What's your favorite gaming slang phrase to throw around?

[Lauren Morton]

Hey PC gamers, hope we all survived the big showcase weekend! We are once again not talking about it yet—but we did actually just record ourselves talking about it so you'll get to hear that next week—so hang tight on that. For this week Mollie and I called upon Robin Valentine to talk about gaming slang, which seems like such an old person way to put it. But we got the bad news about how "instagib" is supposed to be pronounced last month and we all launched into a flurry of opinions about other popular phrases and acronyms that we like and don't like so Robin did a new take on our big list of game slang you should know and we made him talk about it with us.

What's your own favorite gaming slang term?​

Don't act all cool now. You have a phrase you like to toss around that's fun to say. Mollie is a chronic "gg" in chat person. Robin loves appending -ware to the end of things. Me? I like calling things sweaty even though I don't really play any games where it applies. That's the fun of it. Getting sweaty about Stardew. So what about you? Is it getting ganked, or complaining about nerfs? Maybe you like blaming everything on RNG.

You can catch our old version of this list, just for a laugh: PC gaming terms and their true meanings, which was originally published sometime last decade.

Or you can read the new list we're talking about with Robin: From abandonware to zoning: 91 terms every PC gamer should know, which is fewer jokes and more of a genuine primer to help you out.

 

[Brian Boru]

I have two.

In heavy traffic or big crowd at the mall—or of course, holiday family gathering—you'll hear me mutter 'Raging Barbs'.

The occasional twinges I get due to …er, enhanced maturity… I explain to anyone who notices as 'fall damage'.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've hardly ever used it because I almost never play multiplayer games, but I've always liked how well GLHF rolls off the tongue. It also always reminds me of this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pbc53KF4IU


Which contains another piece of slang that should join buff and nerf on the list: imba.

I also like when OP is used for anything or anyone who is good at something, even if just slightly and especially when it has nothing to do with games. Like saying my cats are OP at demanding pets.

 

[Lauren Morton]

The occasional twinges I get due to …er, enhanced maturity… I explain to anyone who notices as 'fall damage'.

Oh no, not fall damage 😅

I also like when OP is used for anything or anyone who is good at something, even if just slightly and especially when it has nothing to do with games. Like saying my cats are OP at demanding pets.

OP totally slipped my mind, that's a good one for everyday use! Car payment too OP 😞

 

[Zloth]

18:51 @Lauren Morton, you're on mute!!

Don't act all cool now.

But I can't help it!! You can tell by the way I pronounce gib correctly, unlike you folks. (Romero spent too much time in Texas to trust his pronunciations.)

I've seen "zerg rush" used in other games. It's just the tactic of taking a whole ton of cheap units and try to overwhelm the other side.

Ha! When I reached the age of 30, I looked back at what I was doing in gaming at age 15 and didn't have to get embarrassed at all. Even Trade Wars wasn't a thing yet, so 0 online elements to embarrass me.. And, even if it was, every single person into computer gaming back then was already a nerd. How's it supposed to get worse? Hit points, orcs, roll a crit... we were so unhip that we had to nail our pants on to keep them from falling down. Now, though? Common stuff.

As long as I'm showing my age off, some old terms

• Dweeb: Back in the days of Air Warrior on GEnie, it was the term used to describe new players. Morphed into N00b, because the people who later played online games were too new to know to say 'dweeb' instead.
• Telefrag: When you join a game or teleport from A to B, what happens if somebody else is standing at B? If that somebody is utterly destroyed, then they were telefragged. Games don't let that happen so much anymore, I guess. (But Egosoft's X4 introduced the ability to teleport your base - destroying anything at the new location. The term returns! Even if you only use it on NPCs.)
• ROFL: Dates back to the Air Warrior days, too, and lasted a long time. I remember teaching my parents what it meant. And now I need to teach my nieces. (Rolling on Floor, Laughing.)

Not used widely, but I wish they were:

• ROFLSC: Rolling on Floor, Laughing, and Scaring the Cat. Didn't survive outside of Air Warrior, unfortunately.
• Hoover mode: in a game where your inventory isn't limited, you pick up EVERYTHING.

 

[steeleman21]

@Lauren Morton At 19 minutes into the podcast, your mic goes dead for a minute 😅 Can you give us a rough transcription of whatever anecdote you're giving?

On a slight tangent, less gaming slang and now more of an inside joke among friends, but myself and pals used to stream occasionally on Twitch, and whenever we had a minor complaint about the game we were playing, we would loudly declare "DEVS, if you're listening..." followed by whatever our issue was. That has slowly trickled into my real life, to signify any minor inconvenience that could be easily fixed 😂

Lots of terms I refer to on a regular basis; blaming RNGesus for wherever my luck doesn't pan out in a game, ragequitting out of Jedi Survivor because of how unresponsive the player control is, dropping an F in the chat, or declaring gg after a good gaming session with friends.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I've hardly ever used it because I almost never play multiplayer games, but I've always liked how well GLHF rolls off the tongue. It also always reminds me of this:

Instead of “hi gl hf” I like to say “higgle-huff”.

 

[Frindis]

One of my favorites to use is Bush Wookie. I often use the term if I spot people hiding in bushes and occasionally use the name on myself if I dig deep into the shrubbery.

 

[Lauren Morton]

• Hoover mode: in a game where your inventory isn't limited, you pick up EVERYTHING.

Ooo Hoover Mode I like that. I've said "loot hoover" occasionally and that's really fun to say. I should do that more often. And start playing Diablo again, to justify it I guess.

@Lauren Morton At 19 minutes into the podcast, your mic goes dead for a minute 😅 Can you give us a rough transcription of whatever anecdote you're giving?

Oh heck, I'll find out what happened with the audio there. Looks like I was just reading off the title of the new list Robin wrote and explaining that he did a bit of crowdsourcing within our team to come up with a lot of what was included and asked if there was any other super old slang apart from "gibs" that made it in.

One of my favorites to use is Bush Wookie. I often use the term if I spot people hiding in bushes and occasionally use the name on myself if I dig deep into the shrubbery.

Oh yes I always loved saying bush wookie because that's how I played PUBG 🤣

 

[ZedClampet]

I got behind someone in the Burger King drive-thru who I could hear asking what was on a Whopper, so I called them a "noob".