Top 40 Essential Gaming Slang for Parents

Thanksgiving is fast approaching! Not long now before most of us will be getting together with friends and family and chowing down until we’re ready to burst! For the many who weren’t able to be with their loved ones last year, this one is sure to be extra special. There’ll be a lot of catching up to do and even more fun to be shared. For the kids, this will almost certainly mean lots of time playing the newest and hottest video games. However, for the adults, it can often be tough to partake in the kid’s fun because of the crazy gaming slang being thrown around!

So, to help you understand what the kids are chatting about this Thanksgiving (and beyond), we’ve assembled our definitive list of the top 40 most essential gaming slang terms:

In-game slang

AFK — “Away from keyboard”, meaning the player is taking a short break from the game.

Buffed — A word used to describe in-game items or characters that have had their power levels increased.

Bug/Glitch — An aspect of a game that doesn’t work as it should. Most bugs/glitches are fixed soon after they are discovered, but some stick around long enough to become features.

Camper — A player who hides and waits for enemies to appear, often in a corner or behind a wall. Although lots of players dislike those who do it, many will argue that camping is a legitimate strategy.

Cheese — Strategies that are seen as basic or unskillful can be described as “cheese”.

Farming —
Definition 1: Gaining experience points by performing repetitive actions.
Definition 2: Soundly beating the enemy in an uncompetitive fashion can be described as “farming” them.

Feeder — A player who intentionally allows the enemy to kill them.

GG/BG — “Good game/bad game”. These two terms are used at the end of a match. GG is by far more common, but BG is sometimes said by sore losers.

Griefing/Throwing — Intentionally losing. Common tactics include purposeful inactivity or freely being killed by the enemy team.

Grinding — The act of doing something over and over again to level up a character or item.

Hacker/Hacks/Hacking — A hacker is someone who uses exploits, most commonly third-party cheating software, to gain an unfair advantage. Common types of hacks include aimbots (which provide automatic target acquisition) and wallhacks (which allow enemies to be visible through walls).

Lag — When there is a delay between a player’s inputs and the game’s response, players will commonly say they are “lagging”.

Mod — An abbreviation of “modification”. Some games allow players to change certain aspects. Mods are most commonly found for PC games. See: Top 10 Minecraft Mods.

Nerf — A word used to describe in-game items or characters that have had their power levels decreased.

Noob — An insult used toward newer or lower-skilled players.

OP — In-game items or characters that are viewed by the player base to be disproportionately powerful are often described as “OP” or “overpowered”.

Pwned — When an enemy is “pwned” it means they were defeated handily. 

Salty — A term used to describe players who are upset or bitter, most commonly about losing.

Smurf — A word used to describe high-ranking, skilled players playing on new low-level accounts to defeat lower-ranked opponents in a humiliating fashion.

Squeaker — Used to describe younger gamers with higher-pitched voices.

Sweat — Players who are very competitive and will use all strategies available (even those that may be looked down upon) to come out with the victory.

Teabagging — Repeatedly crouching over a defeated player’s in-game avatar. It is supposed to crudely mimic the sex act where a man’s testicles either touch his partner’s face or enter their mouth. Curious about teabagging? Click here.

Toxic — Used to describe players who have a bad attitude or display bad behaviors. Most commonly used when playing multiplayer games.

Troll — A player whose goal is not to have fun playing the game, but to try to ruin the gaming experience of others by upsetting them.

Wrecked /Get wrecked — After a decisive victory, some players will say this to their opponents.

Popular game modes, apps, and in-game terminology

1v1 — In-game one-on-one battles. Also used when challenging another player.

Adopt Me! — By far the most popular Roblox game, with over 1.9 million concurrent players. Players can adopt and care for a variety of virtual pets, in a similar vein to Tamagotchi.

Avatar — A person’s in-game character. They can often be highly customized, including gender, clothing, accessories, and more.

Cooldown — The amount of time a player must wait to use a particular ability again. Cooldowns are implemented by developers for game balancing.

Crafting — Combining several items to make new, commonly more sought-after ones. One of the core gameplay mechanics in Minecraft.

Discord — An instant messaging, voice chat, and video chat app that is immensely popular with gamers.

DPS — Stands for “damage per second” aka the amount of damage a character or weapon can do each second.

DLC — “Downloadable content” is content that is made available after the initial release of a game. DLC varies greatly in content. It could be the addition of extra levels or in-game items, for example.

Esports — “Electronic sports” aka professional, competitive video gaming. 

Killstreak — The number of consecutive kills a player gets before dying.

Loot ­—Items that are scavenged from defeated enemies. An essential gameplay mechanic in popular battle royale games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends.

Raid — A feature of certain multiplayer games where a group of players work together cooperatively to complete objectives, obtain rare in-game items, and defeat high-level enemies.

Respawn — When a character is brought back to life.

Skins — Used to change the appearance of a character or item. Can normally be acquired through playtime or purchased through the in-game store.Twitch — A popular live streaming platform with a primary focus on video games.

Safety solutions for gaming and more

Looking to ensure your child’s online experience is as safe as possible? Here are three of our top picks for apps that do just that:

#1 — Trend Micro Family

Trend Micro Family is a superb app for blocking age-inappropriate sites and filtering explicit images in real-time. Once everything’s set up — and set up is a breeze — parents can gain an insight into how their children use their devices and which content interests and concerns them. There are plenty of other excellent features too, but for parents looking for a non-invasive approach to guaranteeing safe browsing, this is a standout option.

#2 — Norton 360 for Gamers

PC gamers young and old can benefit from Norton 360 for Gamers. Nothing is more annoying than continuously being disturbed by antivirus pop-ups during a hardcore gaming session, and it’s for this reason alone that this gamer-focused app gets our seal of approval. While gaming, Norton 360 for Gamers will only display the most critical alerts, ensuring that disturbances are kept to a minimum. You get a VPN and 50GB of online storage for your money, among other features, too.

#3 — McAfee Gamer Security

McAfee Gamer Security works similarly to Norton 360 for Gamers, but it isn’t so feature-packed. In fact, it is more or less a stripped-down version of McAfee’s standard antivirus suite. Still, for gamers looking for a solid antivirus app with some impressive performance-enhancing features, this is a great pick.

Enjoyed this article? 

Then you’ll probably want to check out some of these:

Teaching Kids to be Smart on Social Media
Phones Away — The Family Digital Detox
How to Protect Children from Social Media Risks
Why Set Boundaries on What Kids Can View on the Internet?