Save Scumming

About

Save Scumming is a slang term referring to the practice of saving progress in a video game before a difficult challenge or an event involving RNG in order to load the game and try again in case the desired result is not reached, reloading the game as many times as needed to reach that result. The practice is sometimes frowned upon by some gamers, who argue that save-scumming takes away from the challenge and allows the player to avoid much of the risk-taking, igniting debates in gaming communities online. The term has also been referenced in numerous memes since appearing around the early 2000s.

Origin

While the term "save scumming," used to describe the practice of repeatedly reloading a save in a video game until a desired result is reached, likely appeared in the early 2000s, the practice had already been recognized by video game developers as early as in the mid-1990s. Notably, a manual for the 1996 role-playing video game The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall includes a section that advises the player not to use the "Replay the Save Game" strategy to avoid negative consequences of failed actions and encourages them to play out all experiences, good and bad (extract shown below).^[1]

The earliest discovered instance of the use of the phrase "save-scumming" is a December 15th, 2003, post on a gaming forum^[2] dedicated to an open-source turn-based strategy game The Battle for Wesnoth made by user Integral (shown below, left), although it's very likely the phrase appeared and was used earlier.

The expression achieved initial popularization on various gaming forums in the early and mid-2000s. For example, on January 1st, 2006, user BeefontheBone made a comment about save-scumming in a thread about Civilization IV on Civilization Fanatics Center forum (shown below, right).^[3]

Spread

On August 1st, 2010, TV Tropes user Thessalor added an entry on save scumming to the site.^[4] On September 2nd, 2013, Urban Dictionary^[5] user TorpedoMoo added a definition for the term.

Throughout the 2010s, the term saw extensive use in gaming discussions on gaming forums, gaming communities on Reddit and imageboards such as 4chan. Notably, the term has been brought up in discussions of role-playing video games such as Baldur's Gate and Fallout (when a failed skill check could lead to an undesired outcome affecting the entire course of a questline), grand strategy games such as Crusader Kings and Total War (where results of a single event could affect the direction of the entire playthrough) and in other games where RNG is involved (such as the XCOM and Football Manager series and Rimworld).

On February 24th, 2016, artist JHallComics published a comic titled "THE SCUM OF XCOM" about save scumming in XCOM 2 to Dorkly.^[6]

Starting in the late 2010s, memes about save scumming started gaining prevalence within the game communities where the practice was employed. For example, on April 19th, 2019, Redditor lzyan posted a Football Manager meme that received over 2,300 upvotes in /r/footballmanagergames^[7] in four years (shown below, left).

On March 23rd, 2020, Redditor MChainsaw posted an Alignment Chart meme that received over 3,300 upvotes in the /r/paradoxplaza^[8] subreddit in three years (shown below, right).

In August 2023, the debate surrounding save scumming in video games was reignited by the release of the role-playing video game Baldur's Gate 3 in which some players employed the approach to better tailor their relationship with their party members and to avoid unlucky rolls (examples posts shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References