3D Engine — the software that runs within the player's client, responsible for the rendering of all 3D graphics effects within the game. See also: Client
AC — abbreviation for Armor Class.
Add — the addition of a mob (due to a patrol, or new spawn) in the middle of a battle.
Armor Class — a rating of a character or creature's armor ability, usually used as a statistic for either mitigating damage or decreasing the likelihood that a target will be hit by an attack. This is one of several terms that was used in the 1974 Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, and has since spread to countless other games, online and off. In the original D&D, a lower armor class was better than a higher number, with negative Armor Class values signifying extraordinary armor; however, most modern games (including D&D since its third edition) now use a scale that increases protection as the value increases.
Achiever — one of the axes of game-player personality measured by the Bartle Test. Achievers prefer to acquire "points" or other in-game measurements of their successes, such as levels, items or awards. See also: Bartle Test, Explorer, Killer, Socializer.
AFK — An abbreviation for "away from keyboard," originating from early text-based chat rooms. In PVP games, the term is humorously said to abbreviate to "A Free Kill."
AH — Abbreviation for Auction House or Exchange Broker.
Aggro — short for "aggressive," the term can be used as an adjective to describe creatures that will attack if you get too close (The Eastern Plaguelands are full of aggro mobs) or as a verb to describe a mob that is changing state from passive to aggressive (Khelykk is such a noob, he just aggro'd the whole dungeon on us!).
1. The term is also used in a humorous context to refer to real-world people who suddenly need attention.
My wife just went aggro, so I'm going to need to logoff for now.
2. When discussing tanking classes, it is common to refer to their ability to "hold aggro" or "get aggro," which is the ability to encourage creatures to focus their attacks on them.
See also: Hate, Tank
Alt — short for "alternate character," this refers to a character that someone plays part-time; sometimes suggests a character that someone will level more slowly, or exists more as a side-amusement than as a "serious" character. See also: Altoholic, Main, Mule
Altoholic — a person who spends most of their time dabbling with a long list of alternate characters, sometimes having no "main" at all. One possible reason for "altoholism" may be the tendency of games to progress a character more rapidly at lower levels, which leads some to prefer the fast-pace of early character development.
See also: Alt, Main
AOE — an abbreviation for "area of effect." The term was originally used only to describe the size of an area that certain abilities would fill (the fireball spell has an AOE of 30 feet in radius) but is now used as a noun to describe any area-filling ability (in my opinion, the warlock has the best AOE of any class) or as a verb to describe the action of using such an ability (the easiest way to kill goblins is to have a group of mages AOE dozens of them at once.)
Artifact — a term originating from Dungeons and Dragons that refers to extremely rare and powerful magic items.
Assist — when one or more players uses a target designated by another person rather than choosing their own at random.
Auction House — the term used in WoW for an in-game, auction-based marketplace that allows players to buy and sell items between each other. Like several terms that originate in WoW, the term has gained usage beyond the original game and is often used by players to refer to other marketplaces, exchanges or brokers—even in cases where auctioning is not even a feature of the system.
Does anyone know if there's a weapon over 30 dps up on the AH?
Avatar — in Hinduism, the incarnation of a higher being. The Ultima series of games referred to the player's own character as the "avatar." The most common use of the term in online culture is on bulletin boards, where the "avatar" refers to the graphic image used to represent a person on a bulletin board.
Ban — when a player is prevented from accessing a game by either the publisher or the owner of a server, usually for conduct violations such as a use of an exploit, hack, bot, scamming or maltreatment of other players. Bans may be temporary or permanent, depending on the severity of the player's misconduct.
Bartle test — a test designed by Erwin Andreasen, based upon Richard Bartle's 1996 paper on gamer personality, ""Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who suit MUDs." The test-taker is asked 30 randomly-ordered questions, each of which measures a preference for Achiever, Socializer, Killer or Explorer personality types. The test-taking methodology is loosely based on Myers-Briggs-type psychological testing. Each measurement is a percentage that adds up to 200%. The Bartle Test has been hosted on GuildCafe since 2006.
See also: Achiever, Explorer, Killer, Socializer
Bind — A location one's characters is bound to
1. as a noun, The location that a player returns to when they invoke a hearthstone or town-portal.
2. as a verb, the act of attaching oneself to such a location.
Bind Camping — in PVP games, it means positioning oneself at a player's bind location and attacking them as they respawn.
Bind Rushing — the act of using the ability to quickly respawn at a bind to attack a stronger target repeatably, wearing them down and potentially winning through a succession of separate attacks.
See also: Zerg
Blue server — in a game that features both PVE as well as PVP servers, the PVE servers are sometimes referred to as the "blue servers." The term derives from the way in which many games colorize hostile opponents, using blue or neutral colors for a non-hostile player, and red for potentially hostile players. On a "blue server," there are never any red players.
Bluebie — a derogatory term for a person who plays on a blue server, roughly synonymous with "carebear."
Boom — a strategy, typically associated with RTS games, in which a player attempts to achieve economic superiority before engaging an opponent. See also: Rush, Turtle
Boss — usually the most powerful mob in a dungeon or level; defeating the boss is usually the point of an adventure. The term derives from early arcade video games that featured powerful enemies at the end of certain levels. In online games, powerful mobs that approach the level of a boss are often referred to as minibosses or "named."
Bot — a program intended to automate some part of a game so that a player can gain levels or points while they are away from their computer. Bots are against the terms of service for most online game companies.
Zypherion just got banned for running a crafting bot over the weekend.
Boxing — playing on multiple computers at the same time, usually to create a static group of complementary characters entirely controlled by one person. Often used in the phrase "two-boxing" to refer to a two-computer setup. Often, one or more characters are simply enough that their behaviors can be automated with macros or the occasional key-press, while the player focuses on playing one main character. See also: buffbot, healbot
Bubble Hearth — in the game of Monopoly, the "get out of jail free card" allowed players who landed in jail to avoid any of the penalties. Similarly, the paladin class in World of Warcraft can activate an ability that lets them obtain total immunity (which has a graphical effect that looks like a glowing bubble), during which time they can use the "hearthstone" item to return home. Thus, the "bubble hearth" has become a term for any power that allows the player to escape harm with no risk to themselves; the term has grown beyond its original usage in WoW—for example, it has become common to use the same term for a cleric's ability to use a combination of immunity and recall in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, despite the fact that it has no item called a hearthstone.
I was fighting this cleric for over five minutes, and right when I thought I had him he bubble hearthed out.
Buff — a noun that describes any spell effect with a nontrivial duration that applies a bonus of some kind to its target; or as a verb, to describe the act of applying a buff to a person.
Let's get some fire resistance buffs before we attack the dragon.
A buff may also refer to the opposite of a "nerf": an improvement in the power of a feature within a game.
See also: Debuff, Nerf
Buffbot — term for any character that exists solely for casting buffs on other players. Such a character might be maintained on a separate account, and logged in as needed to cast buffs on party members. See also: Buff, Boxing
Build — see template.
Bump Map — a "height map" of pixels that is wrapped onto a 3D object, which affects the illumination of an object; bump maps can add realistic cracks, bumps or bas relief to an object. See also: Model, Texture Map
Camp — To wait
1. The act of staying in one spot for a long time, waiting for a rare creature to spawn (back in Everquest, we spent weeks camping one dragon for legendary loot.)
2. A location on the game map that spawns a group of creatures (the best camps for hunting bugbears are south of Three Rivers).
3. The act of logging out of a game, based on the implementation of a "/camp" command that is used in several titles, including WoW, EQ2, Vanguard and others.
4. Standing in a static, ideal location in a game (often an FPS) with the intention of maximizing kills against other players.
Carebear — a derogatory term, generally used by players who favor PVP conflict, to refer to players who prefer PVE content. The term derives from a set of characters developed by American Greeting and later used in an animated television series in which characters found non-violent solutions to problems.
Chunk — a term originating with Vanguard: Saga of Heroes to refer to one of the discrete server-units that handles content in one part of the world. See also: Zone
Clan — an organization of players that team up consistently to achieve goals within a game. The term is roughly synonymous with "guild," which is more common within MMORPG games. The term "clan" is usually favored within RTS and FPS games.
Class — a term originating with Dungeons and Dragons to refer to a character that fits a specific progression of skills and abilities. Within a class-based game design, the player typically chooses a particular category of character (e.g., a warrior or mage) and "levels up" through a progression of increasingly powerful abilities in exchange for experience points they acquire for defeating opponents.
Client — the software that runs on the player's own computer or console. The client is responsible for providing a user interface, and rendering the graphical environment of the world.
See also: server
Cooldown — the amount of time that must pass before you can repeat the same action (or one of a family of actions) in a game; taken from the real-world concept that certain weapons need a period of time between firing to prevent overheating.
Con — short for "consider," this is a verb that refers to the action of assessing a target's difficulty level relative to the player. A creature that "cons red" usually refers to something that is too hard for the player to attack (with various colors associated with particular difficulty levels).
Content — the maps, quests, NPCs, mobs, lore and graphics that make up the things that players interact with in a game.
Crafter — a character that is primarily intended to use the crafting features within a game.
See: Crafting
Crafting — any gameplay options that exist in an MMORPG that allow players to create objects for other players to use. Olsen never levels his bard anymore, because he's too addicted to crafting armor.
Crit — short for "critical."
Critical — a relatively uncommon attack that does bonus damage (often double or more). Typically, critical have a percent chance to occur—often about 5%. This frequency can be buffed or debuffed by various game mechanics in play.
DD — abbreviation for direct damage.
Debuff — an effect that applies a penalty to a target (other than damage); the opposite of a "buff." See also: buff Degen — short for "degeneration," an effect that reduces a statistic over a period of time. If it reduces a target’s health or hit points, the degen effect can also be described as a "DOT," but degen effects sometimes are applied to other statistics. See also: DOT
Ding — verb for achieving a new level, taken from the "ding" sound an oven-timer might make.
Grats on dinging 70!
Direct damage — an attack that deals a lump of damage to one target, generally without any added features such as DOT or AOE. See also: DD, DOT, AOE
DPS — abbreviation for "damage per second," which is a rating of how much damage a particular attack can do to a target when sustained for a period of time. When used in the phrase "DPS class" it refers to a character class that does high damage per second.
Before we enter the dungeon, we need some more DPS or we won’t kill anything.
DOT — abbreviation for "damage over time," which refers to any ability in a game that causes damage to be delivered to a target a bit at a time. See also: direct damage, degen.
Dupe — short for "duplicate," and used as a verb to describe the action of making an extra copy of an item or currency by using some form of exploit within the game. Dupes can then be used to enrich the player, but will also destabilize the economy of the game—often causing irrepairable harm. Using a "dupe" exploit is usually a serious violation of a game’s terms of service that will result in a permanent ban.
Elite — a creature or item that is much more powerful than normal, generally requiring above-average resources to defeat or acquire. The term has also been used as an adjective to describe players who consider themselves more advanced or highly skilled, but now tends to be used in a sarcastic or humorous context. See also: leet, l337
Emote — a verb that refers to a character in a game to expressing an emotional state or performing some dramatic action. For example, by typing "/laugh" in a game, a character might laugh (through both animation and a text description). Some games features hundreds of built-in emotes. The term derives from the use of a "/emote" command that exists in many games (originally derived from MUD-style environments), which allows players to write their own freeform text-actions. Emotes allow the player to express how they feel without saying anything, or may also be used for roleplaying or emote duels.
Emote duel — when two players in an online game begin exchanging sequences of emotes in a game of one-upsmanship in which the "combatants" demonstrate their knowledge of the more esoteric emote-commands that exist in the game. There is no clear winner in an emote duel, although observers may draw their own conclusions.
Emoticon — a glyph formed with keyboard characters, intended to communicate an emotional state. Emoticons are often included side-by-side with text that a player may type. Emoticons include "smilies" such as :) (intended to resemble two eyes with a smiling mouth) or other figure-based representations such as \o/ (intended to look like a person raising their arms in greeting).
Energy — a pool of points that some games use to allow players to perform certain actions. See also: mana
Epic — a very rare or powerful item or creature.
EQ — abbreviation for EverQuest.
EQ2 — abbreviation for EverQuest 2.
EXP — abbreviation for experience points.
Experience points — along with "hit points" and "armor class," this is one of the core concepts used in Dungeons & Dragons that has come into widespread usage in adventure games. Experience points are awarded for doing things such as defeating monsters, exploring places or completing quests. As experience points are accrued, they are usually spent to increase skills or acquire new levels. See also: EXP, XP, level Exploit — an action where a player takes advantage of a bug or unintended feature of a game to gain a major advantage over other players. There is often a gray area with respect to what is considered an exploit and what is simply considered a poor design on behalf of the developers; almost all online games consider item duping to be a major exploit. If caught, exploiters may be banned by a game publisher. See also: dupe, ban
Explorer — one of the Bartle Test categories, referring to a player you prefers to explore and visit the various places in a virtual world. See also: Bartle Test.
Farmer — a person who performs repetitive activities in a game to acquire large amounts of a certain resource. The term is usually used in a derogatory tone, and when it is used in the phrase "gold farmer" it refers to someone who is collecting currency in a game to be sold to other players for real money. See also: Real Money Trading.
FedEx — derogatory term for a quest that requires the player to deliver an item from point A to point B with little or no plot.
FFA — abbreviation for Free For All.
FFS — a common expletive abbreviation in online game usage, standing for "for ****’s sake." See also: WTF
Forgive — the act of ignoring a team-kill (TK) by another player, usually as a courtesy to recognize an accident. See also: Punish, TK
FPS — First Person Shooter game, a genre in which the player interacts with a realistic 3D environment from the first-person view of a person holding a weapon. Gameplay features real-time combat simulation and "twitch" reactions, as opposed to statistical or turn-based play.
Frag — originally a military term that refers to killing the member of one’s own side with a fragmentation grenade, in computer gaming it simply means killing another player. Often, a kill count in an FPS game is recorded as a "frag count."
Free For All — a type of game or server in which all of the players can target and attack each other, without regards to any factions or teams.
FTL — abbreviation for "for the loss" or "for the lose." Often used at the end of a sentence describing some spell, skill or ability to described something believed to have caused a loss or wipe.
Calshazivan killed us again... Aggroing too many mobs ftl.
FTW — abbreviation for "for the win," often used to modify the end of a sentence to designate something that someone believes helped them win.
Did you see how much damage that did? Fireball ftw.
Gank — a portmanteaux of "gang" and "kill," used to indicate a situation where a player kills another player with overwhelming odds, such as when a full group of attackers kills a lone player.
GG — abbreviation for "good game." Depending on context, it may be:
1. an authentic statement of respect regarding a good game
2. a sarcastic term used to belittle a defeated opponent
3. a synonym for "game over."
Glass Cannon — any character class or archetype that does relatively high damage but is also easily killed.
Grief — to repeatedly cause someone else hardship in a game. Depending on context, "grief" may be taken to mean:
1. consistently stalks another with the intention of disrupting their gaming experience
2. using bugs or exploits to disrupt another person’s play
3. actions that have the sole purpose of causing misery for one player
4. intentional actions that cause the death of a player in a game in which PVP conflict is not intended.
It is inaccurate to apply the term to players who defeat others in the normal course of a player-versus-player game; however, "griefing" is a loaded term and some players will sometimes use the word in this context to describe other players who are killing them.
Griefer — a person who likes to grief other players. See also: grief
Guild — an organization of players that team up consistently to achieve goals within a game. The term is roughly synonymous with "clan," which is more common within RTS and FPS games. The term "guild" is usually favored within MMORPGs.
We only wiped about a hundred times, but my guild finally slew Onyxia last night.
GM — abbreviation for "game master," one of the staffers who are responsible for supplying online customer service.
Grats — short for "congratulations," and frequently heard after someone dings.
GvG — abbreviation for Guild vs. Guild. In a GvG game, guilds compete with each other, either economically or through some form of group-based combat.
Hack — unlike an exploit, which is when a player takes advantage of flaws or bugs that already exist within a game, a "hack" is when a player modifies the client or adds other software that does not belong there. Hacks can be used to automate certain aspects of the game, make some gameplay elements easier, or enable new ways to cheat. Usage of a hack will almost always result in a permanent ban for any subscription-based online game.
Hate — a statistic, usually hidden, that helps the AI determine which player a mob should target for its attacks. A player's attack that "generates hate" is one that is likely to cause a creature to target them; intentional hate generation is a typical feature of "tanking" classes in online games.
Hax — a humorous leetspeak version of the work "hack," but generally used to refer to clever (or powerful) tactics within a game that are not actually wrong. In any game, some players will identify optimal strategies, and when they are used to overpower less experienced players ("noobs") they may be accused of using hacks. Players will then proudly refer to their use of the strategy as "hax."
Bilbo: Wow, I thought we were dead. How did you turn all those trolls to stone?
Gandalf: Hax.
Healbot — a character that is automated with scripts to provide healing to other players in the group, usually so the person can play a non-healing character. If actual automation software is used (as opposed to in-game macros or the occasional key-press), healbots are almost always against a game's terms of service. In addition to actual healbots, this is also a derogatory term for any class or playstyle that involves repetitive healing-type skills in which the player is said to do nothing that a simple script or bot couldn't do.
See also: Bot, Buffbot
Heal over Time — an effect in a game that heals a player over a period of time. See also: HOT, regen.
Hearth — the act of using a hearthstone to return to a bind location. In games that do not include a "hearthstone" item, the hearth verb still finds usage.
Hearthstone — an item in World of Warcraft that returns a player to their bind location.
Hex — synonym for a "debuff" used in certain games (for example, Guild Wars).
Hit Points — one of the core game concepts that emerged from Dungeons and Dragons to become a part of a multitude of games, offline as well as online. Hit Points usually refer to a pool of points that are reduced as a character takes damage; once hit points are exhausted, the character is incapacitated.
HOT — abbreviation for Heal over Time.
HP — abbreviation for Hit Points.
Imba — short for "imbalanced," and typically used in association with classes, units or abilities within a game that someone believes is overpowered.
Inc — short for "incoming," used by a member to indicate an imminent pull, or an action they are about to perform.
Instance — an area with an MMOG that allows groups of players to concurrently access the same content by duplicating the area for each group and then granting exclusive access to the copy for a period of time. Killer — one of the personality categories used in the Bartle Test, describing a player who prefers PVP conflict. See also: Bartle Test
l337 — a numeric "leetspeak" encoding of the word "leet," itself a leet-form of the word "elite." Occasionally, it is used by players who believe they are better than others; however, when used as an adjective to describe a player, it is now primarily used in a sarcastic or mocking tone (This dude Morph3us won't group with us because he think he's too l337.) See also: leetspeak, elite
Launcher — the piece of software that runs before loading the client, and typically responsible for logging-in the user and/or checking for patches. See also: Client, Patcher
Leetspeak — a writing system that originated in early dialup computer bulletin board systems (BBSs) and chat rooms. One feature of Leetspeak is that it disdains spelling and makes it permissible for the user to incorporate both intentional and unintentional spelling errors into their writing, including phrases that are easier to type or that are phonetically (but not technically) correct. In a number of cases, common typos are the preferred word rather than the original version (see also: pwn). Finally, the leetspeaker may also replace various letters with numbers, as follows: 1 may replace a lower-case L, 3 for an E, 4 for an A, 5 for an S, 7 for a T. Leetspeak has made its way into the chat components of online games: it is often employed by people who wish to make their communication harder for "noobs" to understand, by those who wish to appear to be part of a clique of gamers, or by those who wish to incorporate a sarcastic or mocking tone into their text.
Kill Steal — the action of grabbing ownership of a mob immediately before another player was about to attack it, or using some ability or flaw in the game to take ownership of a kill at toward the end of a battle.
Kite — a verb that describes the action of using a difference in movement speed to avoid short-range or melee-range with an opponent. The term "kite" refers to the way in which the faster player will run around, dragging the hapless opponent who would like to get in closer range behind them as if they were a kite.
I love playing a frost mage—there's nothing like snaring warriors and flying ‘em like a kite.
See also: root, snare, stun
Kill on Sight — a way to describe a player or guild that should be attacked on site, perhaps because the guilds are at war, or as a form of punishment for the target player(s). KOS — abbreviation for "Kill on Sight."
KOS List — a list maintained by a guild that includes all of the guilds or people that should be attacked on site.
KS — abbreviation for "Kill Steal" or "Kill Stealer."
LARP — acronym for "Live Action Roleplaying Game." LARPs were the first massively multiplayer roleplaying games, although they were neither online nor computer-based. LARPs are the fusion of tabletop roleplaying game concepts with the idea of a Renaissance Faire: in a LARP game, players meet in real life and act-out roleplaying and physical-combat situations, often using Nerf weapons and dressing up in appropriate costumes.
LD — abbreviation for "link dead."
Level — a numeric representation of how advanced a player is within a game. In class-based systems, this refers to their state of advancement within the class, which generally translates to a set of more powerful abilities the higher they are. "Level" can also be used as a verb to refer to the act of gaining levels on a character.
Freya leveled her new rogue from 1 to 60 over the weekend.
LFG — abbreviation for "looking for group," a flag that players can often add to their character to let other players know that they are looking to join a group. It may also be used in chat to advertise oneself for a group, as in:
Level 40 mage LFG for Dark Cavern
LFM — the opposite of LFG, this abbreviates to "looking for more" or "looking for member." It is used by the leader of a group who is looking to add another member to their group.
Link Dead — term to refer to someone who has disconnected from a game.
LMAO — Abbreviation for "Laughing My *** Off."
LOL — Abbreviation for "Laughing Out Loud," a term that originated in chat-rooms and has made its way into online games. Appears in various adaptations in online games including humorous nouns such as "lollerskates." Laughing is a major them of a number of other abbreviations; see also: LMAO, ROFL
LOS — Abbreviation for "Line of Site." Most games require opponents to have a line-of-site for most of their attacks. When used in the phrase "LOS pull," it refers to causing a creature to aggro by getting in its line-of-site (rather than attacking it).
Main — the principal character played by a person.
See also: Alt, Mule
Mana — a pool of points used to limit access to certain spells or skills. Compare to: Energy.
Melee — derived from the French word Mêlée which refers to close-combat fighting. A "melee class" in a fantasy game refers to classes that use weapons such as a swords and maces to beat on their opponents up-close-and-personal.
Min-max — the process of analyzing a game component (such as a character template) with the intention of minimizing statistics that are not useful to the player, while maximizing the statistics that are most useful to a strategy.
Miniboss — a penultimate encounter in an adventure, leading up to a final confrontation with a boss.
See also: boss, named
MMORPG — acronym for Massively Multipler Online Roleplaying Game, first used by 3DO executive Trip Hawkins in 1996 to describe the Meridian 59 game.
MUD — acronym for Multi-User Dungeon. Although the first multiplayer videogame was probably Pong, the first fantasy-themed roleplaying was most likely a MUD. The first MUD was created by Bartle and Trubshaw at the University of Essex in 1978, and featured a world for multiple fantasy-themed players to explore.
Mule — a character created for the purpose of holding items that exceed the player's normal bank or inventory capacity.
See also: Main, Alt
Named — a noun that refers to a mob that has a unique name that separates it from other similar creatures. Named are usually mobs that are harder than others, or drop special loot or advance quest objectives.
Nerf — a brand name for a line of toys produced by Parker Brothers (Hasbro), standing for "Non-Expanding Recreational Foam." The idea of Nerf toys is that they are softer and therefore less dangerous for children to play with. Within online games, a "nerf" refers to a case where the designers of a game decrease the power and effectiveness of a particular feature.
See also: Buff
Ninja — to pick-up or use an object quickly before anyone else can.
1. as a noun, refers to a player who "steals" a piece of loot gained as part of a group, generally by taking the item despite agreeing to a different system for distributing spoils
2. As a verb, this refers to the act of performing such a theft.
We threw Shadowfell out of the guild after he ninja'd boss loot on the last Titans raid.
Noob — a shortened version of the word "noobie," which refers to an inexperienced player. In correct usage, the word may be used to describe a player who still makes a lot of mistakes or simply does not understand the best ways to play a game; however, it is often used contemptuously (and incorrectly) to describe players who use the best tactics and skills that some might perceive as "cheap."
See also: scrub
MA — abbreviation for "main assist." The job of the MA is to identify and call targets.
See also: assist
MMORPG — the abbreviation for "Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game," a term that originated with 3DO's marketing of the Meridian 59 game in 1996, and describes a game in which the player takes on the role of a character within a virtual world containing large numbers of other players.
Model — a 3D description of an object's geometry, used by a 3D engine to render the player's environment.
Mob — stands for "mobile object," and refers to the creature/enemies that one engages in battle. It is roughly equivalent to NPC, although many people consider NPCs to be "people" and mobs to be a superset that includes all enemies. See also: NPC
NPC — abbreviation for "non player character," an old Dungeons and Dragons term to describe all the characters in a game that are not controlled by a player. In D&D, these would be the people and personalities controlled by the Dungeon Master; in an MMORPG, they are the characters that are controlled and run by the servers. If an NPC is hostile, they may also be considered a "Mob."
MT — abbreviation for "main tank," the player that will attempt to gain the most hate (and thus, aggro) from a hostile target. The main tank is usually the player who is best able to take large amounts of damage without dieing.
MUD — abbreviation for "multi user dungeon," an type of multiplayer text adventure game from which MMORPGs evolved.
Nuke — a type of attack that does high amounts of damage to a target. In a fantasy-themed game, a "nuke" may also refer to any damaging magic spell.
See also: direct damage, AOE
OOC — abbreviation for "out of character." Typically used on roleplaying servers, it is an abbreviation used to make it clear that the player is not speaking in character.
Offtank — a job in some games that occurs when there are multiple dangerous opponents, but the main tank needs to focus on one key opponent; the offtank is responsible for gaining aggro from one or more secondary targets, buying time while the target of the MT is finished off.
One-shot — an attack that kills an opponent in one hit. An example would include things such as "headshot" sniper attacks in FPS products; in MMORPGs, a one-shot is usually considered poor game design (since they deny players any form of response or counterattack).
Oom — abbreviation for "out of mana," meaning that the player cannot cast any more spells until mana has regenerated. The abbreviation is often used even in games where "mana" is not the term used for the magic resource pool.
OMG — abbreviation for "Oh My God," another term that has made its way from chatrooms and into online games.
OMGZ — a leetspeak-ized version of OMG.
OP — abbreviation for "overpowered," usually referring to features in a game that a player believes should be nerfed.
O RLY? — short for "Oh really?" it is used as an expression of disinterest on behalf of the writer, or perhaps as a response equivalent to "that is obvious." It is common to respond with "YA RLY" (ya, really) and then "NO WAI!" (no way!). It began as an Internet meme, but has made its way into a number of games. In particular, World of Warcraft features NPCs named O'Reely and Yarly.
Party — a group (or team) of players, usually in a fantasy-themed game.
Patch — a container of software code that contains a set of the modifications required to update an older version of the player’s client software to a new version.
Patcher — a piece of software responsible for downloading a patch and updating the player’s computer to the most recent version of a client. See also: Client, Launcher, Patch
Path — The travel route calculated by a system from one point to another
1. a set route that a mob uses (see also: patrol),
2. the route that a mob uses when using an AI algorithm to move toward a player; also used as a verb.
If you shoot that mob, it will path to us by taking the bridge.
Pat — short for "patrol."
Patrol — a mob or (group of mobs) that repeatedly track along the same path when moving through an area.
Careless observation of patrol patterns may lead to a bad pull with lots of adds.
PC — abbreviation for "player character," the character that is controlled by the person playing the game.
See also: Avatar, Toon, NPC
Pet — the name for a mob that is under the indirect control of the player. A "pet class" is a type of character that specializes in using pets.
Peeps — Leetspeak for people.
Pew pew — an onomatopoeia for the sounds that laser cannons supposedly make; often appears in the phrase "less QQ, more pew pew," which translates roughly to "cry less, kill more."
Phat lewt — a leetspeak term that refers to the "good loot" (or simply the "phatz") in a loot-oriented game such as WoW or EQ.
PK — abbreviation for Player Killer or Player Kill (nouns) or as a verb for the act of killing another player. See also: RPK
PL — abbreviation for powerlevel.
Powerlevel — any optimized or high-speed method of leveling a character in a level-based game. It may also refer to techniques that allow high-level players to assist low-level players to help speed them through quests, or assists them in defeating powerful mobs. There are also quasi-legal "powerlevelling services" that coexist with businesses in the RMT trade that some people pay to level their characters (while they do other things, like work or watch television).
Private Server — a server run for an online game, usually developed independently of the publisher, that operates outside the domain of the publisher’s operations and subscription fees. Reasons players create private servers include creating servers with different rules or content, avoiding monthly charges, or simply to explore the technical challenge of developing a server emulator. Private Servers are usually in violation of a publisher’s terms of service.
Pull — the act of causing a mob to path toward to a group so that it can be fought safely, without risk of aggroing additional mobs. A "bad pull" is one that causes more than the intended number of creatures to aggro.
Pwn — a leetspeak version of "own," derived from the typo that occurs when your finger slips from the "o" to the "p" key. To "pwn" someone is to more-than-own them: to completely dominate them, with no recourse possible. Like many leetspeak words, there is no definitive pronunciation, but it is often spoken as "pone."
QFT — abbreviation for "quoted for truth," a common term used on gaming bulletin boards (but certainly not unique to the gaming world).
QQ — an emoticon that resembles two weeping eyes. It is usually used as an insult. Depending on context, it roughly translates to "cry more, noob," "crybaby" or "don’t cry."
Pull — to lure a select mob(s) into a safe kill zone.
Punish — the act of penalizing a player for performing undesired actions, such as a team-kill. Many FPS games have the ability to track the number of "punishes" a player has received, and may automatically ban them if they exceed the server’s policies. See also: Forgive, Team Kill
Raid — any large grouping of players beyond the size of a normal group. In games like Everquest and World of Warcraft, dozens of players can work together to defeat powerful bosses.
Ragequit — the act of quitting out of a game in anger because you have lost or because you are annoyed with team/group mates.
Regen — short for "regeneration," the rate at which certain statistical pools increase back to their maximum values. For example, games with "hit points" will sometimes allow the hit points to slowly regen even without special healing.
Repop — short for "repopulation," a synonym for respawn.
Respawn — an event the causes mobs to replace those that have been killed by players.
Rez — short for "resurrect," which refers to any ability for reviving an incapacitated player.
ROFL — Abbreviation for "Rolling on the Floor Laughing." Often used in online games with various adaptations such as "roflcopter."
Rollback — the term for when players are returned to a previous state, removing anything they have gained since a certain point in time. This sometimes happens in online games when the server crashes, or when the administrators need to return players to a previous point to correct a serious problem.
RMT — abbreviation for "Real Money Trading," the practice of selling in-game currency or items for real money. Although some games now include an RMT feature as part of their business model, the norm is for publishers to restrict RMT. There is a large number of businesses, many of them employing low-paid workers in Asia, who perform RMT services for players. See also: farmer
Roleplaying — a style of play in which players act-out their characters as if they were fictional characters (as opposed to simple alter-egos of themselves). Some games feature "roleplaying servers," in which players are encouraged (and expect others) to act in character. See also: OOC
Root — any effect that makes it so that the player is unable to move. However, they are typically allowed to act (compare to: Stun).
See also: Snare, Kite
RP — abbreviation for "roleplaying."
RPK — abbreviation for "random player killer." An RPK is someone who attacks any other player, without regard to roleplaying-based and/or diplomatic agreements with others.
RTS — Real Time Strategy game, a genre of games that involves managing resources, guiding units and building structures as part of a military-economic conflict against one or more opponent. Warcraft and Age of Empires were amongst the earliest RTS games.
Rush — a strategy in which a player forcing conflict very early in a game, before an opponent has had time to organize their resources; a common early-game strategy in RTS games. See also: Boom, Turtle
RvR — abbreviation for "Realm versus Realm," a style of game in which players of different realms or factions are pitted against each other. World of Warcraft PVP servers are an example of a 2-faction RvR system; Dark Age of Camelot is a 3-faction RvR system.
Scrub — a term originating from the competitive Street Fighter universe, referring to any player who isn’t good. It may also refer to any player who has created artificial mental obstacles to improving their play, such as players who complain about using "cheap" (but effective) tactics. Server — the software that runs at a site, usually remote from the player, that handles things such as collision detection, logistics, movement, and item persistence. See also: Client
Shader — specialized hardware and software that runs in a video card that can alter the color, illumination and geometry of 3D objects; used for advanced special-effects (such as shadows, fog, scintillations, etc.) within 3D engines.
Shard — a synonym for "server," originating from Ultima Online.
Smurf — term for a highly-skiller player (or guild) that makes alternate characters (or a placeholder guild) for the purpose of playing against low-ranked or less-skilled players to avoid loss of rank and prestige on main team while practicing.
Snare — any effect in a game that reduces the movement speed of a target. See also: kite, root
Socializer — one of the four categories within the Bartle Test, referring to players who prefer to interact with other people, or seek social status as opposed to in-game points or conquests. See also: Bartle Test
Spam — to repeat frequently.
1. as noun, refers to repetitive messages posted to public chat channels.
2. as verb, , it may also refer to a frequently used, basic attack (often with little or no cooldown).
In WoW, the frostbolt spell is the spam attack for frost-spec mages.
Spawn — to pop into existence
1. a verb that describes the creation of a new mob.
2. the location that a player appears at when entering the game or resurrecting.
See also: Respawn
Spec — short for "specification" or "specialization," and is used in the same sense as a template. See also: Build, template
Squishy — term for any character class or archetype that is easily damaged or killed. See also: Glass Cannon.
Static — an unchanging, consistent value. In online gaming, this usually refers to either (a) a static mob, i.e., a mob that always spawns in the same location, or (b) a static group of players who level at the same pace and go on the same adventures.
Stun — any effect that immobilizes the target for a period of time and also makes it impossible for them to act or react.
SWG — abbreviation for Star Wars Galaxies.
Tank — A defnesive character of unit used to soak up damage
1. a character archetype that typically features high defensive values, and often has the ability to hold aggro. The tank is able to take a beating and still survive.
2. the act of defending against a target--letting it beat on you instead of others.
Sigurd has some great armor—he could tank the demon lord all day long.
See also: aggro, hate
TeamSpeak — a popular Voice-over-IP technology that is used amongst online gamers.
Template — a combination of skills, attributes or abilities that reflects a particular character’s strategy; also referred to as a "build." My new template used 20 skill points to max out critical hits.
Texture Map — a 2D color map that is wrapped onto a 3D model. See also: Bump Map, Model, 3D Engine
TK — abbreviation for "team kill," the intentional or unintentional killing of someone from your own team or faction. See also: Forgive, Punish Toon — a shortening of the word "cartoon," referring to someone’s character in a game. See also: PC, Avatar
Town Portal — a phrase made popular by the Diablo series of games, in which the player read a Town Portal scroll to return to the safety of town; a "Town Portal" ability is generically any skill that returns the player to safety. See also: Hearth
TP — abbreviation for "town portal."
Train — a procession of mobs that follows you, generally due to running close to a large number of aggro mobs (When I saw Tarinth run out of Dargun’s Tomb, there must have been at least 20 gnolls training after him). Depending on context, it may also suggest that the player is intentionally trying to get a large number of mobs to aggro someone else.
Tradeskill — any skill that exists as part of a crafting system.
Trash Mobs — Easier mobs placed between you and the boss mob you really want to kill.
Turtle — a strategy, typically associated with RTS games, that involves the player focusing on the creation of defensive structures to fend off opponents. See also: Boom, Rush
Twink — a character of low level that has been given superior equipment or advantages by higher level characters, allowing them to be far more effective at their low level than is ordinarily possible.
Uber — a loanword from the German über (pronounced oo-ber), meaning "over" or "super" in the sense of "above, beyond." In English hacker and online-gaming culture, the word has a slightly different meaning, in which the "super" is translated to its English-language sense of "better, superior." It may be used as a suffix in front of almost any noun (this boss drops uberloot) or as a superlative (The Staff of the Magi is uber.)
Unit — the individual "playing piece" within an RTS game, such as a soldier or tank.
UO — abbreviation for Ultima Online.
Vent — short for Ventrilo.
Ventrilo — a popular voice-over-IP technology amongst online gamers.
See also: TeamSpeak
VG — short for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.
Wipe — a disaster in which every member of someone’s group has been killed. The term may have derived from either "wipe out" or "wiping the slate clean;" in the latter sense it implies that the team may have to redo everything to return to a previous point in their adventure.
WoW — abbreviation for World of Warcraft.
WTB — abbreviation used for "want to buy," often used in auction and trading chat channels. See also: WTS, WTT
WTF — abbreviation for "what the ****," a common explitive expressing surprise and aggravation. See also: FFS
WTS — abbreviation for "want to sell," often used in auction and trading chat channels. See also: WTB, WTT
WTT — abbreviation for "want to trade." See also: WTS, WTB
Wtfpwned — the fusion of WTF and the "pwn" leetspeak-word. It is an expression of awe and surprise at being quickly and totally dominated by an opponent.
XP — abbreviation for Experience Points.
Zerg — an insectoid race from the Starcraft game whose strategy resembles human-wave attacks: the use of large numbers of weak units to overwhelm an opponent. In online gaming, "zerging" means implies any use of a relatively large number of weak attacks or individuals to achieve victory, such as ganking with large numbers of disorganized players; or use of tactics such as bind rushing. A "zerg guild" implies a guild with lax recruiting policies that is attempting to reach large size without regard to the quality or cohesion of its membership.
ZOMG — a leetspeak modification of OMG. The "Z" does not imply any additional meaning.
Zone — a discrete area within a game world, often run by separate servers.
sorry it's EXTREMELY long but i'm sure this is going to be all you need =)