Gaming Glossary
The below collection of literary gold is to serve as a guide for those who are new to or are unfamiliar to online gaming jargon.
| Contents | Top · 0–9 · A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
A
Admin: Short for Administrator, a person who has been assigned advanced access to a game server which will allow them to manage a game server, actions such as kicking/banning/warning can be performed by an admin.
A.I: Artificial Intelligence, in gaming terms this generally refers to how life like or how "smart" computer enemies act in game .
B
Ban: Ban refers to the action that occurs when an admin puts a restriction on a player from joining in the future, the services the restriction has been put originally put on. A Bans can be put in place for several reasons, but are not limited to; Cheating, Rule Breaking, and Abusive behaviour.
C
Camp/Camping: Term used in several online game genres where a player stays at a particular part of a map to gain a tactical advantage over the opposition. This activity is often frowned upon or is "not-cool".
Chat Spam: This refers to when a player floods the chat component of an online game with a bombardment of text. Can be both deliberate or intentional, but usually classified as disruptive.
Clan: A term commonly used for a group of people who congregate and commonly play together as a team in a competition sense such as a game ladder or a tournament.
CTF: A popular game mode amongst several game genres - meaning Capture The Flag. An adaptation of the traditional outdoor game, players must steal the oppositions flag and return it to their base, while protecting their own flag as well.
D
Deathmatch: A popular game mode amongst several game genres. The entire objective of this game mode is to kill your opponent(s).
F
FPS (First Person Shooter): A FPS is a genre of games that puts a player into first person perspective. Game usually involves taking down enemies with weapons such as guns.
FPS (Frames Per Second): Frames per second is often referred to a benchmark of a computer's graphical performance. Natually the higher the FPS, the better the quality/smoothness of the game.
Frag: A term most commonly used in FPS games, refers to an instance of killing an opposing team member.
Freeware: Similar to shareware, a piece of software that is free for non-comercial use.
Friendly Fire: This indicates within team multiplayer games that players on the same team can cause damage and/or kill each other by accidental (or deliberately) shooting or otherwise hitting that player within the game. Deliberately inflicting damage to another player on your team is against the rules of gameplay on 3FL gaming servers.
G
GG: An acronym standing for Good Game, often said during and after a game to describe a competitive, close or intense game. Can also be used sarcastically.
Guild: Similar to a "clan", but usually used in reference to a group of people that play an MMORPG style game (e.g. World of Warcraft).
L
leet/1337: A term used not only in gaming but in several other Internet related cultures, to describe some one who exhibits advanced skills.
M
MMORPG: A game genre that stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, this genre of games has evidently become increasingly popular since the release of Blizzard's World of Warcraft. In this type of game, players can fight against each other and in corporation to complete quests or to level their character by means of experience points. Many MMORPG are subscription based and must pay a monthly fee to join.
Mod: Mod refers to the modified version of a game, these are generally performed privately by enthusiasts released freely via the internet. Popular mods include Gary's Mod - for Half Life2 and Desert Combat.
N
Noob/Newb/n00b/nub: Term often used to describe some one who is new to something, can also be used to label some one who lacks knowledge or skill.
P
Ping: A time measured in milliseconds (1000ms = 1second) for a packet of information to travel from a computer to a destined server and back again. In gaming this ultimately can determine the performance of the game, in terms of reaction etc. With that said, naturally the lower the ping the better.
PWN/Pwned: A deliberately misspelt version of "own", also represents the act of dominating an opponent.
Q
QQ: The visual appearance of the double capital q is to represent or imitate some one crying.
R
Rage Quit: Typically occurs when a player has just been "pwned" or dominated in a game and quits the current game in a fit of anger or rage.
Respawn: In some games, when you die - your character is born or recreated again at a common point - this is usually called "Spawn" point, and usually serves also as a base environment for several games.
Retry: Usually associated with the game Counter-Strike. A player types "retry" in the game console and this disconnects the player and reconnects them to the current game being played, this also resets the player's current score displayed on the scoreboard. Often used by players who are being "pwned" and can sometimes be a pre-cursor to the player performing a "rage quit".
RPG: RPG stands for "Role-Playing Game" or "Rocket-Propelled Grenade". Role-Playing Games as a game genre involves the player controlling a character with a specific role within a game to complete quests or objectives to further progress the skill and abilities of the character. Popular examples of this game genre are World of Warcraft, Diablo and Neverwinter Nights.
RTFM: An acronym which stands for - Read the fabulous manual.
RTS: Acronym for the game genre "Real Time Strategy". Popular examples of this genre are Starcraft, Command & Conquer and the Warcraft series (excluding World of Warcraft)
Rush: A term applicable in several genres where players use a joint fast attack to quickly swarm an enemy to overcome them.
S
Scrim: A scrim is a practice match between two teams. Scrim denoting that it isn't a "serious" game, usually not counting towards ladder or tournament play results.
Spawn: The act of being recreated or reborn, can also be used as a noun to describe where players start in a game.
Spawn Camp: To wait or position one's self at a Spawn point for players to reappear/respawn, to then kill them soon after. Usually considered disruptive or "not-cool".
Spectating: Many games offer a function to watch players in the game, this is called spectating. Ideally you are viewing everything the watched player is seeing. Can help identifying hackers/cheaters in-game who may exhibit abnormal movement or behaviour.
T
Team Flash: When a fellow team member in Counter-Strike sets off a Flashbang grenade that subsequently blinds their own team mates instead of the enemy. This is usually done on accident, but as an act of disruptive behaviour is also done intentionally.
Team Kill / TK: This refers to when a player kills a fellow team mate on a friendly fire enabled server, either deliberately or on accident.
Team Stack: Term used frequently in online FPS games where it appears all the better players or high-scoring players are on the one team, and are doing so purposely.
TS: Acronym for Teamspeak. Teamspeak is a standalone voice communications program similar to Ventrilo.
V
Vent: Short for popular voice-communication program - Ventrilo.
VoIP: Acronym standing for Voice over Internet Protocol.
W
Warez:Material that has been duplicated and distributed illegally - essentially breaching copyright law. Can be classified but is not limited to: music/applications/movies.
Z
Zerg: A term that originated from Blizzard's Starcraft game - as a playable race, now used as a widespread-term where a player maybe outplayed by overwhelming numbers, very similar to the term Rush.
External Resources/Links
- Urban Dictionary "Internet's unofficial slang authority"
- Wikipedia's list of online-gaming slang
