List of video game terms

Video games have a wide variety of jargon that may fly over a casual's head, so UnTrash Wiki took the time to write a list of video game words, from easy to understand to rarely used, and define them for the convenience of the casuals and the enjoyment of the people in the gaming atmosphere.

#
100% - Doing and completing every single thing possible in the game.

1v1 - When two players fight each other one-on-one. This is common terminology in shooter games. Another name for 1v1 is PvP, or player v player.

2.5D - A game that has 3D characters and objects in a world that limits their movements to the second dimension (horizontally, vertically, and diagonally only).

360 No-Scope - When a player jumps, does a 360-degree rotation midair, fires their rifle, and kills another player without using a scope. This trick was popular in the years 2015 and 2016. A 360 no-scope was held with such high regards due to how difficult it could be to successfully pull the stunt off in high-action combat.

A
AFK - Short for "away from keyboard". This means the player is currently not playing the game and is now just an er. You would want to tell other players that you're AFK if you'll be away from the game so that no one would think you're sitting there being useless.

Attack - A harmful action that lowers players and enemies' health if it makes contact with them and breaks or damages objects or terrain.

B
Banning - Preventing a player from playing a multiplayer game due to their toxic actions on servers. Might last longer than a kick.

Battle - A fight in RPGs. Normally, battles are had in a multi-man format in which each team has more than one fighter on it.

Beat - To complete a section of a game or the game itself, kill an enemy, or succeed in some other challenging task.

BM - Short for "bad manners". This can be seen as trolling's baby. ''Fun Fact: It also stands for "big mammal" like whales or elephants. However, this has absolutely nothing to do with gaming whatsoever.''

Body - Slang for kill.

Boss - "Boss" has more than one sense.


 * An enemy, typically greater in size than normal enemies, who is stronger than other enemies and must be defeated for progression in the game.
 * A very good player.

Broken - Used to describe any unbalanced or nonfunctional part of a game or even the game itself. This can be an insanely difficult (or simply impossible) enemy to kill, an OP weapon, or a glitch.

Build - "Build" has more than one sense.


 * A structure the player made.
 * A kind of character.

Buff - In RPGs, a buff is a positive effect given to players and enemies, commonly in battle, to give them an advantage over their opponent. Typically, buffs raise stats.

Bug - Any problem that is caused by hiccups in the game's code. This can be fixed with updates' patches.

Button mashing - Spamming a button on the controller.

C
Camping - Staying in one place or a restricted area. This is named after actual camping where campers stay near their camp.

Chatting - Communicating with other players with words.


 * Voice... - Next-level chatting with actual chatting. Uncensored, unfiltered conversations can be held with voice chat, which is why many modern multiplayer games lack this feature.
 * Chatroom - A place where chatting happens. Chatrooms can be found in lobbies.

Cheating - "Cheating" has more than one sense.


 * When a player breaks the rules to gain an advantage. There are multiple methods of cheating, many of which are simple.
 * A similar sense to the one above, but it's allowed by the game using some sort of commands or set rules.

Clipping - Used to describe the feature in video games that makes sure that 3D objects don't pass through platforms when they're not supposed to like floors or walls, but it can also refer to when a 3D object moves through another one (like a character's hand going through a wall) despite both objects being programmed to be solid. Also referred to as no-clipping. Commands can enable this to be intentional so players can pass through solid platforms.

Command - A basic coding phrase, typically paired up with a slash (/) in the beginning, that alters the gameplay in some way. This can be by changing the weather, giving an item to a player, and so on.

Controls - The way the controller moves the player character. They're one of the factors that may dictate the rating of a game based on how good they are. Bad controls can make the player character move too slow, too late to response to the controller's input, or plain dysfunctional. This shouldn't be confused with the physical controller itself.

Crash - When the game suddenly comes to a halt and leaves the player to do nothing. This can be fatal and needing the game to be restarted for the player to continue. Game crashes can get in the way of progress as games that require manual saving will lose all progress made after the last save, which, depending on how much progress was lost, can get around to simply annoying or greatly angering players.

Critical hit - An uncommon type of hit that does more damage than usual. Critical hits can rarely ever be controlled by the player and happen on a random chance.

Cutscene - A video that explains the plot to the player without having back-and-forth dialogue to slow them down.

D
Damage - Also shortened to "DMG" in RPGs. Damage is dealt to players and enemies with attacks. The objective sometimes is to lower their health as much as possible in some games.

Debuff - A bad effect applied to players and enemies. Well-known debuffs are burning, poison, and paralysis (or anything that has a similar function and goes by a different name).

Destroying - Defeating other players with ridiculous ease.

Dialogue - When at least two characters talk to each other.

D-Pad - Short for "direction pad". A T-shaped function on controllers with a button on each point. The player uses this to move their character in older games, select things in menus, and other tasks. A D-pad can also be found on other machines, like remote controls and DVD players.

DPS - Damage per second.

Drop - Any goods that fall from something once the player interacts with it enough.

Dungeon - A maze-like area, typically underground, that is filled with monsters and loot.


 * ...Crawler - A game where the player explores dungeons in search of dungeon and slaying monsters.

E
Enemy - Anything the player is supposed to defeat. They may harm the player by simply touching them or with attacks.

EXP - Short for "experience". Players gather this from various sources to level up and get stronger.

F
"Fuck this game" - May be spoken when the player feels rage because of the game. It means they're currently frustrated due to a recurring problem, like constantly dying to the same enemy despite the player's numerous attempts to kill that enemy. This phrase has many variants.

Final boss - The last boss in a game. By far the most powerful enemy the player has come across so far. When defeated, the game is won. The final boss can have multiple forms, each form having a different attack pattern.


 * False final boss - A fake final boss who is normally easily defeated. This is soon replaced by the real final boss.

FPS - Short for "frames per second". Like with movies or videos, a frame is an onscreen display of the game. If the game has high FPS, it's fast and showing in-game events fluently. If it's got low FPS, then the game is laggy and has choppy movements on the screen.

Freak out - When a 3D object jerkily moves around. This happens when the object gets stuck in a platform or other solid 3D object.

Friendly fire - Also called "blue fire". Friendly fire is when a player (accidentally) harms or kills their own teammate. This may earn the killing teammate a penalty.

G
Game - Short for "video game". This is the playable software that is available on many pieces of hardware. Anything related to gaming is made for this.


 * "Game on!" - Said by False-To-Life People in movies before the 2010s when they wish to initiate the playing and enjoyment of a video game of their choice with their close acquaintances. It also sounds like "gaymon".
 * "Game over" - When the player's health reaches 0 and they run out of lives, they get this. A screen may accompany the message "Game Over" as well as the player character either feeling defeated or being dead. Game Over is rarely seen in modern games.
 * Gamer - One who games. This person is a higher level of player and plays games for a living. "People" (notably those below the age of 15) call themselves this with their playernames when they want to look cool. It never works. Ever.
 * Gameplay - Refers to the overall experience that a player has when playing the game.
 * Gaming - The act of playing games. One who games is called a gamer.
 * Gaymer - A gamer who is gay (as in they are actually gay).

Gear - Wearable items that may be visible on the PC. Gear can have many effects on the wearer.


 * Gear slot - Where gear is placed to apply to the PC. The top types of gear slots are head, chest, legs, and feet, although others (albeit less common than those listed) exist.

Glitch - "Glitch" has more than one sense.


 * A screw-up in the game that's normally harmless, but still needs to be patched to make the game more complete.


 * In a verb sense, synonymous with freak out.
 * Glitching out - When a game's glitches cause it to crash or reboot.
 * Glitchy - Used to describe anything in a game or the whole game itself if it has glitches.

Gold - A common form of currency the player collects from multiple sources. This is most seen in fantasy games.

Graphics - The overall appearance of the game.

Grinding - The unattractive, slow-paste, tedious act of gaining goods through repeating a task that rewards the player. The most common form of grinding is killing weak enemies over and over to get drops off of them.

Griefing - When a player, called a griefer, repetitively and intentionally causes (in)direct harm to other players. It's considered bullying if the griefer targets a single player instead of generalizing their attacks. Griefing almost always leads to bans or kicks.

H
Hacking - Like with other forms of hacking, this is when a player edits the game's code likely to their advantage. If they're doing it to give themselves an advantage, it can be considered a form of cheating.

Hard counter - Totally nullify.

Health - The player character's life force. If it hits 0, the player might lose. Also referred to as HP (or Hit Points) in RPGs. Health is diminished if the player character ever takes damage and can be restored if they take medicine, drink healing potions, sleep, or do anything else that would heal them.

Hitbox - Where an attacker would have to hit their target to actually damage them. If hit anywhere else, there will be no attack. The hitbox is usually in the shape of its character.

I
Insane - Used to describe something or someone who is ridiculously strong, almost to the point of being OP if not already.

Inventory - Where the player's items go for storage.

Invisible wall - The unseeable boundaries of a 3D world that the player can see beyond, but cannot travel any further than.

Item - Any object the player can collect and place in their inventory.

J
John - Blaming failure on something unrelated to the player's skills like the controls screwing up or a distraction in the real world. This term originated from the Super Smash Bros. fanbase.

Joystick - The stick on a controller that normally has the ability to move in all 360 degrees. It may be needed to move the player or their camera around.

K
Kicking - "Kicking" has more than one sense.
 * An attack dealt with a fighter's foot or lower leg area, like the shin, onto enemies or objects.
 * Removing someone from a game temporarily. This can be a result of toxic actions or a server needing players to momentarily get off.

Kill - To end a player or enemy's life by diminishing their health to 0 with attacks.


 * Killsteal/kill steal - Killing an enemy (and reaping rewards) before an ally or other player after they did all the attacking.

L
Lag - When the game's FPS drops significantly to the point where on-screen actions are seen as choppy and it is hard for players to see what's going on. Lag may or may not affect input speed.


 * Lag death - When lag gets so bad, it causes the game to ultimately crash.
 * Laggy - Used to describe a game that has an issue with lag.

Life - "Life" has more than one sense.


 * Another term to refer to one's health.
 * Units of health that decrease when a player dies and increases when they collect a one-man. This keeps them from gaming over.
 * Something gamers don't have.

Loading - When the game is preparing itself for play by getting together its elements like terrain, NPCs, and objects.

Lobby - A screen where players wait to get into online play. Chatting can be done here.

Loot - Goods that can be collected by the player. This includes food, weapons, money, gear, and so on.

M
Main - A character a player plays as often.


 * Maining - Choosing a character to make your main.

Map - The word used to refer to a stage in a 3D game, especially if it's large and/or open world.

Matchup - How different classes work against each other. With matchups, one class can be strong on one other class while being weak to another.

Meta - The most effective strats used by players.

Minmaxing or min-maxing - Min imizing on unwanted stats and max imizing desirable ones.

MMO - Abbreviated form of "massively multiplayer online". It is common for active MMOs to have hundreds or even thousands of players share the same server. MMOs typically have players fight and kill each other, but some can be cooperative.

MMORPG - Abbreviated form of "massively multiplayer online role-playing game". This is a combination of the two preexisting genres — MMO and RPG — that usually allows players to choose their RPG classes and races, then play a RPG-formatted multiplayer game with many other players.

Mount - Something, most likely an animal, a player can ride and control, like a horse.

N
Nerf - A weakening to some element in the game to justify it and prevent it from being OP. This is the opposite of buffing.

Newb(ie) - A person who is new to the game.

No-clip - See clipping above.

Noob or no0b - A person who makes beginner-like mistakes despite not really being a beginner. This is an insult that was popular around the year 2012.

NPC - Short for "non-player character". This is any character the player does not normally control. This is the opposite of a PC.

O
Offset - Negate or cancel.

OHK - Short for "one-hit kill". When only one hit is required to kill an enemy or player due to the attack being that powerful or the target being that weak. A related term is OHKO.

OHKO - Short for "one-hit knockout". It's like an OHK, but instead of one hit needed to kill, one hit is needed to knock the target out. This is an element seen in RPGs.

One-man - An object that grants the player who collects it an extra life.

One-shot or one-hit - Killing someone in a single hit. This leads to an OHK.

OP - Short for "overpowered". It's when something or someone has so much power, it ruins the balance of the game. An example of something that's overpowered is a sword that could OHK any enemy and has no downsides. "OP" is also used to describe anything that a whiny player finds hard to deal with due to its power despite not actually being so.

P
Party - A group of people who are allies and work together towards a common goal. This is the RPG equivalent of a team.

Passive intimidation - Scaring off far-away enemies without actually doing anything and simply looking frightening.

Patching - Fixing glitches in a game using files that were designed specifically to do so. This can be achieved with updates.

Permadeath - When the player dies forever. In the game, in the game.

Player - Someone who plays a video game, let it be briefly or for a career.


 * Player character - An in-game character who the player must control. Also shortened to PC, but not to be confused for "personal computer". The opposite of an NPC.
 * Playername - The name the player selects for themselves. Instead of being called by their real name (since it most likely isn't provided), they would be called this instead by other players and NPCs.

Power spike - A sudden jump in a player's power. This is seen normally after they level up and hit a certain number.

Pro - A very experienced player.

PvP - See 1v1 above.

R
Rage - Anger towards the currently-played game. This may lead to a rage quit if not dealt with properly.


 * Rager - One who rages. Their rage to others can be found as childish or funny.
 * Rage Quit - When someone quits the game they're playing (for a stress break or for good) because of their built-up stress caused by their constant failure.

(Git/Get) Rekt - Corruption of "get wrecked". Popular slang used back in the years around 2015. This was said when one player killed another. Rekt was also used to describe something that got destroyed by someone or another thing. The present tense of rekt can be said to be rek.

Respawn - To return to spawn or another place after death.

S
Saving - Storing the game's made progress internally. When a player saves, everything that they did will be recorded into a save state.

Server - A connection between players that has them in a shared world where they may all interact with each other via real-time action.

Skin - How players, enemies, items, and the environment look.

Smurfing - When a very experienced player disguises themselves as a beginner player (possibly with a new account or character), joins beginner servers, and kills inexperienced and learning players.

Spamming - "Spamming" has more than one sense.


 * The act of repetitively bashing a key or button.
 * Writing the same message over and over in chat.
 * Doing or causing anything else to an excessive degree or repetitively.

Spawn - To suddenly appear.


 * ...Point - The place where characters suddenly appear. Also called spawn.


 * ...Camping - When a player waits at the spawn of players or enemies to kill them and giving them little to no chance to fight back.

Spec - To spec ialize or invest in a stat by focusing on increasing that stat.

Speedrun - Playing and completing a game as fast as possible.

Stat - Short for "statistic". Stats are parts of a fighter that can be raised or lowered. These stats have different functions. Common stats are strength, defense, and agility. Health is sometimes not considered a stat.

Strat - Short for "strategy". Not to be visibly confused for stats. This is a repeated way of gameplay experienced players will form to easily conquer parts of the game that would have otherwise been more challenging.

Superboss - A boss who is not required to be defeated for game progression but can be fought for helpful rewards or fun.

T
Tank - "Tank" has more than one sense.


 * A build with very high defense, common high strength, and terrible speed.
 * A vehicle that matches the sense above.

Taunt - A dance or dance-like gesture done by a victorious player to enrage defeated ones. This can also come in the form of insults or smartassery lines.

Team - A band of players who work together towards a single goal. It is often impossible to hurt or debuff teammates.

Toxicity - Defined as troll-like actions or other harmful attacks on other players with grieving, insulting, or any other negative interactions. If someone is causing toxicity, they're called toxic.

Trolling - Intentional foul play in multiplayer games that is done to invoke anger from other players. A person who trolls is called a troll. Trolling can be done by...


 * Asking how to to basic things (attacking, jumping, moving, etc.).
 * Being generally useless by doing ineffective things (like attack a wall), constantly committing suicide, or simply doing absolutely nothing.
 * Being immature in any sense of the word.
 * Calling other players out for their lack of skills.
 * Consciously killstealing.
 * General cheating.
 * Harming or hampering your own teammates in whatever way possible.
 * Insulting other players.
 * Meming with bad or dead memes.
 * Obviously being too young to play the game.
 * Picking a fight with someone although they did nothing.
 * Smurfing.
 * Unnecessarily yelling, screeching, hollering, or singing in voice chat. Bonus Points if you can get everyone to yell "SHUT THE FUCK UP" within a minute.

U
Ultimate boss - The very final boss in a game series. When defeated, the game's story will end and the game is won. The ultimate boss will most likely be the most powerful boss in the entirety of the series by far.

Update - A new version of the game that's available to players. Updates change the game in some way, let it be by adding (for instance, a new map), taking away (removing an OP weapon), or fixing (killing bugs) its elements. Not all updates patch the game.

W
Wave - A series of enemies who either attack the player or go for their Bird's Egg they need to protect or else they lose. There is usually an intermission between waves to give the player time to plan or get themselves ready for the next wave.

Wiping - When a boss annihilates the player (and their party).

World - "World" has more than one sense.


 * Another word for the map. Generally refers to a large map to separate it from smaller maps.
 * The collection of related levels.
 * The planet the game takes place on.

X
XP - Short for experience points and alternate form of EXP. This is what players collect to level up. XP can be collected from completing tasks, defeating monsters, or looting natural containers.