The Big Phat Online Games Glossary

What’s this then?
The purpose of this lexicon is to help you understand the myriad terms people use when communicating in online games. Much of this language is shared between different games, while some applies to a specific game. In addition, many of these terms are in common netspeak usage, so you’ll also see them used in chat channels and so forth outside the game. So next time someone says to you “We 1337, we pwned u suXXor!”, you’ll know WTF they’re on about.

A note on Abbreviations:
Abbreviating a place name, item, character class or, in fact, anything concerning an online environment is a device widely employed to hasten communication. Knowing this can help you decipher what other people are saying when they say it. When people are conversing about the death-knight character class, for example, it soon becomes abbreviated to dk. Look at the context of the abbreviation, and it’ll probably make sense. If you’re playing Everquest, and someone says “meet u in nk”, they obviously mean a location - in this case, North Karana. There will be terms you see online that aren’t traditionally used, and possibly overlooked by this glossary, as netspeak is very much open to individual variation. People literally make up new terms every day purely for their own convenience.

Using this guide:
Simple. It’s a dictionary. Keep it handy and refer to it as necessary. Words surrounded by square brackets, like [this], denote a reference elsewhere in the glossary.

A final word:
Please consider this document a work-in-progress piece rather than a finished article. We plan to keep it updated, and we’d love your help - as gamers who use this language daily - in making it better and more useful for everyone. If you think the glossary is missing crucial terms, or you see new words coming into common usage, then flag them up on our forum, at http://forum.pcgamer.co.uk/ - there’s a permanent thread in the ‘Mag Talk’ folder, entitled ‘MMOG Gamers… your assistance is requested!’, for precisely this purpose. All contributors will, of course, be credited for their assistance in the ‘credits’ section at the foot of this document.

Term - Usage - Definition

56ker - General - A 56k modem user.

AC - General - Armour Class. The number that donates the effectiveness of a character’s armour.

Ack! - General - General term of dismay. E.g., “Ack! [Add]!”.

Aco - Ragnarok Online Acolyte.

Add - General - Used in combat to explain that another [mob] has attacked the party. E.g., “[Ack]! Add!”.

Adv - General - Adventurer.

AFAIK - General - As Far As I Know.

AFK - General - Away From Keyboard. Most games have an AFK function, which informs other players who see you/try to contact you that you’re not there. Kind of like an out-of-office autoreply.

Aggro - General - Aggro describes the situation when a [mob] becomes aggressive towards you. This occurs when you move within a certain range of a mob, or attack it from a distance. Aggro is a variable factor however; if you and another player are fighting a mob, generally speaking, the mob’s aggro level will grow, and focus towards the player that is laying down the most damage. In addition, different games weave different factors into aggro. For example, mobs in certain games have a predisposition to aggro the magic-user in the group. Understanding how aggro works in your particular game is crucial to successful combat, and not getting you or your party wasted, especially when you’re [pulling].

AGI - General - Agility.

Aimbot - Counter-Strike - Cheat software which assists aiming. Effectively snaps the crosshair to your enemy when your gun is pointed in their general direction. Very naughty.

Alt - General - Alternative character. A character that you don’t use as frequently as your [main].

Amp - Planetside - Amp station. The power supply of a base.

ANT - Planetside - Advanced Nanite Transport.

ANT run - Planetside - Taking the [ANT] to a warp gate to fill it up, then escorting it back to the base.

AO - Anarchy Online - Anarchy Online.

AoE - General - Area Of Effect. Commonly used when describing the influence of an area-effect spell or ability.

APs - Star Wars Galaxies - Apprenticeship points. Apprenticeship points are earned by teaching other players skills. 620 apprenticeship points are required to Master a profession.

Arse-jam - Counter-Strike - A fluke; a moment of incredible luck.

ARKs - Anarchy Online - Advisors of Rubi-Ka. Volunteers (players) performing a number of tasks, e.g. creating events on Rubi-Ka.

ASCii - Technical - Pronounced ‘ass-key’: American International Code for Information Interchange. Essentially, a large character set used by computers. ASCii symbols, such as $, /, @ and including letters and numbers, are used in programming languages, and as graphical representations of characters, creatures, landscape and objects in [MUDs].

Assist - General - A function which enables you to target the [mob] that another member of your [party] has targeted. Very useful in situations where there is a large number of combatants.

ATM - General - At The Moment.

Avatar - General - Your character in the game.

AWP whore - Counter-Strike - A player who uses the AWP gun, or [Magnum rifle], to pick off other players from a distance. Easily countered by zig - zagging.

BAF - General - Bring A Friend.

Bank - General - A building, [NPC] or place where your [avatar] can safely store items and cash.

Bangbus - Planetside - Vehicle: Sunderer.

Barneys/Purples - Planetside - Faction: Vanu Sovereignty.

Battle Aco - Ragnarok Online - Battle Acolyte. An Acolyte who denies his/her support role and chooses to fight.

BBIM - General - Be Back In a Minute.

BBL - General - Be Back Later.

BBS - General - Be Back Soon.

BG - General - Battle Group.

Binding - General - Binding is a function which sets a geographical point where your character will respawn if killed. E.g “If we’re going to stop and fight here, we’d better get a bind nearby”. Those who don’t update their bind points as they travel run the risk of a long [CR] if they die.

Bio break - Planetside - Going [AFK] to answer the call of nature.

Biolab - Planetside - Bio Laboratory. Confers spawning benefits on the owning faction.

Bot - General - An AI-controlled contestant in first-person shooters.

Bouncing - FPS - An indirect attack using the secondary firing mode of grenade weapons to bounce rounds off walls, setting them off in locations that could otherwise not be hit.

BR - Planetside - Battle Rank.

BR20 - Planetside - The highest Battle Rank.

BRB - General - Be Right Back. Going [AFK]? Then tell your party BRB.

Bubs/Bubbles - Everquest / City Of Heroes - Units of measurement for [HP], [mana], [XP] and so on. So named because they look like bubbles.

Buffs - General - Status-effects which enhance a character’s stats or abilities. For example, spells that increase armour class, potions that confer magical protection, nano-kits that improve a warrior’s attack rating and so forth.

Buffbot - General - A [mule] used solely for the purpose of dispensing [buffs].

Camping - General - Waiting in a location for a specific event to occur. The word may be applied to many situations; in [FPS] terms, it means sitting in a good vantage point, waiting for a player to enter your field of view. In [MMOGs], one spawn-camps, ie, waits for a [mob] to [spawn], usually with a view to killing it because it [drops] specific [loot].

CAP - Planetside - Capture.

Carebear - General - A player who doesn’t participate in [PvP].

Caster - General - A spellcaster. Refers to any character class that uses magic or its game-specific equivalent, such as psionics. Contrast with [tank].

CC - General - Crowd Control. The act of handling a number of mobs through the use of special spells, special abilities and so forth to hinder movement and aggression, e.g. snare, root, calm and fear effects.

CC - Planetside - Control Console. The element of a base that must be hacked to gain control of the base.

CE up - Planetside - To set up as many deployables (HE mines, Spitfires etc) as possible. E.g. "Base secure. Let's CE up the [CY]”.

Certs - Planetside - Certification Points. These are gained with combat experience, and spent on learning how to use new vehicles, weapons, armour types etc.

Chain-XXX - General - Chain may be applied to any action to describe it in a state of rapid repetition. E.g. Chain-healing, Chain-[dot]ting, etc.

Char - General - Character. E.g. “My char’s still only [lvl] 12”.

Cheese - General - Exploiting an imbalance in the game for personal benefit.

CL - General - Crowd Limiting. A system put in place by the developers to prevent large crowds from gathering, thus ensuring better game performance.

Clan - FPS - A group of players who fight together as a team under a common banner.

Clvl - General - Character Level, the overall rating of how advanced and hence powerful your character is. Very common in Diablo 2 to distinguish it from [Mlvl] and [Ilvl].

Cnet - Star Wars Galaxies - The city of Coronet on Corellia.

Coffin - Planetside - A wall turret.

CoH - City of Heroes - City of Heroes.

Con - General - To consider. An action which enables you to assess the relative threat-level of a player, [NPC], [mob] or [guard]. Originated in Everquest, where a tap of C would con your target, informing you of the most likely outcome if you fought it.

Cor - Star Wars Galaxies - The planet Corellia.

Core players - General - Those who let a game take over their lives.

CPL - Counter-Strike - A sarcastic insult. Originates from the acronym for the Cyberathlete Professional League tournaments.

CR - Planetside - Command Rank.

Crack - General - A [buff] that increases [mana] regeneration.

CR5 - Planetside - The highest command rank. A CR5 player can - command/spam an entire continent.

Crafting - General - Crafting covers a number of [trade skills]. Describes the process of creating an item from a mixture of certain raw materials. blacksmithing or fletching, for example, are tradeskills which involve crafting.

Crat - Anarchy Online - A Bureaucrat.

Creds - Anarchy Online - Credits. The currency of Anarchy Online.

Creep - General - Alternative term for [mob].

Crit - General - A critical blow in melee combat which delivers higher levels of damage than standard blows.

CSR - General - Customer Service Representative. Every company that runs a MMOG has (or at least, should have) CSR on hand 24/7 to deal with technical queries and the like.

CTF - FPS - Capture The Flag. A popular game-type, in which each team must capture the opposing team’s flag and return it to their own base.

CU - General - See you. E.g. “CU l8r!”.

CUD - Planetside - Command Uplink Device. Carried by commanders to dial up an [OS].

CY - Planetside - Courtyard. Every base has one.

D2 - Diablo II - Diablo II.

Dant - Star Wars Galaxies - The planet Dantooine.

Dath - Star Wars Galaxies - The planet Dathormier.

DAoC - Dark Age of Camelot - Dark Age of Camelot.

DC - Planetside - A [MAX] suit] wielding Dual Cyclone weapons. Also: Dropship Centre.

DD - General - Direct Damage. Refers to the effect of a spell, ability, weapon or other element that damages a target in a direct manner. For example, a lightning bolt spell may cause 35 points of damage to a target when cast. This is a DD spell. Contrast with [DOT].

Deagle - Counter-Strike - The Desert Eagle handgun.

Death Loop - General - The frustrating situation that occurs when your character dies and respawns repeatedly, due to hostile environmental factors at the respawn point, such as a [PKer] or [mob].

Death penalty - General - The penalty your character suffers for dying. Most games - impose a loss of experience, or reduction of abilities, upon death.

Debt - City Of Heroes - The [death penalty] in City Of Heroes doesn't actually lose you experience, but it imposes a debt which you'll have to pay off as you earn experience in future. Until you work off all your debt, half of the experience you gain will go to paying it off. The typical death penalty is one [bubble] of debt.

Debuffs - General - The opposite of [buffs]. These are status-effects that confer negative modifiers on a character’s stats or - abilities. E.g. spells that lower attack speed, armour rating - and so forth.

Deci - Planetside - The Decimator anti-vehicle weapon.

Del/Deli/Deliv - Planetside - The Deliverer ground vehicle.

Ding - General - An exclamation used to explain that your character has levelled up. Often followed by a chorus of [gratz!].

Disco Balls - Planetside - Lasher Orbs - Vanu Sovereignty heavy assault rifle rounds.

Discoboat - Planetside - The Magrider or Thresher vehicles.

DL sweep - Planetside - Sweeping for cloaked enemies using the Darklight implant.

DM - FPS - Deathmatch. A free-for-all game-type, in which the player with the highest [frag] count wins.

DMG - General - Damage.

DOT - General - Damage Over Time. Refers to the effect of a spell or ability that remains active for a period of time. For example, poison tends to be a DOT spell in many MMOGs, as it slowly saps health over an extended period.

DPS - General - Damage Per Second.

Drop - General - An item found on the corpse of a dead [mob]. Rare drops are much prized. See also [loot].

Dupe - General - Duplicate. Refers to the exploitation of certain bugs which enable unscrupulous players to duplicate cash or items. If one is caught duping by the development team, one can expect to have one’s account suspended or closed.

Elmos/Reds/Commies -Planetside - Terran Republic (for some reason the TR enjoy many other names, but these are the most common).

EMP - Planetside - Electro Magnetoic Pulse. Command Rank 3+ special ability which causes area-effect jamming of deployables, vehicles and implants.

End - General - Endurance.

EULA - General - End User License Agreement. A contract that you agree to adhere to in order to use a piece of software.

Experience - General - See [XP].

Exploit - General - A bug, flaw or loophole in the game that allows players to cheat in some way.

Faction - General - Broadly speaking, your character’s allegiance. In [MMOGs], faction-standing is a far-reaching political aspect that affects trade, interracial and inter-guild politics, and is altered by the way you play the game. For example, kill lots of Dark Elves, and your faction standing with Dark Elves drops. Dark Elf [NPC] [vendors] will charge you more for their wares, or refuse to serve you altogether, Dark Elf [guards] will aggro you, and so on. If your faction standing with a certain group drops sufficiently low, you may become [KOS].

FAQ - General - Frequently Asked Questions.

Farming - General - The practice of industrially working a location for [drops]. High-level guilds or parties tend to farm high-level areas for rare (and thus valuable) items.

FB - Counter-Strike - A flashbang grenade.

FFA - General - Free For All.

FFS - General - For F***’s Sake.

FH - General - Full Health.

Fizzle - General - A spell which fails to be cast or is interrupted.

FM - General - Full Mana.

Flaming - General - Performing a scathing personal attack in a forum or chat channel.

Flamewar - General - Ensues when two or more people are [flaming] each other in a forum or chat channel.

Flashlight - Planetside - Weapon: Pulsar/Beamer.

Forgesmith - Ragnarok Online - A Blacksmith.

FPS - General - Acronym of Frames Per Second; also stands for First Person Shooter.

Frag - General - 1. Kill. E.g. "I fragged his ass," "I had like 30 frags." 2. fragmentation, as in "frag grenade."

FSC - Star Wars Galaxies - Force-Sensitive Character. A potential Jedi.

FvF - General - Faction vs Faction.

FWIW - General - For What It’s Worth.

G2G - General - (I've) Got To Go. Generally used if the person isn't coming back - if they are, [BRB] is more common.

GA - General - Go Ahead.

Gank - General - Gang up to attack. To be ganked is to be killed by such a group.

Gal - Planetside - The Galaxy dropship.

Gate - General - A form of teleportation spell. E.g. “I was hitting on him, and he just gated out of there”.

GD - General - God Damn! Usually lower case, used mid-sentence. E.g. "This game's full of gd [n00bs]". Not to be mistaken for a contraction of 'good'.

Gen - Planetside - Generator.

GF - General - Girlfriend or Good Fight.

GG - General - “Good Game!”. Used after an enjoyable or remarkable match. A show of good sportsmanship when coming from the losing team, but rare. In practice you're more likely to see [ffs], [teams] or players leaving the game.

Gibs - FPS - Wet bodily fragments; the kind you see when you hit someone with a rocket in Quake. E.g. “I gibbed his ass!”.

Gimp - General - Expression used to describe a poorly developed or poorly performing character. Sometimes used as an insult.

Glue/goo gun - Planetside - A Nano dispenser (for repairing vehicles).

GM - General - Game Moderator, or Games Master. A person employed by the development team to resolve issues, both technical and social, which arise in the game. Many games allow you to petition a GM in-game, if you think that something is unfair.

GMTA - General - Great Minds Think Alike.

GOSU - Starcraft - One with godlike Starcraft abilities, with the inference that the individual’s sex life suffers as a result. Cited variously as an acronym for God Of Starcraft Universe, or Graduate Of Starcraft University. E.g. “You so GOSU!”

GP - General - Gold Pieces. The traditional [RPG] Currency.

Granny hack - Planetside - Hacking a control console without hacking/advanced hacking [certs].

Gratz! - General - Congratulations!

Griefer - General - A person who deliberately upsets others for his own pleasure.

Grind - General - Tedious or repetitive activities that bring the game experience down. Examples are mindless [mob] killing just to gain experience, skill-training that requires many attempts to succeed, or harvesting large amounts of natural resources for relatively small gains.

GTG - General - Good To Go. A term employed to inform your party that you are ready to proceed.

Guard - General - Generic term for a combat-orientated NPC that guards a population centre. These commonly [aggro] according to [faction]; for example, guards from your hometown won’t aggro you, but they’ll aggro a player who has poor faction - standing with your race, and will treat them as [KOS].

Guild - General - A group of players who have banded together under a common banner. Most [MMOGs] enable players to create their own guilds.

GVG - General - Guild vs Guild.

HA - Planetside - Vehicle type: Heavy Assault.

Hack - General - A cheat or exploit.

Haste - General - Increased movement speed, commonly caused by a spell or effect.

Hatetell - General - Getting a [tell] from someone that you just killed or general hatred.

HaXXor/h4XXor - General - Hacker. A player who uses cheats or exploits to get ahead in the game.

HF - General - Have Fun.

Holo - Star Wars Galaxies - An abbreviation of Holocron. A magical device, [dropped] by an [NPC], which informs a character of the necessary path they must follow to unlock their [FSC].

Hologrinder - Star Wars Galaxies - A player pursuing a profession intensively in the - hopes of unlocking their [FSC].

HoT - General - Healing over Time. Refers to the effects of a spell or ability that replenishes health gradually, over a given period of time.

Hotdrop - Planetside - Dropping into combat from an aircraft.

HP - General - Hit points. The health of a character, [MOB] or [NPC].

HPB - FPS - High [Ping] Bastard. Someone with a very slow Internet connection. There are many [HPB]-only servers. See also [Ping]. Contrast with: [LPB].

Hybrid - General - A multi-role character class. For example, the Deathknight in Everquest is a hybrid class, as it boasts the abilities of both a necromancer and a warrior.

IC - General - In Character. Talking as if you were your character, not as yourself. See also [RP]. Contrast with [OOC].

IIRC - General - If I Recall Correctly.

Ilvl - Diablo 2 - Item Level. A figure representing how advanced and powerful an item is. Characters with a [Clvl] of 10 won't find level 20 unless there are higher-level characters in the game. Confusingly, items with a high Ilvl also have a 'min level', which is the minimum Clvl a character must be to use that item. See also [Mlvl].

Imba - General - Imbalanced. Can refer to any element in a game that is over/underpowered.

IMO/IMHO - General - In My Opinion, or In My Humble Opinion.

Imp - Star Wars Galaxies - The Imperial faction in Star Wars Galaxies.

Inc - General - Incoming. Used to alert others to the proximity of a [mob]. You’ll know who’s [pulling] in a group, as he/she will be the one shouting “inc!”.

Indy - Eve Online - Industrial-class vehicle, or 'hauler'. Big cargo capacity but slow and near-weaponless.

Infil - Planetside - The Infiltrator cloaking suit.

.ini - General - The .ini, or initialisation file, is a document which resides in a game’s root directory and is read by the game when it boots up. The file tells the game as to which settings it must adopt - screen resolution, audio levels, hardware settings, key-bindings and so forth. The .ini file can be altered by hand, as it opens like a text document, and contains simple lines of script.

Insta - Eve Online - You can't warp closer than 15km to something in Eve, so much of your time is spent traversing that last stretch at sub-lightspeed. If you know you're going to be using a certain stargate in a hurry, you can fly 15km past it manually, create a bookmark, then when you come back warp to within 15km of that, which is dead on the stargate. If that doesn't make sense to you, an Insta is a clever way of getting about fast that you will never fully comprehend.

Instancing - MMOG - Instancing is a feature that enables more than one person or [party] to tackle a [quest] at once, without interference from each other. For example, a quest may require you to enter a dungeon and kill a specific [NPC]. In earlier MMOGs, you’d find a queue of people [spawn camping] the NPC. With more recent games, you get your own instance: that is, when you enter that dungeon, the server creates a personal version of the dungeon just for you and your party.

Int - General - Intelligence.

Interlink - Planetside - Interlink Facility.

Invis - General - Invisibility. Any spell or effect which makes a character invisible.

IP/SP - General - Improvement Points/Skill Points. Points earned at each level, which may then be spent on enhancing your skills or abilities. Also: Internet Protocol, or Intellectual Property.

IRC - General - Internet Relay Chat.

iRO - Ragnarok Online - International Ragnarok Online.

Iron man - Planetside - Heavy trooper with reinforced armour, a medium range weapon and a personal shield implant, crouching at a location to defend it with his superior protection.

ISK - EVE Online - InterStellar Kredits, the currency of EVE Online. At time of writing 100,000,000 ISK goes for £40 on eBay.

JH - Planetside - Jackhammer, the [NC] heavy assault weapon.

JJ or JK - General - Just Joking / Just Kidding.

Kiting - General - Killing In Transit. The process of killing a [mob], or number of mobs, by staying out of its reach while harming it. This is usually done by slowing the mob down, and/or increasing your own speed, and using attacks with better range than the mob’s, plus [DOT] effects and other ranged abilities. You quite literally pull mobs after you like a kite.

KOS - General - Kill On Sight. If your race, class, alignment or [faction] is sufficiently disliked by a [mob], [NPC], player character or other faction, you may be considered KOS, and will be attacked with extreme prejudice. Most commonly affected by a low [faction] standing.

KS - General - Kill Steal. The act of killing a [mob] that another player has already initiated combat with. This is considered - unsporting, and extremely poor etiquette.

l337 or l33t - General - Elite - specifically au fait with computers, hacking or games. Pronounced “Leet”. E.g. “Me 1337. U [suXXor!]”.

Lag - General - Slow data transmission between your PC and the server caused by high [latency]. This effects a drop in response times, and subsequently causes sluggish gameplay. Related: [latency], [ping], [bandwidth], [packet loss].

Latency - General - The time taken to deliver a packet of data from the source to the receiver, ie the server to your PC. Commonly measured in milliseconds. Latency and bandwidth are the most influential factors governing the speed and stability of your Internet connection.

Lamer/llama - General - A player who is lame, ie they cheat, they’re bad at the game or they’re arsing about, not playing the game properly.

Lash - Planetside - The Lasher, a [VS] heavy assault weapon.

LC - Anarchy Online - Land Control. A feature allowing organisations to own land through the construction of Notum mining towers.

LD - General - Link-Dead. Occurs when you lose your connection to the server. E.g. “Where’s Crosius?”, “He’s LD”.

Leeching - General - Striking a [mob] in combat with another player, to steal a little of the XP reward given upon the mob’s death. Much frowned-upon.

Level/levelling - General - When you attain enough [XP], your character will progress to the next level in its development. Generally speaking, this improves your all-round abilities and opens up new options. -

LFC - FPS - Looking For Clan.

LFG/T/M - General - Looking For Group/Team/Members. Members is used when an existing group is looking to bolster its numbers.

Lib - Planetside - The Liberator bomber.

Light - Planetside - The Lightning tank.

Lode - Planetside - The Lodestar heavy transport aircraft, capable of [hotdropping] vehicles and/or infantry.

Log - General - To log out, or leave the game. E.g. “Dinner’s ready. Gotta log!”.

LOL - General - Laugh Out Loud.

LOM - General - Low On [Mana]. Said by [casters] to warn the party that their abilities will soon stop working.

LOS - General - Line Of Sight.

Loot/lewt - General - Items that are essentially a reward for success in combat. Commonly used to describe items retrieved from the corpse of a [mob]. To make the distinction: loot is found, not purchased. See also [drop].

LPB - FPS - Low [Ping] Bastard. A player with a fast, stable Internet connection, who enjoys fast and smooth online gaming as a result. Related: [Ping]. Contrast with [HPB].

Lvl - General - Level. Your character’s level.

M3 - Counter-Strike An inexpensive shotgun.

M4 - Counter-Strike The colt rifle - considered by many to be the best in the game.

MA - Planetside Vehicle type: Medium Assault.

Macro - General - In MMOGs, a macro is an automated sequence of commands that enables you to train a skill, craft an item or otherwise perform a repetitive process without the need for personal intervention. Players generally set up macros, then go [AFK].

Macrobot - Star Wars Galaxies - A player, typically of an Entertainer profession, using [macros] to earn [XP] whilst [AFK]. Normally a [Hologrinder].

Magnum rifle - Counter-Strike - The Arctic Warfare Magnum, the sniper rifle of choice, owing to its one-shot-one-kill power. Also known as the AWP gun (stands for Arctic Warfare Police). Related: [AWP whore].

Magmower - Planetside - Magrider.

Main - General - The player-character that you use most often. MMOG accounts tend to let you create several characters; people generally have a main and a couple of [alts].

Mana - General - Magical energy; required to cast spells, or their game - specific equivalent, e.g. psionic powers. Tends to regenerate naturally over time.

Mana Battery - General - An item or character-class with the ability to replenish a player’s/party’s mana level.

MAX Crash - Planetside - A large number of [MAX]-suited players working together to attack a base.

MAX pants - Planetside - Using [MAX] armour. Some people call the - different amour types ‘pants’, e.g. "I'm gonna get into my cloaker pants”.

MAX - Planetside - Mechanised Assault Exo-Suit. The heaviest armour-type available in Planetside.

MBT - Planetside - Main Battle Tank.

MCG - Planetside - The Terran Republic Mini Chaingun.

Meatshield - General - See [tank].

Meatworld - General - The real world. Also see [RL].

Med/Medding - General - Meditating. Describes the activity of a player who is resting to speed the regeneration of [mana] or [HP].

Merc - Counter-Strike - A superior player who plays under the name of an inferior player, in order to boost a clan’s score or reputation.

Mez - General - Mesmerise. The effect of any spell or ability which causes a [mob] to cease hostilities for a limited period.

Mish - General - Mission.

MMOG/MMORPG - General - A Massively Multiplayer Online (Role-Playing) Game.

Mlvl - Diablo 2 - Monster Level. The level of a monster is defined as the level of character for which it is suitable fodder. This doesn't mean it's an even match for a character of that level - on the contrary, that character will dispatch [mobs] of these without too much trouble. Unlike [Ilvl]s, a [Clvl] 10 character can encounter monsters of significantly higher Mlvl. The Mlvl is used to determine what [Ilvl] of item the monster can drop, and how much experience the player gets from killing it.

Mob - General - A generally hostile, server-controlled NPC. Originates from the developer’s term ‘mobile object’.

Mod - General - A modification of a game-[engine] after its release, created by enthusiasts rather than the developers of the original game. Counter-Strike, for example, is a Half Life mod.

Moe - Star Wars Galaxies - The town of Meonia on Naboo.

MP - General - Multiplayer, or Magic Points.

MT - General - Mistell. Used to inform someone that your previous [tell] to them was in error, or meant for somebody else.

MTFBWY - Star Wars Galaxies - May The Force Be With You

MUD - General - Multi User Domain/Dungeon. The precursors to [MMOGs], MUDs are multiplayer adventure games accessed via the Internet. The game is illustrated either with text, or graphically, using [ASCii].

Mule - General - An [alt] character used by a player as support for his/her [main]. A Mule can serve many purposes: as equipment storage, a buff dispenser, a go-between for trade and so forth. Players rarely level up mules; they generally exist for support functions rather than combat.

Muppet - Planetside - A player engaging in disruptive activities whenever there are no enemies to kill in his immediate vicinity.

MUSH - General - A player-alterable variation of the [MUD]. From simply 'mush', something pliable, not rigid.

N1 - General - Nice one.

Nade - General - Grenade.

NC - Planetside - Faction: New Conglomerate.

NCU - Anarchy Online - Nano Controlling Unit. Defines the amount of friendly nano programs, e.g. [buffs] and [HOTs], your character can have at any given time.

Nerf - General - A reduction in the effectiveness of an item/character class. This is performed by the developers for balancing purposes. For example, the Monk character class in Everquest was deemed too powerful relative to other classes, and so its magical resistance and combat abilities were reduced. Monks were therefore Nerfed.

Newbie - General - A new or inexperienced player. See also [noob/n00b]. There is a distinction: newbie simply means a new player. Noob or n00b imply inferiority through inexperience.

Ninja hack - Planetside - A hack on a poorly defended base or tower by a single
soldier, usually a cloaker.

Ninjalooting - General - The practice of stealing [drops] from [mobs] that another player has killed. Deeply naughty behaviour.

noob/n00b - General - Derogatory term for a new player. Origin: [Newbie].

n00b conglomerate - Planetside - Faction: New Conglomerate.

n00bhammer - Planetside - Jackhammer (New Conglomerate Heavy Assult rifle).

n00b spray - Counter-Strike - Not aiming your weapon, simply running around and firing off ridiculous numbers of rounds in the hope you’ll hit someone.

n00bstick - Planetside - The current overpowered weapon of the week.

n00btube - Medal of Honour - Slang term for the notoriously overpowered rocket launcher.

No drop - General - Any item that, once picked up, cannot be sold, traded or dropped. The only way to get rid of no drop items is to destroy them.

NP - General - No Problem. E.g. “Thanks for the [rez]”. “NP”.

NPC - General - Non Player Character. A named rather than generic character in the game that is server-controlled, ie not directly controlled by a human being such as a player or [GM]. [Vendors], [trainers] and [guards] are all examples of NPCs. NPCs are not to be confused with [mobs].

NT - General - Nice Try.

Nuke - General - A spell which causes an immense amount of direct or area - effect damage.

NW - Anarchy Online - Notum Wars, the first booster pack for Anarchy Online.

OE - General - Over-equipping. Wearing or wielding an item which your character does not currently meet the requirements for, though did at the time you originally equipped it. The item is likely to perform below par, or simply become unusable.

Og - World Of Warcraft - Ogrimmar, the capitol of Durotar and the main city for Orcs and Trolls. Home of the Horde's only auction house.

OMG! - General - Oh my God!

OMW - General - On My Way.

OOC - General - Out Of Character. Communicating as yourself, rather than as your character. Contrast with [IC].

OOE - General - Out Of Energy.

OOM - General - Out Of Mana. The cry of the exhausted magic user, who must rest and let his mana level replenish.

OOP - General - Out Of Power

OOR - General - Out Of Range.

OOS - General - Out Of Stamina/Sight.

OS - Planetside - Orbital strike: [CR]4+ special ability, causing area effect damage.

Own - General - To thoroughly beat (the enemy); to dominate a game. E.g. "I owned last night." "They're gonna own us." The [l33t] version is 0wnz0r or [pwn].

Ownage - General - Success in combat generally. E.g. "I need an AK47 for maximum ownage," or simply, "Ownage!"

Packet loss General - A situation that occurs when data packets are sent from one source, ie the server, and do not arrive at their destination, ie your PC. This is caused by high [latency], or [lag].

Party - General - A group of players in a MMOG who band together for a common purpose, e.g. to hunt [mobs]. A party is issued with its own private chat channel, to simplify communication. This is a looser arrangement than a [guild].

PC - General - Player Character.

Pet - General - An NPC under the direct control of a player character. These generally perform bodyguard duties and add punch to a character’s combat abilities.

Permadeath - General - If a game features permadeath, your character is deleted when it dies.

PG - General - Powergamer. Someone who plays simply to be better, tougher, or more powerful than others.

PH - General - Place Holder. When [spawn camping] for a specific [mob], you’ll often find that several place holder mobs will spawn in its place, and must be killed, before the drop-carrying version of the mob you’re camping spawns. -

Ph4t/Phat - General - An adjective implying excellence.

Ping - General - The time in milliseconds it takes your computer to communicate with the server - the lower the ping, the smoother the game runs for you. Basically a comparative indication of speed. See also: [Latency], [LPB], [HPB].

PITA - General - Pain in the arse/ass.

PJ's - Planetside - Pyjamas. Slang term for the standard equipment loadout you are given when you [respawn].

PK - General - Player Killing. A player killing another player.

Playerbase - General - The total number of players who play any given game.

Podded - Eve Online - When your ship is destroyed, your character survives in an escape pod. Podding is the act of destroying this pod too, meaning the victim respawns as a clone at a station, which won't have all his skills if he didn't buy a good one recently.

Pop - General - A term used to describe a [mob] [spawning].

Poplock - Planetside - A population limiting system, that only allows a certain number of players to fight across a single continent.

Port - General - Teleport.

Power levelling/PLing - General - Intensively raising your character’s level through the assistance of higher-level characters, [buffs], or any other factors that dramatically increase combat efficiency beyond your character’s natural state.

PPL - General - People.

Proc - General - A secondary effect that occurs when a certain item is used. For example, certain kinds of weapons proc a stun effect, in addition to the damage they deal. An item tends to proc according to a percentage probability.

PST - General - Please Send Tell. E.g “[WTS] Staff Of Spanking. PST”.

Pulling - General - Nothing to do with enticing the opposite sex to your boudoir, pulling actually means [agro]ing a [mob] in order to initiate combat. In a [party], one - person is the ‘puller’ (often a [tank]), drawing the mob in the direction of the [party], so that it may be destroyed. The art of pulling lies in avoiding [adds].

PvE or PvM - General - Player vs Environment/Monster. Combat between players and computer-controlled enemies.

PvP - General - Player vs Player. Combat between player characters.

Pwned - General - A corruption of [owned]. Originated in Warcraft, through a misspelling in the script. When the player lost in a particular mission, the game told the player ‘player is pwned’. Now in common usage as a term to describe defeat at the hands of another player or team. E.g. “They pwned us”.

Quadding - General - The practice of dealing damage to four or more [mobs] at once.

Quad-kiting - General - [Kiting] four or more [mobs] at once.

Quest - General - A task which players may undertake for specific rewards. Quests are most commonly issued by [NPCs], and are of varying complexity and difficulty.

Quick-switcher - Counter-Strike - A player who uses a script to quickly cycle between a zoomed rifle and a pistol or knife.

QL - General - Quality level. Commonly applies to weapons, armour and other player-usable equipment.

Raid - General - To gather together in a very large party and attack an area or [mob] en masse.

Rate hacker - Counter-Strike - A player who alters his rate settings to - give himself a jerky and staggered appearance, thus making him harder to hit. A perfectly innocent 56K modem user can be accused of this.

Reclaim/RT - Anarchy Online - A Reclaim Terminal. This is a storage device where you can collect your character’s items after dying. Most items will be moved to such a terminal upon dying, but only if the character is level 10 or better.

Recoil script - Counter-Strike - A piece of code that dampens recoil in weapons. Some people will do anything to get ahead.

Regen - General - Regeneration.

Res/Rez - General - Resurrection. The process of respawning after death through the assistance of another player character with the relevant rezzing abilities. Death often incurs an [XP] penalty, and in many games, rezzing reduces or eliminates this penalty. In addition, your character may be rezzed at the point where his/her corpse lies, eliminating the need for a time-consuming [CR], or corpse-run. However, a phenomenon known as ‘rez shock’ or ‘death shock’ occurs in some games - a temporary reduction in the rezzed character’s stats and/or abilities. Think of it as a post-death hangover.

Respawn - General - The process of an item, weapon, player, [mob] or [NPC] reappearing in the game after it has been collected or killed.

Rexo - Planetside - Reinforced Exosuit Armor.

RFP - General - Ready For [Pull].

RL - General - Real Life.

Rocket spam - Planetside - Missile attack by a Reaver, which has to rely on volume of fire due to the weapon's poor accuracy.

ROFL - General - Roll on the floor laughing.

ROFLOL - General - Roll on the floor, laughing out loud.

ROFLMAO - General - Roll on the floor, laughing my arse off.

Root - General - An effect caused by certain spells and items that immobilises an opponent for a limited period.

RoXXor - General - To rock. E.g. "I roXXor! U [suxXXor]!”.

RP - General - Roleplay. Many players prefer to RP their character - ie to speak in a medieval tongue, reflect their in-game race’s views in word and action, and so forth.

RT - General - Roger That.

RPG - General - Roleplaying Game.

RST - Anarchy Online - Rubi-Ka Standard Time.

RvR - General - Realm vs Realm.

SA - Planetside - Vehicle type: Special Assault.

Sanc - Planetside - Empire Sanctuary.

Scammer - General - Someone who lies/cheats/rips people off to earn money.

Scan - Anarchy Online - The act of saving your character at an insurance scanning terminal. In other games, commonly known as [binding]. -

ScatMAX - Planetside - New Conglomerate [MAX]-suit with anti-infantry Scattercannon.

SG - City Of Heroes - Super-Group. Much like a clan, and in City Of Heroes the creator of a Super-Group can choose a colour-scheme for all members to change into when they enter 'Super-Group Mode'. You need to be level 10 to start a Super-Group.

Sin - Ragnarok Online - Assassin.

Silent Holo - Star Wars Galaxies A [holo] that does not inform a character of the profession he must master in order to unlock his [FSC], but stays silent, thus indicating that 3 of the 4 required professions have been mastered. The fourth profession is then discovered by the player through trial and error.

Skee dar - Planetside - The sensor mode of a slow flying Mosquito [see skeeter].

Skeeter/mossie/mosq-Planetside The Mosquito light aircraft.

Slayer - Counter-Strike - Obscure reference to a clan player of the same name who once recorded a 0 Kills, 12 deaths score at a high profile e-sports tournament. The phrase “doing a slayer” is now used to describe a player who records a similar score on LAN or online in a competitive match.

Smith - Ragnarok Online - Blacksmith.

Smurfs/Blues - Planetside - Faction: New Conglomerate.

Social - General - [Mobs] which [aggro] you when they sense a similar creature-type aggro you. For example, if you attack a rhinoman and another rhinoman is nearby, the second rhinoman will also aggro you. Rhinomen are therefore social.

Solo - City Of Heroes / Other - To fight alone. Most of the time players fight in a group, where experience is shared. If you're tough enough to deal with the enemies in an area alone, solo-ing will get you all the experience to yourself. It isn't as fun.

SP - General - Single Player.

SPs - General - Skill Points. Points which become available to players as they [level] up. They may be spent at a [trainer] to improve trade-skill abilities - such as crafting or smithing.

Spamming - General - To indiscriminately bombard an area with fire.

Spawn - General - The act of a [mob], [npc] or player character coming into existence in the game-world.

Spawn Camping - General - In [MMOGs], this refers to the practice of [camping] for a specific [mob] to [spawn]. In [FPS] games such as Counter - Strike, this refers to the practice of a player or team camping at the other team’s spawn point, in order to kill them as they spawn.

STFU - General - Shut The F*** Up.

Str - General - Strength.

Sup? - General - What’s up?

Support Class - General - Refers to a character class that can assist a [party] in a variety of ways, usually through the use of [buffs] or healing abilities.

SuXXor - General - To suck. E.g. “U suXXor! I [roXXor]!”.

SWG - Star Wars Galaxies - Star Wars Galaxies.

Swordie - Ragnarok Online - Swordsman.

Tank - General - A player-character with the ability to take high levels of damage before dying. Tanks are generally able to [taunt] a [mob], thus attracting its [aggro] and protecting the rest of the party from attack. Tanks are commonly warriors, paladins and so forth - character classes that can wear the heaviest armour, boast high levels of defence and mete out plenty of damage in close-combat. Also known as [meatshields].

Taunt - General - A combat skill, common to many [MMOGs], which enables a player-character to attract the [aggro] of a [mob].

TDM - FPS - Team Deathmatch. A game type where two teams fight. The highest [frag] count wins.

Teams - FPS - A single word phrase connoting “Balance the teams, people”, when the two teams are unequal in size.

Tech plant - Planetside - Technology Plant.

Tell - General - A personal message from another player. E.g. “Killa_223 just sent me a tell”.

TF - City Of Heroes - Task Force. This is a special kind of team you need to form in order to take on a campaign of particularly hard missions, which you and your friends have to complete one after the other. The difficulty changes depending on the levels of the heroes in your Task Force, and how many of you there are. Doing the Task Force missions is pretty time-consuming, so don't take them on unless you have an hour or so to spare.

Thx - General - Thanks.

Thanks For Team - General - Thank you for the pleasurable experience of fighting alongside you in the team.

Toon - General - Character, or [avatar].

TOS - General - Terms Of Service. See [EULA}.

TR - Planetside - Terran Republic

Trader trash - General - See [vendor trash].

Tradeskill - General - A skill which enables a player to create an object with monetary value. Blacksmithing is an example of a tradeskill.

Train - General - A large group of [aggrod] [mobs] chasing a player. This most commonly occurs when a player is fighting mobs, realises he’s losing, and makes a run for it to the edge of the [zone]. He then attracts [adds] left right and centre, resulting in a huge group of mobs. Trains can be extremely hazardous as, when the player zones, there’s suddenly a big group of mobs looking for something to hit. It’s only polite to shout “TRAIN!!!” across the zone if you’re being pursued by a train - sort of like shouting “FORE!” before you hit a golf ball. Also used as a verb, to describe the action of foisting a creature’s aggro onto another player.

Trainer - General - An [NPC] who provides players with the option to learn new skills or improve their existing ones, usually in exchange for cash or [SPs].

Trigger - General - A variety of [macro] that, through movement of your [avatar], makes it seem that you’re still in control when you’re actually [afk].

Trolling - General - Making inflammatory comments or [flaming] in a forum or chat-channel just to get a rise out of people.

TTFN - General - Ta Ta For Now. A casual farewell.

Tubes - Planetside - Spawn tubes. Where characters spawn.

Twink - General - A low-level character equipped by a higher-level character with weapons, armour, items and cash above its station. Many players will start a new [alt], and twink it with their [main].

Ty - General - Thank You.

Uber - General - Super. May be applied to many situations, but chiefly an item, e.g. “OMG, that sword is uber!”, or a person, e.g. “[WTF]! That guy [pwned] me! He’s [uber]!”.

Van00b sov - Planetside - Faction: Vanu Sovereignty. See [VS].

Vendor - General - An [NPC] trader or shop-owner, who you can buy and sell items with.

Vendor trash - General - Items, usually [drops], that are considered worthless to players, in that they have no inherent use, and thus, no inherent value. The only place to get cash for them is at a vendor. Also known as [trader trash].

VG/Vannie/Vans - Planetside - New Conglomerate main battle tank, the Vanguard.

VGG - General - Very Good Game. Use sparingly.

VS - Planetside - Faction: Vanu Sovereignty.

Wallhack - Counter-Strike - Cheat software that enables a player to see and shoot through walls. Very naughty.

Wallhacker - Counter-Strike - A player using the Wallhack cheat.

WB - General - Welcome Back.

Webjunk - General - Random, amusing Internet nonsense; flash animations and the like.

WG - Planetside - Warp Gate.

Whom-Pah - General - The name given to teleporters located throughout Rubi-ka. Derives from the sound they make when in operation.

w00t! - General - An expression of victory, success or joy. Originated on Quake servers, an abbreviation of ‘”We [owned] the other team”.

WoW - World of Warcraft - World of Warcraft.

WP - Planetside - Waypoint.

WTA - General - Want To Auction. Auctions tend to be held over the public or trade channels. If you wish to auction an item, it’s sensible to specify a starting price. For example, you want to get the highest price for your Staff Of Spanking, but you want to guarantee yourself a certain amount - say, 30 silver, or whatever the game-currency is. For example: “WTA Staff of spanking, min 30s”.

WTB - General - Want to buy. E.g. “WTB Staff Of Spanking. [PST]”.

WTF - General - What the f***?

WTG - General - Way to go!

WTS - General - Want to sell. E.g. “WTS Staff Of Spanking. [PST]”.

WTT - General - Want to trade. Indicates your desire for an item exchange, with cash only as a part of the deal. E.g. WTT Staff of Spanking for Glimmering Shield, [PST]”.

WYG - General - What you got?

XP - General - Experience Points. These are awarded for the completion of various tasks - most commonly for killing [mobs], but they may also be awarded for completing quests or other activities. When enough experience points are awarded, your character will rise a [level].

XXX-k/XXX-j - Planetside - k or - j at end of a character name indicates the player has moved to Markov (for - j) or Emerald (for - k) from Johari, or Konried, when the servers merged. The same goes for outfits.

YW - General - You’re Welcome.

Z - Ragnarok Online - Zeny. The currency in Ragnarok Online.

Zerg - Planetside - A large combat force, derived from the swarming aliens in StarCraft.

Zerging - Planetside - Repeatedly storming an objective with no consideration for strategy, relying on pure volume and firepower to overrun it.

Zergling - Planetside - Soldier specializing in zerging. Usually equiped as a mobile heavy trooper. Also used to refer to inexperienced or inept players, or players with a herd mentality.

Zone - General - A distinct, named geographical area of a game-world.

Zoning - General - Moving from one [zone] to another in the game-world. Traditionally, a loading period was required when moving from one zone to another, but more and more games are becoming ‘seamless’, ie, there is no loading time between zones.

Zone-plugging - Everquest - Yanking the power-cable out of your PC while [zoning], a practice employed to escape a [PvP] fight. As the server realises you’re no longer online, you don’t reappear in the destination zone until you power on and log back into the game. It is frowned upon as a cowardly practice, and frankly stupid. PCs don’t like having their umbilicals ripped out.