What exactly does Butters mean by red carats?

Question

In Battle Ground, on Page 228 (US Hard Cover), Butters makes the following observation:

Butters peeked out from behind me and said, "Wow, red carats everywhere."

Dresden doesn't get it, asking what vegetables (carrots) have to do with anything. Butters doesn't explain and chalks it up to being a "knight thing".
As Dresden is the narrator, the reader isn't let in on the joke either.
For reference, I've read "Day One" and know Butters knight abilities allow him to see the world as some sort of video game interface. But even searching for "red carat video game" isn't really clarifying it for me.
What does one of these red carats look like and how would it assist Butters?

FuzzyBoots · Answer

I don't believe it's a specific video game being referenced, but rather the tendency of enemies to be indicated on the player radar. They're usually abstracted out for the mini-map, but often have a directionality such as being arrows or triangles. A caret symbol (which is, I assumed, what was intended), V-shape, would have such directionality. The red coloring is pretty traditional to show enemies.
An alternate explanation is that it represent the Nethack trap, which is less indicative of living opponents, but is sufficiently geeky to fit the character, as well as it being a video game that would have been strong at the time when Butcher would have been attending college, it being a common game on the university systems.

What exactly does Butters mean by red carats?

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