Gaming terms explained

New to gaming? Learn the abbreviations. [File, Standard]

Every field comes with its jargon and specific lingo that will sound foreign to outsiders. So that you don’t look like a foreigner, why not learn yourself some new words as well. Although the terms are many, we have compiled some of the most commonly used.

AFK - Away from Keyboard - This means a player is temporarily unavailable.

AoE - Area of Effect - Spells, abilities, or special talents that work within the radius of a circle rather than on a specific enemy.

Bots - These are the non-human opponents in multiplayer games.  Alternatively, calling another player a "bot" is an insult.

Bullet Sponge - This is an enemy that takes an excessive amount of damage or ammunition to kill.

Clans - Groups of players who play together.

DLC- Downloadable Content - Any extra element you can download separately from the main game.

DPS -  Damage Per Second - A measurement for how much damage a particular weapon or attack outputs.

Emotes - Small emoji-like icons are mostly used in Twitch streamer's chat room.

Feeding - Act of being repeatedly killed by the enemy team, which obviously helps your opponent since your teammate is dead.

FPS - First-person shooter game - This refers to a genre where you see the world through your character's eyes, instead of a camera behind them.

Non-Playable character - Refers to any character you don't control in a game. [File, Standard]

Ganking - The act of a high-level or skilled player ganging up on someone else who has no chance of defending themselves.

GG - Good Game - Usually typed or spoken at the end of a match to show sportsmanship.

Grinding - Act of taking repetitive actions in a game to achieve some desired outcome.

HP - Means health points or hit points, measures the life of one’s character. If it drops to zero, then the player drops dead.

HUD - Heads-up Display refers to graphical elements on the screen showing the player information and other details.

K/D- Kill-to-death ratio is a common measure of your performance in online shooters. You'll have a higher K/D with six kills and one death (6.0) than 10 kills and five deaths (2.0), for example.

Lag - A delay between your input and that action happening in the game.

MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. It refers to a game with RPG elements where thousands of players all exist in the same game world simultaneously.

Mod - Modification - any kind of player-made change to a game.

Noob - Refers to someone who is clearly new at a game. It can be used as an insult (such as when someone makes basic mistakes), but it's not necessarily a pejorative. 

NP- Non-Playable character - Refers to any character you don't control in a game

OP-  Overpowered - Used in reference to anything in a game the player feels is too strong. If there's one weapon everyone picks because it's clearly better than all others, it's OP.

PvP - Player versus Player - Refers to games (or modes) where human players compete against each other. This contrasts with PvE (player versus environment or player versus enemy) modes, where you play against computer-controlled opponents instead.

QTE - Quick-time Event - QTEs are segments in games where you have to suddenly press a button or some other input to avoid damage or a game over.

Heads-up Display refers to graphical elements on the screen. [File, Standard]

RNG-RNG stands for 'random number generator'. This refers to elements in games that aren't the same every time you play.

RPG - Role-playing Game - This is a broad genre. But it generally means a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting.

Sandbox - Sandbox game refers to a title that's extremely open-ended and thus allows the player to do whatever they like.

Smurf - This is when a skilled player makes a secondary account to play against lower-ranked players.

Tac - Short form of ‘tactical shotgun’ or ‘tactical machine gun’.

Whisper -  Private messages can be exchanged between users.

XP/EXP- These are the short forms for experience points. They are a common measure of one’s progress in a game.