These are some of the gaming terms that you may encounter while gaming. While a lot of the terms are used in MMO games, you will find these across a broad spectrum of games where people play together, including virtual worlds or sports games. This list is, by no means, comprehensive and if you would like to suggest other gaming terms that you know or if you would like to see a Part 2, feel free to leave a comment below.

In this article we also use a lot of terms for different types of MMO game, for more information on these you could check out our article : MMO Game Genres

AFK. Stands for Away From Keyboard. It can be used, in an angry way, to describe players who joined a team-based PvP match, only to stand there in the starting area doing absolutely nothing. AFK players are not exactly a rare species and can be found most abundantly in FPS/TPS games as well as in battlegrounds in MMORPGs.

Camper/ Camping. This does not mean the actual outdoor camping as you must have guessed by now. It instead refers to the scenario when other players sit around waiting at your character’s corpse, waiting for you to respawn (Refer to Respawn), just so they could kill you again… and again… and again. Camping can also be used in the case when your opponent (most of the time, with a sniper rifle) is keeping a close eye at the only exit of your respawning room and killing players right after they have respawned. Note: Nobody likes a camper, except the camper.

Cap. Stands for capture (in MMO shooters and in some MMORPGs). For example, ‘cap that flag’ or ‘cap point A’. It can also mean the maximum limit of something (in MMORPGs). For instance, ‘level cap’ means the maximum level that a player can attain in the game. It is not a fashion apparel (unless it is a game that has a dressing up feature).

Cooldown. The duration of waiting in between spells/ abilities, whereby you’ll be hammering the ability hotkey or clicking on the ability button uselessly and needlessly. It can also be used to refer to a special ability that needs to be used at a certain point, for example “use your defensive cooldowns now”

Creep. This word is usually used in MOBA to describe the mindless minions that a player uses as his/her shield when attacking lane towers.

DC. Stands for disconnect/ disconnected. DCs like to creep up on you while you’re in the heat of battle, a shootout, an instance encounter or when the loot of a raid boss is being distributed… and bam! You are out of the game! By the time you log back in, it is all too late.

DLC. Stands for Downloadable Content. Do you know that $59.99 game you’ve just bought and wanted to play, but the end of the game is missing. Well, the DLC is the rest of your game for an additional $9.99 each.

Faceroll. This term refers to how easy a character class is to play. It is so easy that you can just bind everything to 2 keys on your keyboard and use your face instead of your fingers to roll across them. The terms, ‘Faceroll’ and ‘OP’ (Refer to OP), usually go hand-in-hand, since the class has to be overpowered in order to be easier to play.

Frag. In its noun form, it stands for fragmentation grenade, while in its verb form, it means the act of successfully killing other player/s with a fragmentation grenade. Frag is used exclusively in MMO shooter games.

Gank. Means a scenario whereby a much higher level character killed a lower level character for fun... fun for the higher level character, I mean. It also can be applied when you are caught unaware by enemy players while doing something very boring (and thus, your wandering attention), like gathering crafting materials or killing a mob.

GG. Stands for good game. It is a method to grudgingly show respect to your opponent/s’s skills in combat/ in the game without injuring your ego. You are still the better player, of course, there is no doubt about it, but maybe he is better than you in just by a tiny little bit. GG can be used for teams as well.

Ghosting. Usually used in MMO shooter games, ghosting means players that are killed in the game are spectating an enemy player, who is alive, with the motive to inform the enemy’s every movement to his teammates, giving his team an unfair advantage. Ghosting is usually done through a Voice over IP program like Ventrilo or Teamspeak and is considered as a method of cheating.

Griefer. It describes a player that deliberately torments other players in an online game, just to ruin the victims’ gaming experience. The methods of torment can include verbal abuse, by repeatedly singling out and killing a particular player, stealing another player’s kills repeatedly or destroying someone’s creations (an infamous example is Team Avolition in Minecraft). Griefers are proponents of cyber bullying and should be avoided if possible.

IRL. Stands for in real life. This term is usually used by players who are talking about their real life or identities. Anything mentioned under IRL should be taken with a pinch of salt, but you can also find out about your friends this way too.

KS. Stands for ‘killing streak’. Having a KS may mean that you are a better player than others or that you just killing a few newbs in the other team repeatedly. Also you can get it while camping near to your opponents respawn site.

L2P. Stands for learn to play. It is a mild insult that is used when a player plays like a newb (Refer to Newb) or a noob (Refer to Noob).

Lag. Stands for latency. Lag can be expressed in various forms in the chat channel, such as “wwwwwwwwwwwwww” or “laggggggggg”. Lag can also make everyone else seem like they are speed hacking, wall hacking as well as any sort of hacking imaginable. When this happens, players can get a little annoyed, which the players themselves may not even know, this can lead to computer accessories like mouse or keyboard may also be destroyed in the process.

Leet/ L33t/ 1337. It is a gamer-created derivative of the word ‘elite’. It was previously used to describe elite players, and still sometimes is. But due to its popularity in the gaming scene, newbies have started to use it to describe themselves (as elites) as well. Now, anyone who considers themselves leet is just trying to make themselves feel superior over other players and usually have no skills whatsoever to back their claim of “leet-ness” up.

Nerf. The opposite of OP (Refer to OP). Something that players will pester the developers to do whenever they feel that a certain class or skill in the game is OP. You may also see the term Nerfed, to refer to their character or class becoming less powerful.

Newb. Stands for newbie. It means a person who is new to that form of gaming or to specifically that game. This is definitely NOT the same as noob (Refer to Noob) since a newb is usually a noob for a certain length of time, but a noob doesn’t have to be a newbie.

Noob/ nub/ n00b. It is a rather derogatory term in game-speak that means stupid. Do take note that although noob is usually used to describe a stupid or really bad player, the player may or may not be a newb.

OP. Stands for overpowered. This is what people yell in chat when they are unexpectedly defeated by what they consider to be an inferior opponent/s. In MMORPGs, every other class is OP except your class.

Own. Also known as Pwn. It represents the triumph that you feel when you’ve beaten someone else in a match or game. ‘Ownage’ is the noun form of ‘own’.

Pwn. This is a variant of the actual word ‘Own’, which means that you’ve beaten someone in a match or game. The word arose from a mere typo by an unknown developer. It is usually used in the past tense form ‘pwned’ though.

QQ. This is the international gaming term for identifying cry-babies, players who cannot accept a loss sportingly, in any competitive PvP game. The term itself depicts two eyes with lines of tears running to the side. QQ is usually used as a counter to the yells of “OP” or “hackers”. QQ moar is another variant of the expression, but with much more emphasis on the QQ part. It can also be used when people are moaning, or QQing about a particular aspect of the game.

Quick-scope/ quick-scoping. It is an exploit that is rampant in MMO shooter games like Counter Strike and Call of Duty. The quick-scoping player will use a sniper rifle, but doesn’t aim down the scope like you’re supposed to do. Instead, the player exploits a feature and shoot the instant the cross hairs meet. This results in quick, one-hit kills. These players can even quick-scope repeatedly, with some practice, and kill a whole team of opponents by him or herself.

Rage quit. This means that a player was so frustrated and angry over a game, that he or she ranted about it on the chat channel for awhile and then, forcefully quit the game (Alt+F4) even though he or she may still be in the middle of a match. Sometimes it can also be used in team aspects of games like a raid, where a player leaves because they did not get their own way.

Respawn. It means a player coming back to life after being killed in the game. This term is most prominently used in MMORPGs and MMO shooters.

SS. Stands for screenshot/s. The term is usually followed by ‘or it didn’t happen’ or ‘I’m going to report you’.

Troll. Similarly to the mythical creature of the same name, trolls are players who purposefully send provocative messages to other players either via in-game chat or mail (usually chat though) in order to fuel the start of an argument… all for the sake of self-amusement. The best way to deal with this sort of people? Block them.

Uber. Also known as, in plain English, ‘super’. Somehow, ‘uber’ sounds cooler in the game and cost the player less time to type it out as opposed to ‘super’.

Woot/ W00t. Stands for whoop and is usually followed by multiple exclamation marks and, sometimes, along with a couple of ‘s’es too. This is what players usually use to express joy and triumph in the in-game chat. For example, after several months of backbreaking farming, you finally gotten your legendary one-handed sword? Yes, woots!

Zerg rush. A term used to describe a swarming attack and/ or winning a battle by rapidly outnumbering the opponent… by a lot.