What Does Faze Mean In Gaming? (Answered!)

Faze can have a couple of meanings, though its simplest is certainly just to disrupt or disturb someone. This means unfairly disrupting the game through “meta” means of distraction. Faze can also be used to describe someone who just acts unhelpfully and essentially like a “troll” during a game.

Faze is definitely quite a new one, then, in this sense.

While it can mean other things, the most common meaning is certainly this idea of interrupting the proper flow of an online game through means that the game does not wish you to use.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What does faze stand for in gaming?

Faze has become its own word, really, and doesn’t so much stand for anything as it does just signify a certain kind of action.

To faze someone in gaming is a verb, meaning to disrupt or disturb the game somehow.

You could do this to an individual player or you could do it to an entire team.

There are many methods of fazing, but generally, they are considered to be things outside of the game you can use to annoy people.

“Can we vote to kick this guy? He keeps fazing me,” for example.

One of the most common of these is the use of voice chat.

Unless someone mutes you, a trolling player can play extremely loud, constant, and annoying noises through their headset which can disturb other players.

This is one of the oldest tactics used in gaming, as far as fazing itself goes.

This term is not restricted to online gaming and esports, though. It can be used in just about any game, including board games, sports, and anything else you can think of.

If there is a way you can disturb the other player on purpose, that’s fazing.

Of course, it will be achieved in very different ways in different games, and it’s generally a lot easier to get away with in gaming.

It is an unfortunate truth that online gaming, casual, and amateur online gaming, tends to attract a lot of trolls.

People who like to spend their time making the lives of others difficult in some minor way.

This is why fazing has become such an expected part of certain popular games, like Fortnite or Call of Duty.

The vast majority of people don’t do it, but there are enough people out to cause trouble that it’s a big problem.

Where does faze come from in gaming?

We aren’t really sure where the term “faze” originated.

It is in fact simply a standard English word in and of itself.

Even outside gaming, you’ve likely heard someone talk about how they were “fazed” by something.

Or, even the opposite, that they were “not fazed”.

“He kept coming over to me and trying to get on my nerves last night, but it didn’t even faze me,” for example.

This is a very old term that originated in the 19^th Century in the U.S. It came from the English word feeze, which meant to frighten or drive something off.

Thus, it came to mean someone was disturbed or annoyed.

How it entered modern gaming culture to the extent it has is not quite clear. It was plainly in use by the late 2000s, so it was probably established sometime earlier in that decade.

When, exactly, or through which gaming community, is really not clear. It may have been Call of Duty since, as we’ll see, the term itself was extremely important to that particular community for a different reason.

Given that it’s such an old term, though, we may as well ask why any English word is used in gaming.

How do you respond to being fazed?

That really depends.

Depending on how bad the fazing is, you might be able to get the player kicked and even banned.

Servers on games like Roblox and Gmod run on user administration, so if someone is being deliberately disruptive, you can potentially just get them banned.

On the other hand, though, you can just do your best to ignore it. If they are attempting to faze you, then a rise out of you is exactly what they are looking for.

Don’t give them the satisfaction—mute them if they are using their microphone, block them from sending you messages, and forget it.

What is FaZe in CoD?

It’s important to note that this term has particular significance for Call of Duty players for one very specific reason.

There, the FaZe Clan were a group of players who played together and participated in tournaments together, showcasing some of the best talent in the game.

This clan became legendary for their YouTube videos and generally their display of skill in the game.

They were known for “no-scoping”, and “360 no-scoping”, which described how they would skilfully use sniper rifles to get incredibly hard to pull off kills against other players.

FaZe Clan made a huge impact on the way that people perceived the CoD community, and in part this is what led to the association in gaming of faze meaning to disrupt or disturb.

The unfortunate truth about online gaming is that it’s very hard to keep the toxicity of players to a minimum.

You can never get everyone to act in a convivial way that makes games fun and friendly competition every time.

Being fazed by other players in some way or another is another in a laundry list of weapons at the disposal of trolls looking to disrupt games to their own advantage.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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