One of the worst things we’ve experienced as rookie players was not knowing what everyone was saying. We felt like humans surrounded by aliens speaking their own language. But over time, we were able to learn the gamer language and enjoyed the game more. But man, we wished we had a gamer language glossary we could refer to when we felt out of place.
Since we know how confusing the gaming language can be, we created our own glossary of terms that every rookie player can refer to.
Here are some of the most common words you’ll hear when you start playing:
| TYPES OF GAMES | Definition |
| Battle Royale | Want to know what it’s like to compete in the Hunger Games? Battle Royale games put your character in an ultimate deathmatch versus other gamers. |
| First-person Shooter (FPS) | Pretend like you’re a soldier, a hero, or a villain. FPS games give you the POV of your character as if you’re the one in the game.
Popular FPS Games: Overwatch, Call of Duty, Counter Strike |
| Free-to-Play F2P | Don’t want to spend? Download an F2P games and you’re good to go. Just be ready for a lot of pop-up ads while playing. |
| Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) | Play with other gamers around the world. Just connect to the internet and hop on a server. MMOs allow you to play and interact with anyone who’s playing in the same server as you. |
| Multiplayer Battle Arena (MOBA) | Quick and easy games to ignite your competitive spirit? MOBAs transport you to a map where you’ll team up with other heroes. Your objective is to destroy the enemy team’s base before they destroy yours.
Popular MOBAs: DOTA, League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang |
| Pay to Play P2P | Shell out some moolah for some exciting games. P2P games are premium games that are well-designed, that’s why they carry a price tag. |
| Pay to Win P2W | Free games that give you an advantage if you purchase exclusive items. |
| Player vs. Environment (PVE) | Chill games perfect for beating up monsters at the end of a long day at work. It’s a great way to unwind. Mindlessly killing monsters, no toxic players, and everything is under your control. |
| Player vs. Player (PVP) | Competitive games that put you up against different gamers. Be ready to play with different kinds of people. |
| Real-Time Strategy (RTS) | Feel like a general in the middle of a war. RTS games allow you to simulate what it’s like to lead a war. Here, you’ll get to build your base, allocate your resources, and attack your enemies.
Popular RTS: Warcraft, Starcraft, Age of Empire. |
| Role-Playing Game (RPG) | Want to live a different life? RPGs bring you to fantasy land where you get to customize your own character, choose your powers, and go through quests to get stronger.
Popular RPGs: Skyrim, Witcher, Diablo. Popular MMORPGs: World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Guild Wars |
| Simulation (Sim) | Curious what you’d be like if you made different decisions in your life? Simulation games let you play a different life. Choose a different job, design your dream house, find your ideal partner, and build a family.
Popular Sim games: Sims, Minecraft, Truck Simulator. |
| Third-person Shooter (3PS) | Want to feel like you’re just watching a movie? Play a 3PS game. Only here, you’ll have absolute control over what the main character does.
Popular 3PS Games: Hitman, GTA, Battlefield |
| In-Game Language | |
| Area of Effect (AOE) | Abilities that can be casted over a wider area. These abilities damages all units covered by the AOE. |
| Auto Attack(AA) | Basic attacks of your character in the game. These attacks have no enchantments or effects. They deal plain damage. |
| Buffs | Imagine mixing red bull with your morning coffee. That’s what buffs do to your characters and allies. |
| Camp | The location of neutral monsters in the jungle, the mighty jungle. |
| CAMPER | Gamers who stay in one spot of the map to wait for opponents. Usually found in FPS/BR games. |
| Cooldown (CD) | The waiting time before you can use your skills again. |
| Crowd Control/Debuffs/Disable | If buffs feel like redbull + coffee, debuffs, crowd control, and disables are sleeping pills drowned in alcohol. So try to avoid them as much as possible. |
| Damage Over Time (DOT) | Some skills deal damage all at once, while others take a little longer. DOT skills are like a snake bite. The ouchie of the bite will be gone, but the poison will stay inside your body for a while. |
| Damage Per Second (DPS) | The total damage you deal every second. If you’re a total badass who has godlike items and flash-like reflexes, then you can kill your opponents before they can even say “Motherf*****!” |
| Experience (EXP/XP) | In most games, you’ll need to level up to get stronger. XP is what you need to fill up to level up. You can get this by farming, completing quests or killing enemies. |
| Farming | Farming is more common on MOBAs & RPGs where you need to level up. This is when you kill monsters and complete your quests for additional gold and exp. |
| Flamed | When your teammates blame, berate, and evicerate you for making mistakes in the game. |
| Forfeit (FF) | Abandon hope and raise the white flag, loser. Just kidding. Well not really. |
| Fog of War | Areas in the map that you can’t see. You can use this to throw a surprise party for your enemies, or they can use it to gank you. |
| GOLD | The most common in-game currency. Use it to buy stronger equipment and items to make your character stronger. |
| Heads-up Display (HUD) | Imagine this as your car’s dashboard. It tells you everything you need to know about your character: HP, MP, EXP, Gold, Items, Skills, etc. |
| Health Points/Hit Points (HP) | How much damage you can take before your screen turns grey. |
| In-Game Name (IGN) | Your alias in the game. Make sure to have a cool one like Ligma_Balls. |
| Kill Steal | Last hitting an enemy that’s being killed by your teammate. Usually results to getting flamed by your teammates. |
| Kill Streak | How much kills you’ve had without dying. The more kills you get before dying, the more awesome you are. Plus the more gold you’ll give when you get killed. |
| Kill-to-Death Ratio | An advanced statistic that tells you how many kills you get before you get killed. |
| Lag | Technical problems in the game. Includes delays, glitches, ping spikes, etc. Remember: It’s LAG not LOG. |
| Loot | Items that make you stronger. Usually dropped by monsters or enemies who die. |
| Mana Points | The cost to cast a skill. Make sure to watch your MP before fighting opponents. The last thing you want is to run out of mana in the middle of the fight. |
| PASSIVE SKILL | Skills of your character that can’t be casted. These are usually buffs unique to your character. |
| Ping | The strength of your connection to the server.
Low Ping = GOOD. High Ping = BAD. No Ping = WORST. |
| Rank | A measure of how good of a player you are compared to others. Can be obtained by playing ranked matches. |
| Salty | Gamers who are sore losers. |
| Scrub | Bad players who think they’re awesome. |
| Skills/Abilities/Talents | Special attacks of your character that makes the game more awesome. |
| Skin | Special items you wear that upgrades your appearance. May also have bonus stats. |
| Smurf | Skilled players making new accounts to mess with the newbies. |
| Champion/Hero/Avatar | The character you’ll be playing in the game. |
| Chat Jargons | |
| AFK | Away from keyboard. Gamers who are in-game but aren’t playing. |
| DC | Disconnected. Connection to the server got broken, removing you from the game. |
| Feeder | Players who give the opponent more loot by dying a lot. |
| FTW | For the Win. Something you say when you’re about to destroy the enemy’s base. |
| GGEZ | Good Game, Easy. Taunting your opponents after winning. Never say this until you’ve won. Can also be used ironically if you get your ass beat up badly. |
| GGWP | Good Game, Well Played. Classy act to commend opponents for a good game. |
| GLHF | Good Luck, Have Fun. Say it before a game and your opponents might show mercy. Can also mean: “You’re gonna need tons of luck to win, and this won’t be fun for you.” |
| Griefer | Someone who harasses other players intentionally. |
| Hacks/Hackz/Hax | Players who cheat the game with illegal software. |
| LFG/LFP/LFM | Looking for Group/Party/Members. Players who want to team up with others. |
| MIA | Missing in Action. Opponents who are not in the map. Usually a sign of a gank (or AFK). |
| Nerf | When the developers make your favorite characters or items weaker. |
| Newb/Noobie/N00B | What they call weak players. |
| Out of Mana (OOM) or No Mana (NM) | No more mana points for skills. I’m basically useless. Let’s not engage the enemies. |
| OP/Imba | Overpowered. Imbalanced. Strong players, items, characters. |
| OTW | On the way. |
| Rekt/Owned/Pwned | Killed someone? You just rekt them. Come on. Don’t be shy to use it after every kill. |
| Rez | Asking for a teammate to resurrect you. |
| RM | Remake. Asking to start over, usually because some players got disconnected early in the game. |
| Throw | When a player intentionally plays bad to lose a game. |
| Toxic | Similar to griefers. Players who whine, trash talk, and harass others. |
| Voice Over Internet Protocol | Talk with the team using a different platform like Discord. |
So these are the basic terms you’ll need to know as a gamer. Don’t stress over if you can’t memorize them in one go. Just bookmark this link and revisit the gamer glossary whenever you forget something.
Lastly, don’t forget to download our app GGWP to have on-the-go access to in-depth guides about your favorite games.
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