by 2000 as the verb that indicates the situation of many players or NPCs simultaneously attacking one; gamer slang, perhaps borrowed from hip-hop and drug-abuse slang (where it is attested by 1995 in the sense of "to rob, to rip off"); perhaps by 1990 in sports jargon. Of unknown origin; perhaps ultimately based on gang (v.). Related: Ganked; ganking.
Zero Shingetsu1 votes... Oh. So it may come from a drug reference. Well that'd be League players for you. Here I was pretty sure it was a deliberate misspelling of "gang" as in "gang-up".
Then again, maybe it is. That IS listed as an option.
aaronautumn1 voteslike with a lot of words the orignal meaning is gone and becomes replace with a new one. i'm sure for the most part none of us use it with the (possible) drug-related connotation in mind. it's been used in the gamer context for about 15 years.
it is still very interesting that it could have come from a number of places.