bosskey.net | A personal guide to First Person Shooters -- by Product (Erik Max Francis) [BkN]
Home > Basics > Glossary
[ HOME | UP: Basics | PREVIOUS: General etiquette | NEXT | DOWN ]

*

An asterisk is often used to indicate a correction to a previous statement. The replaced words are retyped with an asterisk added to the beginning or end.

^

Being reminiscent of an up arrow, a single caret typed into chat means, "What he/she said."

^^

Two carets are usually an ASCII attempt to signify raised eyebrows.

1337

"Hacker speak" for "leet," or "elite."

1fctf (Quake III: Team Arena)

"One-flag capture the flag."

1ps (Battlefield series)

"One player to start" -- a server (usually ranked) which only requires one player present to start the game. (The default is typically four.)

1v1

One-on-one tournament play.

320 (Battlefield series)

Short for M320, the grenade launcher. Usually used generically for all grenade launchers.

360 no scope

The act of facing an enemy, turning completely around to face them again, and then killing them with one shot with a sniper rifle without using the scope. Basically, a completely boring and pointless thing to do by people who really should find a better hobby.

aa

"Anti-aircraft," usually an anti-aircraft vehicle.

Sometimes, the acronym the America's Army series of games.

aav

"Amphibious assault vehicle." An APC with limited armaments that can travel in water.

acak (Battlefield series)

"Assist counts as kill."

adaptive

A server that will dynamically resize the maximum number of allowed players as more players join.

admin

A server administrator.

adminmod (Counter-Strike)

A plugin-based architecture for Counter-Strike (and Half-Life servers in general) that allows greater remote administration than rcon.

ads

"Aim down sight."

aim assist

Some first person shooters, especially on consoles, have a handicap mode which is more lenient to near-misses in campaign mode. Does not apply to multiplayer, and should be contrasted with aim assist.

aimbot

A type of cheat that assists the cheater at aiming at enemy targets.

akimbo pistols (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory)

Two pistols, one wielded in each hand. In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, attaining a light weapons skill of 4 grants one the ability to use akimbo pistols, which at short range are nearly effective as a submachine gun.

ambush

To briefly stay in one place and remain quiet in order to get the drop on some unsuspecting player, usually by knowing their position in advance through noise they have made. Staying in one place for extended periods is called camping.

af

"... as fuck."

afk

"Away from keyboard." Player will be unavailable for a short time. In round-based games where play continues until only one team survives (or accomplishes their objective), "going AFK" for extended periods is generally considered rude, since it forces everyone else on the server to wait for the AFK player to be eliminated; on some servers you will get kicked.

ao

"Area of operations." In first person shooters, this typically just means on the map somewhere, in visible range of one of your teammates.

apc

"Armored personnel carrier."

arena (Quake III Arena)

A term used for map in Quake III Arena.

arma

The ARMA series.

artifact

A defect in the modelling of a 3D object or map, or a glitch in the rendering engine; this can result in invisible textures, fractured-looking objects, flickering, or other such unintended behavior.

arty (Battlefield series)

Short for "artillery."

auto-aim

See aim assist.

avi

Short for "avatar."

avp

Aliens vs. Predator.

avp2

Aliens vs. Predator 2.

awp (Counter-Strike)

The AWM rifle. Although it is the Arctic Warfare Magnum, the abbreviation used in the game (which you can see in the console) is "awp," and as a result it is referred to as the "awp" far more than it is referred to with its proper name.

azn

Short for "Asian."

b2k (Battlefield 3)

Back to Karkand, the first Battlefield 3 DLC.

bag

Short for "teabag," especially when used as a verb.

bail

"Bail out," as in of a plane or a helicopter.

ban

The process of ejecting a player from a server permanently. Bans are only lowered on players who are causing the most trouble; on most servers, cheating will result in an immediate ban. Bans are often done by IP address, although for games that involve unique player IDs (e.g., a WON ID), the ID is used instead or in addition.

ban hammer

Another way of saying the act of banning someone, or the ability to ban someone.

base camping (Battlefield series)

In standard conquest maps where one or both sides have permanent points (i.e., flags with a "no" sign on them), camping the enemy's spawn point (or indeed even your own) is considered very bad form, since it constitutes gameplay which was not intended. The goal is to take and hold the other points, not the permanent ones. The one instance where this is usually considered tolerable -- or at least inevitable -- is when one side is dominating the other and has taken (and held) all the spawn points and is simply pressing onward into the enemy base. In assault conquest maps (where only one side has a permanent spawn point), it is not possible for the assaulting team to base camp, since the defending team does not have a base.

base rape (Battlefield series)

Excessive base camping, to the point that the game becomes totally unplayable for the other side.

bb

"Be back."

bbiab

"Be back in a bit."

bbl

"Be back later."

beacon camping (Battlefield 3)

In Battlefield 3, to wait by a recon's placed beacon for enemies to spawn, and shoot them as they spawn -- attempting to rack up easy kills rather than just destroy the beacon and prevent enemy spawns.

beast

Something which is very good, either a weapon or a player.

beasting

A player who is currently doing very well.

bf

The Battlefield series.

bfbc

The Battlefield: Bad Company series.

bfg jump (Quake III Arena)

Similar to a rocket jump, but with the BFG substituted for the rocket launcher. Since the BFG delivers more splash damage and recoil, one can jump higher with a BFG jump than with a rocket jump, but at the same time one takes more damage. boss_litem_ite(bfh) Battlefield Hardline or, less commonly now, Battlefield Heroes. boss_litem_ite(bfhl) Battlefield Hardline.

bg

"Bad game."

bh

"Bunnyhopping."

bird (Battlefield 3)

Someone with the rank of colonel or higher.

bj

"Bad job."

blind fire

Firing without being able to see the target, either because a flashbang has caused temporary blindness, or because the target is behind light cover.

blind kill

A kill made by firing blind -- firing either into cover where you cannot actually see the enemy, or while experiencing an effect that has temporarily made it difficult to see clearly, such as a flashbang (in Counter-Strike) or heavy suppression (in Battlefield 3).

boomed (Counter-Strike)

To get killed by a grenade. This is peculiar to Counter-Strike, where the high-explosive grenades are notoriously underpowered, so getting killed by one typically indicates prior injury.

boost

To use a teammate (or sometimes a non-player character) as a stepping stone to get up into areas of a map that are otherwise not accessible, or are only accessible through other means. Boosting is usually considered inappropriate behavior.

botted

To be killed by a bot. Especially in multiplayer games, where bots are used to fill up spaces, bots are set on an easier difficulty level, and so this is not a compliment.

box

Another way of saying the computer being used to play.

brb

"Be right back."

brt

"Be right there."

bs

"Bullshit."

btk

"Bullets to kill," referring to the number of bullets required with a particular weapon to take to kill an enemy with full health.

buff

In game design, it is the process of making a weapon or feature in the game significantly more powerful; the opposite of "nerf."

More specifically, in Brink, buffing is a particular action you can perform on other players which improves their stats; e.g., a weapon buff makes the player's weapon more effective for the remainder of his current lifetime. Buffs, when applied, cannot be removed (except by death), and cannot be repeated.

bugged

Broken, especially with respect to a specific feature.

bugzapper

Another name for the Type-7 Particle Weapon in F.E.A.R., since the process of killing someone with it contains the sound of an electrical discharge that sounds vaguely like electric bugzappers.

The term is also used more generally to refer to other electromagnetic weapons, such as the Rorsch MK-1 railgun in Battlefield 4.

bulley

One of the more bizarre diminutives, this time for for "bullet."

bunny hopping

Moving (often while strafing alternatively left and right) while jumping repeatedly, allowing the player to gain extra speed. In Quake III Arena this is considered normal behavior; in games like Counter-Strike it was an unintended consequence and was removed in later versions.

burn (Battlefield series)

To begin or continue to capture an enemy (or neutral) flag.

butthurt

Someone who is losing and complaining angrily about it (i.e., raging). Usually said mockingly to someone who's been complaining, probably because they're losing. "Are you butthurt?"

c1

"Close one."

camp

To take a position for an extended period and fire on any enemy who comes past, particularly when the chosen place is where some crucial resource is, like a weapon spawn point or a common crossroads. Whether camping is acceptable in a game really depends on the style; in deathmatch-style games it is usually considered unsportsmanlike, but in survivor-style games it is often considered a valid tactic when used appropriately (i.e., to defend an objective).

campaign (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory)

Generally, this usually refers to the single player form of the game, whether it's a specifically scripted game experience such as Battlefield 3, or a series of normal games against bots in a certain order (perhaps with some nonlinearity in terms of which order the missions are done), such as Quake III Arena, Battlefield 1942, or Unreal Tournament 3. In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, campaign mode is a sequence of three maps where the XP accumulated among all three. This allows for players to acquire the higher-level skills that wouldn't generally be possible while playing in only one map.

camper

A player who camps.

cap (Battlefield series)

Short for "capture," as in capture a control point.

cav (Battlefield 1)

Short for "cavalry."

cg

"Close game."

In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, short for M2GC Carl Gustav recoilless rifle (usually just called a rocket launcher in-game). When used as a verb, it means to use the weapon to kill infantry directly, rather than against armor. Even though the weapon was fully intended to be used this way by the game designers (the Carl Gustav gets a damage bonus against infantry whereas the RPG-2 gets a bonus against armor), some server admins frown on using the weapon this way.

cheat

To intentionally do something contrary to the rules that gives you an advantage. Cheating comes in different forms, such as subverting the rules in order to gain an advantage.

cheater

A player who is (allegedly) cheating.

chopper camp

To camp a chopper spawn point. See vehicle camp.

chunk

The decreased responsiveness and reduced framerate accompanying heavy disk activity, usually due to swapping.

chute

Short for "parachute."

circle strafe

Strafing around an opponent in the form of a circle, rather than just from side to side.

cl (Battlefield series)

"Chainlink."

clan

A team of players who play together regularly. These evolved naturally among early first person shooters, but modern games often allow facilities for players to designate which clean they're in (usually with a prefixed acronym in brackets). Clans are generally exclusive (to varying degrees), and will not allow their members to be in other clans at the same time.

clay

Short for "claymore."

close quarters map

A small map with limited areas where almost all enemy contact takes place at close range. Snipers are ineffective on close quarters maps.

closet colonel (Battlefield 3)

An experienced player who is starting over with a new account to conceal his skill. (Colonels are the highest named rank in Battlefield 3.)

crossplay

The ability to play a game with other players on other operating systems, e.g., PC vs. a console system.

co (Enemy Territory series)

Short for "covert ops."

cod

The Call of Duty series.

conquest (Battlefield series)

Originally called "conquest head-on," this is the standard mode of play in Battlefield games. The goal of both sides is to take control points and hold them from the enemy; taking a point is accomplished by simply standing with in range of the flag representing the point for a certain period of time (the flag flying the color of the team that owns it). Each team has a certain number of tickets, which is decremented each time a player dies and respawns (in later games, medics who revive players prevent that ticket from being lost when the player respawns). The goal is to make the other team run out of tickets before yours does. When a team holds more than half of the control points, the enemies' ticket count starts decreasing at a fixed rate, regardless of whether or not they players are dying and respawning, creating a powerful incentive for players on a team, even if it's ahead in tickets, to retake points. All players start in permanent bases, sometimes called uncapturable points, which the enemy cannot take (and, later games, the enemy cannot even reach), and the control points all start as unowned or neutral.

conquest assault (Battlefield series)

A variant of the conquest game mode, only one team (the attacker) has a permanent base (where they initially spawn), but the other team (the defender) holds all the control points. If the defended loses all of their control points and all their players are killed, they cannot spawn anywhere and immediately lose, however many tickets they have to start with. In earlier games, the attacker starts with a certain percentage more tickets than the defender for fairness (it is generally harder to attack than defend, and they start with the ticket drain penalty since they have no points); in Battlefield 3, the attacker has unlimited tickets.

contested (Battlefield series)

If a control point is contested, that means that equal numbers of friendly and enemy players are present in the capture area. Even if the control point appears completely controlled, one friendly player leaving the capture area will result it in the enemy starting to capture the point. In Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4, this is indicated by the control point blinking; in Battlefield Hardline, the capture progress bar has the indicator "CONTESTED" beneath it.

cooldown

The amount of time it takes for a vehicle to respawn, a weapon system to become again deployable, or for weapon to be fired again after it has overheated.

corpse camp (Aliens vs. Predator 2)

In lifecycle mode, the process of waiting by an impregnated human or Predator for the chestburster to surface and then destroying him on the spot. This is generally considered very bad form, since it prevents adult Aliens from entering into the game; in a sense it is equivalent to spawn killing.

counterknife (Battlefield 4)

To interrupt an attempt at a stealth knife kill by knifing the attacker.

cq

In the Battlefield series of games, and abbreviation of the Conquest game mode. More generally, it is sometimes used as an abbreviation for "close quarters," combat that is at short range and (usually) in a confined area.

cqa (Battlefield series)

Conquest Assault.

cqb

"Close quarters battle."

cqc

"Close quarters combat."

cqd (Battlefield series)

Conquest Domination, the Battlefield 3 name for the Domination mode.

cql (Battlefield series)

Conquest Large.

crabwalk (Battlefield series)

A type of glitch (related to the glide glitch) where the orientation of the player is even stranger than crouching, such as lying prone or even half interpenetrating with the ground. This was relatively common in early betas of Battlefield 3, so contemporary references to it are purely comical or historical.

cruise (Battlefield series)

To kill someone, or get killed, by a cruise missile.

cs

Counter-Strike.

css

Counter-Strike: Source.

csgo

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

ct (Counter-Strike)

"Counter-Terrorists."

ctd

"Crash to desktop."

ctf

"Capture the flag."

cvar

"Configuration variable." These are variable set in both the client and server that determine behavior and affect gameplay -- for instance, the number of frags required to progress to the next map, or the way the heads-up display appears.

cya

"See you."

dc

"Disconnected."

deagle (Counter-Strike)

Short for "Desert Eagle."

deathcam

A less common term for killcam.

deathmatch-style

The type of gameplay in which players can respawn immediately (or after only a brief, constant delay) once killed.

deckbomb (Battlefield 1942)

Although this has origins in legitimate terminology (a deck bomb is simply a bomb designed to be dropped on a ship's deck), the term is usually used to mean the process of stealing an enemy plane and, instead of taking off, idling on the enemy carrier's runway and dropping bombs. Due to a glitch in the mechanics of the game, with friendly fire off, a stationary (or slowly moving) plane dropping bombs on an enemy carrier does not itself take damage. This is particularly problematic on public Coral Sea servers. Sometimes the term is used to mean perpetually dropping bombs on the enemy's deck before they have a chance to take off, although this is considered a less grevious offense, although it is itself a form of base camping.

dedicated

A server which is devoted only to playing the game; that is, there is no one playing on the console. This is in contrast to non-dedicated servers, where one of the players is also the console.

defensive camp (Counter-Strike)

Camping done by the defending team, in the process of defending the objective. On most servers, defense camping is considered a valid (sometimes required) tactic, whereas assault camping is almost never considered appropriate.

deploy (Battlefield series)

When used as a noun, short for "deployment"; i.e., the uncapturable base. When used as a verb, to spawn at the deployment area.

disco

"Disconnected."

dl

"Download."

dlc

"Downloadable content."

dm

"Deathmatch."

dom (Battlefield 4)

Domination, the new name for the Conquest Domination game mode.

dolphin dive (Battlefield series)

In Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142, players could alternatively go prone and stand up quickly, and this would not affect their ability to shoot -- players could jump up from prone and immediately start firing while the animation continued, adding a surprise element if they popped into line of sight. Additionally, the act of doing this looked to other players as if the "dolphin diver" was doing engaging in a strange (and arguably physically impossible) flopping motion. This behavior was corrected in Battlefield 3 (the Bad Company series did not allow players to go prone) by requiring that players going prone or standing up from the prone stance take some time. Contemporary references to it are purely comical or historical.

doritos (Battlefield series)

The colored upside-down triangle that appears above friendlies as as well as spotted enemies.

dpm

"Damage per minute." See DPS.

dps

"Damage per second," the amount of damage done per second by a weapon to an enemy (assuming it fires as fast as possible and that all bullets hit).

dualies (Counter-Strike)

Short for "dual Elites," akimbo pistols available to the Terrorists.

duelies (Counter-Strike)

A common misspelling of "dualies."

dusting (Battlefield series)

The manifestation of a bug in the later Battlefield series games where a helicopter or plane taking a round takes no damage but instead displays a puff of "dust," hence the name.

dw

"Don't worry."

dwbi

"Don't worry 'bout it."

elevator (Battlefield 3)

An exploit that involves a recon using an MAV as a platform to lift a teammate up to high ground, one normally inaccessible.

engie (Battlefield series)

Short for "engineer."

engy (Battlefield series)

Short for "engineer."

enjy (Battlefield series)

Short for "engineer."

exploit

A configuration or additional software designed to do something disruptive and not intended by the authors of the game, such as to remotely crash the server. Also, less severely, making use of an unintended map or game feature in order to gain a (some would say unfair) advantage; for instance, helping another player climb up to an area of the map which is not intended to be accessible by the map designers.

ez

"Easy."

f2p

"Free to play."

farm

See point farm.

fast vehicles (Battlefield series)

A shorthand way of saying "fast vehicle spawn" -- that is, a server where vehicles spawn at a faster rate than usual. It does not mean that vehicles themselves are any faster than normal.

fb

"Flashbang"; less commonly, "first blood."

flashy

Diminutive for "flashbang."

first blood (Unreal Tournament series)

Another term for first kill.

first kill

The first player to score a kill in a round.

ff

"Friendly fire." Sometimes, "firefight."

ffa

"Free for all." Deathmatch.

ffs

"For fuck's sake."

fk

"First kill." Also, needless to say, "fuck." Rarely, from context, "final kill."

flag

A flag that either needs to be captured and taken to the enemy base (in capture the flag modes) or the flag representing a control point that is to be taken (in conquest modes).

flag skip (Battlefield series)

To capture points by taking a chopper to neutral or enemy points, hovering above the flag just long enough to take it, and then moving on to the next one, without leaving any forces to defend the newly-taken flags.

flamer (Wolfenstein series)

Short for "flamethrower," or a player using the flamethrower.

flank

A military term, meaning behind the rest of the party, or behind the enemy forces.

fng

"Fucking new guy." A military term for a soldier that has basic training but no actual combat experience, made popular in first person shooters by Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

fo (Enemy Territory series)

Short for "field ops."

fph

"Frags per hour." A measure of the rate of frags that a player has accumulated, divided by the number of hours he's been playing.

fpm

"Frags per minute." A measure of the rate of frags that a player has accumulated, divided by the number of minutes he's been playing.

fps

"First-person shooter." The generic name for the type of game of this genre. The origins of the FPS genre were in Wolfenstein and Ultima Underworld; the archetype first FPS game was Doom, followed shortly by Quake. Also, sometimes "frames per second," a measure of the smoothness of the graphical update of the screen.

fr

"For real."

frag

A kill. In the military, this is short for fragmentation grenade -- which is a standard grenade -- but when used as a verb it means something much more sinister, namely to assassinate an unpopular member of your fighting unit (usually an officer), whether with a grenade or not. This rather morbid term was originally used in DOOM to just mean a normal kill and stuck.

fraps

A popular screenshot, video capture, and benchmarking software package for Windows, which is often used to take screenshots and record videos in-game while playing. When used as a verb, it indicates that someone is video capturing themselves playing with you. Clans routinely video capture their game sessions to share with other clan members, but it's also used sometimes to record someone some other player's actions if they're deemed suspicious in order to try to help identify suspected (whether real or not) cheating behavior to admins.

friendly fire

Being shot at by your own teammates, or more commonly, a game option where getting fired at by one's own team causes damage. When friendly fire is off, teams do not have to be careful about picking their targets. In deathmatch-style games, friendly fire is usually off by default; in survivor-style games, friendly fire is usually on. Having friendly fire leads to a more realistic, professional environment, but also unfortunately promotes deliberate team killing. In some games, friendly fire is set as a percentage, with 0% being "off" and 100% being completely "on."

ftw

"For the win."

fu

"Fuck you."

g2g

Another way of writing "got to go."

ga

"Go ahead."

gbo

"Get banged on." An obscure way of saying "owned."

gdi

"Goddammit."

gee gee

An obscure way of saying "good game."

gf

"Good fight."

gfg

"Good fucking game."

gfy

"Go fuck yourself."

gg

"Good game." It is customary to say "gg" to your fellow players once a game map ends (whether or not you actually had a good game).

gga

"Good game, all."

gge

"Good game, everyone."

gg ez

"Good game, easy."

ggt

"Good game, team."

ggig

"Good game, I guess."

ggs

"Good games."

gg wp

"Good game, well played."

gh

"Good hit."

ghey

A deliberate misspelling of "gay," which probably originated in order to circumvent profanity filters.

ghost

In survivor-style games, to use inappropriate real-world means (e.g., a phone call) to track the positions and behaviors of the enemy to your own remaining teammates, after having been killed yourself during the current round. Some competition servers, for instance, blank the screens of players who are dead, waiting to respawn the next round, in order to emphasize that relating information to your living. Whether this is considered cheating depends on the server.

gib

Short for "giblets."

giblets

A particularly messy frag.

gimp

A synonym for "nerf."

glocked (Counter-Strike)

To be killed with a Glock. In Counter-Strike, the Glock pistol is noticeably underpowered for its real-world reputation, and so being killed with a Glock -- particularly when you were decently armed -- is considered somewhat humiliating.

gj

"Good job."

gjt

"Good job, team."

gk

"Good kill." Said by the one killed.

gl

"Good luck." Said as a round is starting.

Sometimes used as an abbreviation for "grenade launcher."

gladiator (Quake III Arena)

A player.

glhf

"Good luck, have fun."

glide glitch

A form of a glitch where position information is being properly received for a player, but orientation information is not, so the player appears in a crouched osition facing in a fixed direction, but his avatar moves around normally, appearing to "glide" around on the map.

glitch

As a noun, a bug in the rendering or player position tracking system, leading to strange artifacts on the display or things happening which appear downright impossible. Glitching often is unintentional (and completely oblivious) to the player who's behavior appears anomalous. As a verb, it is used to refer to seeing such a bug, or as an accusation of someone exploiting such bugs for their own gain. The latter is better called an exploit than a glitch, if in fact the player is doing so; as above, the vast majority of the time a player appears to be "glitching" to others, that player is completely unaware of it.

gm (Battlefield series)

The Gun Master game mode.

gn

"Good night."

god mode

A cheat that makes players invulnerable (and often gives the infinite ammunition). Usually referenced sarcastically.

gr

"Good run," or, in multiround modes, "good round."

grief

To play a game in a way that is solely intended to frustrate and annoy other players. Obvious examples of griefing are deliberate team attacking or killing, but more subtle forms of griefing are possible, such as blocking peoples' progress by obstructing a key passageway, taking a key resource and sitting idle with it rather than using it as needed, and so on.

grind

Heavy disk access, usually in conjunction with swapping, causing severely decreased responsiveness and very low frame rates.

griefer

One who engages in griefing behavior; a troublemaker.

gs

"Good shot."

gt

"Good throw" or, more rarely, "good try."

gtg

"Got to go." Player has to leave the game.

gustav (Battlefield: Bad Company 2)

Short for M2GC Carl Gustav recoilless rifle (usually just called a rocket launcher in-game). When used as a verb, it means to use the weapon to kill infantry directly, rather than against armor. Even though the weapon was fully intended to be used this way by the game designers (the Carl Gustav gets a damage bonus against infantry whereas the RPG-2 gets a bonus against armor), some server admins frown on using the weapon this way.

h5

"High five."

hack

To use a piece of a software, which is not a part of the regular game package, in order to cheat. Also, the name for such a piece of software.

hacker

A player who is using a hack.

hardcore

A style of play -- often expressed as a configuration preset as opposed to a distinct game mode -- to allow play which is somewhat more realistic in the sense of real combat. In the later Battlefield series, for instance, a hardcore server will cause players to be able to take less damage before dying, not allow 3D spotting for their team, and does not show ammo or health indicators (though the effects that are shown when a player is near death are still shown).

hax

A deliberate misspelling of "hacks."

haxor

A deliberate misspelling of "hacker."

head glitch

Used in several different ways, this refers to players generally doing something (or appear to do something) that makes their head very hard to hit by the enemy. Sometimes this is in fact a glitch in the map -- cover where you can see and engage the enemy but they cannot quite see your head -- but sometimes it refers to things that the "head glitcher" has no control over, such as a player's head recoiling during the animation that plays when he takes damage, although the player's hit boxes do not follow the animation. This means that if someone shoots that player's head while he his avatar is playing the damage-taking animation, his shots will not intersect the head hit box and the player will miss, even though from his point of view it was a clear headshot.

heads-up display

Additional annotations that are displayed on the player's screen, superimposed on the rendered display. These shows things such as player health and armor, weapon selected and remaining ammunition, and so on.

hf

"Have fun," or rarely, "high five."

hi pop

An further abbreviated form of "high pop."

high pop

"High population," as in a server that has a large number of possible players.

hitbox

A set of abstract geometrical shapes arranged around each player (which are not visible) used to determine whether or not they are hit by a bullet, and if so, which part of their body is hit (for games which make this distinction; early games did not). Especially in modern games, player models are far too complicated to use to determine whether or not a bullet track intersected the player's body, so a set of shapes is used to make this determination. Some games had notoriously bad choices for hit boxes, making, for instance, the head way too easy to hit, or allowing players to be hit even though their model seemed to be behind cover. The position of the set of hit boxes is also involved and depends on the motion of the player to take into account lead time as well as client-server lag. When players are complaining about bad hit boxes, they are complaining that they think the set of hit boxes and how they work is miscalibrated. boss-list_item(hit reg) Short for "hit registration."

hit registration

"Hit registration." A reference to how bullet hits (and where they hit) is calculated and determined on the server. Usually mentioned when people are complaining about it. See also "netcode."

hossie (Counter-Strike)

Short for "hostage."

hostie (Counter-Strike)

Short for "hostage."

hot dog

When used as a verb in a team game, a player who is not helping his team achieve its goals, or who is otherwise more interested in bettering his score than contributing to team victory. Examples range from players who get in vehicles that are intended to have gunners and leave without anyone else, or players who let an enemy target kill several of his teammates so that he can get a close-quarters melee kill.

hot seat (Battlefield series)

For vehicles with a pilot and gunner seat -- in particular, attack choppers, being a lone pilot without a gunner and toggling back and forth between seats to pilot and fire. For an attack chopper, this typically has to be done from high altitude -- since it takes time to restart the chopper after switchin back to the pilot seat -- and also makes the chopper and easy target.

hover capture (Battlefield series)

To capture a point in a helicopter (with or without passengers) by hovering within range of it but without landing. This is effective but leaves you highly vulernable to enemy fire and thus is highly inadvisable, outside of quickly capturing your own points behind the front lines early on in a round.

hp

"Hit/health points." The amount of damage you can take before being killed.

hp?

"Hit/health points?" as in, "What was your HP?" You are being asked by one of your victims how many health (or hit) points you had the last round, or during the last skirmish in which he was involved (and presumably he died).

hpb

"High ping bastard" -- someone with a high ping. Originated since players with high pings referred to those with low pings as "low ping bastards," probably out of a combination of jealousy and frustration. The symmetrical term eventually took hold.

hs

"Headshot."

htf

"How the fuck?"

htw (Battlefield Hardline)

An abbreviation for the Hotwire game mode.

hud

"Heads-up display."

hvt

"High-value target."

ifv

"Infantry fighting vehicle." A modern APC that has weapons of its own.

ikr

"I can relate."

ily

"I love you."

instagib (Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament 2K series)

A form of play (usually as a mod or mutator) where players have sniper weapons (the railgun in Quake; a modified shock rifle in Unreal Tournament 2003) and play a game where any hit is lethal.

instakill

Any activity which results in an instant and complete player death, regardless of the player's health status. Examples would be telefragging in Quake III Arena or Unreal Tournament 2003, a head shot from an AMW/P (a.k.a. AWP) sniper rifle in Counter Strike, any hit from from a player in instagib mode, or even non-hostile activities such as falling off the void (off the map) in Quake III Arena, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and so on.

irl

"In real life."

jav (Battlefield 3)

Short for the FGM-148 Javelin.

javvy (Battlefield 3)

Short for the FGM-148 Javelin.

jerky

Having high latency which leads to reduced responsiveness; spikey. Excessive jerkiness is noted when the connections are about to drop.

jo

The Joint Operation series.

js

"Just saying."

k

"Okay."

kk

A stronger version of "okay."

ks

"Kill steal," or "kill stealer."

k?

"Okay?" as in, "Is that okay?"

k:d

Another abbreviation of "kill-to-death ratio."

kdr

The kill-to-death ratio, or the number of times a player has killed an enemy divided by the number of times that player has been killed. A kill/death ratio of greater than one means that the player is killing at least one enemy for every time he himself dies. Kill/death ratios are a useful way of judging which members of a team are holding up their own and which aren't. Often the distinction between kill/death ratios greater than one or less than are called "positive" and "negative," respectively; those that use this term are actually speaking about the kill/death ratio minus one.

kick

To forcibly eject a player from the game, usually due to misbehavior.

kill assist (Battlefield series)

Typically players only get credit (as in, experience points) for an actual kill, regardless of what state of health the victim was in before. This means that a third player can wander into a firefight and kill an already-weakened enemy very easily and get full credit for the kill, something called "kill stealing" or "sloppy seconds." Recent game titles have tried to alleviate this issue by giving players who do the bulk of the work partial credit in the form of a kill assist, even so far as in Battlefield 4 having the concept of "assist counts as kill."

killcam

An animation that shows either or how you were killed or who killed you immediately after you die. There are two varieties: in one, you're shown a third person view from your own position of the person that killed you; in the other, you're shown a view from your killer's perspective of the last few seconds of his gameplay leading up to your fatal shot.

kill trade

See trade.

kill steal

See steal.

ko

"Knives-only," a form of a game where players are encouraged or expected to only use their knives.

kys

"Kill yourself."

l2p

Short for "learn to play." Used in a dismissive manner.

l33t

A deliberate misspelling of "leet."

lag

Slow responsiveness to commands while playing online; high ping.

laggy

A connection state with high latency, where a player is experiencing high latency and thus is experiencing lag. Also said of servers where many or most players are experiencing lag, usually due to networking troubles or high CPU load on the physical machine which runs the server.

lag kill

A kill that was scored against someone who was having latency problems and could not fight back. To the victim, this usually looks like a connection problem and then suddenly they are dead; to the attacker, the victim usually seems either not to be moving at all or to be moving very slowly or erratically.

lag out

In many FPS games, when a player drops from the game abruptly (say, due to a machine crash), it takes some time for the server to timeout the connection (since games use UDP which is a connectionless protocol). During that time, the player will still appear in the game but will not move (occasionally there are other effects, such as a spastic model vibration in Counter-Strike or a constant "talking" icon in Quake III Arena). Eventually the disconnection is detected and the player disappears; in the interim, while the server is timing out, the player is generally referred to as "lagging out."

lan

"Local area network." A network of machines that are directly connected via Ethernet, and do not require any sort of ISP connection to communicate with each other. LAN machines will have extremely low pings (less than 10 ms) and are ideal for organized tournaments so that everybody will be on the same ground in terms of latency.

lase

Marking a target for indirect fire, whether for artillery strikes, mortar fire, or lock-on missiles.

last blood

Another term for last kill.

last death

The last player to die in a round.

last kill

The last player to score a kill in around.

latency

The measure of how fast or slow a server connection is, measured in terms of the ping. Low latency means low ping; high latency means high ping.

lav

"Light armored vehicle." A type of APC with limited weaponry.

laze

A misspelling of lase.

lb

"Last blood."

lc

"Loud and clear."

leet

Short for "elite."

lel

A deliberate misspelling of "LOL."

limpey (Battlefield 1)

Limpet mine.

lineup (Battlefield series)

In the gun master game mode, the sequence of weapons that players have to get two kills with each in order to win the game. Each standard sequence always ends with a melee weapon.

lk

"Last kill." Usually said when a player gets the kill which ends the round.

llama

An older term used to refer to a newbie, probably derived from lamer.

lmao

"Laughing my ass off."

lol

"Laughing out loud."

lone wolf (Battlefield series)

A player who does not join a squad. Most servers typically insist (or actually enforce) that their players join squads, so this is normally considered inappropriate.

loopzook (Battlefield 1942)

The utterly ridiculous act of destroying an airplane on your tail by putting your plane into a tight loop, bailing out, shooting your persuer with a bazooka, and then reentering your abandoned plane as it completes its loop. This maneuver is only possible in Battlefield 1942 due to its airplane physics; in later Battlefield games, an abandoned plane will not complete a loop in this way. Needless to say, this is only done as a ridiculous gag to show off.

lo pop

A further abbreviated form of "low pop."

los

"Line of sight."

low pop

"Low population," as in a server that has a fairly small number of players given the size of the map.

lpb

"Low ping bastard" -- someone with a low ping. Said since people with low ping are generally envied by those without.

lucker

Someone who is just lucky rather than skillful. The term primarily arose in Counter-Strike, but has been occasionally been used in other first-person shooter games.

maa

"Mobile anti-aircraft," as in a mobile AA vehicle.

mav (Battlefield 3 and 4)

A "micro aerial vehicle," a man-portable type of UAV that is placed in the environment and remotely operated by a recon, which while in flight can help manually spot enemies, automatically spot moving enemies within range, and short out enemy equipment before or after acquiring a weapon lock.

mav riding (Battlefield 3 and 4)

A way of exploiting a map that allowed a player to climb on top of a teammate's MAV, and, when the MAV was moved only vertically, not fall off, which would allow players to get to areas of maps not intended to be accessible. As a joke and a callback to Battlefield 2142, this is sometimes called pod surfing, which was originally an unrelated form of map exploit.

mb

"My bad."

mbt

"Main battle tank." A modern military term for what is normally just considered a tank, to distinguish it from IFVs.

m-com (Battlefield series)

In the Battlefield game series starting with Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the objectives in Rush mode which the attacking team must destroy.

melee

The type of combat that involves physically striking or stabbing an enemy with a weapon, rather than using a firearm normally. Examples in various games would be using knives, bayonettes, or even the butt of one's rifle.

merc

From the word mercenary, a player who is very good.

mercbeast

From the word mercenary, a player who is extremely good.

merc'd

To be beaten very badly by a good player.

mixed mode (Battlefield series)

A server which runs several different types of modes, usually on different maps, which then rotates through the different mode types selected.

mlg

Major League Gaming, a major eSports company. When said in reference to a player, someone who is good enough to be professional.

model

The set of geometrical shapes and textures that represent the player while he is in the game.

moh

The Medal of Honor series.

mohw

Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

molly (Battlefield Hardline)

Short for Molotov cocktail.

motd (Counter-Strike)

"Message of the day." Information and details about a server, often including the rules. On Counter-Strike servers, the message of the day is printed upon entry to a game.

mp

"Multiplayer."

mw

The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series.

my b

"My bad."

n

"No."

nn

"Nice nade," meaning "nice grenade kill."

noob

"Newbie."

nooblet

An even more diminutive form of the word "noob," proving that even the seemingly impossible is possible.

noob stick

A nickname for automatic shotguns, most notably the Benneli XM1014 from Counter-Strike. It is so-named since the devastating short-term damage makes it easy for even newbies to rack up kills with one, particularly in close quarters maps.

noob cannon

A nickname for a weapon that is considered unskillful to use since it is easy to get kills at short range, such as automatic shotguns, grenade launchers, or even rockets.

noob tube

A nickname for an underslug grenade launcher, or using a rocket launcher to kill infantry at relatively close quarters.

nought (Battlefield 1)

Short for "dreadnought."

nub

A deliberate misspelling of "noob."

n1

"Nice one."

nade

Short for "grenade."

negative

Having a kill/death ratio less than one.

nerf

In game design, the process of making a weapon or feature in the game significantly less powerful. Named, of course, after the brand of foam weapons.

netcode

The generic term for what makes online first person shooter (as well as other) games online. When mentioned, it's usually mentioned negatively, as in users concluding that the "netcode" being bad is why the game they're playing seems sluggish or laggy, or when hit registration (when and where people are hit by bullets) is considered bad.

newb

Short for "newbie."

newbie

A new player; someone not familiar to the game.

nj

"Nice job."

nk

"Nice kill."

nm

"Never mind" or "not much."

no scope

The act of killing someone with a sniper rifle without aiming down the scope. Usually considered an act of skill, but often only luck is involved.

np

"No problem."

npc

"Non-player character." In other game genres, and in the single player campaign, these are characters in the game which are not represented by an actual human playing the game. Occasionally NPCs appear in multiplayer first person shooters; for instance, the hostages in the Counter-Strike.

nr

"No rules." When used in a server title, no limitations are enforced on player's behavior beyond what's allowed by the game itself.

ns

"Nice shot."

nsfw

"Not safe for work."

nt

"Nice try."

nub

"Newbie."

nudeskin

A mod or skin for a game that replaces the player models with versions without any clothes. It's much less exciting than it sounds.

nvg

"Night vision goggles."

nw

"No way," or "no worries."

oblit (Battlefield 4)

Short for Obliteration, the game mode.

ob (Battlefield 4)

Short for Obliteration, the game mode.

offensive camp (Counter-Strike)

Camping that is done by the offensive team (the Counter-Terrorists in a hostage rescue or assassination map, or the Terrorists in a bomb/defuse or escape map). This is usually considered disruptive since it interferes with the flow of gameplay; if the team which is supposed to be accomplishing its objective is instead camping somewhere, either the defending team will be forced to go hunting (turning the objective on its head) or the round will timeout. On the other hand, defense camping is often considered a perfectly reasonable tactic on most servers.

ofp

The Operation Flashpoint series.

ohai

"Oh, hi."

oic

"Oh, I see."

om

"On mission," or sometimes "on the move."

omfg

"Oh my fucking god."

omg

"Oh my god."

oneshot

To kill an enemy with one shot.

on point

A military term, meaning out ahead of the general party; on scout.

op

"Overpowered."

opps

A very frequent misspelling (often deliberate) of "oops."

own

To be completely dominated by another player.

paddies (Battlefield series)

Diminutive for "paddles," i.e., the defibrillator.

panic fire

Fire from a target who is not sure where his enemies are and is losing control. This is often subtly different from spamming, where a player is simply spraying his ammunition into a target; panic fire is usually fired either not at anyone in particular or at a place where it is not really clear an enemy is.

pce

Short for "peace."

pce out

Short for "peace out."

peek

The process of slowly sweeping from behind cover with a sniper rifle or otherwise scoped rifle in order to seek targets while being maximally protected.

penalty

See ticket penalty.

pickup

Weapons or powerups that are located around the map and periodically respawn.

pin

In deathmatch-style games, a tactic where the use of weapons which cause splash damage and momentum transfer (such as rockets) are used to knock a player into a corner, and by continued fire, keep him that area, continuing to receive splash damage. Such a pinned target can fire back, but cannot easily retreat.

pincer movement

A military term for when two separate groups converge on an enemy from opposite sides.

ping

The time it takes for a TCP/IP packet to go from the client machine to the server and back, measured in milliseconds (ms), or thousandths of a second. This round-trip time indicates how smooth the gameplay will be on that server; lower pings are better. In general, a ping of 100 ms or less will allow smooth gameplay; 50 ms and under will be indistinguishable from being on a LAN. Ping depends on the type of connection you have and the proximity (in terms of the network, not physical distance) of the server you're pinging. Using standard 56K modems will rarely allow pings lower than 200 ms. LAN pings will typically be less than 10 ms.

plane camp (Battlefield series)

To camp a plane spawn point. Planes are among the more popular vehicles in Battlefield 1942, and on most maps they tend to spawn in short supply (only respawning after the original plane which spawned there has been destroyed, and even then after a delay), and are popular choices of vehicles among the newbies. Plane camping far away from the front is considered unconstructive. See vehicle camp.

platoon (Battlefield 3)

A more informal group of players that like to play together. Players can be a member of several platoons, and can even make their own. Platoons help players join a server at the same time as a squad so they can easily play together.

plink

To take out an enemy unit, often a tank.

plz

"Please."

pjod (Quake III Arena)

"Phone jack of death." In Quake, and other first-person shooter games based on the same engine, when the client detects a network interruption, it displays a "Connection interrupted" messages in the center of the screen and an icon in the upper right corner representing a phone cord removed from a wall socket.

po

"Pistols-only," a form of a game where players are encouraged or expected to only use their pistols (and perhaphs knives), not any primary weapons.

pod surf (Battlefield 2142)

To use a glitch in the physics of the launch pods in order to move arbitrary distances across the map. Sometimes used in the later series' games to refer to other such vehicle-related exploits, such as MAV riding, or, more often, just as a joke.

podzook (Battlefield 4)

The act of getting into a launch pod (in The Final Stand DLC), launching, ejecting, and then hitting a fighter or helicopter with a dumbfire rocket.

point (Battlefield series)

A control point.

point farmer (Battlefield series)

One who point farms.

point farm

The process of playing a game where you are trying to accumulate points to rank up more than you are trying to play the game and help your teammates (see PTFO). Point farming comes in numerous forms, from minor annoyances such as a medic repeatedly reviving a teammate who is directly exposed to enemy fire just for the points, a whole server full of players agreeing not to shoot so that they can just rack up points for accomplishing objectives, to extreme cases such as two colluding players (sometimes on opposite teams!) stealing away to a relatively quiet part of the map so that they can do repetitive things and rack up points (though since Battlefield 2 this type has been made more difficult).

positive

Having a kill/death ratio greater than one.

ppl

"People."

pred (Aliens vs. Predator 2)

"Predator."

prefire

To start firing in the direction of a known enemy before the enemy is actually visible (e.g., just about to turn a corner or walk into a doorway). Knowing when the enemy was just about to come into the line of fire would be based on sound, radar/minimap, spotting, or team chat.

proggy

"Program."

pron

A deliberate misspelling of "porn."

proner

A camper who tends to go prone. This really doesn't need to be a term, but somehow it is.

ptfo

"Play the fucking objective."

pub

A public server, or a player playing on a public server.

pubbie

Someone not affiliated with a clan or server who plays on public server; used as a term of derision.

pubbing

The act of playing in public servers.

pug

"Pick-up game."

pvp

In other game genres, this indicates servers where players are allowed to attack each other; non-PVP servers only allow players to attack NPCs. In some games, this refers to one-on-one tournament mode.

pwn

A deliberate misspelling of "own."

q3a

Quake III Arena.

q3ta

Quake III: Team Arena.

q4

Quake 4.

qq

Usually used in uppercase, an emoticon to representing crying.

quick scope (Call of Duty series)

Some games have issues where players can use sniper rifles with scopes and can manage to get off accurate shots by essentially pulling the trigger just as the scope is coming up to cover their vision, giving them an advantage.

rage

To be angry, usually resulting in inappropriate chat, from someone who frustrated and not doing well.

ragequit

To quit after immediately after raging, usually accompanied by a lot of profanity in chat beforehand.

railer (Quake III Arena)

One who is proficient at using the railgun. Often used as both a compliment and an insult.

ram (Battlefield series)

To crash a plane or helicopter into another plane or helicopter, almost always resulting in both being destroyed without a kill assignment.

rammer (Battlefield series)

A player who rams.

rambo revive (Battlefield series)

The act of reviving a player who is still in jeopardy -- and often which puts the medic who is reviving the player in jeopardy as well -- without taking into account the situation. This usually means the revived player immediately just gets killed again, often along with the medic.

ranked

In a game where player statistics are persistent, a server which is hooked up to the global ranking system.

rats map (Counter-Strike)

A custom map in which the map scale is out of kilter, and the players are effectively the size of mice -- or, at least, are smaller than normal.

rcon

"Remote console." Using a password one can use the console during the game as if one were sitting in front of the terminal.

redeploy (Battlefield series)

A somewhat euphemistic way of committing suicide and respawning (causing your team to lose a ticket). This can make sense when you are stranded far away from the action and it would take too long to get there manually -- say, by bailing out of a plane or chopper -- or when attempting to avoid a bug or other weirdness that is preventing you from playing properly (but which leaves the menu still accessible).

red zone (Battlefield series)

The area beyond the valid region of the current map, so-called because it is colored red on the map. Moving into this region will cause a ten-second countdown to start; if the player does not return the valid area of the map, he will be instantly killed. When used as a verb, to deliberately go into the red zone temporarily in order to try to surprise an enemy, or to take a path back into the valid area of the map that is otherwise inaccessible; the former is usually involved in baseraping, while the latter is sometimes considered an exploit.

reinforcements

In survivor-style games with reinforcement periods, when a player dies, he must wait until the next reinforcement period before he can respawn. Reinforcement periods happen regularly at timed intervals (the interval involved being chosen by the server administrator); this means that sometimes upon dying, a player can respawn almost immediately (if he died just before the reinforcement period), and sometimes he will have to wait almost the entire reinforcement period (typically 20-40 seconds). Such is the luck of the draw.

rekt

A particularly irritating deliberately misspelling of "wrecked."

relo

"Reload."

rendezook (Battlefield series)

The loopzook is not possible in the later Battlefield series, so this is a simpler form where you simply fly straight up, eject from your plane, then shoot your pursuer with a dumbfire missile (RPG-2V, SMAW, etc.), and then reenter your plane as it begins to stall out (while still pointed vertically). The name comes from the word rendezvous, not the name of any player.

rep

Short for "repair."

repeek

To peek again after peeking from the same position. Generally considered unwise when combating a sniper.

repper

A goofy diminutive of "repairer."

reppin

A goofy diminutive of "repairing."

respawn

The act of a player reentering the game after being killed. Depending on the game type (deathmatch vs. survivor), one may be able to respawn immediately, or only after a short delay, or only when the next round begins. Respawning takes place at certain well-defined player spawn points that vary from map to map, and depending on the game, may be "owned" by one side or the other.

revive rape (Battlefield series)

A combination exploit/grief, involving two (or more) colluding players on either side, and one unwilling victim from either side. With the colluding player on the same side as the victim being a medic, the colluding players alternatively revive and kill the victim before he has a chance to do anything, and thus can neither redeploy normally nor fight back. A knife is often used as the weapon to kill the player after a revive due to its extra humiliation value.

res

Short for "resurrect."

ress

Another short (and misspelled) way of saying "resurrect."

resurrect

To revive a player as a medic.

rez

Another version of "res."

rgr

"Roger."

rig

Another way of saying the computer being used to play.

rl

"Rocket launcher."

rj

"Rocketjump."

rn

"Right now."

rof

"Rate of fire."

rofl

"Rolling on the floor, laughing."

roflmao

"Rolling on the floor, laughing my ass off."

rtcw

Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

rubber band

As a verb, used to describe the process of a player's movements being restricted when under heavy lag. Typically when there is enough latency to cause a serious connection problem (usually detected by the client and displayed to the user), the server's object tracking and client-side prediction code are in conflict -- especially when the client's activities are not properly getting to the server due to packet loss. This results in an effect where, during the outage, a player can walk forward, but then the server walks him back against his will. To other players, the player with this kind of a connection problem will appear to be walking forward and then suddenly teleport back to where he was, and this will repeat as he tries to move around. Because of this jerky motion, the situation is called "rubber banding."

rush

Generally, to run headlong for the enemy, hopefully en masse, in an attempt to rapidly overwhelm their defense and overrun their position.

In the later Battlefield series, a game mode where the attacking team's mission is to destroy two stations caled M-COM stations by planting explosives on them (no C4 is required; any attacking player can plant), and prevent the enemy from disarming it (again, any defender can disarm) before the explosives go off. Once both M-COM stations are destroyed, the action then shifts further down the map and there are nother pair of M-COMs to destroy. This continues for several rounds until all of M-COM pairs have been destroyed, at which point the attackers win (the number of pairs on each map varies). Defenders have unlimited tickets; attackers have a certain number of tickets with which to destroy each M-COM pair, but once they do and move on to the next pair, their tickets reset. In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, some M-COMs are in destructible buildings; if the buildings are destroyed, then the M-COMs will be destroyed as well.

*s*

Short for "salute," originally used among clan members in older games such as Counter-Strike.

sabo (Battlfield hardline)

Short for "sabotage."

sacak (Battlefield series)

"Squad assist counts as kill."

salty

Upset.

scrim

An organized contest between two or more clans.

scrub

A scrub is a guy who thinks he's fly; he's also known as a buster.

sdm (Battlefield series)

Squad Deathmatch.

sec

Short for "second." When used by itself, it usually means "in a second" as in "Give me a second" or "I'll be there in a second."

sex

A salacious way of referring to a "hardcore" mode, sometimes with additional restrictions.

sfw

"Safe for work."

sg

Short for "shotgun."

shottie

Short for "shotgun."

shotty

Short for "shotgun."

sk

"Spawn kill."

skin

The 3D model that a player appears with in the game.

slam (Battlefield 4)

To kill someone with an M2 SLAM mine.

slimit (Battlefield series)

Short for "sniper limit." This indicates that a given server runs an admin script that will limit the number of snipers available per team.

sloppy seconds

See kill stealing.

smacktard

A colorful way of referring to a troublemaker or griefer, particularly popular in Battlefield 1942.

smh

"Shaking my head."

smoke

To throw a smoke grenade.

smurf

A very skilled player who is deliberately playing on a new, low-level account to conceal this fact. Also used as a verb to indicate the act of doing so.

snapshot

A quick shot made with little aiming.

snipe

To take position in a relatively hard to reach place and take potshots at players who pass through. In pure arcade-style deathmatch games, this is often considered unsportsmanlike, but in many survivor-style games with realistic weapons and damage, it is often considered a valid tactic (provided it furthers one's own team goals).

sniper

One who snipes.

sof

Soldier of Fortune.

sof2

Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix.

sof3

Soldier of Fortune: Payback, the third game in the Soldier of Fortune series.

softcore (Battlefield series)

A normal server, as opposed to a server with hardcore presets selected.

soz

A rather curious contraction of "sorry."

sp

"Single player."

spam

The process of doing the same thing -- particularly something annoying -- over and over again. This term is usually generalized to any repeated behavior, such as saying something over and over again, repeatedly calling for the same vote, holding the voice chat talk button down, or even (in the case of Counter-Strike) buying and throwing grenades over and over again. Sometimes this term is uesd to mean overreliance on a particular weapon, or indelicate use of a weapon ("shotgun spammer").

spammer

One who spams.

spamshot

Shooting someone (or likely shooting someone) from a predictable spot over and over again. This usually refers to cases where due to bad spawns, some players can hit enemy players very shortly after the start of a round by aiming correctly. This is a form of a map glitch.

spawn

The creation of an object in a game. Spawning applies to both players and objects.

spawn camp

To camp a spawn point. In most games where capturing spawn points is not possible, this is considered very bad form, by anyone (even camping one's own spawn is usually not considered acceptable). In games where acquiring spawn points is one of the goals, spawn camping (i.e., waiting to take control of an enemy spawn point even though other enemies may be spawning there) is a normal part of gameplay. In more freewheeling games, such as team deathmatch or domination, it's possible for players to know where the various spawn points are have a vantage point covering a few of them, and can kill enemy players as soon as they spawn. Most often, this is more coincidental to the gameplay rather than a deliberate exploit.

spawn kill

The act of killing an enemy player immediately after they spawn. In some games, such as Counter-Strike, this can be considered extremely bad form (and is only possible in some custom maps where opposing spawn points are in direct line of sight of each other), but in other deathmatch-style like Quake III Arena it is usually considered just a part of the game.

spawn point

A position on a map where players can spawn.

spawn rape (Battlefield series)

To spawn camp in a way that is considered inappropriate; for instance, to camp an uncapturable point in one of the Battlefield games.

spawn trap

In some maps on some games, spawn points are chosen poorly in the game modes that concentrate less on objectives and more on freewheeling gameplay (examples being team deathmatch or domination in the Battlefield series), especially on small maps. This can result in situations where once one team starts dominating, even without intentionally trying to "spawn camp," enemy players who spawn are almost immediately killed by the dominating team. The enemy players who experience this call it a spawn trap.

spectate

An optional mode where players can watch the other players play. To prevent cheating, usually players cannot see what spectators type, so erstwhile spectators cannot give away enemy movements.

spec killing (Return to Castle Wolfenstein)

A shortened form of "spectating killing," this involves switching back and forth between spectating and your team so you can tell your teammates about the position and strength of enemy forces. This is only possible in games where dead players can still communicate with their teammates.

spike

A sudden surge of latency that lasts for a brief time and then goes away. Such surges are often indicative of dropped frames, where a series of server updates gets lost. This could be either a local connectivity problem or a server-side problem.

spikey

Characterized by spikes; e.g., "This server is spikey."

splash

The damage caused by an area effect weapon, such as an exploding rocket or grenade. Splash damage is indirect fire that comes from fire despite not scoring a direct hit.

spot (Battlefield series)

Starting with Battlefield 2, players have the ability to spot other players by hitting a certain key (using the commo rose or not); spotted enemies will show up as red triangles for a certain period of time both in the HUD and on the radar mini-map to all teammates, making spotting an indispensible aspect of effective teamplay.

sq

An abbreviation of "squad."

squad (Battlefield series)

A smaller group of players within a team who have the ability to spawn on either the squad leader (Battlefield 2142) or any squad member (Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and later). The later games also tend to give slight bonus points to team actions (e.g., healing, supplying, reviving) squadmates above and beyond normal teammates, further encouraging squad play.

squaddie (Battlefield series)

A squadmate; a member of your squad.

squad up (Battlefield series)

To get into a squad, usually said to lone wolves as a request to join a squad -- any squad.

squeaker

A (pre-pubescent) child who is using in-game voice chat and has an annoying, high-pitched voice.

sqdm (Battlefield series)

Squad Deathmatch.

sqr (Battlefield series)

Squad Rush.

sry

"Sorry."

stacking

The process of deliberately keeping teams unbalanced so that one group of friends (often a clan) can continue playing with each other, when to be fair they should be splitting up between the different teams to make things more even.

stat padding (Battlefield series)

Another name for point farming. The process (in Battlefield 2 and other ranked games) where players act not to further the cause of their team and win the round but rather score as many points for themselves as possible in order to achieve additional ranks and unlocks. Also known as "point farming," though point farming often implies more specific activity designed to accumulate only certain kinds of points.

steal

"Stealing" is killing an already weakened enemy during comba when another player did most of the work and should have gotten most of the credit, whether intentionally or not. More modern first person shooters alleviate this issue by crediting the first player with a kill assist.

stfu

"Shut the fuck up."

suppressive fire

Fire intended not necessarily to directly inflict damage, but rather to deny or make more difficulty entry via a certain passage, or to prevent or delay the enemy from pursuing.

ss

"Sloppy seconds." Picking up an easy frag after a player has been weakened or distracted by a recent skirmish.

strafe

Movement from side to side instead of forward movement and turning. Strafing is essential for dodging attacks.

strafe jump

Jumping and strafing at the same time; like a regular jump it help evade enemy fire but coupled with the strafe it becomes more effective.

sting

To take out an enemy air unit with a Stinger, or more generally any shoulder-fired anti-air guided missile.

straw (Battlefield 4)

A deliberate misspelling of the FGM-172 SRAW guided missile.

stunt

The process of using existing games and maps to make stunt videos.

stutter

Another name for grinding.

suicide

A death that is not caused directly by another player; e.g., falling to one's death, or accidentally killing oneself with a grenade. Depending on the game, this may either count as -1 kill or simply as 1 death. Note that even though an enemy might have substantially caused the death -- e.g., if enemy fire knocked you off a ledge, where you fell to your death -- as far as the game is concerned it still counts as a suicide. That is, FPS games do not have a concept of assisted suicides.

survivor-style

A gameplay mode which takes place in rounds, where each round ends when some specified objective is met or only one team remains. If a player is killed during around, then he must wait until the next round to reenter the game.

sv (Battlefield 3)

Scavenger.

t (Counter-Strike)

"Terrorists."

ta

"Thanks again," "thanks all," or sometimes "turn around."

More rarely, "team attacking," the process of attacking your own teammates, usually deliberately.

tactical reload

Reloading a weapon before you have expended its magazine. In some military first-person shooters, such as later games of the Battlefield series, reloading before the magazine is empty is faster since it does not require the charger or bolt to be reset in order to chamber a round from the new magazine. In the miltiary the term means something more than simply reloading before the current magazine is empty; it has to do with storing the old magazine for reuse later. So, ironically, the term in use for the military refers to a reload that actually takes longer to execute than a standard reload where the shooter dispose of the unwanted magazine. (In standard mode in the later Battlefield games, the unused bullets from the magazine are still available for later reloads.)

takedown

A one-shot, one-kill action from some creature or weapon, such as headshot from a high-caliber sniper rifle, a stealth knife kill, or even something more exotic than a facehug from a facehugger in an Aliens vs. Predator 2 lifecycle game.

tap out (Return to Castle Wolfenstein)

In Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the process of going from being wounded and waiting for a medic to revive you to going back into limbo mode and waiting for a reinforcement cycle. The reference comes from wrestling, where a competitor can "tap out" by slapping their hand against the ground to admit defeat and end the match. Often used by medics in the form "Don't tap out," to indicate that players should not go back into limbo but should wait to be revived.

taxi

To move a plane around while remaining on the ground. In some games, such as Battlefield 1942, there are maps where you need to be able to taxi competently to line up for a takeoff. Sometimes, taxiing just means driving a plane around on the ground without taking off, for whatever reason.

tbag

Short for "teabag."

tbh

"To be honest."

tc

"Take care."

tc, hf

"Take care, [and] have fun."

tdm

"Team deathmatch."

tdmcq (Battlefield 3)

"Team deathmatch, close quarters," a variant of the team deathmatch mode introduced in the Close Quarters DLC. The only difference between this mode and standard team deathmatch is that this mode is limited to a maximum of 16 players. It is displayed in the server browser is "Team DM 16 Players."

teabag

Standing over an enemy's corpse -- especially after he's just been killed and can see either through the death animation or the killcam -- and alternately crouching and standing. It is considered ... very rude.

team kill

Usually abbreviated as "TK." The act of intentionally injuring a member of one's own team -- although the term has the word kill in it, team killing involves any attempt to damage to your own team, whether that results in a fatality or not, even if it is done indirectly (say, by hitting a switch on the map which results in injury to your teammates, even if you do not fire a gun). This applies only to team games where either friendly fire is enabled or there are other incidental ways in the map for team members to kill each other. This is considered a heinous offense and repeated team kills will almost certainly get the offender kicked and banned.

telefrag (Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament 2K series)

The process of killing someone via in-game teleporting (for instance, by stepping through a portal or activating the personal transporter in Quake III Arena, or using the translocator in Unreal Tournament 2003). If one can manage to teleport to a location where another player is already standing, that player will be "telefragged" and instantly killed.

teleport

In games where there are physical objects that allow players to move instantaneously between one part of the map to the other by entering them, such as Quake III Arena, this refers to those objects. Otherwise, it often is a synonym for "warp."

tf

"Talk frag." Fragging someone while they're trying to talk.

therm (Battlefield series)

Thermal sights, IRNV or FLIR.

thx

A puzzling shorthand for "thanks."

tick (Battlefield series)

Short for "ticket."

ticket (Battlefield series)

The number of respawns that each has left before they lose; the goal is always to make the other team run out of tickets first. A medic reviving a player prevents his ticket from being used to respawn. A constant drain in tickets is imposed on a team when the other player controls more than half of the control points.

ticket penalty (Battlefield series)

The continuous drain in tickets that a team will be penalized with when it controls less than half of the control points on the map. This encourages the team to retake points.

tk

"Team kill" -- killing a member of your own team (when friendly fire is on). Sometimes this is generically used to mean simply attacking members of your own team, whether or not players are actually killed.

tk revive (Enemy Territory series)

In the Enemy Territory series, the process of a medic deliberately team killing a wounded player and then reviving him with the hypodermic needle, rather than simply giving him health packs. The process is somewhat controversial since some servers and players always find team killing inappropriate, but it can save the medic charge if the wounded player is hurt particularly badly and/or if the medic in question has an upgrade that grants full health to a player he revives.

tm

Short for "teammate."

tnx

A puzzling shorthand for "thanks."

toggle

To turn on and off one's cheats.

toggler

One who toggles their cheats to avoid detection.

toob

A deliberate but predictable misspelling of "tube."

toober

A deliberate but predictable misspelling of "tuber."

torp (Battlefield 1)

Short for "torpedo."

tracking (Aliens vs. Predator 2)

The term for using the mask to lock on to opponents using the disc. Since the disc is a one-shot, one-kill weapon, and is quite difficult to avoid once it's been fired at you, this is sometimes considered unsportsmanlike and its use is banned on some servers.

trade

When referenced spontaneously, this occurs when two players firing at each other both kill each other, either due one using a delayed weapon (a grenade or a rocket), or due to both hits being registered on the server before both clients could be notified.

When talked about deliberately, this is when players deliberately trade kills back and forth -- one killing the other, then vice versa, and repeating -- in order to try to farm points.

trip (Battlfield Hardline)

Short for "laser tripmine."

tryhard

An adjective or noun used to refer to someone who is concentrating on winning, having a high kill/death ratio, or even their own personal score, typically to excess by either not having fun themselves or reducing enjoying for their teammates.

ts

"TeamSpeak," or in Battlefield 3, the Tank Superiority mode.

ttd

"Time to death," referring to how long it takes to spawn, play, and die on average. Often, it does not refer to the exact timing, but rather the perception thereof.

ttk

"Time to kill," referring to the amount of time with sustained fire a particular weapon and loadout would take to kill an enemy with full health. Although obviously a quantitative measure, it is often used casually and without actual numbers.

tu

"Thank you."

tube

An underslung grenade launcher, or, less commonly, a rocket launcher.

tuber

One who uses an underslung grenade launcher, or, less commonly, a rocket launcher. Not generally used as a compliment.

turtle

Referencing wider gaming culture, when used as a verb, turtling means to play defensively.

tw

"Teamwork."

tx

A puzzling shorthand for "thanks."

ty

"Thank you."

tyvm

"Thank you very much."

u2

"You too."

uav (Battlefield: Bad Company 2)

"Unmanned aerial vehicle," a miniature helicopter-shaped remotely-operated vehicle that can be used to fire on enemies, launch Hellfire strikes, and spot enemies. Some maps have a UAV station, which can be operated by a player of any class from either side.

ucb (Battlefield series)

"Uncapturable base."

ucp (Battlefield series)

"Uncapturable point."

udp

The connectionless TCP/IP protocol used most by online first person shooter games. It is distinguished from TCP in that UDP does not have an active "connection," and there is no guarantee that any particular UDP packet will be delivered to the destination; this results in less overhead both in terms of bandwidth and latency. As a result, UDP packets (or datagrams) are sent in a long stream between the server and client so that they can keep in sync.

ul

"Upload."

unbal

Short for "unbalanced," usually referring to the teams.

uncap (Battlefield series)

Short for "uncapturable," used in reference to an uncapturable (base) control point.

uncap exploit (Battlefield series)

Firing armor -- typically rocket artillery or mobile antiair -- from the enemy's "red zone" -- that is, areas near your deployment which your team can enter, but which the enemy cannot. This is usually considered a form of firing from the uncapturable area -- whether technically you're in it or not -- and is grounds for kicking or banning.

uncappable (Battlefield series)

Short for "uncapturable," used in reference to an uncapturable (base) control point.

uni (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory)

Short for "uniform." In Enemy Territory, Covert Ops can disguise themselves as the enemy by obtaining the uniform from a dead enemy soldier.

up (Battlefield series)

"Uncapturable point."

urt

Urban Terror. (It would be simply abbreviated "UT" but that's more commonly used to refer to Unreal Tournament.)

ut

Unreal Tournament -- either the game or the series. Sometimes, less commonly, Urban Terror.

ut2k

The Unreal Tournament 2000 series -- Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004.

ut2k3

Unreal Tournament 2003.

ut2k4

Unreal Tournament 2004.

ut2k7

An abbreviation of Unreal Tournament 2007, the prerelease name for what eventually became released as Unreal Tournament III.

ut99

A sometimes-used abbreviation for the original Unreal Tournament, as comparison to the Unreal Tournament 2000 series.

vanilla

For games that offer mods and DLCs, this term refers to the original game with no additional bells or whistles.

vehicle camp (Battlefield series)

To wait in an area for an inappropriately long time for a vehicle to spawn, rather than assist your team in taking control points.

vgg

"Very good game."

vip (Counter-Strike)

"Very important person." In betas of Counter-Strike, there was a VIP game mode where one counter-terrorist player would be (randomly) selected to be the VIP, who has a pistol but armor, and the goal of the counter-terrorists is to escort him to a rescue area, while the terrorists' goal is to kill the VIP before he is rescued.

wall-e (Battlefield series)

A diminutive name for the EOD bot.

wall glitch

A type of a glitch where in some positions, a wall can be partially transparent (due to bad cutting planes), or can actually be entered. It is a bug, not a cheat, but taking advantage of it is an exploit.

wallbang

To shoot someone through a wall (or other object).

wallhack

A type of cheat that allows the cheater to see enemies through walls and other obstructions.

warp

A term used to refer to the skittering movement that plagues players with high ping; the latency involved causes jittery movement with gaps instead of fluid motion, frequently frustrating other players. These jitters and gaps are sometimes referred to as "warping."

wb

"Welcome back."

wd

"Well done."

wet

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.

whore

A term sometimes used for a player who uses a weapon or equipment that is deemed annoying or unskillful by other players; often the suggestion is that the player relies on it.

wingwalking (Battlefield 1942)

A rather silly tactic where pilots get more passengers on a plane than it can normally carry by flying level and carefully and arranging infantry on the wings.

wp

"Well played."

wtf

"What the fuck?"

wtg

"Way to go."

wth

"What the hell?"

worm camp (Aliens vs. Predator 2)

Synonym for "corpse camp."

xp

Short for "experience points."

xp whore

One who is an XP whore.

xp whoring

In the Enemy Territory series, a more common name for point farming.

y

"Yes."

y?

"Why?"

yt

"You too."

yvw

"You're very welcome."

yw

"You're welcome."

zep (Battlefield 1)

Short for "zeppelin."

zip (Battlefield Hardline)

Short for "zipline."

zook (Battlefield series)

Short for "bazooka," one of the weapons in Battlefield 1942; used more generally in the later series to refer to any dumbfire man-portable rocket launcher.

zzzzz...

A suggestion of boredom, or impatience in that the other players should finish the round (in survivor-style games).

*

Players will often correct their typos in chat by reentering just the word they misspelled followed by an asterisk.

?

A standalone question mark is usually the equivalent of "Huh?" or "What do you mean?"

!

A standalone exclamation point is usually the equivalent of "Wow!"


CONTINUE THE TOUR: Quake III Arena >>>
Copyright © 2001-2024 by Erik Max Francis. All rights reserved.