1) 1-Up

• Everyone should know this. Ever since Mario, the 1-Up stands for an extra life.

2) Adds

• “Additional Monsters.” When fighting a boss monster, it will sometimes summon additional things for you ...

18) KDR / KR

• “Kill-to-Death Ratio.” On average, how many enemies you take out before being taken out yourself. A lot of players are obsessed with their KDR, as if it portrays how good they are. It may be relevant, but they can focus on this to the detriment ...

9) CB / OB

• “Closed / Open Beta.” Terms used to refer to games that are still under development and are running tests before its final release. Closed means private or invite-only, and open means available to the public.

10) CD

7) RPG

• Role-Playing Game. Put on your robe and wizard hat and go on an adventure. Or don your armor and sharpen your swords. Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, etc. (You know, those games that take way too long to finish.)

8) RTS

12) Dungeon

• A separate, closed-off area with its own bosses and monsters. Dungeons often have their own name, such as World of Warcraft’s “Ragefire Chasm.”

13) EXP / XP

• “Experience Points.” The more points you h...

15) Grind

• To do something repetitively. You can grind quests, monsters, and even crafting. (e.g. leveling up leatherworking is going to take a lot of grinding.)

16) HP

• “Health / Hit Points.” The measurement of...

16) OHKO

• “One-Hit Knock-Out.” A term often used in fighting games, which refers to a single attack that entirely depletes an opponent’s health.
• eg: If you can perfect it, Jigglypuff’s pound is OP. OHKO city.

17) OOM / O...

Once you’re finished installing and have gotten into your game, there are going to be a lot of things thrown at you very quickly. If you’re playing a single-player game, you can progress at your own speed and look things over. On the other hand, multiplayer experiences tend to be more hectic, and...

4) AoE

• “Area of Effect.” Refers to spells and abilities that work within a certain area rather than just against a single foe. Usually these are shown as green circles (while casting) and red circles when they inflict damage. Long story short: if you’re stan...

6) BoE

• “Bind on Equip.” Whereas BoA allows items to be shared among characters, BoE means the item is bound to one specific character once it’s been equipped and cannot be transferred.

7) Buff / Debuff

• Benefic...

28) Raid

• A large-scale dungeon with multiple players. Whereas dungeons can be done solo or with a small group, raids usually consist of more than ten players fighting through a dungeon to get loot. Some old World of Warcraft raids took as many as 40 players w...

5) MMO

• Massively Multiplayer Online. This is more of a general term regarding online games intended for a large player base. It can cover a variety of genres, such as FPS, RPG, and more. The most well-known, World of Warcraft, is an MMORPG.

6)

1) 3PS / TPS / OTS

• Third-Person Shooter / Over the Shoulder. These games include titles like Gears of War, The Division, Mass Effect, and more.

2) 4X

• “eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate” games are a very...

Once you start gaming, you’ll realize there’s a lot of jargon, slang, and acronyms floating around that you may have never heard before. You may wonder, are these actual words? Are they speaking Orcish or some other fantasy nerd language? Instead of widely known and easily digestible phrases like...

1) Triple-A (AAA)

Games that have a big budget, a lot of backing, and generally get a lot of praise from fans and critics. Your CoDs Battlefields, and such.

2) Bug

Coding error with unintended results. Can be good or bad. Some ...

4) FF

• “Friendly Fire” or “Forfeit.” If your teammate shoots you and you take damage, that’s Friendly Fire. When it gets bad, your teammates may drop the FF (forfeit), so they can end the game.
• eg: Hey! Watch the FF.
• eg: Guys there’...

14) LFG / LFM / LFP

• “Looking for Group / More / Party.” Commonly found in online multiplayer games when players are trying to run a dungeon or raid. Sometimes LFM includes a number denoting how many players are needed.
• eg: LFG Deadmines.

1. EC - Early childhood, intended for young children
2. E - Everyone, for all ages
3. E10+ - Everyone 10+, for ages 10 and up
4. T - Teen, for age...

23) NPC

• “Non-Player Character.” Characters that aren’t controlled by another living person. They can be quest givers, shop keepers, or just a random person sitting in town. They don’t always have to serve a narrative function.

24) Pin...

27) Toxic

• Used to describe a person’s attitude and behavior. When a player starts complaining and cursing at others, he or she is being toxic.
• eg: Keep being toxic and you’ll get banned.

28) WTB / WTT / WTS

30) Skin

• An aesthetic change to an item or player. Generally, this doesn’t serve any other function other than to make your character look better (or worse). Games like CounterStrike offer skins in loot boxes, which can be sold for IRL (in-real-life) money.

1) Cheese

• An underhanded strategy. Can also be used as a verb.
• eg: He’s cheesing his way to victory.

2) DC

• “Disconnect.” Often, players will disconnect and reconnect. Sometimes, it’s not their f...

7) GG / BG

• “Good Game” / “Bad Game.” Usually written at the end of a game. People who show good sportsmanship usually write GG. Salty players will blame others and write BG.
• eg: GG all.

8) GG no re

...

First, let’s cover ESRB ratings. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), as its name suggests, rates video games as a means of regulating the industry. You’ll often see a little section on the game’s front cover with its logo and a rating with a letter. This tells you the target audience ...

26) PvP

• “Player vs Player.” Fighting against other live players, whether it’s done in arenas, battlegrounds, or even in the open world. Online FPS are usually PvP in nature.

27) QTE

• “Quick-Time Event.” Simon S...

10) HF

• “Have Fun.” Friendly term usually written at the start of a match.
• eg: Gl hf everyone.

11) IGN

• “In-Game Name.” The part of self-identification that’s equally hard as designing your charac...

8) P2P

“Pay to Play.” Games that you need to purchase to play. Can also include micro-transactions.

9) P2W

“Pay to Win.” Games with micro-transactions that give buyers an upper hand over regular players. (e.g. the ability to bu...

4) DRM

“Digital Rights Management.” When a game has some form of DRM, that means there is software built into it that is intended to protect it from pirates.

5) Easter Egg

Hidden feature within the game left by a developer t...

20) Loot

• Items and drops. Loot can be found in defeated monsters, chests, and boss monsters. Usually harder monsters and bosses drop better loot.

21) Mod

• Modification. Some games, such as Skyrim, support mods....