From pwned to kiting – an A to Z of the gaming phrases you could know | Games

Twenty years in the past, video video games have been seen as a distinct segment passion dominated by hardcore fans, tucked away in obscure on-line boards and gaming meet-ups. Back then, the concept that governments would use footage from Call of Duty and gaming phrases akin to “killstreaks” as struggle propaganda would have been absurd. Then the 2010s occurred: nerd tradition popularised, beforehand online-only areas started to meld with the true world, and gaming went mainstream.

Now, gaming references have entered widespread parlance – on the finish of 2024, online game phrases together with “cheat code” and “cutscene” have been even added to the Oxford English Dictionary – they usually more and more crop up in politics, too. Earlier this yr, the official White House X account posted footage of army strikes on Iran interspersed with footage from the online game Grand Theft Auto. Six days later, another video was posted, this time interspersing army footage with clips from Nintendo’s 2006 sport Wii Sports. Video sport references aren’t reserved for the political proper, both: in February 2026, Democrat consultant of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quipped, “Why does this guy always talk like a World of Warcraft npc [non-player character]?” in response to a publish on X by Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of workers.

To assist navigate this new world of gaming references and gaming-inspired “slopaganda”, we’ve got compiled a information to gaming phrases, from phrases which can be already widespread to these on the verge of reducing by.

A

Any% A technique of beating a sport by any means potential, together with utilizing glitches or different strategies to skip boss battles, cutscenes, and even whole ranges. Any%ers typically rejoice “breaking” the sport by code exploits to realize a velocity benefit. For an actual world instance, see Elon Musk’s method to the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge).

B

Boosting Paying for another person to do the arduous be just right for you by, for instance, levelling up your character, particularly in on-line video games. Generally seen as dishonest and towards the ethos of gaming, it’s also one thing that Elon Musk has admitted to doing for his characters in Path of Exile 2 and Diablo 4.

Buff An enhancement made to a personality, merchandise or skill that will increase its energy or effectiveness. The equal of getting two pints at a bar to buff your confidence earlier than talking to somebody you fancy.

Bullet sponge An enemy character that takes an absurd quantity of injury earlier than they’re defeated. Also, derogatory army slang for an individual whom no person desires to be round as a result of they all the time entice enemy fireplace. See additionally: “tanks”.

Button mashing Repeatedly urgent a random choice of buttons on a controller, often as an act of sheer panic and desperation by inexperienced gamers attempting to win tough fights.

C

Camping A tactic, often deployed in video games involving capturing and fight, of staying in the identical spot for lengthy durations due to its strategic benefit. Often used to snipe different gamers from afar, which might shortly develop into very annoying and result in accusations of trolling or “griefing” (see beneath).

Cheesing Using ways that aren’t technically dishonest, however are treading a positive line. Cheesing is successfully taking the simple approach out and avoiding the meant problem set by builders. Tactics embrace exploiting glitches and loopholes, spamming the identical transfer many times earlier than an enemy can react, or making your self overpowered (see “OP” beneath). One instance of cheesing was in Crash Bandicoot: Warped (1998), the place gamers may keep away from taking any injury throughout a colosseum-themed boss struggle by standing in a safe-spot nook. In the sport’s 2017 remake, standing in that nook resulted within the participant being pelted by blocks of cheese as a punishment.

Class A personality’s function or occupation (akin to warrior, samurai or bandit), typically chosen early within the sport. Most courses fall into the classes of offence, defence and assist, and every class has its personal strengths and weaknesses that requires gamers to adapt their taking part in fashion.

D

DLC “Downloadable content”, an additional a part of a sport that gamers will pay to obtain, typically together with new ranges, outfits, gadgets or weapons.

DPS “Damage per second”, a approach of calculating how efficient an in-game assault or weapon is by measuring how a lot it damages an enemy in a single second.

E

Easter eggs One of the oldest online game phrases, an Easter egg is a message, reference or function hidden in a sport. It originates from Steve Wright, a software program developer at Atari in 1980, who in contrast a hidden room within the online game Adventure to an Easter egg hunt (the hidden room contained the signature of Warren Robinett, a coder who, in his own words, was “pissed” that he hadn’t obtained any credit score for being the sport’s creator).

Emotes Short gestures gamers could make their characters carry out to point out feelings, akin to waving, laughing or crying. Popular in on-line video games akin to Fortnite and World of Warcraft, the place emoting is commonly used to rile or mock different gamers.

F

Farming Performing an motion in a sport repeatedly to assemble assets akin to gadgets or expertise, very similar to going to work on daily basis to build up cash, however for enjoyable and in your free time. See additionally: “grinding”.

G

Gank Similar to “jumping” somebody in actual life, this can be a gaming technique to ambush weaker gamers by sneaking up on them, often in a bunch.

GG Short for “good game”, used throughout on-line video games as a strategy to present sportsmanship on the finish of a match. Can be prolonged to GG WP (“good game, well played”) or, if a participant desires to brag about defeating a very weak opponent, GG ez (“good game, easy”).

Glitch A bug or malfunction in a sport that causes unintended penalties. One of essentially the most notorious is the “Corrupted Blood incident” in World of Warcraft, the place a glitch meant {that a} blood curse unfold quickly between gamers, ultimately spreading so broadly that builders needed to reset the sport. The incident was later utilized by scientists to study the spread of infectious diseases.

God mode To be omnisciently highly effective and invincible inside the world of the sport, generally achieved utilizing hacks or code exploits. During Doge’s overhaul of US authorities businesses, one senior chief at USAID declared to the Atlantic: “Doge has achieved God mode.”

Griefing To grief somebody, or to be a “griefer”, is to wind different gamers up intentionally by being annoying, disruptive and usually infuriating. Often achieved by killing different gamers with out motive, stealing gadgets, or refusing to interact in staff actions. See additionally: “trolls”.

Grinding Similar to “farming”: a repeated motion or process undertaken to assemble a useful resource or stage up.

H

HP “Hit points” or “health points”, used to measure the well being of a personality or how a lot injury an assault does. Increasingly utilized in meme tradition to joke about real-life injury or embarrassment, akin to seeing somebody fall over and quipping: “minus 10 HP”.

I

In Minecraft A phrase adopted by far-right websites akin to 4chan, typically added semi-ironically to the tip of threats in an try to keep away from authorized repercussions (for instance: “I’m going to punch him … in Minecraft”). It backfired in 2023 when a man was arrested for making demise threats towards a Florida sheriff on 4chan’s politics board, regardless of ending his threats with “in Minecraft”.

Ok

KDR “Kill/death ratio”, a measure used to check the variety of kills a participant achieves with the variety of instances they die, often to find out talent and competence in on-line multiplayer video games.

Killstreak A steady collection of kills made by a participant with out being killed themselves (actually a “streak” of kills). This yr, the White House was criticised for using a killstreak animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in a video that includes actual footage from the struggle in Iran.

Kiting The tactic of hitting an enemy from vary whereas holding sufficient distance to keep away from hurt, typically main them round like a kite on a string.

L

Loot Items gamers gather as a reward for killing enemies or finishing duties. In latest years, controversial “loot boxes” have gained recognition in video games together with Genshin Impact and League of Legends, permitting gamers to alternate actual cash for randomised digital gadgets (generally often known as “gacha games”, named after Japanese Gashapon, merchandising machines that dispense capsule toys).

M

-maxxing Prioritising one talent or attribute over all others. Originates from “min-maxing”, a method of making the very best character by maximising fascinating traits and minimising undesirable ones. It has now entered mainstream vocabulary with the appearance of looksmaxxing and Chinamaxxing.

MMORPG “Massively multiplayer online role playing game”, a sport through which gamers work together with an unlimited variety of different gamers in an internet fantasy world. A notable instance is EVE Online, a sci-fi MMORPG, which, in 2014, saw a battle with 7,548 participants.

Modding Fan-created modifications that change components of a sport’s look or add new options. A private favorite is a Skyrim mod that turns the sport’s dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine characters.

N

Nerf To weaken or water down a weapon, character or skill (“I don’t want to play as Riven any more, she’s been nerfed!”), originating from the Nerf model of toy weapons that fireplace innocent mushy foam weapons.

Noob Gaming slang that took maintain within the 00s, brief for “newbie” and generally spelt “n00b”, it’s a derogatory phrase for a clueless and hopeless newbie.

NPC “Non-player character”, a online game character not managed by the participant. Increasingly used as slang for people who find themselves predictable, robotic or missing interiority, and generally tied to the philosophical concept that we reside in a simulation.

O

OP “Overpowered”, referring to a personality, merchandise or skill that’s ridiculously robust and makes profitable straightforward. The religious reverse of “nerfed”.

P

Pwned A misspelling of the phrase “owned”, that means a humiliating defeat (for instance, “You died so easily! Pwned!”). It emerged within the early 00s as a part of “leetspeak”, an internet slang dialect closely related to hackers and coders. A notable instance of the phrase escaping video video games is the web site “Have I Been Pwned”, established by a Microsoft developer to test whether or not your e mail has been compromised in safety breaches.

R

Ragequit To instantly cease taking part in a sport out of anger and frustration, often since you are repeatedly dropping. In 2017, Vanity Fair accused Steve Bannon of threatening to ragequit the White House.

RPG “Role playing game”, sometimes a sport with a heavy storytelling component through which gamers assume the roles of characters, make choices for them and comply with a story path.

S

Side quest A mission or exercise that isn’t a part of the sport’s primary story and is often optionally available to finish. Sometimes utilized in extra common slang to check with the whimsical actions and adventures of day-to-day life, akin to taking a sewing class or getting a tarot reading.

Skins Different designs and outfits that may be utilized to characters to customize their look, akin to “Peely”, a Fortnite pores and skin that provides characters a banana costume.

Smurfing When a extremely expert participant in an internet sport creates a brand new account to disguise their talent stage and play towards lower-ranked gamers. Originating from high Warcraft 2 gamers Geoff “Shlonglor” Frazier and Greg “Warp” Boyko, who disguised themselves underneath the usernames PapaSmurf and Smurfette to play towards novice gamers.

Speedrunning A preferred spectator sport that entails finishing a sport as quick as potential, generally utilizing loopholes or glitches (see “Any%”). The time period has lately damaged into widespread parlance by “Scientology speedruns”, a 2026 social media pattern through which individuals movie themselves working as far into Scientology buildings as potential earlier than being stopped. One video racked up 90m views.

T

Tanks Also often known as a meat protect or bullet sponge, a tank is a category of character designed to resist massive quantities of injury, akin to army tanks. See additionally: “bullet sponge”.