A MMORPG glossary.
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1337
A numerical translation for "elite" pronounced "leet," 1337 is
a slang developed by hackers in the '80s used over the Internet. Many
words from the slang have leaked to popular culture today ("kidz" is
an example; using a z instead of an s is an element of 1337). It is
mostly prevalent in the gaming world online where people can interact
textually.
AE
Area Effect. Used to refer to area-effect spells or abilities.
E.g. fireball, smoke grenade.
AFK
Away from keyboard
Aggro
As a verb, it refers to a hostile mob that has noticed a
player and is actively trying to attack that player. As a noun, it
refers to the amount of “hostility” the player has generated on the
mob. In typical combat strategy, the fighter tries to take as much
aggro as possible away from weaker players such as healers and mages.
Alt
Short for "alternate". It refers to the alternate character a
player has from their main character. This is not a stable category as
sometimes alts can out level mains and sometimes mains become
moth-balled.
AOE
Same as AE. Area of Effect.
Attribute
e.g. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, etc.
BAF
"Bring a friend". A mob that will call for help when attacked
and bring other mobs with it when it attacks. Often requiring crowd
control to deal with.
Bind
In certain MMOs, characters are teleported back to a safe spot
when they die. This spot is predetermined by the user. The act of
determining the safe spot requires an explicit action by the user.
That action is known as a bind. The spot is typically referred to as a
bind spot.
Bio
Short for biological. Usually used to indicate bathroom break.
BoE
Short for "bind on equip" - a term popularized by World of
Warcraft. This term refers to items that become soulbound to the
player after they have been equipped. In other words, the item can be
traded as long as no one equips it.
BoP
Short for "bind on pickup" - a term popularized by World of
Warcraft. This term refers to items that become soulbound to the
player after it has been picked up from a monster. In other words, the
item cannot be traded once a player picks it up. BoP items commonly
cause looting conflicts and disputes during game-play.
BRB
“be right back”
Bot
Generally illegal and discouraged form of game play, where
actions of a character can be automated to perform actions repeatedly
in order to gain experience and level without actual user
intervention. This practice is continually monitored by GMs and will
cause suspension of service if one is suspected of botting.
BRT
“be right there”
BTW
“by the way”
Buff
Temporary boost to character attribute or combat ability
Buffbot
A robot character on a second game account which is not
actively played buy exists simply to "buff" the player's main
character in order to maximize the characters attributes, combat
abilities and resistance to magical attacks.
Camp(ing)
The act of remaining in an area to hunt a specific mob or a
specific spawn
CoH
City of Heroes
Class
Professional archetypes. In D&D games, these would be warrior,
healer, rogue and mage. The most typical class types are: close-range
damage, ranged damage, healing, crowd control, support.
Cleric
Typical healing class in D&D style games
Cluster(ing)
A group of servers that have been merged or have common zones
in order to address server population problems.
Corpse
In certain MMOs, a corpse appears where the player died.
Sometimes all the player’s items and money are left on the corpse and
the player is teleported back to their bind spot. Corpses typically
will decay after a certain time proportional the character’s level.
Corpse Run
The act of retrieving your corpse after you have died. This is
typically a dangerous thing because people tend to die in dangerous
places rather than safe places.
Crafting
A general category of skills that allows players to
manufacture objects from raw resources
Crit
"To crit" refers to landing a critical hit either with melee
or spells. Effective damage is usually increased from a base of 150%
to upwards of 250% with extra talents/skills/buffs.
Crowd Control
Refers to a set of spells / abilities that temporarily
paralyze or stun other mobs or players. Crowd control is an important
group support ability when fighting multiple mobs.
DAoC
Dark Age of Camelot
DD
Direct Damage. Used to refer to a class of spells and
abilities that allow players to damage enemies from a distance. The
fire bolt is the archetypal DD.
Debuff
The opposite of a buff. An offensive spell cast on enemies
that weakens an attribute or combat ability.
Dirt Nap
Slang for dead. Most corpses lie on the ground when killed.
DKP
Dragon kill points. A fairly elaborate score-keeping system
used by guilds to fairly distribute loot based on participation and
contribution to the guild.
DoT
Damage over time. Refers to a class of spells that deals
damage over a period of time. These spells typically do more damage
than DD spells overall.
DPS
Damage per second. Used when figuring out weapon speed and
damage.
Druid
Hybrid class in D&D style games - part healer, part support,
part fighter.
Eating Grass
Slang for dead. Most corpses lie on the ground when killed
face down.
EQ
EverQuest
Experience
A quantity gained when completing tasks/quests, killing mobs,
or various other achievements in games. When enough experience is
accrued, characters often “level up” and become more powerful.
Farm(ing)
The act of accumulating currency or a specific item by
repeatedly killing a mob or repeatedly performing a series of actions
FOAD
F*ck off and die.
FTW
Acronym for "for the win". Refers to the act, ability, event
that's responsible for a victory. For example, "Sheep FTW!!" - sheep
being a spell that temporarily paralyzes an enemy.
Gank
Verb. To be ganked is a term referring to one player being
overwhelmed and killed by a large group. Can be either by a group of
other players doing player-kill or a group of NPC monsters. Used in a
sentence, "I got ganked yesterday in Fel." Typically has the
connotation that the other people had an unfair advantage (in number
or level).
GM
Game Master. GM's are characters in an MMORPG who are used by
employees of the game's creator company. They monitor the actions of
the game world and answer the questions and complaints of the players.
They have absolute control and power within the game. If the crime
(breaking a law of the game, not the real world) committed is serious
enough, they could even expel players permanently from the game.
Griefer
Title for a player who enjoys inflicting pain upon other
players needlessly. If you kill newbies in a PvP game when you are
level 50, you will gain no experience or benefit from the
victimization beyond the pure joy of knowing you have given the player
“grief.” Though griefers are almost always PKers, PKers are not
necessarily griefers.
Guilds
Semi-permanent player groups. In typical games, players must
use a substantial amount of capital to start the guild.
GTG
“good to go” and “got to go” - can be confusing when context
is unclear
Health
A base attribute of characters
IMHO
“in my humble opinion”
IRL
“in real life”
Instance
An instantiation of a particular dungeon for a particular
group of players. Instanced dungeons are then parallel worlds such
that different groups of players can explore the same dungeon in
separate groups.
J/K
“just kidding”
Kite
To lure a mob or player around much like a kite on a string
while attacking it in some capacity. A player draws aggro and the
mobility of the monster is reduced. The monster tries to follow the
target (thus becoming the kite on the string with the target hold the
string.) In EQ a common kiting is DoT (Damage over time) with a snare
(reduces the monsters speed) then running in a large circle until the
monster is dead. Methods of kiting vary from game to game.
KS
Kill Stealing. When another player attacks the same creature
as another player and receives the reward for the kill instead of the
person who originated combat. Newer games have mechanisms for
discouraging this behavior.
LD
Link dead - when a player is disconnected from the game
Leet
Slang variant of “elite”
LFG
“looking for group”
LFT
“looking for team”
LMAO
“laughing my ass off”
LOL
“laughing out loud”
Loot
Currency or items that are dropped by a mob when it is
defeated
Mana
A commonly-used pool of magic potential (magical analog of
health points)
Macro
Programming term applied to user-made macros, or scripts that
can automatically send messages, cast spells, and a variety of other
functions. Mainly used to automate things that are repeatedly done to
expediate gameplay.
Medding
Resting in order to gain back mana in EQ was called
Meditating. This is the commonly used abbreviation, also shortened to
Med, as in, "Don't pull yet, I need to med."
Mez
Short for mesmerize. A short-hand for a collection of
abilities that temporarily stun or immobilize enemies. Falls into the
more general category known as crowd control.
Min-Maxing
When players attempt to create their characters as powerful as
they can be by crunching statistics, planning their future routes, and
any other methods in order to make their characters the statistically
best character possible. Optimization.
MMORPG
Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
Mob
An AI controlled monster. 'Mob' originally comes from the MUD
era, where it was short for 'mobile', to differentiate monsters that
would patrol a set of rooms as opposed to monsters which would stay in
one place until killed.
MOO
MUD Object Oriented. Users in MOOs are able to create their
own content - both static and dynamic objects.
MT
“mistell”. Mistells occur frequently because of typing in the
wrong name before sending a message. Also because of auto-reply
features.
MUD
Multi-User Dungeon, although some prefer Multi-User Domain.
These were the original textual online worlds.
Mule
In many games, due to long travel times or inventory limits,
it is helpful to create a character explicitly for the purpose of
being able to check auction houses or store extra items. These
characters are seldom actually played and are referred to as mules.
Nerf
To soften or reduce an ability, item, player, or action.
Usually this is a term applied when a power or ability is reduced
because it is perceived to be too powerful.
Newbie
A new player
Ninja (Looting)
Ninja looting refers to the purposeful and malicious looting
of a drop from a monster that doesn't follow the rules set by the
group. In a sense, the item is stolen. This can take different forms
in different games due to game-specific game looting mechanisms. In
World of Warcraft, ninja looting refers to rolling for a BoP drop that
a person should not have rolled on. Because WoW warns players when
they roll for a BoP object, it is assumed that such behavior cannot be
accidental. The player exhibiting such behavior is typically branded
as a ninja looter.
Noob
The pejorative form of newbie
NP
“no problem”
NPC
Non-player character (ie. controlled by AI)
Nuke
Refers to casters, to cast the highest damage spell or spell
combo to effectively pull or finish of a npc. Mages usually are the
most effective class in highest burst damage.
OMG
“oh my god”
OMFG
"oh my f*cking god"
OMW
“on my way”
OOC
out-of-character - used to refer to OOC chat
OOM
“out of mana”
OOP "out of power"
ownz
Derived from the original word "own," both words have the same
meaning: to defeat some other entity in battle or other form of
competition. The "pwnz" origin is probably from the fact that the "o"
and "p" keys are adjacent on the standard qwerty keyboard, and were
used interchangeably by mistake in games and stuck around since then.
PB
Point blank. Used to refer to a class of spells that
originates in a radius around the caster. Typically, these spells are
dangerous to the caster because they require proximity to the enemy.
Specific spells are typically concatenated with the ability, i.e. pbae
mez, pbae stun
PC
Player Character
PK
Player Killing
PKer
Player Killer - a derogatory term - as in a person who
primarily plays to kill other players
Port
Short for teleport. Used as a noun and a verb.
Power
The same as mana.
Power Level
When a higher level player tries to help a lower level player
level faster. Most games have mechanisms that prevent power leveling.
Proc
Abbreviation of "programmed random occurence", refers to
usually the benefits of added damage or other buffing enhancement that
occurs randomly when an item strikes or is used.
Pull
A standard hunting strategy where a player lures a single or a
group of mobs to the group so that the group can hunt from a safe area
instead of hunting in areas where new mobs may spawn.
PvE
Player vs. Environment. Environment stands for all monsters
(mobs) in the world
PvP
Player vs. Player combat
pwnz
same as ownz
Race
Typically fantastical creations, such as Elves, Trolls and the
like.
Raid
A more substantial engagement involving a large organized
group of players typically set in a dungeon and involving difficult
mobs
Respec
At certain high levels in some games, you are given the chance
to “respec” your character. When you respec, you recreate your
character from level 1 until the present level in terms of
skills/powers/abilities/etc.
Rez (or Res)
Short for resurrection. Refers to abilities that revive
players that have just died. Typically only available to healer
classes.
ROFL
“rolling on floor laughing”
Roll
To "roll" on an item means to type "/random 100", where the
server's random number generator puts out a number between 1 and 100,
the most generally accepted "fair" way to distribute loot and settle
disputes.
RvR
Realm vs. Realm.
Server
Due to technical reasons, each server can only support a
limited amount of players. Each MMORPG typically has several servers.
Players cannot interact with players on other servers.
Shard
Synonymous with server
Solo
The act of playing alone, hunting mobs alone.
Soulbound
An item-control mechanic where an item cannot be traded. In
other words, only one person can own the object and it cannot be
traded. See also BoE and BoP.
Spawn
Mobs typically appear (spawn) on a given schedule. This is
both a verb and noun.
Spec
Short for specification. When used in games, it usually refers
to the build/specifications of your character in terms of
skills/abilities/magic/powers/etc.
Stun
A typical form of crowd control ability that immobilizes an
enemy
SWG
Star Wars Galaxies
Tank
As a noun, refers to character classes that can take a lot of
damage. As a verb, refers to the act of drawing aggro from mobs before
other team members strike with their abilities.
Twink
As a verb, the act of giving currency or valuable items to a
newbie. As a noun, refers to a character that is twinked. In many
games, twinked characters are visually marked by their
level-inappropriate gear.
Twisting
To rapidly change from one type of ability to another where
the abilities overlap momentarily. In DAOC a bard sings a song that
gives a buff. By rapidly changing the song several songs will overlap
due to the duration of the songs continuing for a short period of
time.
Uber
Slang form of super. From the German meaning over, above or
superior. The actual translation depends on context.
WB
“welcome back”
Wipe
To "wipe" means for the entire group whether party or raid to
all die. However, party or raid can only continue if there is a class
that can resurrect oneself, thereby avoiding the time consumed from
running back from the the graveyard and regrouping at the beginning of
the instance.
WoW
World of Warcraft
WTB
“want to buy”
WTS
“want to sell”
XP
experience points
Zerg
A combat strategy where a large group of players rush in at
the target. Seen as a simple-minded strategy that requires no skill.
Zone
In games where different areas of the world are parceled out
for loading reasons, different areas are referred to as zones.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG
for development history and
further information.
BB.
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