Gaming

Gaming slang is one of the older internet vocabularies, predating Twitter and structured by genre: MOBA terminology (adc, gank, carry), FPS terminology (camper, clutch, smurf), MMO terminology, and the cross-cutting esports/streamer layer (pog, poggers, cracked). Most terms are 15–25 years old and remarkably stable — the vocabulary turns over much slower than TikTok slang because games themselves have long lifecycles. Signature exemplars: op, gg, nerf, meta, afk. The category leans male, ages 13–35, platform Twitch and Discord first, with crossover to Twitter when esports go mainstream. Sub-scenes (fighting games, speedruns, Souls-likes) carry their own micro-vocabularies that occasionally surface here.