Gaming Glossary
New to gaming terminology or come across a term you don’t recognize? Explore our gaming glossary for clear, easy-to-understand definitions of common gaming terms, video game genres, abbreviations, and gamer slang you’ll see in reviews, guides, forums, and across Rank and Play.
A
- AAA
- A game made and published on a big-studio budget, usually with a marketing push to match. The opposite of indie.
- Achievement / Trophy
- A badge awarded for completing a specific task in a game, tracked by the platform (PlayStation Trophies, Xbox Achievements, Steam Achievements) rather than the game itself.
- AFK
- Away From Keyboard - stepping away from your character or match without logging out, sometimes penalized in competitive games.
- Aggro
- Short for "aggression." Which enemy an AI decides to attack, or a player who's deliberately drawing enemy attention away from teammates.
- Alt (Alt Account)
- A second account separate from a player's main, often used to practice, avoid a reputation, or play against lower-ranked opponents.
- Arcade
- Fast, score-driven games built around short, replayable sessions rather than a long campaign. Browse Arcade games →
B
- Backlog
- The pile of games you own but haven't gotten around to playing yet. Every gamer has one and nobody finishes it.
- Battle Royale
- A last-player/team-standing format where a large group of competitors fights over a shrinking map until one survives.
- Boss / Boss Fight
- A major enemy encounter, usually stronger and more mechanically complex than regular enemies, marking the end of a level, area, or storyline.
- Bot
- An AI-controlled player standing in for a human - or, used as an insult, a real player who plays so passively they might as well be one.
- Buff / Nerf
- A buff makes something (a character, weapon, item) stronger via a patch; a nerf makes it weaker. Both are how developers rebalance a game after launch.
C
- Campaign
- A game's structured, story-driven single-player mode, as opposed to its multiplayer or open-ended modes.
- Camper / Camping
- Staying in one advantageous spot - near a spawn, a chokepoint, a loot area - and waiting for enemies to come to you instead of moving around the map.
- Carry / Carried
- A player skilled enough to win a match mostly on their own, dragging weaker teammates to victory with them.
- Cheesing
- Winning through an exploit, unintended shortcut, or overly simple repeatable tactic rather than beating a challenge as designed.
- Clutch
- Pulling out a win in a high-pressure, seemingly lost situation, often in the final moments of a match.
- Co-op
- Short for cooperative - a mode where players work together toward the same goal instead of competing against each other.
- Combo
- A chain of moves or attacks performed in sequence for a bigger effect than any single move alone, common in fighting and action games.
D
- DLC
- Downloadable Content - extra levels, story, characters, or items released after a game's launch, sold separately or included with an edition upgrade.
- DPS
- Damage Per Second - both a measure of how much damage a character deals over time, and the common nickname for damage-focused roles in team-based games.
E
- Early Access
- A pricing and release model where players can buy and play an unfinished game while the developer continues building it based on feedback.
F
- F2P
- Free-to-Play - a game anyone can download and play without paying, usually earning money instead through optional in-game purchases.
- Fighting
- One-on-one (or team-based) combat games built around move lists, combos, and frame-precise timing. Browse Fighting games →
- FPS (First-Person Shooter)
- A shooter played from the character's own eyes rather than a third-person camera. Not to be confused with "FPS" the performance metric.
- Frame Rate
- How many images per second a game renders, usually written as FPS (frames per second). Higher generally means smoother motion.
G
- Gank / Ganking
- Ambushing a player, usually outnumbered against them, especially common in MOBAs and open-world PvP.
- GG
- Good Game - said at the end of a match, win or lose. "GG EZ" is the same phrase used as an insult.
- GLHF
- Good Luck, Have Fun - a friendly greeting typed at the start of a match.
- Griefing
- Deliberately ruining another player's experience - blocking teammates, destroying their work, or sabotaging a match - rather than playing to win.
- Grinding
- Repeating the same action - farming loot, replaying a level, fighting the same enemies - to slowly build up levels, currency, or gear.
H
- Hack and Slash
- Action games centered on fast, fluid melee combat against large numbers of enemies. Browse Hack and Slash games →
- Healer
- A support role focused on restoring teammates' health, common in MMOs and team-based shooters alongside the Tank and DPS roles.
- HUD
- Heads-Up Display - the on-screen overlay showing health, ammo, maps, and other information while you play.
I
- Indie
- A game developed without a major publisher's budget or oversight, usually by a small independent team or a single developer. Browse Indie games →
K
- Kiting
- Attacking an enemy while continuously moving away, keeping distance so they can't retaliate.
L
- Lag / Ping
- Ping is the delay between your action and the game server registering it, measured in milliseconds; lag is what it feels like when that delay gets high enough to notice.
- LFG
- Looking For Group - a call for teammates to fill out a party, raid, or match.
- Live Service
- A game built to be continuously updated with new seasons, events, and content over years, rather than shipped once and left alone.
- Loot
- Items, gear, or currency earned from defeating enemies, completing objectives, or opening containers.
M
- Main
- The character, class, or loadout a player uses and practices the most, as in "my main is a healer."
- Meta
- Short for "metagame" - whatever strategies, characters, or builds are considered strongest and most widely used at a given time.
- Metroidvania
- An exploration-focused genre named after Metroid and Castlevania: a connected map you gradually unlock by finding new abilities that open previously inaccessible areas.
- MMORPG
- Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game - a persistent online world shared by huge numbers of players simultaneously.
- MOBA
- Multiplayer Online Battle Arena - team-vs-team games where each player controls one hero on a fixed map, popularized by games like League of Legends and Dota 2. Browse MOBA games →
- Mod
- Short for modification - fan-made content that changes or adds to a game, from small tweaks to entire overhauls.
N
- Noob
- Short for "newbie" - a new or inexperienced player. Not always an insult, but often used as one.
- NPC
- Non-Player Character - any character in a game not controlled by a human player.
O
- OP
- Overpowered - a character, weapon, or strategy considered stronger than everything else, usually in need of a nerf.
- Open World
- A game structure that lets you explore a large, connected environment freely instead of moving through fixed, linear levels.
P
- P2W
- Pay-to-Win - a monetization model where spending real money gives a meaningful gameplay advantage over players who don't.
- Patch
- An update released after launch to fix bugs, rebalance gameplay, or add content.
- Permadeath
- A rule where death is final - no reloading a save, no respawning. Common in roguelikes and hardcore game modes.
- Platformer
- Games built around jumping between platforms and navigating levels with precise movement, from side-scrollers to 3D collectathons. Browse Platformer games →
- Point-and-Click
- Adventure games solved by clicking on objects, characters, and locations to explore, collect items, and solve puzzles. Browse Point-and-Click games →
- Procedural Generation
- Using algorithms to generate levels, maps, or items on the fly instead of hand-designing every one, so each playthrough can look different.
- PvE / PvP
- Player-versus-Environment (fighting AI enemies) versus Player-versus-Player (fighting other players).
R
- Racing
- Games built around competing to finish first, from arcade kart racers to full driving simulations. Browse Racing games →
- Rage Quit
- Leaving a match early out of frustration, usually right after something has gone badly wrong.
- Remaster / Remake
- A remaster updates an older game's visuals and performance while keeping the original content intact. A remake rebuilds the game largely from scratch.
- Replayability
- How much reason a game gives you to play through it again - branching choices, randomization, difficulty tiers, or new content each run.
- RNG
- Random Number Generator - the underlying randomness behind loot drops, critical hits, and other chance-based outcomes. "RNG screwed me" means bad luck.
- Roguelike / Roguelite
- Games built around procedurally generated runs and permadeath, where each attempt starts fresh. "Roguelite" usually adds some permanent progression between runs.
- RPG
- Role-Playing Game - games centered on character progression, stats, and choices, from turn-based classics to real-time action RPGs. Browse RPG games →
S
- Salty
- Visibly bitter or annoyed about a loss, usually for longer than the situation really calls for.
- Sandbox
- A game that gives you tools and freedom to build, experiment, or create with few imposed goals, rather than directing you through a fixed objective.
- Shooter
- Games centered on ranged combat with guns or projectile weapons, spanning first-person, third-person, and top-down styles. Browse Shooter games →
- Simulation
- Games that model real (or fantastical) systems in detail - farming, flying, city-building, life itself - for their own sake rather than as a means to combat. Browse Simulation games →
- Skill Tree
- A branching menu of unlockable upgrades or abilities that lets players customize how their character grows over time.
- Smurf
- An experienced player using a new or secondary account to play against much less skilled opponents.
- Soulslike
- Games inspired by FromSoftware's Dark Souls: deliberate, punishing combat, sparse checkpoints, and earned progression through repeated failure.
- Spawn Camping
- Waiting near the point where enemies respawn to attack them immediately, before they can react or move.
- Speedrun
- Playing a game with the sole goal of finishing it (or a section of it) as fast as possible, often using discovered glitches or precise routing.
- Sports
- Games simulating real-world sports and athletic competition, from arcade-style to full simulation. Browse Sports games →
- Strategy
- Games where planning, resource management, and decision-making matter more than reflexes, spanning real-time and turn-based formats. Browse Strategy games →
T
- Tactical
- Strategy games focused on small-scale, positioning-heavy combat encounters rather than large-scale economy or base-building. Browse Tactical games →
- Tank (Role)
- A role built to absorb damage and hold enemy attention so teammates can deal damage or heal safely - the third leg of the Tank/DPS/Healer trinity.
- Tier List
- A ranking that sorts games, characters, or items into tiers (like S/A/B/C) from strongest or best to weakest, usually a starting point for debate rather than a final word.
- Toxic
- Hostile, abusive, or unsportsmanlike behavior toward other players - flaming, harassment, deliberate sabotage.
- Tryhard
- A player who takes a casual match far more seriously and competitively than the setting calls for.
- Turn-Based
- A game structure where players and opponents act in alternating turns rather than simultaneously in real time.
V
- Visual Novel
- Story-driven games told mostly through text and static art, often with branching dialogue choices that lead to different endings. Browse Visual Novel games →
W
- Walking Simulator
- A slower-paced, exploration-focused genre with light or no combat, built around atmosphere, story, and environmental discovery.
- Whale
- A player who spends heavily on in-game purchases - a term free-to-play games are often specifically designed around.
Z
- Zerg / Zerging
- Overwhelming an enemy through sheer numbers rather than strategy, from the Zerg faction in StarCraft.