w00t?!

Merriam-Webster has declared w00t to be the word of the year, just beating out facebook.  I think this is cool and progressive and all, I say w00t all the time (though usually in the ironic sense, like, "We have a shit-ton of dishes to wash, w00t w00t!") but I wonder at calling it the word of the year?  I mean, I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that w00t has been a gaming term for damn near a decade now, and a member of the pop-culture lexicon for at least the last three years.  So while I applaud the general acknowledgement that the computer generations are bending the language to their needs/will, don't go thinkin' you're all that hip Merriam-Webster.  

On a side thought:  By recognizing the word, does this make it less potent in the world from which it was wrought?