MMO Terms and Acronyms

So you have just set out on your first journey in your chosen Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) It is all rather daunting, lots of icons are littering your screen two thirds of which you have no idea what they do. Other players are rushing around your screen all seeming to know what they are supposed to be doing.

Then there is the chat window, sentences appear but you notice that most of them contain weird hieroglyphics, either you accidentally logged on to a Russian server or you are faced with a sea of acronyms.

Well here is a guide to the most used acronyms and terms we have come across in MMOs (opps there’s our first one).

This non-exhaustive list was complied from a variety of sources: Spellborn forum, toubanoEXC’s page at my.MMOsite.com and of not forgotting Blizzard.

This is a general guide to the most common ones, you may find that their usage varies in different MMOs.

Aggro

vb. To aggro means to obtain the attention of the enemy by any means. Sometimes this is done intentionally (taunting, tanking, shooting) and sometimes unintentionally (stumbling accidentally into aggro range of the enemy)

n. To have aggro means you have now obtained the attention of the enemy and are now their primary target.

AoE (Area of Effect)

n. AoE refers to the powers and spells that affect a given area. Usually there is a designated target and a certain radius of affect. Some AoE effects are instant and some are timed. For timed AoE effects, an anchor is needed. A common AoE power is fireball where everyone surrounding the target of the fireball will also get damage.

Alts

n. Alts or Alternatives are other characters that a player may play other than his main character. Some players love playing different types of characters and attain the MMORPG illness known as Altaholism.

Altaholic

n. Players with Altaholism.

Anchor

n. The target chosen for AoE timed effect. The AoE effect can be either buffing or debuffing. Often debuffing powers lasting a period of time are cast on a particular enemy affecting all enemies around him. That target or the anchor is often kept alive to keep the effect on going. Whereas, buffing effects are placed on the group’s anchor so that all members surrounding the anchor will receive the benefits of the buff.

Buff

vb. To buff means to cast a spell or power granting the target improved stats temporarily. Common buffs include increased damage, defence, health, speed and/or other effects.

n. A buff refers to the spell or power that can temporarily increase stats of a target.

Camp

n. An area chosen by your teammates to engage in battle. Camps are chosen based on safety and by staying outside aggro range.

vb. To camp refers to staying in one safe spot in a dangerous area for a long time, sometimes to kill a particular enemy when it re-spawns or another player. Also used in some games when an enemy player hangs around a slain opponent, waiting for the player to respawn (or resurrect) so they can kill the player again, this is known as Corpse Camping.

Con

vb. To Con or Consider refers to checking the enemy/NPC/PC stats before engaging. Often by placing the mouse over the target, a color display will suggest to you if the target is stronger, weaker or at same fighting level.

CC

n. Crowd control (CC) is a general set of ability types that involve limiting the actions of others. Such abilities include immobilizing a character, slowing the character’s movement, taking control of the character, making the character run away, and others. More specifically it connotes abilities that force a given enemy to disengage, and are often broken if the players attack the mob, but generally have long durations if not broken or dispelled.

DeBuff

vb. To debuff means to cast a spell or power cursing the target with decreased stats temporarily. Common debuffs includes lowering damage output, decreasing defence, health(DoT), speed, and/or other effects. Opposite of Buff.

n. A debuff refer to the spell or power that can temporarily decrease stats of a target.

DoT

n. DoT or Damage over time refers to an effect, spell or power that will damage a target over time. A common DoT example would be the power poison which will damage 10 points each second over 20 second.

DPS

n. DPS or Damage Per Second. Used as an easily way to calculate the amount of damage a certain character, power, sword can do. Because each power, weapon or other spells have different action speeds, using DPS allow players to determine the relative damage per second. DPS characters are those who can do a lot of damage per second.

Farm

vb. To repeatedly gathering resources and killing enemies on a particular area. Once an area is cleared, new enemies re-spawn and are killed off again to obtain rare loot, money, items, experience and etc. This is similar to the analogy of farmers growing crop, harvesting them and growing more to repeat the cycle.

Gank

vb. To Gank is when a significantly higher level character or a group of players kill off a single weaker character in a PvP zone. Since this is done for the amusement of the winning party, it is often frowned upon.

Grind, Grinding

vb. Constantly repeating the same procedure in order to progress through a better part e.g.: fighting the same low level mobs over and over again to get easy combat experience quickly.

KS

vb. KS or Kill Stealing is the act of killing a enemy that has already been engaged by another player, possibly receiving loot and experience. If don’t intentionally, it is severely frowned upon by the MMORPG community.

L2P

Learn to play.

Leech

vb. A term used to be part of a team but not participating in combat while receiving experience and loot since experience and loot are divided among party members. Since the members fighting are losing experience to the leech, the practice is often frowned upon.-n. The member that is not participating in combat and leeching experience and loot.

Main Assist

n. The main assist (MA) is the person in the group or raid that others will target and assist, in hopes to focus all their attacks on the MA’s single target.

Mob

n. A group of enemy or monsters.

vb. To be attacked by many monsters at once

Nerf

vb.The act of weakening a character class, power, skills, item or other aspect of the game by the Game designers and developers in the interest of game balance and mechanics.

Newbie/Noobs/Newb/n00b

vb. A derogatory term used on a player who is annoying, inexperienced, lack teamwork, or with little skills.

Ninja

vb. The act of stealing loot unfairly out of greed, without giving other party members a chance to loot or a fair way to decide on the loot. An exposed ninja will often be blacklisted among the MMORPG community.

Perma

(adj) Describing a certain power is almost permanent. When a power recycles and recharges by the time its effect wears off, that effect in term become permanent since another can be cast after the effect wears off. Often gamers will find gaming mechanics to make a limited use power (often buffs) perma-. Permadeath describes the game mechanic where your character get deleted when you die.

Pull

vb. A tactic used to draw a single enemy out of a mob so that the engagement in battle does not draw the attention of the remaining mob.

PuG

n. PuG or Pick Up Group refers to the party of players who have never usually worked together before, cooperating now to perform a mission or task. Because players in a PuG aren’t generally familiar with one another, PuGs are notoriously known for deaths, ninjas, arguments and failures.

PvE

n. Player versus environment is used to describe the type of gameplay where people compete against the computer or computer-driven opponents. This often involves groups of players operating cooperatively to engage hostile monsters which are featured in many online roleplaying games. PvE content is an alternative to player versus player (PvP) content.

PvP

n. Player versus player is used to describe a type of gameplay that allows people to compete directly with each other, rather than playing against a computer-controlled opponent. This can include free-for-alls where everyone is on their own, or teams engaged in competition with other player-controlled teams. PvP content is an alternative to player versus environment (PvE) content. Some MMO games have specific areas where players can engage in Player versus Player combat, whereas others you can attack another player anywhere.

Pwn

vb. or “to Own” A MMORPG term used to designating victory over one’s enemy. To be pwned means to be defeated. Often used as a gentle way to rub in one’s victory and a commonly accepted term. Many theories are there regarding how the “O” became the “P” “PWNED”.

Tank

vb. The act of attracting aggro intentionally from mobs and taking the damage from the mob. Tanking usually requires high defence, a lot of health, and primarily melee abilities.

Train

(noun/verb) The event or the act of a player who intentionally or unintentionally aggro a group of enemy and is being chased by a line of that mob much like a train of cars. Generally, this is done in an attempt to flee the enemy. However, there are times when this is done maliciously to bring nasty mobs to a group of low level characters camping. Training intentionally is frowned upon and can lead to expulsion in some MMORPGs. An alternative to Train means to group with people and start getting fast exp while in team.

Twink

n. A Twink is a character with better gear than they could have easily gotten on their own

Twinking

vb. Twinking refers to outfitting a new character or player with items or other resources that are not normally available to new or low-level characters. One example of twinking is when a player equips themselves with higher-end gear in order to avoid the “newbie” hump. Another example of twinking is when a player equips themselves with all the best possible gear for his level range and fills them up with end-game enchantments in order to easily kill newer players. Lastly, in some games there are rather sizable percentages of players that have developed low level twinks in order to compete with other twinks in a more competitive manner, some would consider it a meta game after having played in the higher brackets extensively and have lost interest in them.

Wipe

n. Often used when the entire party or raid dies, they get wiped out.

Common MMORPG Acronyms

1H

-One Handed weapon

2H

-Two Handed weapon

1HS

-One Handed Slash Weapon

2HS

-Two Handed Slash Weapon

1HB

-One Handed Blunt Weapon

2HB

-Two Handed Blunt Weapon

AC

-Armour Class

AFK

-Away from Keyboard

AoE, AE

-Area of Effect

BAF

-Bring a Friend

Bio

-Biological Break/Bathroom Break

BoE

-Bind on Use

BoP

-Bind on Pickup

BRB

-Be Right Back

BYOG

-Bring Your Own Group

DC

-Disconnected

Dev

-Developer of the Game

DoT

-Damage over Time

DPS

-Damage per Second

EXP

-Experience Point (may find it as XP also)

FFA

-Free For All

FTW

-For The Win

GM

-Game Master (Developer of the Game) or Guild Master

HoT

-Heal over Time

HP

-Hit Point or Health Point

KoS

-Kill on Sight

KS

-Kill Stealing

LFG

-Looking For Group-Guild

LFT

-Looking For Team

MA

-Main Assist

MP

-Mana or Magic Point

MT

-Main Tank or mistell (sending the wrong message to the wrong person)

NPC

-Non-Player Character

OOC

-Out of Character (meaning out of role playing mode and in real life talk)

OOM

-Out of Mana

OOR

-Out of Range

OMW

-On My Way

PBAE

-Point Blank Area Effect

PC

-Player Character

PK

-Player Killer, Player Killing

PM

-Private Message

PST

-Please Send Tell

PUG

-Pick Up Group

PvE

-Player Vs. Environment

PvP

-Player vs. Player

Rp

-Role Playing

SMAT

-Send me a Tell

SP

-Skill Point

TS

-Tradeskill or Teamspeak

WB

-Welcome Back

Woot, W00t

-A universal happy gesture or cheer

WT

-Wrong Tell (Sending the wrong message to the wrong person)

WTB

-want to buy

WTS

-want to sell

WTT

-Want to trade

XP

-Experience Point  (may find it as EXP also)