, intestine and a femur with meat still on it. Likewise, gibbing aliens resulted in strange-looking appendages and intestines being spilled. Half Life was one of the earliest games to complement gibbing with dynamic decals of blood or alien body fluid splatters appearing on level geometry. Its sequel (Half-Life 2) doesn't have any gibbing featured save for Antlions run over and Zombies being blown apart or cut in half. Since it's possible for the player to be gibbed in HL1, HL2 carries on this tradition by "gibbing" the player (the captions show " [Splat!] " instead of " [Death] " upon gibbing) should the player fall from a very tall height, taking extreme falling damage in the process. (No actual gibs are shown.) This causes the screen to turn completely red as the player's vision blanks out from the fall instead of having a red transparency over the player's view for a standard death.

*"Unreal Tournament" series was noted for liberal use of gibs [Mahood, Andy, [http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/unreal-tournament-2004/819770p1.html Modify #49: UT2004 Sticks to its Guns (PC)] , "GameSpy" Sept. 12, 2007, Retrieved Feb 27 2008] , especially when using explosive weaponry. There is a game mode called "Instagib", that features a weapon which immediately kills whatever player is shot by it. Gibs in Unreal Tournament have the capacity to emit fire effects, blood spray, and leave decals on surfaces they collide with.

*The "Marathon Trilogy" also utilizes gibs (with amounts of human/alien blood) when aliens/humans(BOBs or net players) are killed by any weapon, except for the "flamethrower" and the alien weapon, wherein the target/s turns into burnt corpses.

*In "AssaultCube", when a bot or human player is shot/knifed in the head (headshot), it will turn the player into a pile of fleshy gibs in which the announcer will say "headshot".

*In Soldier of Fortune, if an enemy is shot with the shotgun at close range, legs, arms and heads are blown off with copious amounts of blood and internal organs. One can even blow off an arm or leg, causing the enemy to fall and writhe in pain until shot again or death from blood loss. Once an enemy is dead, the arms, legs, and head can all be shot off, leaving only a bloody torso.

*In "Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War, Dark Crusade", features a type of gibbing where body parts form dead infantry are left behind when said infantry are killed. These seem to be mainly from the use of Tau Kroot Carnivore Squads, which use their cannibalism ability to eat these parts to gain health.

*Gears of War (2006) shows impressive gibs when an enemy is killed at close range, blown up with a grenade or Hammer of Dawn laser, shot in the head with a Sniper Rifle, or chainsawed. The gibs vary depending on what kind of damage was done, smaller ones from a grenade tag, larger ones from a chainsaw attack.

*Team Fortress 2 (2007) features recognizable limbs and body parts of the respective character classes. Once gibbed, the character model is actually divided into the assorted pieces (which are correctly positioned relative to each other) before being thrown apart by the killing blast. The game will then occasionally label your body parts in a freeze-frame of your killer, such as "your arm", "your leg", "your pancreas" and "a bit of you"

* showed very graphic gibbings when enemies were killed by grenades. Enemies can be blown into multiple burned, and bloody pieces. Bowels and intestines can be seen as well. Gunshots to the head with larger rounds such as shotguns or assault rifles completely obliterate enemies heads. This can also be done with limbs.

*The Punisher also shows graphic gibs when enemies are shot. Gunshots to the body are quite destructive, and headshots result in large explosions of brain and blood matter. Grenades can also render enemies into charred, bloody pieces.

*F.E.A.R shows incredibly detailed gibs when enemies are killed with a shotgun such as an enemy being blown completely in half or being totally disintegrated, however, it is unclear whether you have to be close to an enemy to do this because they appear to be a random occurrence. the particle weapon also gibs to the extent that the only thing left is a charred skeleton of the unfortunate victim.

*Deus Ex shows liberal gibs when extreme damage is inflicted including a skull, spinal column, lungs and eyes. Unlike other games it should be noted that you can inflict said damage to a dead enemy on the ground much like in Quake and Half-Life.

* In Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Shows gibbs when an Enemy or Player is Crushed, or blown-up from Dynamite, Grenades, Satchel Charges and Landmines (ET) or the Panzerfaust. In a result, bloody remains of skulls, and various other body parts are shown.

*In Halo 3, there are various instances when you can gib either a Flood corpse or an AI character. [Graziani, Gabe, [http://uk.xbox360.gamespy.com/articles/833/833455p1.html Halo 3: GabeSpy Rules All!] , "GameSpy", Nov. 7, 2007, Retrieved Feb 27 2008] Any attack from an explosive weapon (i.e. a spike grenade, frag grenade, plasma grenade, brute shot, rocket launcher, trip mine), a close range shotgun blast, a melée from any weapon, a gravity hammer impact, an energy sword attack, or a splatter would result in a Flood Combat Form to be gibbed.

*In Postal 2 Apocalypse Weekend,the NPC's limbs could be severed , as well as their heads.If you cut them in two (with the scythe by example) then their internal organs will spill on the floor.

*In Call Of Duty 4, If the player shoots an A.I. character in the head, bits of brain matter will fly in every direction along with an large amount of blood.

*In , shooting an enemy's head with a sniper rifle will sometimes blow the top part of the head clean off, leaving the bottom part of the head and bits of the head scattered about, as well as a large amount of blood. Explosions in the game may cause the enemies to lose their limbs or their heads, revealing the bone and muscle and the severed limb on the ground.

*In the upcoming video game Dead Space (video game), gibs serve a strategic function as well as a cosmetic one. The alien lifeforms the player fights, called "Necromorphs", have been shown in demos to dynamically break apart as they are attacked. As they lose limbs, they change their fighting style to adapt, part of the system Electronic Arts has termed "strategic dismemberment".

Criticism

Gibbing in computer and video games, mostly in first person shooters, has caused high age ratings and legal issues for child protection. In most games containing gibs, at release, the ESRB rating is an "M" for Mature (recommended for audiences aged 17 and up).

References

See also

* Instagib
* Headshot