Brief Guide to Gamer Slang

Being hardcore gamers, many of you probably use cornucopia of slang words, but some of you probably wonder what some of these slang words and abbreviations mean.
This short guide will try to present and explain some of the most important words from gamers’ vocabulary, their meaning and origin.

Let’s start with the well known abbreviations.

PWN, PWNED

If the players have been “pwned” that means that they suck. Word “pwn” is nothing more than common typo mistake of the word “own”, arising from the proximity of the 'p' and 'o' keys on the keyboard. Another explanation says that this typo was introduced to get around the limitations of game servers using insult filters.
However, “pwn” weights more than simple “own”, especially after being introduced in “South Park” episode, and to “pwn” someone is superior to “own” someone now.

Variations: pwn/pwned/pwnd/pwn3d/pwning/pwnage/pwnt (misspelling of pwned)


1337

1337 is hacker speak for "leet," which is an abbreviation of "elite”. This term was derived from 31337 ("eleet"), which was the UDP port used by the Dead Cow Cult hacker group to access Windows 95 using a notorious hacking program - Back Orifice. By employing various numbers as letters, they were avoiding censorship, trying to look cool. This word is mostly used to describe experienced players, whether other call them that way, or player praise their own skills.
Also, ‘1337’ can often be a person who pretends to hold Xtr3m H4x0r abilities, but in fact is camper n00b, who is about to be pwned by real 1337.
1337 is also used with words “juice” or “sauce” to describe something exceptionally skillful and awesome (1337 sauce). It’s used mostly by Counter Strike players, assuming that “sauce” is misspelled “source”.



NOOB

Noob is opposite of 1337. Usually “noob” is the guy who fires on his friends and ruins the match, or the one who picks up the worst and most useless weapon in game (usually called n00bstick). It has also become a favorite insult in players’ chat. Being “noob” is the worst thing in game.

Variations: newb/newbie/n00b/nub


TEH

Another famous misspelling of the word "The", now used as a way to show extra emphasis onto the next word. Like: “That n00b is teh sux!”


FTW

“For Teh Win!” is the one of the most popular announcements on teh internet that something went really, really successful. It can be used at teh end of deathmatch, or to describe any other enthusiasm. It usually goes at teh end of comment or message. Sometimes it can be replaced with “epic win” statement.


FAIL

“Fail” is opposite of “FTW”. It is used when things went horribly wrong. It is derived from an ending to the Neo-Geo game "Blazing Star": "YOU FAIL IT. YOUR SKILL IS NOT ENOUGH. SEE YOU NEXT TIME. BYE-BYE!"
Whole sentence was too long, so geek started to use only “Fail” to describe others’ and own failures. So, if you see or do anything stupid and self-destructive, put "FAIL” at the end.
The biggest Fail of all (on daily, monthly or yearly basis) is called Epic Fail.


WOOT

“Woot” means excitement about something. According one explanation, “woot” is H4x0rZ term for “root” (as in administrative access). Others say it’s a word that means We Owned Other Team. More likely, it is an abbreviation of “Wow, loot!” phrase from old “Dungeons & Dragons” game. It can be written as “w00t” as well.


- ZOR

“-zor” or “-z0r” is suffix usually added to give more awesomeness to the words such as hack, rock, pwn – H4xz0r, pwnzor, r0xz0r.


QQ

“QQ” is used as an abbreviation for crying, because it resembles a pair of tearful eyes. When you pwn someone, add a QQ salt on the wound.


PEW PEW

It’s the sound of laser guns, but it’s also used to describe pwnage and kickin’ someone’s butt, particularly in WoW.


ÜBER

“Über” comes from German language and means “over”, “more” or “above”. It is used to describe superiority over others, in this case other players. You may say that you have Über H4x0r skills or that you’ve been Über-Pwnd by others, or by yourself (see Epic Fail).


!!!11

!!!11 occurs when users attempt to overload a statement with exclamation marks, but take their finger off the "Shift" key too early, changing the expected "!!!!!!" into "!!!11". Also, it can be used by “1337” players to mock n00bs who are careless to watch what they're typing before pressing Enter button.
Usually, the n00b will type: “OMFG I JUST TOTALLY OWNED YOUR NOOB ASS!!!11”
The 1337 will respond: “U should watch UR back. OMFG! LOL!!!!111shift1”


Slang in MMORPGs

Besides common abbreviations we mentioned above, there is a special kind of slang seen in massive multiplayer online games.


Grinding - Grinding means repeatedly killing a certain level range of “mobs” in order to level up your character. Your level dictates what level range of monsters you can kill and on what area of the map. When you level past the level range of certain area, you can move on to the next, higher level range area. Grinding player often resembles hamster on wheel.

Powerleveling – Powerleveling means gaining experience and levels, at a greater rate than is normally planned for the game. It is often accomplished by the help of other characters (for money) or by the use of various exploits. Powerleveling also means that you will miss the interesting parts of game, if you decide to give your account to other folks who work for you 24/7. But you still have PvP at higher levels.

Farming - When a player repeatedly kills “mobs” usually of lower levels in order to easily gather gold or items, this is known as farming. This term is also used to describe characters who use various exploits, hacks or macros to obtain gold. Special name for them is “gold farmers".

Loot – Loot is anything that comes off a corpse. It is also called a “drop”. Subject of grinding, camping, farming, and raiding.

Raid - Raid is usually a group of more than eight players who intend to take down a Boss. Raids are quite time consuming because you have to gather all players and kill bunch of Mobs before you get to the boss. Once you meet the boss, it can only be defeated by a certain strategy, according to the "script", which changes according to the Boss’s remaining level of life. Not following the strategy, means certain “wipe” (death of all participants and raid restart).

Buffs - Any spell or effect that enhances your character for a certain period of time are called “buffs”. “Debuff” means opposite.

Nerfing – Originally, "Nerf" was a product line of soft foam based sport products which are weaker and safer. This term was adopted by the gaming communities to refer to the reduction in power of a game feature for the sake of balance, and it’s usually addressed to game developers.
Example: “They gotta nerf those pallies”.

Mobs – Mobs stands for Mobile Objects, usually non-playable monsters.

DPS - Damage per second. Often used to qualify how much damage certain weapons are inflicting.

Aggro -  The amount of "hate" that one Mob has toward you, which means that it will attack you. Basically, the more DPS you are doing to Mob, the higher chance that you’ll be "aggro’d".

PK or PKer – PKer is an abbreviation for Player Killers, whose only joy in PvP seems to be in killing other players. This term is generally a negative one used to describe a person who kills players at much lower level or disadvantaged for some other reason. Synonym "griefer" –is also used for PKer, because it gives much grief to lowbies (lower level players) just trying to level their chars.

Char - Abbreviation of “character”. Also, “Toon”, which is short for cartoon, is often used to describe a character in an online game.

Zerg Tactics – Derived from "Starcraft" game. It’s named by the alien Zerg race, which best tactic was to stage a massive onslaught before defenses could be formed. “Zerg tactics” haven’t lost its original meaning – to overwhelm enemies with sheer numbers.
Also, known as “Zerg Rush”.


If you would like to share some slang words that I forgot to put in this article, please leave them in comments.