Common Korean Terminology/Gaming Terms

B

* **Bugyejeong** (부계정): literally means **sub account**. A gaming terminology used when a person creates a separate character and account that exists separately from their main accounts and main characters in a game. In English, it is called 알트 (**Alternate Character**; **Alt** (for short)), 알터 이고 (**Alter Ego**) or 스머핑 (**Smurfing**).

C

* **Chai** (차이): means "the gap". It is a game slang that derived from *League of Legends*. It refers to the skill gap between the enemy and the ally. Let's say you are playing Mid and you are doing poorly while the enemy is doing better, in that case someone might say "omg mid gap" or "ong mid diff" as in the skill difference between midlaners. It is also used in *Overwatch*.

D

* **Daeriraeng** (대리랭): It is a fairly new internet term coined by combining the Chinese character 대리(代理) (English: "Substitute; deputy; proxy; agent; representative") with the first letter '랭' of English Word Ranking (랭킹). Literally, it is an action in which the other party takes the ranking instead of yourself. It refers to the act of playing on someone's account and raising their ranking in ranked play, usually for money. In English langue, it referred to as "boosting" or "elo boosting". It is seen as a kind of "pay to win" strategy and is popular in games such as League of Legend and Overwatch. In fact there is a term known as 롤 대리 Which literally translates to "LOL Substitute" but is called "League of Legend Boosting" in the English speaking gaming community. If a machine plays instead of a person, it is called "auto"(오토), but a lot of PvP Games require such a high level of control and game understanding that machines can't be used. in Korea, Boosting is not an individual act. It is literally a business. They are companies, each consisting of multiple people of high SR and a few managers employing them. Initially it wasn't a serious issue in Korea as well but the whole business began to grow exponentially since LOL became a major international eSport at the later 2000s and the number of boosting companies is simply innumerable today. The biggest ratio of those who request boosting are obviously those at lower skill ratings because the price is relatively cheap and most people playing the game are located there. But a lot of people pay to get boosted to a very high level/skill ranking which is where the problem invades the Korean eSports scene. There are currently thousands of young gamers in Korea across League of Legends and Overwatch who are aspiring to become pros starting to raise their skill ratings from scratch, and because of these 'boosters' dominating the middle silver/gold/diamond SR, they are prevented from raising their own SR and going to Grand Master/Top 500 level. This seriously hurts the eSports scene in Korea, as has been raised consistently as the main issue in KeSPA this decade. The seriousness of the problem finally caught the attention of the South Korean government. On 2012 June 2nd The People's Party of South Korea proposed a bill to make 'boosting business' illegal and include it in the eSports law. It is currently being processed at the National Assembly and will take a bit of time before the law is actually implemented, but the law basically says that "the government will regard game boosting as the same act as taking SAT (university entrance test for Korea) for another person, since this has the potential to destroy the South Korean eSports market" When this law passes, people caught will be sentenced to maximum of 2 years in prison or $18000 fine. From the perspectives of Korea pro gamers, boosters are a subject of pure hate. They seriously loath boosters because basically they ruin the whole SR environment in whatever game they dominate, they prevent talented amateurs from displaying their potential from the very beginning, thus blocking the eSports scene in the long-term and finally, they ruin their own experience at the game. There are currently about a 100~150 top500 boosters in the Overwatch Korea Server, which means that about 1/4 of the top 500 accounts in Korea are not supposed to be there. Of course, the moment they are discovered they are banned forever from the eSports scene. But they have been successful in covering their tracks until now. In Hardcore Leveling Warrior Season 2 Episode 117, Gong Won-Ho became a booster to earn money. In competitive video gaming and e-sports, **boosting** is the unethical practice of artificially inflating the competitive rank of a low-ranked player. Boosting is often performed by a higher-ranked player who agrees to play on a lower-ranked account to join the lower-ranked player's team in exchange for a payment. This type of boosting is against the terms of service of most video games, and may result in a temporary or permanent ban. The adjective "boosted" may also be used as an insult, implying that a player does not have the requisite skill for their matchmaking rank. For example, after failing to execute a play, a player might say, "Wow. I am so boosted."

H

* **Heojeob** (허접):  a person who has terrible ability. It is derived from the word **허접쓰레기** which is translated as "shabby; sloppy". It started off as a derogatory gaming slang that was mainly used for when the level or the rank of a person is high, but their corresponding ability is poor. For example, a person whose character has higher stats and superior skills gets beaten by a person with lower specs, the adjective is used for the person losing. Nowadays it has gone beyond internet slang and is used in everyday life. LINE translates it as "weakling". Other translations in English include "a low-quality fake"
* **Hyeonpee** (현피):  is an an internet slang. It is a contraction of 현실 ("real life") and the P from PK (Player Kill); it literally mans "real-life player kill". It is a situation were two gamers have a dispute online and want to meet in real life to fight with each other

J

* **Japtem** (잡템) is a term used to describe in-game items that aren't materials or equipment such as loot. Japtem items could be otherwise called miscellaneous (shortened to "misc") or sundries.

M

* **Manrep** (만렙): Full level (滿lev). It is a gaming word. It means maximum level. 만 here came from 한자, 만(滿), meaning full. 만렙 means to become full level or maximum level. 렙 is the shortened form of 레벨, level. Although it is a gaming word, it is used a lot in daily lives. When someone is a master of something, many people call him or her 만렙.
* **Meonchikin** (먼치킨): Munchkin. **(1)** Originally, the term was taken from "The Wizard of Oz" where Munchkins were short and ridiculous creatures. **(2)** It was used by older players to address their childish comrades. However, before long it came to refer to anyone who engaged in a juvenile gaming style regardless of their height, age or experience. The term has been in use dating back as far as 1984. It became popular in TRPG's to refer to a a gamer who solves everything on their own and interferes with the game's progress. **(3)** Another meaning of Munchkin is the so-called "conflict solver" who has the ultimate means and potential to resolve the conflicts almost single-handedly. In TRPG games, you have to work together to complete missions, but a Munchkin is a gamer who can perform the mission without cooperation and solo play. **(4)** In Korea, it has come to be used in games and fantasy novels to refer to someone with superhuman powers and/or abilities. It is used for OP main characters that are overpowered and that are considered a "Mary Sue". It is now used to describe whole genres involving said OP characters.

R

* **Risemara**(리세마라): 리세마라(リセマラ) is short for 리셋 마라톤(リセットマラソン) and is the Japanese word for "Reset Marathon". It is a gaming slang used when a person(s) repeatedly starts and resets a game in order to get a specific item (or character, etc.) that the player receives upon starting.

S

* **Sagi** (사기): means "scam; fraud". In the gaming world, it is slang for 사기 캐릭터 which means "scam character". Scam Character refers to a character that has monstrous fighting power, ridiculously strong, or one who has great luck. It has a very similar meaning to "cheating". In some games it refers to a character that breaks the balance of a game and is overwhelmingly strong, be it through it's race, party affiliation, items, strategy or a combination of all. It is overwhelmingly strong no matter if a beginner or an expert uses it and completely ignores the user's compatibility. In English, the characters are called 'top tier', 'god tier', 'overpowered' ('OP' for short), 'broken', 'imbalanced' 라고 하는데 'overpowered'] [In game scaling it goes God-Tier > Top-Tier > High-Tier > Mid-Tier > Low-Tier > Bottom-Tier > No/Unknown Tier

T

* **Timkil** (팀킬): means "team kill; friendly fire" is a game slang. It is the act of intentionally or unintentionally attacking or knocking down a member of the same team in a game or match that requires cooperation between team members. This is a term mainly used in games that have a team-based PVP system.