Sometimes it can feel that gamers are speaking a different language. Terms that have evolved through in-game communication usually prioritise efficiency as strategies need to be decided upon and executed at a moment’s notice. The most well-known also achieve a certain degree of universality as online players can often find themselves with teammates from all over the world. Aside from functionality, gaming terminology also has social significance. The gaming community places great value on knowledge and experience and, as such, gaming jargon can act as a form of social currency. To get you started we’ve set out some of the basic rules and need-to-know terms.
Abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms
The gaming community are very comfortable shortening words and phrases. It is even become common for players to invent bespoke examples and simply expect their audience to figure out the meaning. Through AA&Is gamers can achieve more efficient communication and can save time on commonly used phrases. Some common examples of this include ‘GG’ meaning Good Game and ‘Bot’ which is short for robot and means an AI NPC but can also be used to imply a player is so bad they are worse that an NPC.
There are also examples of relatively arbitrary abbreviations such as the word ‘Rekt’ which is commonly used instead of the word “Wrecked” when an opponent is defeated in a particularly humiliating way. Further explanation on arbitrary word variations can be found below.
Arbitrary characters and capitalisations
Online games usually only allow one player account to have any given name at one time. Unfortunately, this would mean that you might have missed your desired character name by the time you sign up. This has led to players often using characters and capitalisations to create some semblance of their chosen name. One example of this would be the Smite player ‘BaRRaCCuDDa’.
Additionally, there is a massive volume of instant communication within the gaming community allowing for a continuous stream of new words and phrases. Linguistic rules are often secondary to aesthetic and phonetic appeal leading to arbitrary uses of characters, capitalisation and numbers. One example in common gaming lingo is ‘noob’ which is often written as ‘n00b’. Esports organisations often lean into this leading to team names such as ‘FaZe Clan’.
An important point to note here is that this is not the case with esports. As in ‘esports’. The word esports itself follows conventional linguistic rules but can is sometimes, incorrectly, written as eSports or e-sports.
Association
Esports is highly transparent. Almost every aspect of the industry is recorded, streamed and reported on in one way or another. As such it is often very easy to create new words and phrases through association with their origin. One great example of this is ‘GOATs Comp’. A GOATs composition is a team built entirely of support and tank units which is incredibly hard to defeat despite their lack of damaging characters. It originated from season 2 of the North American Open Division of Overwatch where a team called GOATs first demonstrated the unstoppable power of this meta-defining strat. Examples of association are particularly common in certain genres such as CCGs where professional players and streamers will often name their deck compositions.
Emotes
While simple emojis have been around for some time now, platforms such as Twitch have been instrumental in the increased creation and use of more bespoke emotes. The virtually inherent digital literacy of the gaming community means that there is a continuous stream of new emotes and the most popular ones can be seen spammed all over streaming platform chats. Each emote has a particular meaning which can sometimes be discerned from the image itself but not always as the meaning may require insider knowledge or may be being used sarcastically. Some classic and popular emotes include ‘Pogchamp’ which is the surprised face of youtuber Ryan Gutierrez and is used when reacting to something amazing and unexpected, and ‘Kappa’ which is the greyscale face of Justin.tv programmer Josh DeSeno and denotes sarcasm or irony. Emotes such as these have evolved to allow easy visual communication of complex messages which might be misunderstood if written, especially when written facetiously.
Mockery and humour
Gaming culture involves a lot of mockery and humour. This is largely due to the inherent competitive element of gaming and the safety of online anonymity. One example of how this has influenced language is the use of the prefix “NA” meaning North American to describe poor play. This has developed out of the community-wide joke that North American players are not as skilled as Asian players. Example uses of this prefix include “NA strats” meaning poor strategy, “NA aim” meaning poor aim, and, perhaps the most common use, “NA ult” meaning the poor execution of a characters most powerful ability. Another way humour influences gaming lingo is through sarcasm. Although sarcasm is obviously a common rhetorical technique across language, the gaming community takes it to new heights to the extent that almost every term below can be used to mean the exact opposite depending on the context. For example ‘GJ’ meaning Good Job could be used if a teammate made a particularly inadvisable play, or someone could spam the ‘MonkaS’ emote in chat to when a streamer is finding the game EZ, even though it traditionally symbolises nervousness.
Game development:
AAA / Triple A – Blockbuster, big-budget games of the highest quality
Buff (Game dev) – Where developers improve the power or playability of a character or item
CCG – Collectible Card Game
DLC – Downloadable content, often released in periodic bundles following a game’s release
Easter Eggs – Secret in-game features or rewards
F2P / P2P – Free to play games / Pay to play games
FPS / 3PS – First Person Shooter / Third Person Shooter
MMO – Massively Multiplayer Online game
MOBA – Multiplayer Online Battle Arena
Nerf - Where the developers reduce the power or playability of a character or item
P2W – Pay to win, referring to games where success is dependent on purchasing advantages
Patch – An update of a game releasing new content, bug fixes and game balances
RNG – Random Number Generation, random elements of a game
RPG – Role Playing Game
RTS – Real Time Strategy
SIM – Simulation game
Gameplay / in-game chat:
AFK – Away From Keyboard
AoE / Area of Effect – attacks or abilities which target an area rather than a specific player
Baited / Jebaited (emote) – tricking or ‘baiting’ another player
BM – Bad Manners, referring to unsportsmanlike conduct or communication
Bot – An NPC. Now also used as an insult or joke to suggest a player is as bad as an NPC
Buff / Debuff (In-game) – In-game interactions which improve (buff), or reduce (debuff) stats
Camping – Staying in one spot which often offers an advantageous view or Gank potential
Carry – A character who, though often weak earlier on, can carry a team to victory later
CC/Crowd Control – effects which incapacitate or hinder an opponent’s character
Cheese – Exploiting tactics notorious for their ease or underhandedness.
DC – Disconnect from the game’s server.
Dive – Aggressively pursuing an enemy player despite environmental threats
DPS – Damage Per Second
Farm – Focusing on building in-game currency, such as through battling numerous NPCs
Feeding – losing in a way that makes the opposition more powerful (Fed)
Fog of War – Areas you/ your team cannot see.
Gank – To ambush an opponent
GG – Good Game
GLHF – Good Luck Have Fun
Inting – Intentionally feeding
KDA / KDR – Kills/Deaths/Assists / Kill to Death Ratio
Lag – Delay between player input and the game’s reaction due to a technical issue
NPC – Non-Playable Character
Ping – Time in milliseconds for inputs to be communicated to the server. High Ping = Lag
Proc – To trigger an in-game effect
PvP / PvE – Player vs Player / Player vs Environment
Pwned / Owned/ Rekt – Defeating someone in a particularly humiliating manner
Ragequit – To surrender or turn a game off out of anger
Spam – To repeatedly do or say something, such as spamming an ability or a phrase
Spawn – To be brought to life, often at the start of the game, or ‘Respawn’ following a death
Strats - Strategies
Toxic – A player’s poor attitude or behaviour, usually when BMing
Troll – A person who deliberately frustrates others. Also a verb ‘to troll’.
Ultimate / Ult – The character’s most powerful ability which can usually only be used rarely
Ward – An in-game item which grants vision
Wombo Combo – A combination of characters or abilities which synergises particularly well
XP – Experience, generated through in-game actions to track and reward progress
Miscellaneous:
Grinding – Repeating an action to progress, for example when trying to climb the Ladder
Kappa (emote) – Sarcasm or irony
Ladder – Often used to refer to ranked tiers within a game which players want to ‘Climb’
LAN – Local Area Network
Meta – The current perception of optimal character and item choices, can change per Patch
MonkaS (emote) – Anxiety or nervousness, sometimes used insincerely
Noob / N00b – A person who is new to the game or who is playing poorly, as if new
Pepehands (emote) – Sadness, often used insincerely
Pogchamp (emote) – Elation and surprise
QQ – Symbolises crying eyes, often used to imply a player is whining and being a baby
Salt / Salty – Bitter about something, such as losing or Cheese. Can become Toxic
Scrim – From scrimmage, a practice match between competitive players
Skin – The customisable appearance of a character or item
SMOrc (emote) – Used to suggest that someone is being obnoxious, usually a streamer.
Smurf – An experienced player using a new account to be matched against Noobs
Speedrun – Attempting to complete a game in as quick a time as possible
Adam McGlynn
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