Due to recent questions, and in an effort to help those who come to this site with limited knowledge of the industry, I have started a post of common terms and slang used in mmorpgs.
3rdParty. 3rdParty, Third Party. Any person, group, or entity that is not the game company or the player/owner of the account/client. 3rd party companys exist to make money by selling items, moneys, stratagys, and macros for existing games. Many are nefarious in nature and will offer to sell cheat codes and hacks.
A
Account. Game Account. This in a mmorpg is the buying of the game and getting what you need to play. The account requires an initial investment and often will require a monthly fee to play. It lets you play and stores your information, items, and settings on the server.
Add. Add, Adds. Additional mobs that engage a fight when you're fighting a single creature. Many times these come as the result of the puller not being able to get just one mob and so they usualy will say 'Add' or 'Adds' as they run back to the group/camp. Adds may also come is mobs spawn suddenly near the group or if a groupmember inadvertently gets too close to a mob ie. inside its agro range.
AFK. Away from keyboard. Many terms and slang used in internet and web chat as well as email is also the norm in mogs. Afker is a player by use of macros spends most of their gametime somewhere else. Many games have timers and when a character is idle for a set amount of time will automatically be afk.
Agro. Agro, agression, agro range. Agro is a mob taking aggresive action. It can be when they see you, when you attack it, or other things like when you pick up a certain item. In group play the one who is getting hit the most by a mob is said to have agro. There are times when another player might inadvertantly get agro due to doing massive or faster damage. When this is not a good idea for you, a group member will say something like 'Hey! let so and so get agro.' Also refered to as take agro, hold agro, keep agro. Agro range is the distance in game terms where a mob will take notice of the player. If one knows the agro ranges well enough they might be able to stay out of range and move past without combat.
Alpha Loot. A-loot, reverse alpha loot. The method of distributing loot bases on alphabetical order. This is a fair system and very commonly used in mogs. Of course depending on the game many may honestly forget whos turn it is to loot, be sure and just simply ask if you become unsure. Too many instances of forgetting whos turn it is to loot will get you branded as a ninja.
AOE. Aoe, Area of Effect. A skill, spell, or ability that affects a predetermined amount of space and all mobs in that space. AoEs usually differ in size, but the larger the area the greater number of mobs that can be affected. Depending on the game system the AoE might also affect the character performing it as well as those in the group if they are in the area of effect. Some buffs can be AoE as can some healings. Most often it is a damage dealing type of ability.
B
BAF. Baf, baffer, bringer. Literally it means Bring a Friend. This is a social aspect of some mobs. If one or more is attacked they will bring others of their kind nearby to help kill the players. Not all mobs baf, and not all mobs bring a friend that is the same type of mob. Baffers can bring mobs that are highly different in abilitys to kill you than the original mob. If the group is geared up for fighting mob x and mob x bafs a mob y or two it can be disasterous. The question of a mob being a baffer is most important to soloers and pullers. Common questions that might arise when a player asks about a mob might be 'do they baf?' and or 'are they social?' both meaning the same thing.
Beta. Beta, The Beta, Beta testing. Beta testing is often highly sought after by veteran players as it is an entire prerelease version of the game. Those who become beta testers get to experience the game and form friendships with other players long before release. The length of a beta test varies from game to game. In the beta the devs are enlisting the help of a large number of beta testers (gamers like you and I) to find bugs so the finished off the shelf product will be better.
Bind. Bind, Bindpoint, bound. The bindpoint is the specific area in a game where the character will respawn after death or incapacitation. In some games one does not depart the immediate area however. Some games require one to return to the place of death to retrieve items, and or become fully playable again. Where one is bound can make for longer corpse runs in these games. Bind can also come into play in games that allow teleportation over great distances. Some games will have drops bind to the character that takes them and cannot be traded or given to other players.
Broke. Broke, broken, borked. This term indicates a game feature or system that ordinarily works in the game but is not currently working. ie. 'Orc loot is borked at the moment, cant wait for the next patch.' Broke is also used to describe things that have been deliberately nerfed as in 'The devs broke combat with the last update '. Not all features that get broken get fixed. When a feature is working fine and is modified to work differently it can be said it is broken.
Buff. Buff, buffing, buffer, buffed. A spell or ability which helps a character by raising attributes, raising chances to hit, to avoid taking damage, speed of movement, speed of recharge rate, and any other beneficial game ability or skill. Buffs are temporary enhancements and can come from spell casters, potioins, items, quest rewards, and other game systems. Some have been known to charge for their buffs while most will buff others freely or for donations.
Buffer. Generic term for a character who's skills and or abilitys deal mainly with enhancing the skills and abilitys of others.
Bug. Bug, Buggy, Bugged. Usually during a games beta testing the bugs are worked out of the system. However some if not many bugs will make it through and end up in the final release. These bugs are usually fixed with updates and patches. At times, long forgotten bugs will reappear in a game as new content is added or changed. Most changes, updates, nerfs, patches and the likes are tested first on a test server in an effort to find all the bugs. Sometimes bugs still find a way to make it through.
C
Camp. Camper, camping, camp. Often referred to as a spot to rest, camps in mmorpgs mean manythings. Camp can refer to an area in the game world that a specific mob repeatedly spawns in. ie. 'lets go to the orc camp'. Camp also can mean a place to farm. ie. 'lets go camp the trol lair.' Camping is the act of staying in one area and repeatedly killing the spawns in that area. Polite campers and farmers will allow other players to take one spawn of the mob(s) or more when the need arises. Impolite campers and farmers will not allow anyone to do this if they can. Often these rude campers and farmers will take great offense if one even attempts it and will even turn down coin/money for a chance at the spawn. Also can be the area where a group is waiting at the ready for a puller to return with mobs.
Carebear. Originaly a cartoon dealing with friendly bears and marketed towards preteens with a fondness for teddy bears. In the mog world/society this is most often an insult directed at RPers. Carebears go out of their way not only to roleplay but also to help other players in any way they can. Many players will not fit one category of playstyle and can go from powergamer to carebear in the course of a day, week, month, or character lifetime.
Character. Character, toon. This is the ingame representation of the player. The player controlls the character and interacts with the gameworld with it.
Client. Client, gameprog. The client is the program that is downloded from disc to your hard drive. Often time players might have you open your client file and make adjustments there to improve your play by eliminating bugs. Make sure you are changing the client to correct a problem and not performing a hack. The most common bugs fixed in a client are graphical in nature or will decrease lag.
Con. con, consider, consider difficulty. Many games have a system by which the player can make their character consider the difficulty of a mob without having to fight it. You may here someone in your group say 'how does that orc con to you?'. In some games the mob may be more dangerous to certain members of your group than others and therefore con higher. Most games use color codes to classify cons. red, yellow, orange, blue, green, grey, white are common. Usually the higher the con, the more difficult the mob and the better the reward in loot, money, and or xps.
(Con abbreveations. RTM, YTM, GTM, ETM. These examples are red to me, yellow to me, green to me, even to me. Even means relatively equal in ability to the character performing the con and is used more often than a specific color code. It is a good idea in the first week of a game for all members in a group to con each mob as they progress/adventure so the game system becomes more fully understood by the entire group from differing class/race/professions.)
Corpse run. Corpse run, Corpse running. In some games one must return to their character's corpse after they die or are incapacitated. It is common in these games for all of a character's equipment to be on the corpse. Often characters may need to find buffs for speed of movement to more safely retrieve their equipment. In games like this it can be important to die in an area away from spawns and other dangerous things.
Crafter. A crafter in games that allow it, is a character whos main goal or function is the production of crafts and or tradegoods. Some games allow for only the best items to be made by crafters while others mix up the balance. A crafter is often a non combat type of character. Many players get more enjoyment from a game by playing a crafter rather than a combatant.
Crit. Crit, Critical, Critical hit. A skill, spell, or ability usualy pertaining to combat in which the success was exceptional and does far more than ordinary use. Not all games have this ability but some include even crits for heals and beneficial things. Many players will use game mechanics to increase their chances for crits.
D
Damage dealer. Generic term for a character who's skills and or abilitys do large and or fast amounts of damage. In many games this type of character may not be able to take much damage and is often times a Wizard type and or rogue.
(In many games I have played I have tanked with what was not considered a tanking class. My personal skills as a player allowed me to pull and tank with things that would draw odd remarks. 'I cant belive yall are pulling with a wizard!' and 'Oh boy are we in trouble if the bard is our tank!' Player skills and character skills help differentiate newbs. One can be a newbie rogue but a non newbie player. The level 3 fighter newb you make fun of might actually have a 60th level cleric and again, they might just be full of waste material from a male bovine.)
DB. Dual Boxing, busybody, mustberich. Dual boxing is the act of playing two different characters on the same server at the same time. One must have two accounts or be on a MCS to do so. Some games allow DB with characters on one account but most have a very limited timeframe in which to do so. A DBer with two accounts can PL themselves and twink themselves with the greatest ease most often. 2.Also DB can mean Deathblow. This happens when you duel someone, you can not only defeat them, but also "kill" them, causing them to have to regenerate or respawn. Usually a duel is set up as a "non-DB" duel, or simply a fight until someone is incompascitated, but not killed, and if the victor does then perform a DB, its considered extremely dishonorable. If DB is allowed, then it's more, um, macho. from the DenMother.
Death Penalty. Death penalty, DP. In most games there is a disadvantage for one's character dying or going incapacitated. These pehaltys can be stat loss or reduction, loss of gear/items, loss of xps, and loss of time. Some games use a combination of these penaltys. The most strict penalty is permadeath. See also permadeath.
Debuff. A spell or ability which takes away the benefits of a buff or reduces a character's ability to perform at optimum temporarily. More powerfull debuffs can remove all beneficial buffs while some might only take away certain other buffs. A slow or snare spell would be an example of a movement debuff. There might be areas of a game which do not allow certain buffs to work and could be called a debuff zone.
Dev. Dev, Devs, Developer. Common term used for those who develop the game and effect its creation, evolution, and modification. These are the mighty folk armed with nerfbats of destruction. They are in effect Eru for LotrSoa formerly known as MEO. It is their job to put up with the complaints of players, marketers, licensers, lawyers, and lots of other types of people. Their job is all important and often thankless in nature. Official forums cronies will fawn over them and many are the players who will attempt to influence them. For the most part they are average good people and most often avid players of mogs.
Ding. Ding, dinged, to ding. A dent, cut, or scrape that damages a surfboard. Dings can be large or small, and may or maynot affect the rideability of the board. Also an exclamation often shouted when a character gains a level. Often times it is repeated if the gain is of significant value or the player is overly excited as in 'Ding ding ding!'. Used in games that dont have 'levels' as a game mechanic or system when one gets a new skill, ability or other indicator of above average advancement.
Dood. Dood, d00d, Dudez. A player that frequently uses such gaming mechanisms as Powerleveling, twinking, etc. They come in different flavors ie. the newdoods, leetdoods, lostdoods, and rpdoods.
Dot. Dot, Dotter, Dotting, Damage over time. This is a skill, spell, or ability that causes damage to take place over a set amount of time. For the duration of the time the character or mob affected by the dot will repeatedly take damage. AoEDot would be a dot that affects multiple targets within an area. Dots are often used when kitting. Poisons, curses, traps, and the like are common dotters.
Drop. Drop, drops, and dropping. syn loot. Drops refer to the items of any value that one gains on looting a defeated mob. Drops can be in the form of crafting materials, items of power, coins/money, and any combination thereof. Often you will hear others asking "what does mob x drop?" "Is it a good drop?" "Look at the drop I just got!" and so on. A ground drop is an item that spawns on the ground by itself instead on a mob, also called a groundspawn.
Dupe. Dupe, Duper, Duped, Dupes. This term is simply a short form of the word duplication. It is an exploit of the system in which an item in the game gets duplicated or one recieves twice as much as should be expected. Exploiters who seek out ways to dupe and then dupe repeatedly are said to have duped it and can be called dupers. If you find a dupe exploit in a game you should report it to the devs with either a petition (ingame tool) or on the official forums with a PM rather than public posting of the dupe.
E
EULA. End Users License Agreement. The eula is a legal agreement between the game company and the player. It will have rules the player must abide by as well as loopholes for the company. Read it at least one time completely or you may end up suffering the consequences. Many games might allow the use of 3rdparty software while others may not. Most games will have you agree to the eula everytime you log into the gameworld and therefore if they have made any changes you have agreed to them when you logged in. (even if you are unaware they made changes!)
Endgame. The term endgame refers to the high end content considered to be close to or at the end of a game. While most mogs claim they never end, there comes a time in them that one has been everywhere, done all the quest, has all the best gear they can possibly attain, and reached the highest level. At this stage many players will help their guild, other players, or just farm while waiting on an update, patch, or expansion that will include new endgame material for them to do. In games with pvp they can just fight other players.
Engine. Engine, AI. The engine is the main artificial intellegence which controls all aspects of the game not controlled by players. When a mob runs away or attacks is a result of the AI or engine interpreting the actions in a given area and making its own decisions on how the game world and all in it responds to the actions. Many game engines are sold to other companys and or used in one companys many games. You may hear 'I hope they dont use the gameX engine for gameY because the combat was boring.'
Epic. This term most often reflects endgame quests and items. While the game itself may never use the term, players will often consider rare and powerfull drops to be epic. Only the most difficult quests are to be called epics. Most items that are epic in nature are also uber.
Expansion. Expansions are similar to extremely large patches and add lots more content to a game world. They can include but are not limited to vast new geographical areas, high end dungeons, Races, Skills and abilitys, Items, Modes of transport, and on and on. Expansions almost always require the player to purchase them to allow the character to access the new expanded content in the game world. This is a one time cost, once you have the expansion you will gain all benefits without further charge. Expansions do not have monthly fees. Originally all expansions required the purchase of a new disc or discs, but recently are also being offered by some games in a downloadable format. If your computer crashes and you have to reinstall the game, you will have to wait for it to patch and if you did not purchase an expansion disc, you will have to wait for the expansion to download as well. You will not have to repurchase the expansion.
Exploit. Exploit, Exploited, Exploiter, sploiter, sploited. Most often an exploit in a game is a loophole in the game mechanics or systems that allow an unintended benefit to characters or groups of characters. Often exploits will be fixed in a patch and sometimes with a hotfix. Those who take advantage of an exploit are considered exploiters, doods, and powergamers. Duping is an exploit.
F
Farming. Farming, farmer, farmed. The act of killing mobs for their drops repeatedly, frequenting ground drops repeatedly, the mass slaying of mobs for xps, and so on. The farmer is one who most often is either gathering crafting resources for sale or use, or is gathering items to sell at a profit. Many guilds will have a farming day where all the drops that are farmed will go to the guild to be sold to raise funds or will be used by the guild crafters. Many farmers will camp on a good drop, most often a named mob, with the results of holding back other players who need just one drop or kill to advance their own character.
FFA. ffa, Free for all. Most commonly this is a term used to describe a looting system that is first come first served. Ninjalooters prefer the ffa looting system when gruoped. It can also describe a server that is not specialy designated for any specific purpose, ie. not a RP server or a PvP server. When you are grouped and the looting policy is ffa, grab what you can when you can or be left behind. FFA also can mean Future Farmers of America syn with Vocational Agriculture. A fine organization in which I made the rank of Chapter Farmer and Vice President.
FPS. First Person Shooter, Frames Per Second. The first is self explanatory and describes a game where the view is from the character and you shoot things. The second tells a player how many frames of the game video are flashing on their screen in any given second. The higher your fps the better, a low fps can indicate lag and or a need for upgrades. Always remember to consult other gamers as they may have found the cheapest and fastest way to correct lag and low fps. Most games have options for displaying your current fps ingame.
G
Game Mechanics. Game mechanics, mechanics, systems. These are the rules and guidlines used by the game engine or ai that encompass all the things that can or cannot be done in the game. Also it can refer to a player who makes use of the mechanics or systems to make the most powerful character allowable. Common parlance: 'Man, can you beleive how uber so and so is? She is a real mechanic.'
Gank. Gank, Ganker, Gank Squad, Ganked. Defeated horribly. Stomped on, trampled over, and completely obliterated are synonymous with gank. A ganker is one who ganks other players mostly. Gank squads are groups of players who go around PKing other players usually with impunity. Some will use this term to describe a particularly bad defeat by a mob. 'Boy, that Troll realy ganked me hard, I was pwned.'
Golden Template. Golden Template, Uber Template.This refers to a character which has progressed along and taken only the most advantageous skills, spells, abilitys, class/profession, and race to create an uber character. Most commonly used by powergamers and the leet. Often times other players will ask what is the goledn temp for their character so they can be sure and pick the 'right' skills, abilitys, and or spells for themselves as they progress. Many 3rd party sites will list golden templates along with stratagys on their sites.
Grief. Grief, Griefer, Griefing. Griefing occurs when one player performs a deliberate action with the intent to reduce the enjoyment of an other player or players. Many consider Kill Stealing a form of griefing while others consider chat referring to real life sports scores to be a form of griefing. RPers consider anything out of character to be griefing because it reduces immersion, but are usually forgiving of occasional slips. A true Griefer will go out of their way to reduce the quality of play for other players and often boast of such activities.
Grind. Grind, grinder, grinding, the grind. This is the act of repeatedly performing an action over and over to gain something. If one is grinding xps they may easily be mistaken for a farmer. Also, one who is grinding xps is also in effect farming xps, in this the two seem interchangeable. When a crafter is grinding it is generally done to make lots of an item for sale to raise money, and or to raise the skill that one is grinding. One can grind coins/money but is most often said to be farming money rather than grinding money.
Guide/GM. A person, normally a developer or employee hired by a game company, to monitor the game world to ensure the rules are being followed or to give players dynamic content (ie quests) that are outside of game's normal content. Word most probably derived from DM - Dungeon Master from D&D, or Game Master from Iron Crown Enterprises Rolemaster and MERP games.
Guild. Guild/PlayerAssociation/Clans/Kinships. This term represents a group of players that have banded together in the game world as their own organization/entity. Most games have systems incorporated in them to allow the forming of such groups. Guilds come in a vast number of varietys based mostly on the member's preferences of playstyle, religion, goals, historys, and desires in the gameworld.
H
Healer. Generic term for a character who's skills and or abilitys deal mainly with healing. 'Group of 4 needs healer.' will be a common sight.
Hell level. Hell level, Hell levels. In some games there come times usually defined by level in which advancement becomes very difficult and time consuming. This is therefore called a hell level. In many games all the upper levels are hell levels. Any level of play where advancement slows down dramatically when compared to most levels is a hell level. This is not always the intent of the devs but can come from low numbers of mobs or quests in the appropriate difficulty range to allow for normal advancement speed.
Hotfix. A hotfix is when a game is repaired while players are still gaming in it, and or when a server is taken down for a brief moment (around 15 minutes) to make one quick repair. Hotfixes are not very common as most things can wait till the next patch.
I
Immersion. Immersion refers to the player's ability to suspend disbelief and actually feel like they are their character in that specific game world. Mostly it is the RPers who seek higher and higher degrees of immersion to make their gameplay more rewarding. The actions of other players often can either greatly add to or greatly take away immersion.
IC. IC, In Character. The general premise of playing a mmorpg is to act out the role of a character in a ficticious gameworld. All actions the character performs in the game world that fit with the setting of the gameworld are considered to be 'in character'. Actions unbecoming of any average character in that world would be out of character, ie. in a fantasy setting where the forging of steel is high technology, a character stating that he could kill the mobs easily if he had a gun, lightsaber, or tactical nuke would be considered out of character. In character can be described like an actor playing their part in a movie well.
Instance. Instance, Instances, Instanced, Instanced Dungeon. An instance can be considered a minizone. It is usually a small area that only exists in the game world for specific characters and at specific times. It is not considered a part of the persistant world. It cannot be seen from the regulare gameworld and only exists for the characters that enter it. Only these characters may interact in an instance for it is they who have caused its creation in the game.
K
Kite. Kite, Kitting, kiter, to kite. Kitting a mob is the act of gaining agro and then training it around in a circle or over a distance in which the player can continue to harm the mob without being harmed back. Those skilled in the kite can gather multiple mobs and kite them all. While similar to a train, a kiter is planning to kill the mobs and a trainer is fleeing for their lives. Many mobs are unkiteable and many character professions/classes are unable to kite. Note: some players view kiting as an exploit and frown upon it.
KS. kill stealer, ksing, ksed. A kill stealer is one who watches others fight a mob and then after it is down will rush in attacking to get some easy experience points and sometimes all exps. Depending on the game system this may be very easy to do, very hard, medium, and or impossible. Oft times you will see folk appologize like 'Sorry, didnt mean to ks, I thought you were in trouble.' This accidental ks is far different from the intentional act. I tend not to associate nor help any known ksers in any game, bad form indeed.
L
Lag. Lag, lagging, laggy, the lagbeast. Lag is the apparent slowing down of your gameworld due to slow transfer of information between your client and the server. Lag can get bad enough to disconnect you from the server entirely and make you have to log back in to the game. Often the gameworld will appear to be strobing and mobs and other players might look like they are warping close then zooming out. Many games include visual displays of connection that will allow you to monitor your lag. It can increase and decrease depending on many variables. Turning your graphic option settings down, increasing your systems RAM, upgrading your video card, monitor, and internet connection are ways to decrease your lag and improve gameplay. Lag is a horrible thing and we must stop it in our lifetime.
LD. LD, link death, link dead, lagged out. Link death happens when the transfer of information is so great or the client is so far lagged behind that it causes the character to be logged out of the game world. The player's screen will often freeze as they go LD but the character usually remains in the game world for a small amount of time. If one was in combat at the time of LD then most likely when the player logs back into the game their character will be dead or incapacitated in the gameworld. Common parlance: 'Sorry guys, went LD.' It refers to the death of the connection and or the death of the character.
Leet. Leet, Leetspeach, 1337. Short for elite. Elite players come in many forms. They often use a txt language combining symbols and numbers that was originaly used to baffle eavesdroppers when the Net was new. Many veteran gamers know the speech but refrain from using it. Other forms of leet are the leet guilds. Leet guilds tend to be twinked, upper levels only, one race or class only, and combinations thereof. Some collectors feel leet when they obtain certain rare drops or items. Leet geared is a phrase used to describe a player who has the best or mostly the best items they can have. This differs from a twink in that a leet geared player is of sufficient level to have earned it. If they actually earned it or were twinked would be hard to prove however.
LFG. Looking for group. A common shout used to get the attention of others in an attempt to join a group, party, squad, fellowship etc. LFx with x being a variable letter and the LF being looking for. LFH almost always means looking for healer as LFT almost always means looking for tank, but can mean looking for team. In many of the newer games there are ingame tools that will assist one in finding groups but the old shout of LFG still lives on.
Loot policy. This term comes into play when grouped. Each group will have a loot policy such as ffa, alpha, need b4 greed, and others. It is good practice to ask what the looting policy is when first joining a group as it may not be to your liking.
Los. LOS, Line of Sight. The line of sight is a straight line between your character and a target. Many spells, abilitys, and skills may require the line of sight to be clear and unblocked for their use in a game. In many games you might even recieve txt like 'you cannot see your target' when the los is blocked.
M
MA. Main Assist, master assist, main agro, tanker. This is the person in the group who tends to hold the agro and is the one to assist if there is a system in the game to assist other players. If your group has an MA it is bad form to take agro away from the MA, and most often will get you killed if not your entire group.
Macro. Macro, macroing, macroed. Many games allow players to use lines of text to create elaborate and multiple actions to be performed by the character. These are called macros. A looping macro is one that will repeat itself over and over until direct action by the player is taken to stop it or all conditions are not met. Some games allow macroing to such an extent that the player can gain levels and even farm loot by using macros. Often crafters use macros to grind their skills to a higher level. Some third party companys make macros for use in games. Be sure you read the EULA before using third party software in a game for it might get your account into trouble.
Main. Main, alt. Main is a term used to describe the player's primary character. Alt is short for alternate character and describes all that are not the main. Many players might have more than one main or even call all their characters alts. These terms are only used in games that have MCS or can be used in SCS games where the player is Dual Boxing.
MCS. Multiple Character Server. This type of server allows the player to have more than one character per game account.
MinMax. MinMax, minmaxer, minmaxed. This refers to a character who has minimized certain skills or abilities to maximize other skills and abilities. Most minmaxers will minimize noncombat skills and maximize combat ability. Many players frown on minmaxing but many games allow it.
ML. Master looter. In this system of loot distribution only the master looter will take any loot. Most of the time the group will divide the loot at a later time. Anyone besides the ML taking loot is considered a ninja.
Mob. mob, mobs. These are the monsters, villians, plants and such that fight back and give experience points. Named Mob is a term used for a special mob that has its own specific name and is usually more rewarding in its drop and experience points awarded.
N
Need before greed. Method of distributing loot based on who can use a given item vs. who wants it so they can sell it. Most commonly used method amongst mature team oriented gamers. Also used alot in raids. The worthless item you may be destroying to maintain inventory space could be a key item to a crafter in the group and good parlance is to always ask if any in the group have need of what you plan on destroying. Newbs will tend to take anything of any value and should be given freely to whenever possible. Beware the players who seem to be using weapons beneath their station for they might just be working a needy angle in an attempt to get the good stuff.
Nerf. Nerf, nerfing, nerfed. When any part of a game is changed in any way, shape, or form that the players dont like and or angers more than 3 players. Many consider the removal of pvp in Lotro a major nerfing. See also below from Earane.
Newb. newbie, noob, newb, newbster. a term used to describe a player who has only recently started a game and is therefore somewhat lost. Also it is a derogatory word when one calls a player a newb when that player makes a mistake that one of such level should know better. Everyone is a newb at some time or other, even those who were in beta from day one. Unfortunately some remain newbs after having played for years.
Ninja. ninja, ninjalooter. The nefarious ninjalooter is a group member that is always the first to grab the loot. Many players consider any player who loots when members of the group are still in combat to be a ninja looter. Ninjas are most often frowned upon and often kicked from groups. Mistakes happen and warnings are usually heeded but at times the only thing the ninja will understand is to be removed from the group. ie. 'Hey soandso, if you ninjaloot one more time your kicked from the group' and 'Hey suchandsuch, please dont loot while we are still fighting.'
O
OOC. Out of Character, ooc. Out of character actions are the opposite of in character actions, see IC above. Many players respecting RP will state OOC before saying something they know will be out of character. An example 'OOC, anyone know the lakers score?'.
P
Patch. Patch, Patcher, Patching. A patch is most often a small piece of rubber used to repair a leak in a tire or tube. In mog terminology it is a repair, nerf, and or enhancement to a game client. When bugs are found in a game or game systems/mechanics and need to be updated or changed they are said to be patched. Some game companys will Patch everyday while others might have a schedule set up for patches. When you log into the game and it is updating it is being patched. the login screen is often called the patcher, while patching the servers (shards) are sending new information or changing old information stored on your computer in the client. Patches can be small and unnoticeable by players or range all the way up to being major critical changes in gameplay. Also they often times include new material in the form of character abilitys, items, and or areas of the game world.
PB. PB, point blank. The types of skills, spells, abilitys that are PB will affect an area immediately around the character performing the action. Also called PBAoE, in which there is an area of effect but it is centered on the person performing it. Most of these will not harm the performer or their group.
Permadeath. This is a death penalty which makes the character unplayable. When you die or are incapacitated you must create a new character with which to play the game.
Petition. An ingame tool that will send comments (usually complaints about the game, system, and or other players actions) to the customer service department or designated recipients. Bugs are often reported with a petition. In some games a petition will remain in a qeue and even get answered by a guide ingame. Most of the time however it will wait in the qeue until you are offline, but it will still recieve attention.....I think.
PK. PK, PKer, player killer, player kill. Most often found in games that have pvp this refers to one player causing the death or incapacitation of another player. Note, even if a game has no pvp Pkers can still cause the death of other players, maybe in duels or maybe with a train, and maybe by drawing agro. Common parlance in a complaint form: 'That newb PKed me with a train."Player. The real person who owns a computer and plays the game and exists in our real world.
Powerleveler. PLer, PL, PLing. One who recieves faster level gains by siphoning experience points from higher level players. Also can refer to the higher level player who is PLing a newb. The act of Pling is often frowned upon by many players but is often the most common plea from newbs. It tends to create higher leveled idiots who dont know their way around or any worthwhile team stratagies. It can be a useful system for persons to advance a friend or guild mate who is new to a level where they can succesfully be an active teammate in a group.
Powergamer. Powergamer, hardcore. The powergamer is one who must have all the best loot the fastest. Not to be confused with the Leet, the powergamer will stop at nothing to gain levels, items, money, and fame. Powergamers most often use 3rd party software, macros, cheats, and hacks in their quest to be the best. However not all powergamers fit this mold. Many are just competative to such a degree as to be fanatical in the advancement of their character(s).
Pull. to pull, puller, pulling. The act of pull is to get a mob from where it is to where you want it. Usually a group will have a Puller, one who does the pulling. When this is the case it is bad form to get agro if you are not the puller. Solo players will often get agro and pull a mob to an area that is safer for them to kill it in than its spawn. In some groups the puller is the MA, but it isnt always the case, sometimes the puller will pull the mob to the group and the MA will then take agro. Sometimes if this doesnt happen soon enough the puller needs a rez.
PvP/PvE. PvP is player vs. player which allows players to combat characters controlled by other players. PvE is player vs engine which refers to the player fighting the artificial intelligence of the game engine by killing mobs, doing quests, exploring, and any other thing controlled by the game itself.
pwn. Pwn, pwnage, pwned. This is a leetspeach term used to indicate ownership. Direct translation being 'own'. To pwn a mob indicates that the character can defeat them with ease. Used alot in pvp type settings where one player kills another or one group devastates another group with speed and ease. Common parlance: 'We are uber, we pwned joo newbs!' and 'That mob pwned me bad.'
(now for a common sentence. "All of you X r belong to me!" Replace the variable X with lands, loot, lives, mobs, xps, gold, and so on and so on. This phrase is most often shouted by players who feel they are leet and or uber and think they can pwn you. Its origins are clouded in history but most likely came from real time stratagy games where the players vie for holdings of other players or the game engine. The more they control the better and so by claiming that all of your X belongs to them they are boasting.)
R
Ranger gate. This is done in games where one returns to a bind point on death or incapacitation. It is a form of teleportation for any class/profession that ordinarily has no skills, abilities, or spells which make for fast travel over long distances. Sometimes it is done on purpose but this is not the ordinary case. One might see in a group, 'What happened to the healer?' answered by 'He rangergated'.
Raid. Raid, raiding, raiding party. A raid is a large scale hunt with at least one full sized group and many times will include many other full groups. Raids are more common in the endgame content of a mog and in many games are a requirement to even try some of the upper level things. Raids are not however restricted to high levels. Often in newbie areas a large group of newbies will have a raid to gain lots of xps, gain lots of drops, and sometimes just to take out their frustrations on the mobs in the area. Also guilds will often have raids to help members and or friends finish a quest, gain a particularly rare item, gain a particularly difficult level, gather lots of drops to raise money or benefit their crafters, or to merely erradicate all of the mobs in a large area to vent their hostilitys or just for bragging rights. Raids are fun but can be highly dangerous. Make sure that at least one person in each group knows the area well and is a good leader.
Rez. Rez, Resurrect, Rezzer. A skill, spell, or ability that can return a character or group of characters from death or incapacitation. A healer type character may be able to 'rez' a dead character with minimized death penalties (if there are any to begin with). Rezs are often charged for or at least donated for. In many games the best part of a rez is in travel benefits as the character recieveing the rez will not have to travel back from its spawnpoint.
RP. RP, RPer, Simply Roleplay and Roleplayer. Often hard to find in todays mogs.
RP Nazi. RP Nazi, RP police, Hardcore RPer. A player who goes out of their way to encourage other players to roleplay. Often used as an insult by players who scorn RP even though they are playing a RP game. Also commonly used by doods (see above) who play on RP servers with no intention of roleplaying.
RTS. RTS, rts, real time stratagy. While not associated with the rpg mogs, there are some mogs that deal primarily with real time stratagy. These types of games rely more on the players skills than that of the characters skills. Many are highly complex and difficult.
Runner. Runner, zonerunner. 1. One who knows a geographical area or zone good enough to travel it with impunity. A level 12 who can without buffs cross a zone geared for level 35s is a zonerunner. A good zonerunner knows the mobs, the agro ranges, and the terrain so well as to travel it freely without fear. A zonerunner may not know all zones equally and might only be able to run the zone in a limited number of areas. 2. Also runner by itself can refer to a mob that after combat is initiated goes running away for self preservation, and most often to enlist the help of other nearby mobs. 'Kill the runner!!!' is a call that can save a group if the runner can be killed, stopped and sometimes just slowed down for a bit. Of the two references the definition of Runner dealing with mobs is the most common usage.
S
SCS. Single Character Server. This type of server allows the player to have only one character per game account. If the player wants to play a different type of character they must either delete their current character or purchase another account.
Seamless. Seamless, seamless world. This refers to a game world that is entirely or in its majority all one huge zone. Its geography is only bordered with ingame terrain and no cyber borders exist from one area to the next. These types of worlds are becoming more common and more popular.
Server/shard. Gameserver, gameshard. While I am sure this is like normal servers in the business world for lans and wans and mass communications, in the world of mogs it is the item that connects the players client with the actual game world. Each mog can have many different servers. While for the most part all servers or shards are exactly the same as the others, player populations and distributions may differ greatly from server to server. (aka shard to shard) Some games will set certain servers aside for use by RP preferring players, PVP preferring players, and such. see also test server. At times not all servers will be available at the same time. If one is playing character(s) only on one server and it goes or is taken down temporarily, they would have to start over on a different server untill such time as their original server returned online or up. When a servers population (number of active accounts) gets to be too high, it may become locked and unavailable for new players. This is an attempt to better populate the other servers and spread the load.
Spawn. Spawn, spawnpoint, spawn rate, to spawn, spawned on. A place in a specific area where a mob or mobs appear repeatedly over time. The act of making a mob appear. In some systems certain criteria must be met to 'spawn' a specific mob. These types of spawns tend to be more difficult and also more rewarding. Common parlance 'Lets go to the troll lair and spawn Bonecrusher'. Often times you will see others asking how to spawn mob xs, how long between mob x spawns, where is the spawn for mob x and the likes. Spawns have a timer that varies. Spawn timers for named mobs can be very lengthy. It is not uncommon for endgame mobs to only spawn one time a day, this means that only once in a 24hour period of our time will that mob exist in the game world on that server.
T
Tank. Tank, tanker, meatshield. Charactrer in a party whos main reason for existance it to keep the mob angy and take damage. The best tanks in games tend to have the highest amount of damage takeable and or a combination of resisting large amounts of damage. The common group tactic with tanks is to have a healer keep them alive while the rest of the group kills the mob. A good tanker needs to have the ability to maintain agro as well. Many mobs will change agro to a healer if the tank is healed and the tank needs the ability to regain agro fast. An old mog saying is "Let the tankers tank and the healers heal." meaning mostly that if you try too hard to help you will probably die alot or cause a problem for the group. Tanks are also popular among soloers.
(some of the newer mogs out there have looting tools that aid in the looting process and others have very restrictive systems in place that will not afford alternatives. Good grouping habits include upon joining any group always ask first "Is there a puller, who is MA, who is ML or if none what is the looting policy.")
Train. train, traner, trained. A train is a group of mobs that are agroing a player. If you hear someone shouting train it usualy means they have far more than they can handle and are warning you to get to safety as they try to run away. One who is good at pulling will sometimes pull a train to their group or an area in which they wish to fight the train. Some players will deliberately gather a train and then lead it to a player they dont like in an effort to get that player killed. You might hear someone ask a friend 'What happened?' to which they reply "Stupid newbie trained me by the troll lair". The deliberate training of someone is an offense that many games will have punative measures for and is considered bad form. Of course I have been known to train farmers and campers in efforts to allow lower level players a chance to play in the area.
Tourist. A tourist is most often a player who makes a character on a test server for the sole purpose of playing with new features before they get patched into the regular game. Another form of a tourist is a person playing on someone elses account to see if they think they will enjoy the game good enough to justify buying it. If a character in game you know is acting very strangely they might be a tourist, that player may be letting cousin Joe play his game for a bit. Be warned that it could also mean somebody hacked your ingame friends account.
Trigger. An event caused by a character that will make the engine do something specific. Most often triggers are used to spawn named mobs or mobs of greater importance. In some games instanced dungeons are triggered, a character has to do something or a series of things in order to get into the instance. Common question ingame might be, 'How do you trigger the Orc chieftan?'. Also a Palimino mount who could count, bow, and perform other tricks. Trigger was an uber leet mount.
TS/TC. Test server, Test center. This is a server that is set aside for the testing of new material and changes in a game for the purpose of eliminating any bugs that may arise. Games are tested in beta before release, changes and modifications are tested by the devs in their offices and then retested again on the test server. Some games allow one to play on the test server without a monthly fee. Most test servers are subject to a wipe of all information at any given time to allow the devs to start over with a clean slate. Playing on a test server will leave you no guarantee that the next time you play all will be as it was. Many find playing on test servers to be fun and are rewarded by finding bugs and reporting them for fixes to make the finished product more fun for the rest of the playing population. Many games will require you to follow specific instructions to make a duplicate client on your system that is linked only to the test server. The patches going to a test client are very different from the ones that will go to your normal game client. Some players will play on a test server only to see and experience the new stuff in a game and then will report back to their guilds and friends about it. These players are sometimes called tourists.
Twink. Twink, twinker, twinked. A player who recieved items beyond their means. Often gifts from guildmates, from older players who are quiting and giving their stuff away, and getting items and or money from outside websites. A person who buys a game account from ebay can be considered a twink and or a Pler. Players on mcs can twink themselves. "Will anybody twink a newb?" is the second most oft shouted words from newbs, it follows closely on the heels of "Will anybody PL me?".
Twitch. Twitch, Twitchy. This refers to a game system in which the player's skill with computer interfaces is more important than the character's skills and or abilitys. In twitchy games or games that have twitchy aspects, one's skill with the keyboard, mouse, joystick, gamepad, and customization of the game interface is the most important aspect for success and or advancement.
(In SWG all land based combat is normal but all combat in space is twitchy.)
U
Uber. Uber, Uberness, Uberest. This is a term used to describe items that are of the highest quality. It can also refer to characters who have alot of great gear, skills, and abilitys. Common parlance 'Man when I get to 40th level I will be uber.' Uber can be used to describe guilds/player associations/clans/kinships. These groups are usually very exclusive if not leet in their selection of new members.
W
WTS. WTS, WTB, WTT. The want to abbreviation. Want to sell, buy, and trade. Many players only enjoyment comes from selling items they loot and or make in the game. Many of them equate success in the game with the amount of money they have. Also buyer beware, many players will rip you off and take advantage of newbs in their pricings. WTF because sometimes you just want to fly.
Z
Zone. Zone, Zoning, Zoned. Many game worlds are not seamless. There are areas known as zones that seperate geographical areas of the world. As you cross this boundary with your character it is said to be zoning. Commonly folks will type 'zone' if they are chatting and about to zone to let others know they might miss something. In seamless games that have instanced encounters one can be said to be zoning when they enter or exit the instance. In games with zones one can at times zone to correct glitches or bugs they may be experiencing.
