Stick dead zone
Also said as Analogue dead zone
A small circle in the middle of a thumbstick's range where movement is ignored, so that worn sticks that do not centre perfectly do not make your character creep.
Too small and the character drifts by itself. Too big and small movements disappear. Shooters are often judged by this one setting.
Say it
“Use a radial dead zone of 12% with a smooth response curve after it, and let players change it in settings.”
Where you’ve seen it
Competitive shooters such as Call of Duty let you tune stick dead zones yourself, because players with worn controllers need them bigger.
Not to be confused with camera dead zone
Same words, different thing. This one ignores small stick movements. A camera dead zone ignores small player movements.