Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft ... Oh My!

November 23, 2021

by Jeff Lovewell, Education Program and Project Officer

If you have a child under 14, you know the games well and likely your child is obsessed with them. It’s not surprising these three games have risen to the attention of the next generation of gamers because they represent video games as a new media instead of just a game, offering opportunities for people to gather and share experiences like concerts and engage with the metameres.

Minecraft barely even has an objective while Roblox and Fortnite have a near-infinite amount of options for how to play. Meeting up with friends on these platforms is the new form of hanging out in what used to be AOL instant messenger or riding bikes in the park after school together. It’s where inside jokes are made and friendships are solidified.

Your kids may even have their own special language for communicating with each other that bleeds into their “normal” lives. It might be fun (and delightfully embarrassing) to try to meet them in their world by trying to squeeze as many of these terms into your next dinner conversation as possible. Please enjoy this poggers list of game terms. All of which are regularly used in gaming groups and heard the most often from the video game-playing kids at Imagination Station. Enjoy griefing your kids!

AFK - Away from Keyboard, but often still staying online.
Going AFK to eat dinner really quick.

BM-ing - Having bad manners or Bad Mannering.
This guy is BM-ing us in chat.

Buff/Nerf - Buff is a change to enhance a character, ability or weapon and a Nerf is the opposite. As in a nerf gun is the softer version of a regular gun.
They need to buff diamond pickaxes or I’m just going to use iron.
The best fortnight weapon just got nerfed.

Camper/Camping - Pejorative term for someone staying in a fortified position and destroying other characters.
We can’t leave the base because that jerk is camping. They don’t even play the game!

Cheese/Cheesing - Using a tactic to win a game that is considered cheap or not in the spirit of the game even if it isn’t technically cheating.
The enemy is cheesing by only using grenades so no one can walk anywhere indoors.

GG - Good Game, often the most polite way to end any match between friends or strangers.
gg.

GG EZ - Short for Good Game Easy, considered to be one of the rudest ways to end a match between anyone.
gg ez.

GOAT - Greatest Of All Time.
That armor you won is the GOAT.

Griefing - Someone who deliberately harasses other players. Everyone unites against these players.
We need to kick this player off our game. They’ve been griefing us all day.

Grinding - Spending countless hours on a repetitive boring task to gain experience or currency.
I’ve been grinding all day for more tokens.

Noob/Newb/N00b - A pejorative used to describe someone making mistakes that an expert player would not make.
That cliff jump was the most n00b play I’ve seen since the start of this game.

OP - Overpowered, used to describe a weapon, character or ability.
Why do they even have that OP character in this game? It ruins the fun for everyone else

POG/Poggers - Play Of the Game, meaning epic or awesome play
That play was poggers. There’s no way they can come back from that.

Roping - Taking so long to end your turn a timer (often depicted as a rope) is burning away before you are forced to end.
This game is taking forever! Stop roping each turn!

Smurf - Similar to hustling, someone playing against new players even though they are quite experienced.
This game is zero fun to play with all the smurf accounts playing.