Video Game Lingo

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I’m back yet again, and this time, I present a list of video game terms and lingo, focusing on FPS games such as CoD and Battlefield. These terms are all-too-familiar to most of us, but to those who have absolutely no idea what some or any of these mean, this will hopefully enlighten you a bit.

OP

OP means over-powered and typically refers to a weapon or piece of equipment that may or may not need to be balanced more. It can also be used in rage by people who were just legitimately out-skilled and wanted some kind of scapegoat for their loss. For example, the MP7 in Modern Warfare 3 is OP with its laser-like accuracy, lack of recoil, and rapid fire rate.

Nerfed

The term “nerfed” applies to way more video game genres than just FPS, and means something or someone was made less powerful, OP, and/or weaker in general. Sometimes nerfing can be good, such as nerfing the AK in Modern Warfare 2019. Other times, not so much. Blackbeard in Rainbow 6 Siege is a great example of that. His rifle-mounted shield used to take multiple shots before breaking. Now it barely takes one. It makes for a great running joke, though, as each patch release is always joked about containing another ridiculous nerf for poor Blackbeard.

Buffed

The opposite of getting nerfed is being buffed, which means becoming more powerful, stronger, and/or OP. This is less common in the video game industry as it often generates more complaints than nerfing. An example is the recent buffing of Cold War weapons in CoD Warzone, which is apparently causing all kinds of complaints from the community.

Noob

A truly classic and timeless insult, noob refers to either someone new to a game or someone who sucks at a game. The term can also be an adjective for tactics, weapons, and behaviors too.

Noob Tube

A Noob Tube is the term for an under-barrel grenade launcher on a weapon. Back in the good old days of CoD, these things were so OP and despised that the term exploded in popularity due to how many times it was used. Nowadays, noob tubes aren’t as deadly or powerful, but the term will forever live on regardless.

Camper/Camping

Usually proceeded by an expiative, a camper is someone who refuses to move from one spot on a map, often killing multiple enemies from that spot before justice is finally achieved. Snipers are not generally considered campers as they’re supposed to be sitting in a particular location with little or no movement, but anyone else is fair game. There are different types of camping too, such as mobile camping and spawn camping. Mobile camping is where someone barely moves around the general area they’re camping, such as moving from downstairs in a house to upstairs. Spawn camping refers to when a player or team had an enemy team trapped in their spawn, and every time they try to escape, they get gunned down by the eagerly awaiting enemy. Naturally, nobody ever wants to be in that situation.

GG/GG EZ

Sometimes meant as a legitimate saying, GG is short for Good Game, though often used in sarcasm. GG EZ is always used as an insult and basically means good game, easy win. GG isn’t always meant as an insult, and it really depends on the context and tone of voice used when said. Not everyone is an ass online.

Quickscope/Hardscope/No-Scope

Depending on how long you’re aimed in with a sniper before getting a kill, your kill will fall under one of these terms. A hardscope is when you’re aimed in on a particular area for a long period of time, waiting for the time to strike. For some reason, a chunk of the CoD community hates this, despite being what snipers are actually for.

Quickscoping is when you aim in until the exact moment that your reticle is visible and aligned, firing, and aiming out in rapid succession. You’re not technically using the scope to aim your shot doing this. Quick-scoping requires precision, practice, and a good reaction time to master, and now a good setup on your sniper is also necessary. Trick-shots often go hand-in-hand with quickscoping and include doing crazy things such as switching weapons, spinning around, or jumping off the map before landing the shot.

No-scoping is exactly what it sounds like: not using your scope to shoot and kill someone. Landing these shots usually requires close proximity to the target, extreme luck, or both. No, using iron sights does not count as no-scoping.

Collateral

A collateral is when one bullet hits and kills two or more targets. Typically, this kind of result only happens with a sniper or other weapon with high damage and penetration, but not always. I had a collateral headshot in MW2 with Akimbo Uzis, and it was my first in that game too. Getting a collateral is almost always a surprise and results in one sitting still and staring blankly at the screen in disbelief for a brief moment.

Halo Jumping/SCUF Jumping/Jump-Shotting

In the early days of Halo online, players would jump around to make enemies miss or to get better angles on enemies. Nowadays, it’s referred to as jump-shotting or SCUF jumping and involves a player jumping to avoid getting hit easily or jumping around a corner to surprise the enemy on the other side. SCUF jumping comes from a brand of custom controllers that allows a player to do this more easily due to added buttons or paddles to the controller. Most of the time, you’ll see the sweaty try-hards with SMGs doing this in a game.

Drop-Shot

A nightmare to combat, drop-shotting involves going prone while shooting at a target that’s shooting back, basically making it hard to be killed. If this is you, I automatically hate you, as do so many others.

T-Bag

Another classic way to give someone the middle finger in-game, T-bagging is when you crouch and stand up repeatedly on the corpse of someone you killed. You gotta be careful, though. Otherwise, you’ll get killed in the middle of your celebration.

K/D

The way to show how good you are at an FPS, or at least how little you care about playing the objective. K/D is your kill/death ratio, or how many kills you average before dying. Anything above a ratio of 1 is acceptable, 1.5 and up is good, and anything above 2 is great.

Hit Marker

The dreaded hit marker is that little thing that pops up whenever you hit an enemy, usually around your reticle. Why is it dreaded? Well, getting that damn marker to pop up when you were hoping for a kill is really annoying, to say the least. Plus, getting a bunch of hit markers and no kill is also rough.

Lag

Ah, lag… the bane of online gaming—also an excuse for why you’re doing so bad. Lag is when you attempt to do something, but there is a very noticeable delay before it actually happens. For example, pressing the trigger to shoot, and about 5 seconds later, you finally shoot.

Carrying

Carrying is used to describe when you’re on the top of your team’s leaderboard by a ton, and the only reason why your team is doing well is because of you. Being carried sucks, and so does carrying a team in a sense.

Clutch

Clutching a game is when you snag victory from the jaws of defeat. When you’re on your own and facing incredible odds, you clutch by beating those odds and winning. Also, there is the saying “clutch or kick,” where you either clutch the game for your useless teammates or get kicked.

Ninja Defuse

Ninja defusing is when you sneakily defuse a planted bomb without the other team noticing. Typically in CoD, this is accomplished by laying practically on top of whoever is planting the bomb and defusing the second you can.

Conclusion

This list merely scratches the surface of video game slang and terms. I could make a much longer list, but I only have so much free time to work on these things. In any case, maybe you learned something here or remember some terms you haven’t heard in a while. Either way, I hope you enjoyed.