Those of you familiar with the online gaming community can pretty much skip this post right over. I’m not telling you anything you haven’t already heard before – just very basic terminology that might overwhelm and confuse a lot of newcomers to a game like WoW or League of Legends. We’ll keep this short and sweet. Let me know in the comments if you can think of anything that I’ve missed and we’ll update the guide accordingly.
Note that this guide just covers slang terms common between a number of different online games. Terms specific to one game (such as “Battle Medic”) won’t be covered here.
Let’s get started, shall we? This glossary will mostly focus on MOBA (Multiple Online battle Arena) games- I’ll be providing several other glossaries at a later date, as well.
LFG: Looking For Group. A lot of people will use this or “LF” in MMOS like The Old Republic and World of Warcraft to announce in chat that they’re trying to find more players to help them with a quest or objective. Less common now that many MMOs are implementing an LFG Matchmaking System. They might also use LF to announce they’re looking for a particularly guild or item.
WTB: “Will Trade for/Buy.” An MMO term that means pretty much what’s written on the box. You’re looking for an item and you want to purchase or trade for it.
PUG: Stands for “Pick Up Group.” Usually used in a derogatory fashion, a PUG is a group of players who are just randomly mashed together by a matchmaking system. Generally associated with a lack of co-ordination or teamwork.
Premade: The opposite of a PUG. Usually denotes a team of well-organized players who knew each other prior to entering the game. Usually.
Leash: In games like League of Legends, which feature ‘camps’ of hostile neutral monsters (‘creeps’), you’ll usually find that at least one player on each team spends the early stage of the game killing them (‘jungling’). If they want you to leash, that means they want you to stand behind where the creep they’re attacking spawns, and hit it with a ranged weapon so it moves towards you. That’ll give them a chance to pummel it a bit without getting smashed themselves.
Creep: A term for non-player entities in MOBA games.
Mob: As above; can also refer to hostile non-player entities in MMORPGs.
Gank: An attack that catches an opponent by surprise. Often, the person who’s getting ganked is outnumbered or in some other way disadvantaged when the gank takes place.
BrB: Yeah, you probably know this one, but just to be safe I’ll let you in on it. Means “Be right back.” They’re either leaving the lane or area, or they have to leave their computer for a moment.
Jungling: In MOBA games like League of Legends, maps generally consist of two or three lanes (exceptions exist, such as Dominion in the aforementioned game) where players and their troops clash, surrounded by wilderness (jungle) on all sides. Jungling is the act of camping out in this wilderness, gaining experience and buffs by killing the creeps that spawn there. A good Jungler will also gank fairly often.
Mia/Miss: A term that’s used when an opponent isn’t present in their lane in a MOBA. It’s generally considered very poor form not to call out MIAs.
Re: Used to cancel an MIA. Indicates that the opponent has returned to their lane.
Twink: When a player who has a high level character on an MMORPG makes a new character and provides that character with resources from the higher level, that new character is known as a ‘twink.’
AFK: Away From keyboard. Indicates that a player isn’t there.
Farming: A common term in online games which refers to repeatedly killing creatures or gathering resources with a specific goal in mind (new equipment/leveling up/getting a rare item)
GG: “Good Game.” Said at the end of a game in a competitive setting. Indicates that you understand the ins and outs of something called “Sportsmanship.”
GLHF: “Good Luck, Have Fun.”
Raged/Rage-quit: Pretty much just what it sounds like. Someone gets mad, and goes to play in another sandbox. This tends to happen a lot when one team is very clearly defeating another in any competitive game.
Feeder/Feed: In MOBA games, refers to someone who contributes almost nothing to a game, but instead dies repeatedly to the opposing team- giving them a considerable advantage which is usually incredibly difficult to come back from.
That’s all for now, I’ll toss you some more later.