Glossary

From GraffeWiki

Glossary of common terms.

[edit] A

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 outlevel mains and sometimes mains become moth-balled.

AO

Abbreviation for Anarchy Online. An online game.

AOE

Same as AE. Area of Effect.

Attribute

e.g. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, etc.

[edit] B

BBIAB

"Be back in a bit"

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 gameplay, 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”

[edit] C

Camp(ing)

The act of remaining in an area to hunt a specific mob or a specific spawn

Casual

a term used by various people to represent their point of view. It is used so that people think they are in the majority.

Casual Gamer

a term used to denote someone who casually plays games. They don't visit forums, they don't read strategy guides, they don't work out complex strategies.

CoH

City of Heroes, a MMOPRG. Also: Call of the Hero, a Magician spell in EverQuest.

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

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.

[edit] D

DAoC

Abbreviation for Dark Age of Camelot. An online game.

DD

Direct Damage. Used to refer to a class of spells and abilities that allow players to damage enemies from a distance. The firebolt 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

Acronym derived from Damage Per Second. See DPS

Druid

Hybrid class in D&D style games - part healer, part support, part fighter.

[edit] E

Eating Grass

Slang for dead. Most corpses lie on the ground when killed face down.

EQ

Abbreviation for EverQuest. An online game.

EQ2

Abbreviation for EverQuest II. An online game.

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.

Experienced Gamer

A gamer that has played many games over the years.

[edit] F

Farm(ing)

The act of accumulating currency or a specific item by repeatedly killing a mob or repeatedly performing a series of actions

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 in WoW that temporarily paralyzes an enemy.

[edit] G

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

[edit] H

Hardcore

A strawman argument used by people identifying as "Casual" to paint a non existent villain in a bad light.

Health

A base attribute of characters

HLS

Hot Lesbian Sex

[edit] I

IMHO

“in my humble opinion”

INC

Abbreviation for "incoming". When a tank pulls for group, the tank will use this as warning that a mob is incoming.

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.

[edit] J

J/K

“just kidding”

[edit] K

Kite

To lure a mob or player around much like a kite on a string while attacking it in some capacity. A player draws agro 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.

[edit] L

LD

Link dead -when a player is disconnected from the game

Leet

Slang variant of “elite”

LFG

“looking for group”

LFM

“looking for more”, i.e., after a group has been formed and more members are needed.

LFT

“looking for team”

LMAO

“laughing my ass off”

LOL

“laughing out loud”

LoS

Line of sight. A requirement of most ranged abilities is that the view of the target not be obstructed by any fixed obstacle, such as a wall.

Loot

Currency or items that are dropped by a mob when it is defeated

[edit] M

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/Mes

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.

Mod

Abbreviation of modification. Used as both a verb and a noun. As a noun, refers to add-ons by 3rd party programmers designed to augment the game (e.g., the self-cast mod). As a verb, refers to the act of performing this modification (e.g., he's modding the interface).

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

Acronym for Multi-user Dungeon. Precursors to MMORPGS, MUDS filled the same niche except for being text based.

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.

[edit] N

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.

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.

Newbie

A new player

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.

Nuker

Refers to damage casting casters

[edit] O

OMG

“oh my god”

OMW

“on my way”

OOC

out-of-character - used to refer to OOC chat

OOM

“out of mana”

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.

[edit] P

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 Level

When a higher level player tries to help a lower level player level faster. Most games have mechanisms that prevent power leveling.

Proc

Short for "spec_proc" (Special Procedure) from mud programming. Term was originally popularized in EQ and it usually refers to the benefits of added damage or other buffing enhancement that occurs randomly when an item strikes or is used. Also often thought to refer to "process", another form of the word procedure, and sometimes "programmed random occurence".

PuG

Pick-up Group - a group assembled on the spot for a quest, a PvP group, or an instance raid.

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

[edit] Q

[edit] R

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

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.

Root

Can refer to a class of abilities as well as its effect. A root spell immobilizes a target. The target is then said to be rooted. Early versions of these abilities involved references to plants, hence "root".

RvR

Realm vs. Realm.

[edit] S

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

Abbreviation for Star Wars Galaxies. An online game

[edit] T

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.

[edit] U

UO

Abbreviation for Ultima Online. An online game.

Uber

Slang form of super

[edit] V

VG

Often used abbreviation for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. An online game.

[edit] W

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.

WOOT

Synonymous with "hooray" or "way to go".

Working as intended

See Working as intended

WoW

Abbreviation for World of Warcraft. An online game.

WTB

“want to buy”

WTS

“want to sell”

[edit] X

XP

experience points

[edit] Y

[edit] Z

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. Term derives from the Zerg race in StarCraft whose main strategy was innundating their enemies under a mass of Zerglings.

Zone

In games where different areas of the world are parceled out for loading reasons, different areas are referred to as zones.