A Quick Reference Guide to the Gaming Lexicon

It has recently come to my attention that there are a number of people who still don’t understand the basic vocabulary of online gaming. Here’s a quick guide of some of the basic phrases that you’ll encounter while fragging online, some of which has been adopted by non-gamers in the real world. You might already know these entries, but feel free to tell all your n00b friends about this post so they can study up on their gaming lingo.

l33t (adj.): A variation on the world ‘elite’ that was born of the fledgling internet. Hackers who created websites that wanted to avoid simple keyword search engines like Yahoo and Webcrawler would replace letters with numbers: 4=A 3=E 0=O (as in w00t and n00b) etc. As video gaming took to the online scene with Doom and Doom II, these hackers found a common battleground and l33t-speak became a common form of trash talk. Currently the word l33t is associated with individual players who are very good at their game of choice, or at least those who think they are. Variations include: 1337, leet, l337, 133t, L33T etc.

Ninja (V): The word ninja as a noun is commonplace in the English language, but MMORPGs have managed to transform the word from meaning a black-clad assassin to the act of taking. In an MMORPG, a common occurrence was “ninja looting” in which a player unfairly took the spoils of a fight for themselves rather than sharing with a teammate. As a result, MMO players will often refer to the act of stealing, or simply taking, as “ninjaing.”

n00b (N): Since we already used it, we should probably define it. A n00b is anyone who is new to a particular video game. More commonly, n00b is used as an insult amongst veteran players to point out a player’s lack of skill. Alternate spellings include: newb, newbie, nub, (rarely) noob, and any variation in capitalization thereof.

PWN/PWNED (V): To pwn is to dominate your opponent in a particular game. Originally, pwn started as a common typo when players attempted to say “I own you” due to the proximity of the P and O keys on a standard QWERTY keyboard. PWN was so commonplace that it quickly became the norm and you will now hear people over voice chat saying “You just got PWNED!” The pronunciation of PWN is still a hotly debated topic amongst noobs.

PWNED by fire!

w00t (V used without object): Originating as the acronym: “We Owned the Other Team,” w00t was used as a cheer at the end of a round of play by the victorious team similar to the chest bump in professional sports. In more colloquial settings, w00t has expanded from an online expression of victory to an offline exclamation of excitement akin to “woohoo.” It still often appears in the context of small day-to-day victories, but it is no longer limited to gamers.

These are just a couple of the major points; there are hundreds more. Feel free to add your favorite gamer phrases to the comments below.