Game Subject
When you hear someone discuss or play a video game, they will say certain words that will make a non-gamer feel lost, as if they are speaking in a secret code language.
Other fields such as sports, art, and music have words that only specific people in that world will understand. The video game media have three kinds of terms, being game developer, in-game, and gamers terms.
This will be a three-part discussion on each of the term types. The first part will be about the slang words gamers use. Either you know these eight common terms or not, you will know them after reading this discussion. There are more, but these are terms I know really well.
Post Discussion Categories
- Eight Common Terms Gamers Use
- GG
- Lag
- OP
- Broken
- Cooldown
- Rage Quit
- Grinding
- Speed Run
Below are eight terms gamers use
Eight common Terms Gamers Use
1. GG (Good Game)
A comment that someone says after they finish a play session and had a good time. This is mostly said, when two or more people playing together on teams or competing against each other to win.
When I hear somebody say GG, it means they enjoyed playing with you as a way of respect. It’s like shaking hands with the person, saying you did a good job and I was impressed.
2. Lag
When a game slows down and the actions in the game are affected. Everything has a delay on screen, including players inputs on the controller.
Example
This video explains what input lag is and shows a test example. The higher the number, the more delay will appear.
Video game lag is a broad topic because there are different reasons to what causes lag. For example, playing a game online can cause lag due to the strength of internet connection. Another is frame rate decreasing in certain areas of a game, because of many things happening on the screen.
Some lag is done on purpose by the developer. In fighting games, certain attacks have lag after they are performed. This is used to balance the character, so the game can be fair.
3. OP (Overpowered)
Something in the game that is overly amplified to make a game easier. A gamer says OP when they see something really strong in damage output or used to overcome many challenges in the game with ease.
Example
In the first five Pokémon main games, everyone called the Dragon type OP because of their high stats, powerful moves, and weaknesses doing less damage.
Now they have a specific type to go against them (Fairy type) to balance every type in the game.
Overpowered things in a game can happen by giving players a high advantage more than it should. Examples are character stats, abilities, and items in a game.
This can also be on the opposite side too. Enemies and bosses can have overpowered attacks and skills that feels really unfair. It’s a blessing and a curse. I think overpowered things in games is fine to have (if there is only a few), even though they feel like a design flaw.
4. Broken
Something in a game that makes the experience extremely beneficial and easy to the player. It effects the mechanics in the game by weakening them and allow the player to overcome a challenge with less effort and skill.
This term is used when a gamer sees something that is way too powerful and beats many things in the game.
Example
In Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow the Psychic type were broken because in the first game there was only one Special stat, and it had no weakness.
Now there are two special stats in Pokémon, Special Attack and Special Defense. The psychic type also has a weakness (Dark type) to go against them for balancing the games.
What makes something broken is how much it effects the core gameplay or a particular idea in a game. Character attacks, abilities, a game mechanic, and a feature are examples of what can become broken. Just like overpowered enemies and bosses, they can also be broken. If you think overpowered is unfair, something broken is really unfair because it damages the game.
I think broken situations in a game are design errors. They probably thought it was a good idea, but turns out to be too good of an idea, that goes against the other ideas inside of the game.
What is the difference between Overpowered and Broken?
These two terms sound close, however there is a difference. Something that is OP is more relating to effecting aspects on a smaller level, however a broken idea is really overwhelming and could ruin an entire feature or a certain part of the experience.
To me it looks like OP has more skill involved and Broken is cheating. Players can take advantage of the game, by playing a way it was not designed to be played.
5. Cooldown
It is a pause after an action is done, when a player does an input on the controller. The wait is used as a countdown timer, to prevent the player from using the same action right away. The countdown is invisible, and the amount of time depends on the action.
Example
This example shows the countdown of the attacks. When it reaches zero, the move will be available to use again.
Cooldown is used to balance the game, so the player will have to think on when they should do certain actions. If cooldown didn’t exist, gamers would be able to beat a game super easy. Cooldown actually prevents a lot of things in a game to be overpowered and broken if you think about it.
Video games brings challenge, and cooldown helps that, by keeping someone from spamming everything. Spamming is another gamer term which means performing the same action constantly without thought. Lag and Cooldown relate to each other in a way. For example, controlling a player’s inputs and seeing the feedback on screen.
6. Rage Quit
When a player gets really frustrated and chooses to stop because they’re upset at the game. They feel angry at the game, from whatever happened at the moment and give up.
People rage quit from video games mostly from failing a lot. If they keep loosing after tying again and again, it will start to bother them. This can happen from playing a single player game or a multiplayer game in a versus match. Sometimes games can be too difficult and a person literally has to play close to perfect to win.
Older games I feel are more rage quitting than the newer ones. A game will cause you to quit in rage over time, when you do your best and continue to lose.
7. Grinding
When someone is repeating a task to improve their performance in a game. Players do this to make a hard part simpler and less stressful.
Example
Display of a character level and the status numbers to show the strength of the character
Video games can be really difficult at times and gamers will decide to grind. The main types of games that require grinding, are any that has a level up system. Leveling up in a game is making yourself stronger by increasing a number.
The higher the number, the better the player will perform. Some things to level up are characters, weapons, equipment and others. It depends on the game on what you can do to grind.
An example of grinding is defeating a large number of enemies at a time. The most bad thing is how time consuming and boring it is. It forces the player to stop moving forward to do something over and over again. Grinding feels like training to me, to get you ready for something ahead.
8. Speed Run
Playing a game quickly as possible in order to move on to the next location or level.
Example
This interesting video shows a few Ocarina of Time glitch tricks you can do to speed run the game. What makes this cool is it’s a demo from Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
Speed run or speed running is a term that gamers say when they want to get something done fast. Its playing really fast to beat a level or challenge the fastest way possible. This of course requires high skill and knowledge of the game inside and out. When I say knowing a game, that also means knowing some of the glitches and secrets. Players will use them to actually go through the game insanely fast.
Sometimes games reward players when they finish fast, like getting a high-grade rank or unlocking something. Speed running now has its own community. There is even a world record challenge that people try to do, by how fast they can finish a game. Every game has its own world record completion time.
Conclusion
That is all of the eight common terms gamers say. I gave my version of what they mean and an explanation of them. Some terms could be spoken more in depth as a separate post. Next time I will discuss terms that are inside of a game. A few examples would be score, power-ups, and lives. What gamer terms do you say or know?
Common Terms Used In Game Development
Lets talk and learn about games
Thank you for enjoying my blog post. I try to make them good and interesting to read. I am still new to this, I only made six blog post if you don’t count my two Hello Post. The advice I can say is easier to do in numbers.
1. Make sure you write about topics you really enjoy and have a passion for.
2. Know your target audience in who you are really writing the post to.
3. You could make your site focus on a specific topic like a game genre, early 2000s games, a game company games, or game series. I made mine broad because I don’t want to limit myself.
4. Think of post that is worth making. You are taking your time out to do this, so make sure its something you really want to discuss.
5. Break up your paragraphs in smaller sections. I read that people will keep reading, if there is more space in paragraphs.
6. I think its good to have visuals because having all words can get boring. I use images and videos to help me explain things better.
7. When writing, try to have it to where you are speaking to someone like a YouTube video, instead of being too formal like writing an essay. Don’t speak too casual though.
8. Always proofread and check your work. Having proofreading in days is better. It takes me six drafts for me to make it sound the best I can.
9. Creating categories is a good way to keep your ideas focused on something.
10. If you are writing game news, make sure you have the time to post it when the topic is still be talked about online and social media. Its hard for me make news post because I can’t keep up.
11. Make work that you will be proud of because if no one reads it, at least you like what you have made.
These are some of the things I learned and read about making blog post. I hope this was helpful.
Yes, exactly the same terms are used by the gamers which you have discussed in the post.
Thanks, I appreciate it.