In gaming, "strafing" refers to moving sideways while aiming or dodging attacks. I recently learned that in a military context, it originally described attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft with automatic weapons. The word comes from the German strafen [to punish] and was used in slogan Gott strafe England [May God punish England], dating back to World War I (Strafing – Wikipedia)
What I’m curious about is how this term shifted from describing aerial attacks to lateral movement in games. Does anyone know why this specific word was adopted in gaming?
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I THINK (I’m not certain) that it could be something to do with attack helicopters, how you would hover and circle your target, or shift back and forth to avoid staying in one place while using the machine guns.
Then someone thought the word referred to the motion of moving sideways, instead of the aerial attack to the ground.
That’s my guess
I vaguely remember ‘strafe’ was used in the control scheme for Wolfenstein 3D back in the day. Maybe that’s where it jumped from German militaria to gaming vernacular?
I use it to differentiate between dodging and attacking.
If I’m playing some games and just dodging stuff while moving, games that do not have a dodge roll. Then I call that side steps.
Strafing is when I move side to side while attacking or shooting.
It’s sort of a funny crossover of the original meaning of the word. Air strafing didn’t just mean hitting a ground target, it meant hiring a line of fire up to hundreds of feet. While being very different from “ground” combat, it was nearly identical to the function of aiming and movement in games like space invaders.
So the constant fire while moving side to side got nicknamed strafing like the old “strafing runs” as they were called and it just kinda stuck for that type of movement.
Eventually the idea of moving sideways even without firing became strafing.
At least that’s how I remember it. Maybe there is a specific origin point.
[strafing in gaming](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafing_(video_games)#:~:text=Strafe%2Djumping%20was%20a%20result,standard%20technique%20used%20by%20players.)
They started using it in key bindings. Before computer mice, there were two buttons for moving side to side, and two buttons for turning. So the side-to-side buttons were labeled as strafe. And that’s where it started. Later on turning went to the mouse, but strafe left and right remained.
Helicopters.
In order for a plane to strafe a target, it must, outside of some crazy maneuvering, be flying forward. They have front mounted guns and very limited ability to fly sideways. Helicopters, however, typically have side mounted guns, because the pilot is too busy communing with Satan and keeping the dark bargain which enables flight in something so unwieldy to, you know, aim, so they make some other sucker do that with a side mounted gun. And while a helicopter *can* fly sideways, it’s easier to fly it forward, so the best way to strafe a target in a helicopter while not staying still and increasing the chances you will be turned into an ex-helicopter is to fly in circles around it.
Strafing in video games is probably descended from that. Games like Goldeneye didn’t feature a lot of cover or waist-high cover, so the best way of not getting shot was to circle a target, much like a helicopter. Somebody probably called it strafing due to the resemblance, and it stuck.
Strafing wasn’t meant to dodge attacks, but be offensive movement tactic. Comes from the 90’s, where this didn’t have a name for. Maybe Doom is the first game to name it? (source needed) Sounds badass and no reason to call it boring sidesteping, so strafe it is.
It was meant to keep fire at the enemy, while going sideways, facing the enemy. It doesn’t come from the aerial manuver, but from the other meaning of the term “To rake (a target) with rapid or automatic gunfire.”. Rake here reffers to “sweep (something) from end to end with gunfire, a look, or a beam of light.”. Like the movement – sweep the enemies in a line or a wide circle, maintaining rapid fire towards the enemy.
Avoids projectiles, makes hitscan way harder to hit, keeps enemy in sights. Just like the German meaning of strafe – to punish. It punishes the enemy, due to the sideways movement it “treat (someone) in an unfairly harsh way.”
(terms definitions taken from Google and common sense)
Drift would prob be a better term
The same thing with “hipfire” in games vs real life.
Same name in-game, but different meaning to the real life one.
Pretty sure it started as ‘side strafing’ – firing while moving sideways. Over time the side got dropped.
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Well, one is for planes and one is for people. You see people are not airplanes
First Person Shooters. Specifically Wolfenstien and other classic PC shooters.