A newbie – literally someone who is new to a genre or game, and has not learned how to play it adequately and/or skillfully. Although, these days, “noob” is more commonly just used to indicate someone [..]

A popular – if not very creative – real-time strategy tactic, wherein a player swarms and attempts to overpower their opponent with a massive horde of weak units. This term was popularized in StarCraf [..]

APM, or Actions Per Minute, is a real-time strategy term), while others are just generally applicable to gaming.

A test for measuring and evaluating the performance of a given PC’s hardware, including processors and video cards. Software such as 3DMark Vantage is very popular for this. Running benchmark tests ca [..]

A filthy, no-good player who stalks prone foes for repeated, easy kills. The practice is prevalent in first-person shooters, and it’s usually frowned upon, since campers habitually set up so that they [..]

A collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) dedicated to handling all manner of multimedia and game development tasks. DirectX’s Direct3D API is especially prevalent in game development. [..]

As in “game engine” – examples include Unreal Engine 4 and Frostbite 3. These are software frameworks that developers use to build their games. Each engine has its own set of advantages and drawbacks, [..]

The act of killing or otherwise harassing other players in-game, with the express intention of frustrating them and/or spoiling their gaming experience – thus causing them grief. Can effectively const [..]

The default controller setup for PC gaming. In a first-person shooter or online RPG, for example, movement is controlled with WASD keys (see below), typically with the Spacebar mapped to jump, Ctrl ma [..]

A measure of time delay – interchangeable with “lag.” Latency might indicate a problem with a gamer’s Internet connection, some critical miscommunication with the game’s server, or (in the worst cases [..]