The Ivory Tower: Establishing a Vocabulary for Online Gaming

[schild]

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 had me thinking about this for a few days now.

Wiki Link - f13.springnote.com

[Triforcer]

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

[UnSub]

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

[schild]

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

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

[UnSub]

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

[schild]

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

[Xuri]

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.

[schild]

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.

[Ingmar]

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

[schild]

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.

[Ubvman]

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

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. 

[apocrypha]

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).

[Ubvman]

Gank - to kill with an overwhelming advantage.

Root word - Gang Kill

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

[Draegan]

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.

[Yegolev]

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 )
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.

[Hawkbit]

Ding

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

[Soln]

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)

[schild]

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.   

[Signe]

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.   

[Ingmar]

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.

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

[Draegan]

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."

[schild]

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.

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

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

[Ingmar]

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.

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

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.

[schild]

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.

[schild]

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.

[schild]

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.

[Xuri]

Archive.org is your friend, schild:

Care Bear Manifesto (link 1)
Care Bear Manifesto (link 2)

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

[Rendakor]

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!"

[Viin]

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

[insouciant]

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

[Cheddar]

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.

[Samwise]

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.

[UnSub]

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).

[Ubvman]

Twink - Character advanced as quickly as possible by exploiting loopholes in a game system, often with the help of a higher level character.

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!

[schild]

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)."