Have you ever been playing an online game and had no idea what everyone was talking about? If yes, this may be of use to you. If not… hopefully, this helps anyway. Here is some common gaming terminology to help you understand what everyone is saying.
Common terms
So to get you started on this, here are a few common phrases that will help you understand what everyone is trying to say:
Achievement – when a player completes specific tasks the game will reward them with an achievement trophy
Easter egg – A secret hidden within a game by developers.
Triple-A or AAA – When a game is described as “AAA” it means it has a high budget and created by a major studio
Noob – To be called a noob means that you have the gaming skill of a new player (it’s an insult)
Clan – A clan is a group of gamers together in a game. Just think of it as an online gang
Spawn – The starting point for a character
Nerf – The deliberate weakening of a character, weapon or tool so it is balanced with other characters, weapons and tools
Hacker – A player that has broken into the game and changed or manipulated it
Griefer – somebody that deliberately trolls or harasses other players
Skin – It can be a different character design, or a different colour item or piece of clothing (typically these are earned by playing the game a lot or paying with a micro-transaction)
Open Beta – A pre-release version of a game that is opened to users to play before it is released to test features and functionality
Open-world – When a game has a huge map to explore and storylines’ narratives are designed to be non-linear
Bug – A broken part of a game
RP – Role-playing inside a game. Sometimes it doesn’t need to be a role-playing game, but people will play it as one nonetheless
Killstreak – when multiple kills are made during one life in the game
Sweaty – trying really hard at the game
Camper – a player hiding in the same location to try and sneak up or surprise people
Microtransaction/s – downloadable content that people pay for using a small amount of money
Ragequit – somebody who quits the game mid-way through due to frustration or anger
Mod – a modification to the original game, sometimes can be a fully-fledged version of the game. Some mods have become full-games in themselves.
Lag – a slow internet moment that can ruin the game
Buff – a positive change to a weapon, character or tool
Salty – Being upset or bitter
Grind – To constantly put in effort at getting better at a game, to unlock an achievement or item
Sus – short for “suspicious”
Dub or ‘w’ – A win
Jebaited – to be exposed
Pog – used as a variation on ‘wow’
Bot – an AI-controlled character in a game
Smurf – An experienced player creates a new account to play against lower skilled players
Rez – to resurrect a fallen or dead player in a game
Kappa – a word indicating sacarsm
Aggro – A player or character in game is getting aggressive at you
Drops – a unlockable item which contains rare items or achievements
Cheese – A way for players to win a game that developers did not foresee
Alpha, Bravo or Charlie – Flags A, B or C
Feeder – somebody who is dying repeatedly (either intentionally or not)
Rekt – Usually used when someone has out-played another player
I know, I know, this is basically like learning a new language. We’ll do one more. Sound good? Here are a few common words you can use to communicate with your gaming friends.
Abbreviations
These are quite popular in games as it makes ordinarily long sentences easier to type.cou
AFK – Away From Keyboard
NPC – Non-Playable Character
IRL – In Real Life
GG – Good Game
FPS – First Person Shooter
MOBA – Multiplayer online battle arena
MMO – Massively Multiplayer Online
RPG – Role-playing game
BR – Battle Royale
F2P – Free to play
PTW – Play to win
OP – Over-Powered
WP – Well played
XP – Experience Points
GLHF – Good luck, have fun
DLC – Downloadable Content
PVP – Player vs player
PVE – Player vs environment
NP – No problem
AD – Attack damage
HP – health points
FTW – “for the win”
PK – Player killer
EZ – ‘easy’
KD – Kill death ratio
DC – Disconnected from the game
OTW – On the way
Lb+Y – Used in FIFA to Lb+y or LbY is to play a through ball over the top of the defence.
Hopefully, you’ve learned something from this and can now understand what everyone’s talking about or at least have a better understanding of some of this language.
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