f13.net

Not kidding. This isn't really recorded anywhere. Triforcer kinda led me onto this in the wiki thread. We have enough folks in the know here, I think to compile an exhaustive list of everything associated with Online gaming and standard words, their definitions, and forms of speech to really knock it out of the ballpark. Let's do that. This sort of shit needs to be written down. It will go into the f13 wiki as it progresses. Feel free to argue definitions as well, but let's go for breadth here, not depth. Depth is for encyclopedias, this is a dictionary.

If you happen to know where something first popped up, feel free to add it as trivia.

Edit: Also, won't lie, this thread (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15270.0) had me thinking about this for a few days now.

Wiki Link - f13.springnote.com (http://f13.springnote.com)

Catass-  One who plays plays an MMO for extreme lengths of time (such as days, weeks, or months of near-uninterrupted play). This may come at the expense of hygiene, social interaction, and nutrition. Originated with the article "The Surreal World" by Hayes Reed where he described an Ultima Online obsessed friend's apartment as, "A den of cat ass and murdered time."

First use: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/06.01.00/cover/onlinegames1-0022.html

Grind:
1) where the process of character progression through repetitive tasks exceeds the players threshold for repeating those tasks; "I'm sick of this grind to level 50"
2) a broad term for describing MMOs that use repetitive tasks as their core game mechanic for character progression; "It's a grind-y title"

Wiki discussion on grind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grind_(gaming))

I'm gonna take the wikipedia wording for the noun form and modify it for the verb form, thanks for the link.

No probs - whatever works out best. On an entirely unrelated matter:

Cockblock: where unlockable in-game content can only be reached through an excessive grind and / or rare and randomly distributed items

All added. Only about 2,000 more words I can think of to go. This will be fun.

Hm. Do you want the "original" meaning of the words, or do we take into account the way they might have changed over the years?

Take "Carebear" for instance. I don't know if it was used in MMOG-context earlier than UO, but there it originally refered to characters created by roleplayers to "oppose" playerkillers by showering them with hugs and love =P The characters wouldn't carry any loot, so the only thing the playerkillers got out of killing them was another murder count.

Nowadays the word is used in a negative way to describe players who only do PvE, or who complain about PvP.

EDIT: Also, a link to the wiki would be nice.

Both, history is important when necessary.

Updating OP with Link. Check Gen Disc, another project is there - stickied.

If grind exceeded people's tolerance wouldn't they not do it?

There's a nebulous level PAST grind where people quit. See: CoH or WAR for great recent examples.

Even though the grind in WAR hit in tier 2, people weren't ready to walk until it got much worse somewhere between 3 and the endgame.

I'd like to add:

(2) Cockblock - to deliberately stymie and slow the advancement of rival players or guilds by exploiting badly designed gameplay elements or quest bottlenecks.

Usage: We can't raid Plane of Time yet, we are being cockblocked on Coirnav by the other guilds.

eg: Pre instanced raiding days.
SOE Everquest 1 - Plane of Water - quest bottleneck - Guilds who already had the flags will deliberately fail the encounter (start the event and zone) - the quest NPC will not respawn for 5 days. Since this encounter is a needed flag for Plane of Time (the end quest raid zone), the rest of the server raiding guilds cannot advance past this bottleneck - for 5 days at least. On Everquest servers that mixed all European / American / Australian players from different time zones together; rival guilds from different time zones would cockblock with gusto*. It did not help (until SOE fixed it) - that cockblocked events will reset in 24 hr increments, hence if an Euro or Aussie guild managed to lock the the event into their time zone - they owned it! (and vice-versa American guilds for the most part). You either had to raid it NOW or lose it and be cockblocked forever.

* Yes, most servers eventually set up a mutually agreed upon calendars (on unofficial forums) that shared the raiding events. Much server political drama - very amusing really.

(3) Cockblock (devs) - To hide incomplete, untuned, or buggy content behind hideously difficult, tedious or even deliberately broken / impossible content bottlenecks.

Usage: Uqua is a total cockblock atm - no one can get past that since SOE has yet to finish Tacvi... (true gibberish... but not to an EQ1 player).

eq: Yes, Everquest 1 again - they are the poster boys of player abuse to this day.
The devs figured that the players would only get to the end game raid zone - Plane of Time in 6 months*. They figured wrong - IIRC, FoH reached the penultimate raid zone - Plane of Earth in less than 2 months. The devs put in the Rathe Council cockblock event that was completely unbeatable to hold them back for the next few months while they furiously worked on finishing and itemizing the Plane of Time.

* Length of time are guesstimates on my part - its been years.
PS: SOE removed the cockblock (actually made the Rathe Council beatable), FoH moved into Plane of Time and found that the place was still buggy, incomplete and broken = much Furor drama queen antics followed. 

Some basic ones.

Mob - NPC designed for players to kill. Originally from MUDs, short for "mobile".
Pull - To initiate combat between players and mobs. E.g "Pull that goblin over there", "Oh god he pulled the whole hill again, run" and "Don't let that hunter pull again he fucks it up every time".
Add - A mob that aggresses the player in addition to pulled mobs or if linked to pulled mobs. Also known as a BaF ("Bring a friend).

Gank - to kill with an overwhelming advantage.

Root word - Gang Kill

Very wordy definition in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganking)

Kite -v

To attack a mob and lead them around without being harmed for an extended period of time.  Originally used to described techniques used by Bards in Everquest 1 when killing typically more than one enemy target.  Also used to describe a technique to distract mobs away from a group of players killing something else.

--

Note on MOB, It stood for "Mobile Object" actually.

--

Loot Ninja - n

Term used to describe someone who takes the spoils of a fight without permission or discussing it with his fellow teammates.

--

Dot - n, v

noun 1.  A term used for "Damage Over Time" effects.  Usually described as "...does X amount of damage over Y period of time."

verb 2.  Used as "To dot something up".  A term used to apply a Damage Over Time ability on a target.

See: HOT

--

Hot - n

noun 1.  A term used for "Heal Over Time" effects.  Usually described as "...restores X amount of healther over Y period of time."


--

Crowd Control - n

1.  A term used to describe an ability that holds or placates a harmful enemy for a period of time.  Some common effects are freezing, rooting, and sheeping.  Short hand version is referred to as "CC".

--

I'm not the best at this but there are a few.  You might what to to define, rooting and sheeping as well.  You could go on and define game specific terms.  D&D mechanics and stats could be explained. etc.

Edit:
some other terms someone else may want to write up better than I can "Leet or 1337" and Hax or h4x and other terms used in UO like sheep and wolf.  Might want to go into crafting etc.

I'm sort of in the process of teaching my wife all of these words that I have known for years, so hooray.  I'm not ready to pound out definitions right now since my brain is full of Korn right now, but here are some things I invite others to give a formal definition to.

Buff/debuff
Guild (yes really, nonMOG people don't know what this means in context)
Group (see previous)
Tank
DPS
Glass Cannon
Holy Trinity
Mez
Root
Stun (note the differences in this and the 2 previous)
Trash/yard trash/trash mob
Raid (some people haven't played WoW)
Drop, as in Loot Drop
Pet/Pet Class
Farm (and Why It Is OK To Be Racist Against Chinese :awesome_for_real:)
Diku

Also some info on general loot distribution systems, such as FFA or Round-Robin, since my wife cannot understand why you would want to designate a master looter.

Ding

Everquest term for the noise when a character gained an experience level.

Newb -- Derogatory term for "new" or recent players to a game. 
Pwn -- Derogatory term.  Verb abbreviation for "own" or "owned".  Usually for player to player transactions, events, or encounters.
L2P -- Derogatory acronym for "learn to play". 
Buff -- Enhancements.  A player or item given (usually temporary) enhancement to a statistic for play.
gp (gold pieces, sp etc.) -- currency abbreviation.
Proc -- Short for "process".  Meant to explain the probability of a beneficial effect to occur from usually a player owned item.
Min/Max -- Type of player attitude -- people who obsess about the best and worst kinds of statistics to have in a game.  Usually a personality who wishes to only have the statistically best play style, items and formation of play.  Someone who tracks the attributes of a game by statistics.
Spoiler or Griefer -- Type of player attitude -- people who wish to interrupt or harm the play time or style of others for their own pleasures

Edit: corrected, for attitude

there's probably more in Lum's Dummies Guide too (I'll tonight if I remember)

Definitions or GTFO guys. Just listing a bunch of words is easy peasy. Giving a proper, understandable definition is what we're doing here. At least Yegolev knew he was doin it wrong.  :oh_i_see:  :why_so_serious:

Grotting - when you go up behind a guy and strangle him with a piece of corn (HAHAH!)

Seriously, though -

KOS - kill on sight
Mule - a character used just for storage
Respec - re-specifying your skills and attributes

I don't know where anything started.  Except for the first one and it's not really gaming related.   :grin:

Exactly - point being, the definition for grind probably shouldn't say anything about exceeding people's tolerance.

The way I define the word grind is "A repetitive activity mostly consisting of a single activity that after while is able to be performed with minimal attention.  Usually looked upon with negative connotations."

People don't start using the word grind until it stops being fun. Should we say "exceeds" people's fun cap?

Yeah, fun should be the defining factor I think. Grind is something shitty you do over and over and over again because the carrot is good enough to make you put up with it.

It's hard to define simply because it's not always the carrot - sometimes even the carrot is nebulous, or sometimes you grind just because they ran out of content or you want to catch up with people. I think the definition is pretty good, a grind is something you do when the rest of the game exceeds your tolerance level for everything else in the same section of the game, whether that be beginning middle or end.

Also, grinding directly leads to quitting most likely in more cases than it doesn't. I grinded in WAR while waiting for Mark to fix shit. I grinded in Conan while waiting for Gaute to fix shit. I grinded in SWG while waiting for SOE to fix shit. Maybe tolerance isn't the right word, but when it's the most fun, that's sort of saying it's the smartest in the retarded class, it's just not reasonable. Need to find something inbetween.

Of course, it's moot since there's 3 definitions and all 3 have been validly used in practice before. And you're only complaining about the wording of the second one. :grin:

The person who came up with the term 'carebear' is giving me the full story and definition on sunday.

Does anyone have a copy of "The Carebear Manifesto?" It seems web-dead. I want it.

Archive.org is your friend, schild:

Care Bear Manifesto (http://web.archive.org/web/20010724214639/http://www.dweller.com/vv/lib_bear.htm) (link 1)
Care Bear Manifesto (http://web.archive.org/web/20030920010708/http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/park/ydo86/europatown/faq/care.html) (link 2)

(Original links found in http://textfiles.poboxes.info/digest/MUD-DEV/24581.html)

Here's a couple off the top of my head.

Nerf (verb)
To massively reduce in effectiveness, often to the point of uselessness. Derived from Nerf brand foam guns, etc. Example: "Damn Blizz really nerfed the Sword of 1000 Truths last patch!"

Train
1) (verb) To run through packs of aggressive monsters with no intention of killing them. Example: "Don't bother clearing, just train to the door"
2) (verb) To do the above with the intention of making the monsters attack another player or group of players. Example: "Some griefer just trained 4 adds onto us while we were fighting the dragon!"
3) (noun) The group of monsters following a player doing the above.

Trash (noun)
1) A type of monster that is neither involved in a quest or known to drop good loot.

Aggro
1) (adjective) A monster that attacks players automatically when they get within a certain range. Example: "Careful, those wolves are aggro" See also: Aggro Radius.
2) (verb) When an above monster attacks a player. Example: "We aggro'd too many because our rogue was running around like a spaz" See also: Add

Aggro Radius (noun)
1) The range at which an aggro mob will attack players. Often directly proportional to the difference in mob and player level. Example: "The aggro radius on that dragon is huge because he's level 75!"

NPC - non-player character, controlled by the game system (mentioned in Mob definition, but not defined)
AoE - Area of Effect, the area that a character must be within in order to be effected. Such as an explosion.
Twink - Character advanced as quickly as possible by exploiting loopholes in a game system, often with the help of a higher level character.
GM - Game Master, typically employees of the game company
Farming - An activity used solely for the gathering of resources

There's also a list here:
http://www.seventhtavern.com/game-glossary/glossary-a.html

I cannot find it now, but didn't Corpnews have this same idea somewhere.  IIRC it was called 'For the Children" or something.

Just so you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

EDIT:  here http://wiki.onlinegamers.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Kiting - killing a monster/player by using the terrain to your advantage; usually a hit and run tactic performed over and over until the player defeats his target.

I'll pick off some of Yeg's:

Buff/debuff - (v) To temporarily increase or decrease a character's abilities (in most games this boils down to ability to deal or absorb damage).  (n) The status effect corresponding to this action.

Guild (yes really, nonMOG people don't know what this means in context) - (n) A persistent and sometimes very large organization of players that congregate or communicate with each other for socialization and/or in-game cooperation.  Guilds frequently serve in large part to facilitate the creation of groups with known players.

Group (see previous) - (n) A temporary and usually relatively small group of players formed to accomplish a short-term in-game task that can be achieve more easily by multipler players than by one.

Tank - (n) A character whose primary purpose in a group is to absorb damage and thereby prevent other characters from being damaged.  (v) The act of serving as a tank.

DPS - (n) Damage Per Second, the most common measure of a character's ability to deal damage in combat.

Glass Cannon - (n) A character with a high ability to deal damage (DPS) but low ability to absorb damage (tank).

Holy Trinity - (n) The combination of tank, healer, and DPS that provides maximum combat effectiveness in many MMOGs.

Loot (n) - rewards given to player characters that can be used as equipment / items and / or in-game currency. Although it can be fixed in terms of which reward is given for defeating a particular mob or completing a particular in-game quest, typically loot rewards are randomly distributed especially when awarded for defeating mobs. Or it can be a mix of fixed and random e.g. defeating the Hamidon in CoH/V awards a Hami-O (fixed) but there are several different types of Hami-O you can get (randomly awarded).

Trash loot (n) - loot that has little individual value and just clogs up your character's inventory space. This can be because the item has little in-game value, is not usable to the character and / or are animal parts (so where killing a bear awards you a bear pelt and you have to kill 100 bears, you can end up with a lot of useless bear pelts should you collect them all).

I have never seen Twink used in that context. That just describes power levelling IMHO.

Here is mine:

Twink (noun): A derogatory term applied to player characters equipped with numerous high level gear (some of which may not be optimal or even appropriate for the character) that the character could not possibly have obtained by themselves through normal gameplay. This is opposed to an Alt, which just refers to an alternate character in the game played by the same person.

Usage: "That twink Rogue is a RL friend of the guild leader, thats why he got the uber bow from the raid boss when it should have gone to the Hunters on the raid."

Etymology: Numerous - one of which is Twink being also a  gay slang term describing, "an attractive young or young-looking gay man (usually in his late teens or early twenties) with a slender build and little or no body hair." Usually seen as having a sugar daddy or cushy financial status provided by others.

EQ1 - in 1999, low level chars as low as level 1 could wear bronze plate armor (usually obtained at levels 25-30). As these chars could not possibly have obtained the armor by themselves, and still have low hp as a level 1, they are described as "Twinks" akin to Hostess Twinkies cakes - Bronze Yellow/Orange on the outside, squishy soft on the inside.

Note: You can be a twink without being power levelled or advancing. I know several people in EQ1 that have appropriately levelled twinks created to just soak up high level / raid loot that would have otherwise rotted (Plane of Time twinks...) The worst abuses I ever saw were back in the 1999 EQ1 days, when they ran level 1 twinks all the way to Plane of Fear / Hate (max endgame raid zones in those days - level 50) to pick up raid boss god loot (no level restriction on gear, no level restriction on zone entry). They fixed that exploit soon enough tho.

===

Alt: An alternate character of player being played in the same game.

===

RL: Real life - the world outside of MMOGs - aka reality.

RL appears to be optional for many MMOG players - as many have been described as having no real life...

===

Power level (verb), PL (abbr.): To abnormally accelerate advancement in the game. Usually done with the help of higher level players or by taking advantage of certain game mechanics done legally or via exploitation.

Usage: I need to power level to level 70 and then gear up to join my friends raiding Karazhan.

Note: Usually done with the help of higher level characters via various techniques. One can also power level via illegal exploits or bad design loopholes (IIRC, 2000 EQ1 - buy stacks of cheap shark skin in Kelethin, port to Erudin - turn in stacks for unlimited quest exp - ding all the way to 50 for virtually no effort). Legal power levelling also exists - WoW recruit a friend program - get triple experience while playing with the friend plus get a free mount!

Twink in MMORPGs is a verb.

"I need someone to twink my alt."

I've never heard it used as a noun in a game. The only other definition I know it as (as a noun, that is) is "young attractive boyish homosexual (male)."

You see twink used as both noun and verb routinely in WoW at least. The pvp forums regularly have threads about twinks and how they're ruining/saving battlegrounds and how twinking is a bad/good thing.

No one has mentioned my favourite MMO word?

Poopsock

(n) A person who has become so addicted to their game of choice, that they refuse to leave their computer for extended periods of time and use any nearby container to defecate in, e.g. a sock.
I heard Brian played WoW for 18 hours yesterday, what a poopsock!

(v) Playing a game (particularly an MMO) for a very long, uninterrupted session. See above.
Did you hear that Hello Kitty Online is coming out next week? I'm gonna poopsock that motherfucker.

No, I have to disagree - Twink is most definitely a noun in MMORPGs - and not as a general gay slang term but within a  MMORPG context. Of this, I am 100% certain - as a long time EQ1 player (1999-2006) and in WoW (2007-present) - I hear it being used as a noun (and a verb) all the time.

I promise, I did not edit the Wikipedia article... but here is the entry with the description of the term as a noun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking)

Anyway, here is my definition of Twink as a verb:

Twink (verb): To equip a low level character with high level gear that the character would not have been able to obtain in normal gameplay. Related to min-max (see above).

====

I see that you have added cockblock into the wiki to define it as something devs do. I am sure that there has been a shift in the meaning as I understand it - as I actually believe the word started in a PvP context - refer to my definition above. With the introduction of instancing and better quest designs, Cockblocking as a PvP tool has been minimized or done away with altogether.

Origin of the word Cockblock:
I believe the origin of the word Cockblock comes from Everquest 1 - circa 1999 - 2003 before they introduced instancing in the game. The heyday being in the Planes of Power expansion, with no instancing and having to share raid events and mobs out in the open. Even though the game in general was strictly PvE (apart from specialized servers), rival guilds and players could block each others progress. For instance, by farming a trivial raid/quest mob repeatedly, just so to prevent a rival guild or other players from getting the flags needed to progress or finish quests.

In short, acting like DICKS to block others, hence TO COCKBLOCK. 

The origin of cockblock has nothing to do with MMORPGs. It's as old as 2 guys and a girl being in the same place at once. The applicable version of cockblock is in the dictionary. When once says cockblock, at least around here, they mean that - not players being dicks to other players.

Remember, the point is to standardize lingo, at least in this neck of the woods, not apply Every Single Definition Out There.

perch Popular in earlier MMOs, using the ability to jump or climb on to terrain that a MOB can't reach, and then killing the mob with ranged attacks. Often debated as to whether it was a feature or an exploit, was eventually coded out of most later MMOs

azzrape possibly several other terms for the same action - using the "bow" emote in UO to simulate anally raping the corpse of a player you just killed.

Catass -- someone who is obsessive about their grind and wishes to advance no matter what the cost (i.e. to the cost of cats peeing in their room).  Refers to some famous article written about some dysfunctional EQ1 player where "the smell cat pee" is mentioned at least once or more.


Edit: unbelievable -- sorry I missed that.

Heh, read the first reply.

Heh, yes - I apologize for my sorry ass speculation on how the word started in MMOGs. My bad.

On the other hand, I am quite sure the word cockblock in MMOG context had its start in Everquest 1 - especially in the Planes of Power expansion where players can stymie and block progression of each other in a PvE raiding enviroment. Since most of this stuff all happened in 2002-2003, its hard to google up the references. Perhaps some of the old time hardcore raiders of EQ1 can back me up.

Of course, it was all fixed later within the game, and instancing completely removed this sort of gameplay behavior soon after from almost all MMOGs, hence the meaning shift to something devs do.

Okay - brings back some good old memories - gotta put in some of this stuff in the gaffes thread.

Actually, it referred specifically to the Druid ability to apply a dot, run away (aided by SoW) while the dot worked, then apply it again and take off again, lather, rinse, repeat.  I'm absolutely sure of that.  In DAoC it later came to refer to the practice of "Buffbotting", having a character set on /follow in a PvP area that maintained high-level buffs for you but took no other actions.  You "kited" the buffbot.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat: Refers to any simple strategy that confers an optimal gain at minimal risk when performed repeatedly.  Often associated with exploits where emergent combination of game elements (such as speed enhancers and high-power DOT spells on the same class, or pathing bugs in NPC's) is far more effective than expected, or quest rewards may be repeatedly cashed in with little effort.

ATM Quest: In general, a quest that allows itself to be repeated many times in a short interval.  This may involve collecting many of the quest token items and turning them in repeatedly for the reward, or a FedEx quest that has the giver standing very near the receiver.

FedEx Quest: Any quest that involves taking an item (message, bracelet, Eye of Vecna) from one NPC to another.  A common subtask of "quest chains".

Gold Fountain: Any means for creating effectively unlimited amounts of in-game currency at a high rate through LRR methods.  A FedEx quest where the receiver and sender are standing next to each other (perhaps through use of other bugs to change the positions) and can create the reward as fast as the quest can be clicked through for as long as the player (or his macro program) care to continue, is a gold fountain if the item has cash value to NPC's.  An extremely high-value NPC that can be forced to respawn frequently is another form of this.  Can also be used as a leveling exploit in games with XP-based level or skill gain.

Usage-based skill systems: Where the primary or only method for raising in a skill is to perform actions that make checks against that skill.  To raise your swordfighting, you equip a bladed weapon and attack things.  To make better armor, you make lots of crappy armor nobody wants to buy, and so on.  Can lead to very odd and even farcical behavior, such as evil assassins skipping (running and jumping skills) through a meadow plucking up daisies (herbcraft skill for poisons) and tossing them at everyone they see (thrown weapons skill).  Tend to be used more for "Trade Skills" than combat-related skills, but may be used in a less grindy form for nonessential skills inside a class/level framework.  Legend says that someday the perfect use-based skill advancement system will come and liberate us from our leveling shackles and class system chains.  If confronted with one of those believers in this prophecy, make no sudden moves while backing towards the door.  Do not ridicule, deride, or even laugh at the afflicted person until you are certain you have reached the exit.

Trade Skills: Skills that gateway the capacity to create in-game items from other in-game items, or to change their properties.  Frequently associated with precursor skills for gathering the materials or preparing the items.  Not to be confused with Eve Online's Trade Skill group, which relates entirely to the in-game buy-sell market system (in Eve, Industrial skills are equivalent to normal Trade skills).

Wipe: When things go badly wrong and every member of a raid or party dies, it is referred to as a "Wipe", shortened from "wipeout".

Dirtnap: What you do when your character "dies" in games without permadeath.  The time between the "death" and your resurrection is a "dirtnap".

Corpse Run: Old school EQ1 punishment for players that suffered wipes in hostile areas, intended as a public humiliation for the amusement of the operators.  All of their gear would remain on their corpses at the location where they died, generally very close to the things that killed them.  GM's would invisibly gather to watch the festivities as players tried to "corpse drag" their stuff to a location where they could loot it without being attacked again.  This often involved repeated deaths, and losses of entire levels worth of XP representing weeks of grinding.  The Corpse Runs of EQ have had most of the fun removed, and no later game has repeated it, gear now magically joins you after death.

Multi-Boxing: For one person to run multiple accounts, generally on different computers, often with macro-program assistance.  2-boxing is fairly common in PvP games, but there are confirmed cases of 6-boxing and claims of higher numbers (generally accompanied by photoshopped scenes of an actual 4-6 box setup that has screens and keyboards cloned into all available space).  For people who find it easier to buy more hardware than to make friends.

I'll do more later, I'm tired.

--Dave

You might want to have two definitions to "buff".

1) A temporary improvement to a character, skill, spell, or item. The buff is usually activated by some player action (casting a spell, reading a scroll, applying poison to a weapon, etc).
2) A permanent improvement of a skill, spell, class, race, or item which is hardcoded by the MMO's developers. Anyonym of "nerf".

Would various acronyms be included in this?

Popular with some roleplayers who prefer not to say that their character has "died" when in fictional terms it clearly hasn't.

I was going to define a bunch of shit but I see the wiki hasn't been updated.  We need more wikipedos (thanks for the new word, Jeff Kelly!).

Don't make me slap you, Dave! It WILL happen, dammit.

Goldfarmer (noun): A player who exists solely to generate in-game currency that is later used for RMT purposes. First mention I ever saw was in EQ1. Ex: My alt is being griefed by a goldfarmer.

Mule (noun): A character used solely for item/currency storage in order to circumvent in-game inventory mechanics. Ex: Send your extra mats to my mule.

Mats (noun): Materials. Often used in reference to in-game crafting related items. Ex: Send your extra mats to my mule.

Griefing (verb): Harrasing another player within the game. Often used in reference to PvP game play.

Griefer (noun): One who engages in greifing or harassing other players.

Healbot / Buffbot (noun): A character who exists solely to heal and/or buff another player.

Main (noun): The primary character on a players account.

Twobox / Multibox (verb): Using multiple machines and/or accounts to play more than one account at the same time.

Slightly off-topic but how about some exotism ? Let me introduce you to the french MMO vocabulary. We use a lot of english acronyms like DPS & co, because the first french MMOers played on US servers. But we often transform them in french words. "Je tanke, tu tankes, il tanke, nous tankons..."

Kikitoudur : litteraly "hard penis" (kiki is a child's word, don't know how to translate it), a bragging hardcore gamer.
Kikimeter : a meter for said penis, ie a damage meter.
Kevin : in the late eighties, early nineties Kevin Costner was a big star. So lots of parents called their braindead child "Kevin". A Kevin is an annoying kid.
Bisounours : translation of carebear.
Palouf : pejorative for paladin.
Kipik : weak pun, because "epic" sounds like "qui pique", "that stings"

Do you use "afk bio" ? Bio is for biological need, the anti poopsocker technic of going to the shitter.


It's all I can think of at the moment, it would be interesting to hear from spanish, german, or italian players.

Are low use words ok?  As in something just used in a circle of friends/guild?

Not sure of the critical mass required in order for something to be a part of legit gaming vocab.

For Example:  Manpile, used by a number of guilds on the WoW blackrock server to describe what to do in certain encounters when everyone in the raid needs to stand in a certain spot, stand at the base of a mob etc.  I.e. "everyone manpile at the foot of mob X's feet so you don't trigger an aoe knockback"

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=manpile&defid=1606738 - 18k -



more widely used would be:

Tank N Spank - slang for a  very straightforward pve fight, requiring no special tactics/strategy etc.  Tank taunts mob and holds aggro, dps does dps, and healers heal.  Example:  "Ok, so i see most of you have never been in here before, no worries this first boss fight is a straight up tank and spank, DPS watch your aggro this guy will one shot you, 123 k go."

For sure.

Need before Greed - (NBG) A system used to distrubute loot, giving an item to players who can recieve some tangible upgrade it before those who would simply sell the item.
Master Loot - Also known as 'Leader Loot' or 'Leader Only'; this looting system allows only the group leader (or someone designated by the group leader) to loot and distribute items. This system is frequently used in guild groups/raids, often in conjunction with a DKP system (see below).
DKP - Dragon Kill Points, a system (originating in EQ1 iirc) that tracks raid participation; points are awarded for attending and spent on loot. There are many variations between the different DKP systems, but all function in the above manner.

I remember it being used in the Vox/Naggy days pre-PoFear but with a slightly different meaning since it was describing the attempt to prevent access to an encounter itself, not to unlockable content past it.  The latter sense became more common starting in Luclin with Emperor Ssra.



oh, definitions

Clogging: Using ranged attacks on MOBs that can't reach you due to pathing or geometry quirks - considered an exploit in most games.  See - Perch.
   "The GMs caught me clogging in the specter caves."

Regs:  Ultima Online slang for 'reagents,' which are the physical ingredients needed to cast spells.
   "I couldn't cast fire field because I was out of regs."

Cross-dresser: Someone who plays a character of the opposite sex. 
   "When we started using Ventrilo we discovered that our guild leader is a cross dresser."

Silent Sam: An Ultima Online player who approaches uncomfortably closely without saying anything, which is usually a sign of sinister intent. (Possibly limited to the Baja shard)
   "I lost my 'Great Lord' title because I killed a silent sam in Hythloth."

Kill steal: To take the experience reward and/or loot from an encounter that rightfully belongs to another player - also abbreviated as 'KS.'
   "That jerk KSed Drelzna after I'd been waiting for 12 hours."

junk buffs: An EQ1 term for superfluous buffs placed in the first few buff slots to prevent buff dispelling attacks from removing valuable buffs in lower slots. 
   "OK, everyone toss on at least 3 junk buffs before the useful ones."

DD: Short for Direct Damage.  Refers to offensive spells that do damage to a single target upon impact, as opposed to AoEs or DoTs.
  "Ice Comet is the most powerful L.50 DD spell."

LFG: Stands for Looking for Group.  Can be shouted in public channels by group-seeking players or, in some games, set as an identifying tag on one's character.
   "L.80 templar with no lockouts LFG!!"

Bind point: The location to which a player returns after death.  Can also be a verb referring to the act of choosing that location.
   "Let me bind outside the dungeon before we head in."

Bot: A character controlled by complex scripting or automation software.  Also refers to the act of running such a character.
  "I'm pretty sure those two hunters in Duskwood are bots.  They're killing in the same pattern as the farmer who was botting there yesterday."

PK: Short for Player Killer, a player who deliberately kills other players.
   "Kerra is pissed because her house was robbed by PKs."

Endgame: The highest level content in a game or expansion, which usually provides the greatest reward when defeated.
   "The Vex Thal zone is the Luclin expansion's endgame."

Main tank: Can refer to the tank who holds the aggro of the primary target in a raid encounter or to the player in a guild who most often takes that role.
  "Kalaran has been FoH's main tank for years."

Offtank: A player who holds the aggro of secondary targets while the main tank focuses on the primary.
  "I'm stuck offtanking in the big fights until I get my HP over 11000."

Main Assist: The player who chooses targets for the rest of the group or raid to attack.
   "Mungo will be main assist this raid, so change your /assist keys accordingly."

CH chain/Heal chain: A tanking strategy in which a number of healers do nothing but cast their biggest heal on the main tank in a timed sequence.
   "We wiped to Tormax because the CH chain broke down."

Clickie: An item that creates an effect when activated (clicked).
   "Sune's gear is terrible because she spends all her DKP on clickies."

Zoneline: The boundary between one area of a game and another.  In most games, MOBs do not pursue players through them.
   "If one more kobold paths into us, run for the zoneline."

Zone ranger: Derogatory EQ1 term for players who stay close to zonelines to permit easy escape in case of trouble.
   "I wanted to explore the castle basement but my group was a bunch of zone rangers."

RNG: Short for Random number generator.  It's also an abbreviation for the ranger class in some games.
  "The item I want never drops - I swear the RNG hates me."

Loot whore: An especially and unapologetically greedy player.
  "I can't believe Ghrok wants the helmet too after winning three other items.  He's such a loot whore."

Dumbfire: A type of pet that can't be controlled beyond directing it at a target when summoned, and that disappears after engaging one encounter.
  "Zezal killed us all by aggroing a second MOB with his dumbfire."

Flag: A marker on one's character achieved by killing a MOB.  Flags are called attunements in WoW.  Both terms can be used as verbs describing the act of acquiring the noun.
   "I need three more flags before I can enter the plane of time."

Dupe: Any exploit that duplicates an item or quantity of money.
   "I made 30k on Ebay back when I discovered that plat dupe."

Greens/grays: MOBs that are too low-level to provide experience or reward.  In most games such MOBs or their names highlight green or gray when targeted.  Green/gray can also refer to an area filled with green/gray MOBs.
   "I haven't been back to Upper Guk since the zone went green."
   
Random: To decide loot distribution by using the in-game number generator.  Also called 'rolling.'
  "Everyone who wants it, random 1-100 for the breastplate."

Teamspeak/Ventrilo: Two versions of online voice software that are popular with gamers.
   "I hate when Razz logs in because he's always so loud on Ventrilo."

Camp: Refers either to a place where players sit and kill the same MOBs repeatedly or to the act of sitting there.
  "We camped the Eboots camp for 3 days before a pair dropped."

Guide: A player who the game's management has given limited power to assist the GMs with player problems.
   "UO guides used to trade gold and items for cybersex."

Hate: The numerical measure of a MOB's anger toward a player.  The person with the most hate will almost always be the MOB's target of attack.
   "My tanking sword adds +700 hate every time it procs."

Knockback: A spell effect that knocks a player or MOB backwards out of position.
  "That boss' knockback tossed me at least 300 feet!"

WTB/WTS/WTT: Abbreviations for Want to Buy, Want to Sell and Want to Trade, respectively.  Used in public trade channels to indicate exactly what they sound like.
  "WTB mithril ingots, paying well, please send tell."

Assist:Assisting means setting your target to match that of another player.  Learning when and who to assist is a vital, basic skill in any MMO.
   "The playerbase in WoW is so clueless that half of them don't even know how to assist."

Instance:A copy of a dungeon or zone that exists only for the group or raid that enters it.
  "Kiera and Shana are both running Maidens, but their groups are in different instances."

Zerg: To attack with overwhelming numbers and/or a lack of intelligent strategy.  See - Bind Rush.
   "That guild has done nothing but zerg since their best raid leader quit."

I think not even f13 is decided on this term, but this is what it has meant for me for a while:

Cockstab: A nerf of the rewards of a particular advancement path or activity, that previously (or currently) required very long periods of grind. The activity was likely formerly known as a cockblock (albeit lucurative), thus its name.
    "Nerfing the epic armour set was a complete cockstab after all the work I've put in."

Just my $.02 on Twink.

A. Definitely a Noun first.

B.  I first heard the term on Sojourn Mud a year or two before there was an Everquest.  Sojourn was extremely item centric with no item level restrictions.  Many popular items only spawned after a restart, so anyone lowish level with good gear was instantly recognizable.

Edit:  They apparently have a Glossary here (http://www.torilmud.org/maininfoglossary.htm) with a very different definition.  Interesting.

Good post, adding some based on my own EQ, WoW and MMO experiences.


Also, Shemale.



Also, Killstealer, KS, KSer.




Also, Nuke - was being used in EQ1 as far back as 1999, so probably predates it.
Noun and Verb. "Use your nukes." "nuking it". Origins - Nuclear weapons. (big explosions).



Also, MT as a common abbreviation.


Also, MA as a common abbreviation.


Plow Tank: A tank that due to level, experience or class is not given the job of tanking bosses, but instead tanks the trash mobs between boss encounters. Allows the MT to have a mental rest between boss fights. (More common in games such as EQ with bigger numbers of people in raids. Often Paladins and/or Shadowknights would get this role. Related to Tank Rotations. Unrelated to Heal Rotations



Also known as Heal Rotations



Also known as Aggro, Taunt. "I have aggro."  "I'm losing taunt."


On Twink - noun and verb. Back as far (at least) as 1999 on EQ1. Both everyday vernacular, neither usage rare or more common than the other. Over time, even in EQ1 the term lost it's negative connontations for many "It's me, Drizzle. This is my Twink rogue!"

On Need Before Greed/NBG - Also known as Can Use Will Use aka CAWU

On Holy Trinity - in EQ1 this was not Tank/Healer/DPS. It was Tank/Healer/CC. Usually in the form of Warrior/Cleric/Enchanter, the "ideal" classes for all three roles. This was because in EQ1, more than 1 mob in the camp attacking the party usually meant a player death or even a wipe. WoW has a much larger emphasis on multiple enemies, and so CC is relegated to an occasional niche instead of being seen as a necessity.

Another crossdresser synonym = mangina.

Has anyone defined aptiabod yet?

Also: GIRL (Guy in Real Life).

Someone really needs to put all these together in a list so I can scroll down and see if any term I've thought of has been mentioned.

I've never heard Plow Tank (from EQ1 beta to WoW). Offtank (OT), AOE Tank, yes.

The plan was to do that once I could find wiki/library software that didn't require you KNOW what you were looking for (i.e. springnote, but not slow, shitty and prone to NCSoft shutting it down).

I've also heard it called a Mangina multiple times. I see we have another mangina.  Cross dresser? some of this terminology must be based in the forums, instead of the game iteself.

Assjam, Verb.
Definition: The act of interfering with a fair fight, normally between groups.
Example: It was a great 8v8 until that extra group assjammed it.

Assjammer(s), Noun.
Definition: People who perform assjammings
Example: It was great until we were interefered by that assjammer.



Just chiming in that this is how I know of the Holy Trinity as well. The 3 vital roles to solid standard groups from back in EQ1. Without them groups were decreased in efficiency and survivability many times over to a point some dungeons/spawns weren't even doable for the majority of players.

That's why we're doing this. Different servers/realms from EQ1 all the way through to WoW will sometimes have slightly different terminology for things and ingame places (moreso in EQ1 than WoW, since WoW has proper names for most of thelittle places in the zones, while EQ players had to name the geography inside the zones "orc 1, orc 2 etc." I remember when my server was merged and the other side had different names for places and things. Chances are if something was called a certain thing on one server, it was probably called the same thing on a couple of others at least.

Basically Plow Tank is the guy (or girl) who tanks while the raid is plowing through the trash mobs before the bosses.

Also, we also had Mangina[/b].



Why? Because you had an active max level character on every server in every MMO so anything you didn't personally hear back in the day must not have existed?  :awesome_for_real:

Cross-dresser wasnt used on my server either, but I can easily believe it was on some.

Mangina (noun): A RL male player playing a female or feminine looking avatar.

Fairly common slang term in EQ1 when I was playing it.

I would guess the phenomenon of "cross dressing" in MMOGs got a whole lot more widespread when improved 3D graphics enabled better boobs and butt renditions. Also, the reason why so many male players played Chun Li in SF2.

The opposite of a Mangina - a RL female playing a male or male looking avatar is a whole lot rarer. The few RL females playing MMOGs that I know of would NEVER EVER touch a male avatar, they would not even play a "bad" or "gross" looking racial avatars like Ogres, Trolls or Halflings. I have heard the slang term Wenis applied to RL females playing male avatars (usually inherited level 70s) but its extremely rare. In fact, Wenis it may not be widespread enough to be a proper MMOG slang term at all.

Nick Yee's polling would seem to say you're wrong, women cross-dress at equal or higher rates (usually to avoid the catcalls and comeons of immature idjits),  But since most MMO's are only 10 to 15% actual females, the cross-dressing females to male are a small portion of the male characters, while around half of all female characters are played by males.

Speaking of which, are there special terms for the various permutation of cyber-sex and harassment in MMO's?

--Dave

When I played AC, I knew of a number of women playing male avatars because they didn't like the way they were treated if others thought they were actually female.

Fanboi (n) - an over-optimistic proponent for a title that will defend it against all accusations, logic be damned; also can be used as an insult

Vanboi (n) - a fanboi of Vanguard

TRanboi (n) - a fanboi of Tabula Rasa

Couple of real simple ones with MUD roots:

Con: Short for consider, an action possible in many older multi-user dungeons that reported a MOB's power level as relative to your own. The term was later ported to graphical MMORPGs.

An example of the feedback text when performing the consider action would be, "This creature could wipe the floor with you!", in the case of one that was stronger, or "This monster is a meager challenge, unfit for your skills," in the case of a weaker one. In the latter case, the text suggests to the player, as was often the case, that the creature is worth little to no experience.

While not universal, it has become common practice for games to display the consider feedback text in a customary color - green typically indicates a weak creature, black or white typically indicates one of close to your level, yellow indicates a tough challenge, red indicates one that is nearly impossible. Less common colors include grey, for creatures of extremely little to no challenge whatsoever, blue, for slightly weaker than yourself, and purple, for creatures far too powerful to assault.

In some games, the evaluate action performs a similar function; this form is usually shortened to eval.

Examples of usage: "That orc cons red to me," "I would have attacked him, but he conned grey and it wasn't worth the mana."

----

Undercon: A label applied to monsters who are perceived to be stronger than the consider text indicates. See entry consider.

A similar term, mean green (also mean greenie or mean greeny) is applied to undercons that are indicated to be significantly below the player's power level, but are in reality considerably stronger.

Examples of usage: "I thought the mage would be easy to kill, but he was a real undercon," "That fight's not worth the aggravation, it's all mean greens."

Corwin of UO Atlantic and Siege Perilous has a pretty good equation for a gank.  It is 2x+1, where x is the size of your group.

Fetuspult (n) - Used to mock unrealistic promises of player freedom or scope of game mechanics e.g. "Our game will allow for full realistic empire building and warfare. It'll have completely destructible terrain that will allow players to literally shape the world and create their byzantine world of alliances and political intrigue in addition to a deep and realistic economy and crating system!" "What about the fetuspults?"
History - Term that has fallen out of use somewhat. Originally refers to Dawn (famed MMO vaporware) that was slated to have a birth mechanic (as players suffered permadeath but could pass on their belongings and some characteristics to their children). While pimping their siege warfare in a dev chat one developer claimed that any object in the world could be loaded onto a catapult and fired at enemy cities with varying effects. One player asked if this meant they would be able to fire foetuses during sieges to which the dev actually answered yes. Thus the fetuspult was born.

Negative Ping (n) - Used to mock ridiculous technical claims by developers since negative ping would actually require packets being received by the server before they're sent. e.g. "Our game will be able to support up to 300 avatars on screen at any one time with no slow down on Pentium III." "Will it support negative ping?"
History - Another term that's fallen out of use, probably because modern MMO developers aren't stupid enough to make the same kind of wild claims that were prevalent in previous generations. Another term based on Dawn which, Developers claimed, had such advanced networking code that it would actually be able to support negative pings. It shouldn't be a shock that Dawn never saw the light of day.

Adding some I don't see in here; mostly specific to WoW.

bodypull (v, n) - to pull a mob by moving inside its aggro range; often done for tactical reasons such as avoiding social aggro. e.g. "If you don't body pull you'll aggro the whole room" see pull

facepull (v, n) - as bodypull, but on accident; derrogatory. e.g. "Wow, nice facepull moron, thanks for the repair bill" see pull

carry (v) - bringing a player along to a group/raid that they do not meaningfully contribute to.

loot train (n) - a raid where a player recieves a large number of gear upgrades.

epic -
1. (adj, n) - describes an item that is incredibly powerful, typically obtained only in raids.
2. (n) Everquest/Everquest 2: Class specific weapon obtained as a reward for completing a difficult quest chain.

purple (adj) - an epic item; so described because the text of an epic item's name is purple.

loot and scoot (v) - to leave a raid or dungeon after recieving an item but before completing the dungeon; considered impolite.

shard, disenchant, transmute, 'mute (v) - to destroy an item and turn it into a reagent for a crafting profession. e.g. "If no one wants that sword, we're just going to shard it."

stealth afk (n, v) - to go away from keyboard without informing your group; considered impolite. e.g. "We wiped because two healers went stealth afk on pull."

gear check -
1. (v) - the act of examining a player's equipment to see if he is appropriately equipped for a particular dungeon or raid. e.g. "LFM Ulduar, come to the north bank for gear check."
2. (n) - a fight or encounter designed to test the equipment level of the players. e.g. "Patchwerk is a serious tanking gear check."

faceroll -
1. (v) lit. to play by simply rolling ones face on the keyboard.
1a. used to describe bad player performance. e.g. "Wow, we wiped because our dps are just facerolling."
1b. used to indicate that a particular class does not require skill to play. e.g. "DKs can faceroll and still do amazing damage"

parse -
1. (v) - to numerically monitor the performance of the player(s). e.g. "Anyone parsing this fight?"
2. -r (n) - a program or addon that parses. also: meter

recall, call, hearth (v) - using a spell or item to return the player to a city/quest hub. e.g. "Ok guys we're done here, everyone hearth out."
~Originally from the 'word of recall' spell from Dungeons and Dragons, which found its way into MUDs. Hearth is the WoW term, based on the item WoW players use to achieve this effect: Hearthstone.

The term Shenis might be more common.  Females with male primary characters are probably rare, but most girls I knew in EQ had at least a male lowbie alt to play around with.


Also called prox aggro (concept) and prox pulling (action).


Gate is the EQ term/spell.  It differs from the WoW version in that players who can natively cast the spell can set their bind point nearly anywhere.

I s'pose I'd better add Bind Point: The place to which EQ players are teleported when they cast the Gate spell or are killed.   A player's bind point is changed with the Bind Affinity spell.  Non-spellcasting classes must have Bind Affinity cast on them by another player or certain NPCs, and unlike spellcasters can only be bound in city zones.

Some of these are game specific so might not be too common unless people have played a lot of the mainstream MMORPGs. If I can think of anymore I'll be sure to add em.

Twisting - (n), twist (v) - The act of using multiple key binds at once repeatedly or in very quick succession for a desired chain effect. Popular with the bard class in Everquest 1, song twisting.

Yard Trash - (n) - Scattered hostile npcs in an instance zone that do not drop any high quality items or serve in quests. Usually refers to the ones found near the entrance of the zone. Earliest example of this being used commonly, that I know of, was in Everquest 1 for the Unrest instance zone in reference to the dozens of mobs in the courtyard leading up to mansion in the center of zone which contained all the mobs that dropped quality items.

Mage Tank - (n) - Character build who can melee and cast a variety of magic. Popular Ultima Online term.

GvG, RvR - (n) - Guild versus Guild, Realm vs Realm or Faction vs Faction.

Loot Pinata - (n) - Term used to describe a boss/instance as full of easy to acquire items.

Dex Monkey - (n) - Used to describe a character whose stats focus primarily on dexterity/speed/agility or stat synonymous with those. To my knowledge this term originated with a patch in Ultima Online which made the dexterity stat affect weapon attack speed. Was also used to describe characters who stacked dex in EQ1 in order to trigger the procs more frequently on weapons.

Flagging/Flag - (v) - The act of changing one's status to enable PvP (common usage). The act of changing your status to "criiminal/murderer" (UO usage).

Red/Blue/Grey - (n) - Red, short for Murderer or PK / Blue, short for Innocent / Grey, short for Criminal or Thief (UO usage).

Rez Camp - (v) - The act of waiting for a player to ressurect/respawn in order to kill them repeatedly. (MMORPG usage) Spawn Camp used for FPS.

PK Thief - (n) - Term used to describe player killers who would "flag" by stealing an item from someone. Usually dressed naked or more commonly wearing only a robe or deer mask. Flagging would prevent them from taking a murder count if you attacked them. Often carried carried a variety of poisoned weapons. (UO term)

Newbify - (v) - The act of acquiring or making an item stay on your person upon death instead of leaving it on your corpse. (UO term)

Retard Check - (n) - Boss or environmental mechanic put in place to test the mental capacity of players. (Raid term)

Clicker - (n) - Derogatory term to refer to players who click their skills as opposed to key binding them. (WoW commonly used)

Train - (n, v) - Term used for when many hostile npcs are aggroed and a player attempts to run away from them. (commonly used). First time I heard this used was in Everquest.

Lockdown/Lock'em Up/Sitting on em - (v) - Term referring to disabling a monster or player from being active or using skills. (Common Guild Wars term). Used occasionally in other MMO's.

Peel/Peeling - (v) - Intercepting or aggroing a mob or player off another player. (Common term in PVP, occassionally used in Raiding)

Squishy - (adj, n) - Term used to denote that a player, class, or archtype is easily killed.

Grape Harvest/Vineyard + Vendor Trash - (n) - Items that are not valuable to players and are usually sold to a NPC Merchant. Grape/Vineyard is a similar term used in Guild Wars in reference to Purple items when collected in mass by a "Chest Runner".

Chest Runner- (n) - Term used to describe players who repeatedly zone in and out of an area for the sole purpose of opening treasure chests. (Mostly used in GW but I've seen it used in WoW)

Runner- (n) - A player who specializes in running through a zone(s). Pretty sure this originates in Guild Wars in reference to the Lion's Arch and Draknar's Forge runs.

Corner/LoS Pull (n, v) - The act of aggroing a mob and then running around a corner. This is done usually to create a Line of Sight issue to prevent spell casting or to position a mob in a specific manner. (mostly used in WoW, but I think it originates with Everquest 1).


 

Also Graveyard Camp, GY Camp (WoW).