Common MMORPG Terms Translated to English

Hi everyone. My name’s Hank and I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of my life playing online games, so I decided to put my experience to good purpose and write up a list of common gaming terms. This list is by no means definitive or comprehensive; I just tried to keep things brief, humorous and easy to understand. If you can’t understand or don’t agree with a definition, let me know and I’ll do my best to clarify. Feel free to add your own definitions in comments.

General Computer and Online Gaming Jargon:

Bots: Bots are essentially programs that fulfill human functions to varying degrees. They can act as automated game masters, artificial opponents. Also see NPC under RPG Slang.

Character: A player’s avatar in the game world.

FPS: In discussions of graphics and animation, FPS refers to Frames Per Second, or the overall smoothness of the games animation. With regards to video game genres, FPS stands for First Person Shooter; the sort of game where you run around with a gun.

GM: Short for Game Masters; the people who monitor the game and respond to player complaints.

Game Engine: A game engine is less like an engine and more like a chasis that provides developers with code for things like graphics and physics.

GPU: Graphics Processing Unit. The chipset that lets you run impressive graphics.

Haxor: A cute way of calling somebody a hacker. Somebody who cheats by hacking the game engine, abusing a bug, or using illegal bots.

Instance: A copy of a zone reserved for a specific group of players, allowing multiple groups to explore the same area without interfering with each other. Most dungeons in MMORPG’s are instanced, and frequently referred to as instances.

Launch: The release of a game or a patch.

MMO: A Massive Multiplayer Online game. Implies a game environment with a large, explorable world and customizable characters. Most (but not all) MMO’s are RPGs.

Noob: A pejorative but not terribly offensive name for inexperienced players.

Patch: A software download that fixes bugs and adjusts the game as necessary.

PVE: Player vs. Enemy combat; players fighting against computer controlled enemies as opposed to other players.

PVP: Player vs. Player combat. Some games restrict PVP to specific servers or zones, while in others PVP is the whole idea.

RPG: A role-playing game, where the player assumes the role a fictional character in a fictional universe. While early role playing games were designed to facilitate actual role-play; speaking like the character and acting out story lines; such theatrics are optional and largely ignored in most MMOs.

RTS: Refers to games in the Real Time Strategy genre, where you build an army and manage resources.

Server: The computers that host the game world. If it crashes, all the characters are disconnected.

Zone: A distinct region or environment in an online game.

RPG Slang: Cyber phrases and colloquialisms specific to role playing games.

AFK: Away from Keyboard.

ASL?: Asking one’s age, sex and location, or “How to look like a creep in just 3 letters.”

Agro: When used as a verb, agro refers to a monster attacking a player. When used as a noun it refers to the monster’s hostile attention. Agro is quantified by Threat.

Armor: Though occasionally used in reference to equipment (see Gear), people usually speak of armor in reference to the protective value assigned to an item.

Balance: Gamese for fair. Balance refers to a equal balance of power between players of the same level.

Build: See Spec.

Buff: An upgrade. Usually it refers to temporary beneficial effects for a character, though positively adjusting a character’s stats through patching are also referred to as buffing.

Boss: A powerful enemy typically encountered in a dungeon or instance.

Botting: Illegally using bots for activities like gold farming.

CC: Crowd control; characters and abilities that stun or incapacitate enemies to make hostile groups easier to manage.

Gold Farmer: A person who harvests money or game items for real world profit.

Class: What your character does in the game’s universe. Classes vary according to genre; fantasy games come in flavors like knight and wizard, while sci-fi games feature hackers, starship captains and the like. Generally, a character’s class is the primary factor in determining a player’s abilities and group role (Healer, Tank, DPS, CC…). Not all MMORPGs have classes.

Chuck Norris: The fall-back topic of conversation in most zones.

Debuff: A temporary effect which harms, weakens, or disables a character.

Ding!: Gamese for “I just leveled up!”

DPS: Short for damage per second, also refers to characters in a damage dealing role.

Dungeon: An especially challenging game environment designed for group play. Dungeons are generally instanced, and more structured than typical zones. The enemies are harder, but they drop better loot.

Gear: A character’s equipment.

Geared: Being well or sufficiently equipped for a given task (usually a dungeon).

GG: Good game.

Grats: Short for congratulations; the polite response to Ding!.

Grinding: Doing a boring task repetitively in an effort to get stronger quickly.

Hax: Short for ‘hacks,’ and used to express dismay or disbelief at another character’s abilities. It is not necessarily an accusation of hacking (see Haxor), but rather suggests that a player (or class of character, or even a specific ability) is too powerful and has broken the balance of the game. Usually leads to cries for nerfing.

Level: How strong your character is. When used as a verb (“I’m gonna go level”), it means I will fight monsters or do quests in an effort to get stronger. Also see grinding and power-leveling.

LFG: Looking for group.

Loot: The money and items dropped by a defeated mob or player.

Macro: A player designed custom command to quickly perform spells or attacks.

Mob: A common computer controlled enemy. The monsters players fight to get stronger.

Nerf: A permanent negative adjustment to a class, item, or ability to balance the game system. The name likens the act to padding something with nerf-foam to make it safer.

Ninja-looter: Somebody who unfairly claims an item from a defeated monster. A serious accusation if it is made in earnest, though it is often used lightly because it sounds funny.

NPC: Non-player character. Every character in a game which is not controlled by a player (quest givers, vendors, town guards, townspeople, etc) is an NPC. Monsters are also technically NPCs but players generally refer to them as mobs.

Nuker: Refers to a damage dealing character, specifically a character that uses abilities with high damage and broad areas of effect.

OOC: Out of character chat. Used to discuss technical aspects of the game in situations where people take traditional role play seriously.

Power Leveling: Having a high level character assist a lower level character with grinding so it can level up faster.

PVP Server: A server where PVP combat is always fair game.

Quest-Giver: An NPC that issues missions to players in exchange for rewards.

QQ: An unsympathetic response to another player’s complaints, similar to calling somebody a crybaby. In fact, double Qs are intended to resemble crying eyes.

Race: Your character’s race in the game. May affect your starting stats, abilities, class or role.

Re-roll: Starting a character over from scratch. A reference to old D&D systems, where character stats were determined by dice rolls.

Role: The function your character fulfills in groups.

RP Server: A game server designed for people who enjoy traditional role playing. Again, even on RP server’s most players don’t put in the effort.

Solo: Playing alone. When used as a verb, as in “I soloed X!” it means the character beat whatever X is without assistance from other players.

Stats: The numerical values given for your character’s strength, agility, intelligence and so forth, determining your effectiveness and power. Stats gradually increase as your character levels up, and are further increased by the gear you are equipped with.

Spec: The role a character has been specialized and customized to fulfill.

Tank: The character responsible for keeping other characters alive by drawing the mobs attention and receiving their attacks. Tanks have lots of health and armor but generally deal a mediocre amount of damage.

Threat: How much a mob wants to kill your character. If multiple characters are attacking the same monster, it fights back against the character with the highest threat.

WTB: “I want to buy…”

WTS: “I want to sell…”

Whew. Hope this helps somebody!