Forum: gaming.stackexchange.com
Tags: <terminology>
Title: What's the right term for the list of "X killed Y with Z" messages in a multiplayer shooter?
Question: It's probably obvious from the title, but I'm specifically thinking of messages like   ProGamer64 [image of shotgun] L33tCamper   that appear in the bottom right corner when a kill happens, then fade away after a few seconds.  Is there a standard term for these messages or the list of them?

Answers:
sents: text: This is known as the killfeed .
text: This term has been widely used throughout many different multiplayer games, including old ones such as Quake, Counter-Strike, Starsiege's Tribes, etc.
text: For the etymology of the word the origin is unknown but it has likely started off with Quake/Quake II.
text: Some examples of killfeed from the games you have mentioned: From Giant Bomb : A standard in nearly all competitive online shooters,
text: the Kill Feed is the live on-screen update of the kills in an multiplayer game, providing updates as to whom is killing whom, as well as other important events.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/18916/korrasaur
score: 50
sents: text: I've never heard of "killfeed", but then I haven't been into games in a while.
text: In Quake (the first one) they were called obituaries.
text: See here for the list of Quake's obituary messages, including such classics as "X rides Y's rocket", "X accepts Y's shaft", and "X chewed on Y's boomstick".
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/106852/narb
score: 11
sents: text: In some games, these messages are known as "Obituaries".
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/27235/Eric Finn
score: 7
sents: text: The area where kill notifications are posted is called the "Killboard" in many games including TF2 and Eve Online.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/26042/Lawton
score: 5
sents: text: Killfeed is the correct answer
text: however it is a term much that is much older than Cod and probably dates back to quake
text: , I know I knew of it long before COD exsisted.
text: The results you are seeing are biased due to popularity of search terms and lack of inter-generational gaming history.
text: The first COD game was in 2006 and the term kill feed was widely used before then.
text: Google dates the term 'kill feed' back as far as feb 2004 but has no prior data to that.
text: The term 'killfeed' dates back to 2010 where we also see a spike in usage of 'kill feed'.
text: This corresponds with the release of COD: Black Ops.
text: Another example of this bias from an article saying Starsiege:Tribes has a notable kill feed with custom messages e.g. 'Player A blasts Player B with the Spinfusor'.
text: However the quake series did this first including custom environmental deaths 'PlayerName Melted' when you fall in lava for example.
text: Its possible its as old as Doom!
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/106814/KoolMintCookies
score: 5
sents: text: I usually call that a "killfeed" as well, but have also heard it referred to as the "log".
text: This makes sense, as it documents what's been happening in the game.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/108003/DCShannon
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
This known as killfeed. In Quaker they were called obituaries.
The most common term that is used to describe the action in question is killfeed.