Where Does Different Gaming Terminology Come From? We Explore Gaming Terms

Opening Words

A global market like the gaming industry spans thousands of different types of spoken word. Dialectologists estimate there are over 7,000 spoken languages. The actual figure is not entirely known, given that remote, smaller indigenous populations often use their own means of communication. Terminology falls into the remit of slang, and often, you can find dozens of different words for the same term, especially if you take a look at sports and gaming. Although local dialects often play a part, other factors play a role, and the result is often a colloquial yet confusing term that can baffle outsiders despite the comfort and ease at which the locals may use the word.

Slot Gaming

Casino gaming truly brings into focus the breadth of terms that exist in the casino industry. While many games might have slight variations, slot machines have completely different names depending on what part of the world you’re in. In the United States, they’re known as slot machines or slots. This is the case throughout North America and generally across mainland Europe, too.

In the United Kingdom, slot gaming is a common term, and gamers will know what you’re getting at if you say you’re playing on a slot machine. However, another universal term used primarily in England but nowhere else is fruit machine. Despite the first slots game emerging in the United States and the pioneering device containing predominantly fruit symbols, this particular phrase, unusually, has stuck in England but not across the pond.

A Game Of Pokies?

In any other country, if you asked somebody for a game of pokies, you would be met with a look of bewilderment, with a tinge of confusion, perhaps even a bit of animosity. Well, in Australia, that wouldn’t be the case. They’d be well-equipped to handle this inquiry.

The gambling culture in Australia makes up a significant part of the entertainment industry. It is worth billions of dollars per year, and pokies are the bedrock of this success, prominent in bars and hotels all over the vast country. Pokies games online follow a similar path, and this is one of the most universally recognized, unique Aussie gambling terms.

Despite the popularity amongst the gambling fraternity, there are many theories about where the popularity actually stems from. When Australians first displayed their disposition for gambling and slots started to develop a significant audience, they were first sold as poker machines due to the majority of the devices having a jackpot hierarchy that mirrored the top poker hands.

However, many believe that the term is far more direct and refers to when you poke the machine to select spin. Either way, this term is cemented into Aussie gambling culture. For those who have visited Australia, you’ll know the word is as cemented into their culture as “crikey,” “G’day mate,” or the immortal legacy of the magical Steve Irwin.

Popular Current Terms

Social media has resulted in a society that doesn’t switch off. Gone are the days of set news times and coverage, waiting for the newspaper to get the news the following day, or sitting at home and playing on a video game console that had no facility or ability to connect to the internet. Now that professional video gaming provides millions with entertainment online, and first-person shooter games are creating online communities developing their own slang, it can be challenging to keep up.

Pwned is a term that exploded from the misspelling of the word owned, and for some reason, it was the grammatically incorrect one that took off and still sees widespread use today. Other more generic terms include AFK to signal you’re away from your keyboard. Another popular gaming term is rage quit, which means you’ve completely disconnected your console in the middle of the game because you were at the end of an agonizing or one-sided defeat.

The Modern Phenomena Of Console Gaming

Online gaming via XBOX and PlayStation has contributed the most in fuelling many modern-day gaming terms we see, often regurgitating as passive or dismissive insults online. Due to the breakneck speed at which the industry moves, colloquial terms often appear as quickly as they go out of fashion.

However, one term that seems to have hung around through 2023 is NPC, which stands for Non-Player Character. A bizarre TikTok trend propelled this term into mainstream news earlier this year, but now that the ASMR- frenzy has died down somewhat, it acts as a gaming term for somebody who offers little opinion, sticks to the crowd, is uninteresting, and has a vague or blanked expression – so not quite a term of endearment. So, although some terms exist within other parts of the gaming and gambling sectors, the changes and new terminology that circulate online tend to stem almost exclusively from online gaming communities and forums.