| Beginner's Guide to Online Gaming Terminology |
| Written by William Moore | |
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If you are a seasoned veteran, please take a moment to click the back button or feel free to choose from our variety of other menu options. Xtreme Level is a great choice. I would also like to recommend our online magazine and Reality Check. Some pretty interesting stuff. Or if you would like to take a moment to reminisce and amuse yourself on how far your knowledge has improved, read on. But just keep in mind, this is the "Beginner's" Guide to Online Gaming Terminology. For starters, if you are reading this guide, chances are you are a newbie. A rookie. Wet behind the years. Or you might just be a "Noob". The one the vets lick their lips at when you pop up on their screen. Yes, there is a difference. "Newbie" = You are new, but you may possess some skill. "Noob" = not to put this bluntly but in the eyes of hardcore gamers. "You Suck!!!" It is not a term of endearment, but a term of trash talking. Which brings us to our second term..."Random". Being called a random can be a good or a bad thing. When you log online and are not playing with people that you know, whichever online service you are using will match you with random players. They may categorize you by skill and experience but to everyone in the "Room" is a "Random." This "Room" is not your bedroom or bathroom or dining room. If someone asks you to meet them in a "Room," this is the screen where you pick sides, i.e. team blue, team red, sit and talk before you play. The "Room" is the screen right before you actually play. From this point on, I am only going to list terms general to online games because each genre of gaming has terminology specific to it. Maybe I'll write genre specific terms later. Hint...hint. MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) - i.e. WoW (World of Warcraft), Everquest, FFO (Final Fantasy Online) - a online video game capable of supporting thousands of players simultaneously in a persistent world. FPS (First Person Shooter) - i.e. Quake, Doom - a shooter played from the perspective and viewpoint of the character being controlled. Technically games such as Halo are not first person shooters, but third person shooters are still labeled under that genre of gaming. RTS (Real Time Strategy) - i.e. Command & Conquer, StarCraft, WarCraft, Warhammer 40K - a non turn based strategy game that usually involves gathering resource, i.e. gold, wood, steel, supplies, building bases, developing technology, and controlling units of soldiers and scientists to fulfill your inevitable goal. Server - Simply put, it is what online games are played on. Some computer in a far away realm waits for us faithful gamers to turn our game on and log on. That computer in turn processes whatever services are necessary for gamers worldwide to play together "seemlessly" Lag - which leads us to the infamous, always hated, and never welcomed lag. It is bound to happen. You have someone in your sights. You are about to steal the ball, lay out their running back, shoot an opponent point blank with a shotgun in the face, when suddenly they disappear and reappear dunking on your teammate, breaking your ankles, or standing behind you with a rocket launcher to rid you of that pesky thing called life. Think of lag as a cell phone. It takes time for your voice to catch up. Well in video games, if someone's computer is the server/host on say a dial up or just having a bad day, it will take time for other users to receive information sent from other computers on the server which displays as things happening very late in respect to what is actually being done. LAN (Local Area Network) - a room of computers or consoles linked together to play games usually played online. This is the typical setup for events and tournaments. Pwned/Owned - a trash talking term which means that I am doing whatever I like to you as a gamer because "You Suck!!!" Kill you whenever I feel like it. Score on you at will. I can go fix a hot pocket in the microwave. Sit down. Say grace. Finish my meal. And still come back and win. The "p" in pwned is sometimes seen as a mistake because it is a typo being very close to the "o" or a pawn in chess which is the weakest piece. You pick. I like to believe in the first option personally. Glitch - this can considered a cheat or a mistake in the game. One major example of a glitch is the double shot in Halo 2. "fire, fire, x" Don't ask why it's there but it turns the battle rifle into an automatic instant kill weapon to a pro player. It is something that gamers find that was not meant to be there when the developers designed and made the game but can be used to create an unfair advantage. Gameplay - pretty straightforward. The way the game is played. Everything you do in the game. Don't ask just felt like adding the term. It's my guide. One of the benefits of writing "my" section. Random content. Frag - kills in shooters. In free for alls, the player with the most kills is the winner. In team play , depending on the game type can be pointless or crucial to winning. Highside - If the world/map you are presently in/on has more then one floor, then this is the level above you. Flank - coming around and attacking someone from a blind side or behind them. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 21 January 2008 ) |
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