as the rumor goes.....once upon a time there was a game made called warcraft-a popular strategy game which turned out to be even more popular and shot of to the onling game "World of Warcraft. when the first game was made, there was a typo telling you, that you got pwned, instead of owned when defeated in battle.
i think their is also another rumor about this being in another game as well.
and the rest as they say is history:)