gg

Gg is the typed version of the handshake after a game, and timing decides what it means. Typed after the match, it shows respect. Typed while the game is still going, it is an insult, because it says the result is already decided. Gamers call an early gg "BM," short for bad manners. The taunting versions flip the politeness completely. "Gg ez" mocks the loser so reliably that Overwatch once auto-replaced it with joke confessions. "Gg no re" turns down a rematch and implies it would not be close. "Ggwp" is the gracious form. "Glhf" is the matching phrase used at the start of a match.

Outside gaming, younger speakers use gg as a verdict. Anything can be gg once it is past saving. That wider sense now shows up in texting and everyday speech, from people who have never played a competitive online game.

Gg became standard typing manners during the late 1990s, as online multiplayer games took off. Sources consistently name two places: Quake-era shooter servers, and StarCraft ladder matches (games played for a ranking) on Battle.net. Players carried the good-sportsmanship ritual of physical sports into chat. By the early 2000s, typing gg was expected courtesy in every kind of online game. No specific first use, person, or year is documented. Two widely repeated stories also circulate without verifiable primary sources. One says gg began on 1990s online chess servers. The other says the Korean pro StarCraft scene made typing GG the official way to give up a match. So both stay labeled folklore here.