Are you new to gaming? Are you a longtime gamer who doesn’t understand the kids’ lingo nowadays? If so, this list is for you.
Here are the gaming terms every N00b should learn:
Genre Terms
FPS: First Person Shooter – directly from the perspective of the soldier. (Doom, Battlefield)
RTS: Real Time Strategy – complete top-down unit control. (Warcraft, Command and Conquer)
MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game – huge online adventure games with many players. (Everquest, EVE Online)
MOBA: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena – similar to MMORPG’s but based on arena fighting. (League of Legends, Dota)
SIM: Simulation – games that simulate life and jobs. (The Sims, Railroad Tycoon)
Sandbox: Explore and have some fun – games that give you freedom to walk around and create whatever you want. (Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft)
Cheating Terms
Aimbot: A cheat that locks onto a player before a shooting, usually with headshots. (Someone with four headshots in five seconds is probably using Aimbot.)
Exploit: Spots on a map where someone can see through a wall, stand on a light post, or have some other unfair advantage.
Hacks/haxz/Haxz0r: Surprisingly, this is usually called out when someone is killed. If you have a great internet connection and a fast video card, you will be called this on occasion.
Playing Terms
Bots: Computer-controlled players often found in FPS or battle arena games.
Camper/Camping: When a player who found a nice place on the map sits and waits to kill people. This can be aggravating to those who are watching since they have to wait until one side is dead before starting a new match.
DLC: Downloadable content. This is where you buy the rest of the game.
Frag: Classic term for killing and mostly tied to FPS games.
Grinding: When a game makes you drag on time by completing useless tasks like making clay pots or scanning a planet. These take a lot of time and usually get counted into the game’s “8 hours of gameplay.” Developers love it; gamers hate it.
Lag: Lag is the most common reason why people die in games; it’s also the first thing gamers blame when they lose.
Level Up: Most games have some form of level system. Sometimes you need to grind before you reach a level where you can face a bigger boss – so get to work.
Nerf/Nerfed: When a vendor feels a particular weapon is too overpowered and wants to balance the game. Suddenly your favorite weapon in the game inflicts the same damage as a foam dart.
No Scope: When you right-click while using a sniper weapon to get a closer scope sight. No-scoping is what happens when someone kills you without zoom.
NPC: Non-player characters that are the storytellers of the game and often found in RPG’s giving quests.
Ping/Latency: Ping is the measurement of time from server to player. In some cases, this can be a simple graphic bar similar to the one on your cellphone. Other times it can be numbers. Generally, lower numbers are better. So if your ping is 100 and your friend’s have 25; you’re going to have a bad day. In FPS games, you might think you’re running for the goal-line while everyone’s watching you run at a wall. Easy pickings for snipers!
Port: A last ditch effort to make more money. Sometimes, game companies port a game to PC without acknowledging controls or even quality settings. These are the games I hate the most.
PvP: Player versus player.
PWNED: You just lost, and badly at that.
Rage-quit: When someone has had a bad day of gaming and throws their PC down in disgust.
Rubberbanding: Common in games like Battlefield when lag causes your character or vehicle to spring back and forth when syncing with the server. Think of it like Daylight Savings Time mid-match.
N00b/Newbie: If the words on this list are new to you, then you might be a N00b – but that’s okay. Once you memorize these at least you won’t sound like one.
I know I probably missed a few terms, so let me know and I’ll add it to the list!
