Date Published: 14th May, 2021

A study taken in 2020 showed that 72% of parents don’t understand gaming jargon used by their children. It’s important to understand what these words mean, as some of them can be violent or dangerous. We’ve compiled a cheat sheet of the most common words used by the gaming community and what they mean to help you go from “N00b” to “1337.” 

1337 – The numbers 1337 represent the letters LEET, which is short for elite. The term means to be an elite gamer in one or more video games. 

AAA – A high-budget game. AAA games are usually multi-platform, have multi-million-dollar budgets and plan to sell over one million copies. 

Advergames – Advertisement Games – designed to promote a particular product, service or company. They usually feature a product prominently and will likely be played on the company’s website or will be available for download. 

Always on Gaming – Having to be connected to the internet in order to play a video game. 

Boss – A special enemy that is usually presented to the player at the end of a level, or midway through (a mini-boss). 

Bug – An error in a game’s programming or design. 

Clan – Groups of friends or strangers who come together to form a team. Clan matches are when two clans face off against each other. 

Combo – Combinations of attacks in a fighting game, during which an opponent is helpless to defend themselves. 

Cooldown – The minimum length of time that the player needs to wait after using an ability before they can use it again. 

DLC – Downloadable Content – additional content created for a released video game. Downloadable content can consist of several things such as an outfit change, objects and challenges. 

Easter Egg – A hidden feature or item in a video game. If you’re playing a video game and come across an easter egg, you have found something that the developers hid as a bonus. Usually, they will feature an item that’s a nod at another game or popular topic. 

End Game – The game-play available in a large multiplayer online game for characters that have completed all of the currently available content. 

Griefing – Bad behaviour from other players which can get them banned, e.g., attacking players or stealing property. 

Graphic Content Filter – A setting that controls whether the game displays graphic violence. 

Profanity Filter – A setting that controls foul language within chat rooms. 

Inventory – A menu or area of the screen where items collected by the player during the game are stored. This interface allows the player to retrieve any item to use it as an instant effect, or to equip the player character with the item. 

N00b – A newbie, someone who is new to a particular game. Also: Noobie, Newb. 

Open World – A type of video game where the character can roam freely around an environment. Examples: Skyrim, World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto IV. 

Patch – An update to a game where bugs are fixed, characters are balanced, and/or content is added. 

Point of No Return – A point in a game where the player cannot return to previous areas. 

Season – Each new season in a game brings new skins, new weapons & many more items you can purchase. It’s a way to shake things up and bring new challenges to players so they stay interested. 

Looting – Looting can be collecting anything from ammunition, weapons, traps or resources in the game. These are also referred to as Loot Boxes.  

AFK – Away From Keyboard. 

Among Us is a strategy game filled with imposters and crew mates on different spaceships. It’s the players job to find out who the imposters are.

© Innersloth LLC

SUS – Sus is simply short for the word suspector suspicious. So, anyone who seems to have the potential to be an impostor is most definitely sus and you should let everyone know. 

Vents – (or holes depending on the map) can be found throughout all three of the maps. They allow the Impostor to quickly jump inside and move between a designated set of rooms. 

Elec – Elec is short for electrical, which refers to a section on the most popular map, The Skeld. 

Throwing – If you walk past an impostor mid-kill, but didn’t notice and keep going, then you’re throwing. 

Third Imposter – Third Impostor is used as a subtle dig at someone who is not being a very good crewmate. 

Roblox is a platform where can access lots of games created by other users and it even provides the opportunity to design and create your own games.

© 2021 Roblox Corporation

Blox – To kill a player in a Roblox game. 

Bloxxed – When a player’s health reaches zero and the player’s Robloxian falls apart. 

Robloxian – A player’s character in Roblox. 

Brick Battle – A fight using Roblox’s classic weapon tools. 

Builder’s Club – An in-game purchase that gives more benefits. 

Plox – Please. 

Robux – This is Roblox’s in-game currency, purchased by real money. 

Fortnite: Battle Royale is a free online survival game with different characters, weapons and cosmetic objects. The aim of the game is to be the last person standing.

© 2021, Epic Games, Inc

V-Bucks – Fortnite’s internal currency. V-Bucks can be used to purchase things such as weapons, weapon skins and new clothing. V-Bucks can also be built up within the game without having to add a credit card, contributing to the addictive nature of the game. 

Emote – An emote is a way to animate your character to show your emotion. E.g. you can make your character dab or blow kisses. 

Skins – These are outfits that change the cosmetic appearance of your character/avatar. There are rarer skins that only appear at specific times of the year such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter. 

Dub – Dub is a common word used for getting a win in Fortnite. 

Double Pump – Double pump used to be a quite powerful technique to take down enemies in the game. 

Call of Duty: Warzone is a free to play battle royale style game, you drop into an island solo or with a squad and battle it out to come first place.

© Activision Publishing, Inc

Bertha – Sometimes known as Big Bertha or shortened to Bertha, this refers to the Cargo Trucks found around the island. 

Tagged – This is when you’ve hit someone a little and broken their shield, but not enough to crack/kill them.  

Self-rev – A short-hand version of self-revive, a more phonetically pleasing adaptation of self-resurrection. 

Flanking – When you take a side path (either left or right) to confront the enemy. 

Camping – This is when a player will hide in a discreet place, for example a corner of a building and await players coming in. 

Minecraft is a multiplatform game where players create worlds and use building blocks to customise these worlds.

Mojang © 2009-2020. “Minecraft”

Biomes – Areas of the Minecraft world with different terrain, eg. jungle, desert etc. 

Creeper – In-game characters that sneak up on players and explode causing damage. 

Spelunking – Exploring caves to mine resources. 

Steve – The basic male default skin in the game, Steve is the name of the playable character that gamers control. 

Mobs – Short for mobile or monsters. Creatures created by Minecraft that interact with other players, eg. creepers, zombies, horses and villagers. 

For teachers, safeguarding professionals and parents/carers, our Gaming Buzzwords Resource provides you with the information you need in order to best understand young people in your care.