The Daedalus Project

MMORPG Lexicon

1337	A numerical translation for "elite" pronounced "leet," 1337 is a slang developed by hackers in the '80s used over the internet. Many words from the slang have leaked to popular culture today ("kidz" is an example; using a z instead of an s is an element of 1337). It is mostly prevalent in the gaming world online where people can interact textually.
AE	Area Effect. Used to refer to area-effect spells or abilities. E.g. fireball, smoke grenade.
AFK	Away from keyboard
Aggro	As a verb, it refers to a hostile mob that has noticed a player and is actively trying to attack that player. As a noun, it refers to the amount of “hostility” the player has generated on the mob. In typical combat strategy, the fighter tries to take as much aggro as possible away from weaker players such as healers and mages.
Alt	Short for "alternate". It refers to the alternate character a player has from their main character. This is not a stable category as sometimes alts can outlevel mains and sometimes mains become moth-balled.
AO	Abbreviation for Anarchy Online. An online game.
AOE	Same as AE. Area of Effect.
Attribute	e.g. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, etc.
Bind	In certain MMOs, characters are teleported back to a safe spot when they die. This spot is predetermined by the user. The act of determining the safe spot requires an explicit action by the user. That action is known as a bind. The spot is typically referred to as a bind spot.
Bio	Short for biological. Usually used to indicate bathroom break.
BoE	Short for "bind on equip" - a term popularized by World of Warcraft. This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after they have been equipped. In other words, the item can be traded as long as no one equips it.
BoP	Short for "bind on pickup" - a term popularized by World of Warcraft. This term refers to items that become soulbound to the player after it has been picked up from a monster. In other words, the item cannot be traded once a player picks it up. BoP items commonly cause looting conflicts and disputes during game-play.
BRB	“be right back”
Bot	Generally illegal and discouraged form of gameplay, where actions of a character can be automated to perform actions repeatedly in order to gain experience and level without actual user intervention. This practice is continually monitored by GMs and will cause suspension of service if one is suspected of botting.
BRT	“be right there”
BTW	“by the way”
Buff	Temporary boost to character attribute or combat ability
Camp(ing)	The act of waiting in an area to hunt a specific mob or a specific spawn
CoH	City of Heroes
Class	Professional archetypes. In D&D games, these would be warrior, healer, rogue and mage. The most typical class types are: close-range damage, ranged damage, healing, crowd control, support.
Cleric	Typical healing class in D&D style games
Corpse	In certain MMOs, a corpse appears where the player died. Sometimes all the player’s items and money are left on the corpse and the player is teleported back to their bind spot. Corpses typically will decay after a certain time proportional the character’s level.
Corpse Run	The act of retrieving your corpse after you have died. This is typically a dangerous thing because people tend to die in dangerous places rather than safe places.
Crafting	A general category of skills that allows players to manufacture objects from raw resources
Crit	"To crit" refers to landing a critical hit either with melee or spells. Effective damage is usually increased from a base of 150% to upwards of 250% with extra talents/skills/buffs.
Crowd Control	Refers to a set of spells / abilities that temporarily paralyze or stun other mobs or players. Crowd control is an important group support ability when fighting multiple mobs.
DAoC	Abbreviation for Dark Age of Camelot. An online game.
DD	Direct Damage. Used to refer to a class of spells and abilities that allow players to damage enemies from a distance. The firebolt is the archetypal DD.
Debuff	The opposite of a buff. An offensive spell cast on enemies that weakens an attribute or combat ability.
Dirt Nap	Slang for dead. Most corpses lie on the ground when killed.
DKP	Dragon kill points. A fairly elaborate score-keeping system used by guilds to fairly distribute loot based on participation and contribution to the guild.
DoT	Damage over time. Refers to a class of spells that deals damage over a period of time. These spells typically do more damage than DD spells overall.
DPS	Damage per second. Used when figuring out weapon speed and damage.
Druid	Hybrid class in D&D style games - part healer, part support, part fighter.
Eating Grass	Slang for dead. Most corpses lie on the ground when killed face down.
EQ	Abbreviation for EverQuest. An online game.
Experience	A quantity gained when completing tasks/quests, killing mobs, or various other achievements in games. When enough experience is accrued, characters often “level up” and become more powerful.
Farm(ing)	The act of accumulating currency or a specific item by repeatedly killing a mob or repeatedly performing a series of actions
FTW	Acronym for "for the win". Refers to the act, ability, event that's responsible for a victory. For example, "Sheep FTW!!" - sheep being a spell that temporarily paralyzes an enemy.
Gank	Verb. To be ganked is a term referring to one player being overwhelmed and killed by a large group. Can be either by a group of other players doing player-kill or a group of NPC monsters. Used in a sentence, "I got ganked yesterday in Fel." Typically has the connotation that the other people had an unfair advantage (in number or level).
GM	Game Master. GM's are characters in an MMORPG who are used by employees of the game's creator company. They monitor the actions of the game world and answer the questions and complaints of the players. They have absolute control and power within the game. If the crime (breaking a law of the game, not the real world) committed is serious enough, they could even expel players permanently from the game.
Griefer	Title for a player who enjoys inflicting pain upon other players needlessly. If you kill newbies in a PvP game when you are level 50, you will gain no experience or benefit from the victimization beyond the pure joy of knowing you have given the player “grief.” Though griefers are almost always PKers, PKers are not necessarily griefers.
Guilds	Semi-permanent player groups. In typical games, players must use a substantial amount of capital to start the guild.
GTG	“good to go” and “got to go” - can be confusing when context is unclear
Health	A base attribute of characters
IMHO	“in my humble opinion”
INC	Abbreviation for "incoming". When a tank pulls for group, the tank will use this as warning that a mob is incoming.
IRL	“in real life”
Instance	An instantiation of a particular dungeon for a particular group of players. Instanced dungeons are then parallel worlds such that different groups of players can explore the same dungeon in separate groups.
J/K	“just kidding”
Kite	To lure a mob or player around much like a kite on a string while attacking it in some capacity. A player draws agro and the mobility of the monster is reduced. The monster tries to follow the target (thus becoming the kite on the string with the target hold the string.) In EQ a common kiting is DoT (Damage over time) with a snare (reduces the monsters speed) then running in a large circle until the monster is dead. Methods of kiting vary from game to game.
KoS	Acronym for "Kill on Sight". Usually used to refer to characters who are disliked by a particular guild. E.g., "After corpse-camping several of our guild's members, we put Gorath on the guild's KoS list".
KS	Kill Stealing. When another player attacks the same creature as another player and receives the reward for the kill instead of the person who originated combat. Newer games have mechanisms for discouraging this behavior.
LD	Link dead - when a player is disconnected from the game
Leet	Slang variant of “elite”
LFG	“looking for group”
LFM	“looking for more”, i.e., after a group has been formed and more members are needed.
LFT	“looking for team”
LMAO	“laughing my ass off”
LOL	“laughing out loud”
LoS	Line of sight. A requirement of most ranged abilities is that the view of the target not be obstructed by any fixed obstacle, such as a wall.
Loot	Currency or items that are dropped by a mob when it is defeated
Mana	A commonly-used pool of magic potential (magical analog of health points)
Macro	Programming term applied to user-made macros, or scripts that can automatically send messages, cast spells, and a variety of other functions. Mainly used to automate things that are repeatedly done to expediate gameplay.
Medding	Resting in order to gain back mana in EQ was called Meditating. This is the commonly used abbreviation, also shortened to Med, as in, "Don't pull yet, I need to med."
Mez	Short for mesmerize. A short-hand for a collection of abilities that temporarily stun or immobilize enemies. Falls into the more general category known as crowd control.
Min-Maxing	When players attempt to create their characters as powerful as they can be by crunching statistics, planning their future routes, and any other methods in order to make their characters the statistically best character possible. Optimization.
MMORPG	Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
Mob	An AI controlled monster. 'Mob' originally comes from the MUD era, where it was short for 'mobile', to differentiate monsters that would patrol a set of rooms as opposed to monsters which would stay in one place until killed.
Mod	Abbreviation of modification. Used as both a verb and a noun. As a noun, refers to add-ons by 3rd party programmers designed to augment the game (e.g., the self-cast mod). As a verb, refers to the act of performing this modification (e.g., he's modding the interface).
MOO	MUD Object Oriented. Users in MOOs are able to create their own content - both static and dynamic objects.
MT	“mistell”. Mistells occur frequently because of typing in the wrong name before sending a message. Also because of auto-reply features.
MUD	Multi-User Dungeon, although some prefer Multi-User Domain. These were the original textual online worlds.
Mule	In many games, due to long travel times or inventory limits, it is helpful to create a character explicitly for the purpose of being able to check auction houses or store extra items. These characters are seldom actually played and are referred to as mules.
Nerf	To soften or reduce an ability, item, player, or action. Usually this is a term applied when a power or ability is reduced because it is perceived to be too powerful.
Newbie	A new player
Ninja (Looting)	Ninja looting refers to the purposeful and malicious looting of a drop from a monster that doesn't follow the rules set by the group. In a sense, the item is stolen. This can take different forms in different games due to game-specific game looting mechanisms. In World of Warcraft, ninja looting refers to rolling for a BoP drop that a person should not have rolled on. Because WoW warns players when they roll for a BoP object, it is assumed that such behavior cannot be accidental. The player exhibiting such behavior is typically branded as a ninja looter.
Noob	The pejorative form of newbie
NP	“no problem”
NPC	Non-player character (ie. controlled by AI)
Nuke	Refers to casters, to cast the highest damage spell or spell combo to effectively pull or finish of a npc. Mages usually are the most effective class in highest burst damage.
OMG	“oh my god”
OMW	“on my way”
OOC	out-of-character - used to refer to OOC chat
OOM	“out of mana”
ownz	Derived from the original word "own," both words have the same meaning: to defeat some other entity in battle or other form of competition. The "pwnz" origin is probably from the fact that the "o" and "p" keys are adjacent on the standard qwerty keyboard, and were used interchangeably by mistake in games and stuck around since then.
Pat	Short for patrol, a term used for mobs that have a set wandering path. In a dungeon, people will usually say "Wait for the pat" or "Watch the pat".
PB	Point blank. Used to refer to a class of spells that originates in a radius around the caster. Typically, these spells are dangerous to the caster because they require proximity to the enemy. Specific spells are typically concatenated with the ability, i.e. pbae mez, pbae stun
PC	Player Character
PK	Player Killing
PKer	Player Killer - a derogatory term - as in a person who primarily plays to kill other players
Port	Short for teleport. Used as a noun and a verb.
Power Level	When a higher level player tries to help a lower level player level faster. Most games have mechanisms that prevent power leveling.
Proc	Abbreviation of "programmed random occurence", refers to usually the benefits of added damage or other buffing enhancement that occurs randomly when an item strikes or is used.
PuG	Pick-up Group - a group assembled on the spot for a quest, a PvP group, or an instance raid.
Pull	A standard hunting strategy where a player lures a single or a group of mobs to the group so that the group can hunt from a safe area instead of hunting in areas where new mobs may spawn.
PvE	Player vs. Environment. Environment stands for all monsters (mobs) in the world
PvP	Player vs. Player combat
pwnz	same as ownz
QQ	An emoticon that represents eyes weeping/crying. Used as both an emoticon and a verb. As an emoticon, it is usually a sarcastic reply to someone else's complaint or rant. In that setting, it is similar to "go cry me a river" or "oh boo-hoo". As a verb, it stands in for "complaining about" - e.g., "All the shaman are QQing about the nerf". Note that the verb form refers unintuitively to the complaining rather than the crying.
Race	Typically fantastical creations, such as Elves, Trolls and the like.
Raid	A more substantial engagement involving a large organized group of players typically set in a dungeon and involving difficult mobs
Regen	Short for regeneration (of health, mana, or other replenishable attributes)
Respec	At certain high levels in some games, you are given the chance to “respec” your character. When you respec, you recreate your character from level 1 until the present level in terms of skills/powers/abilities/etc.
Rez	Short for resurrection. Refers to abilities that revive players that have just died. Typically only available to healer classes.
ROFL	“rolling on floor laughing”
RMT	Abbreviation for Real Money Trade - selling virtual currency for real currency.
Roll	To "roll" on an item means to type "/random 100", where the server's random number generator puts out a number between 1 and 100, the most generally accepted "fair" way to distribute loot and settle disputes.
Root	Can refer to a class of abilities as well as its effect. A root spell immobilizes a target. The target is then said to be rooted. Early versions of these abilities involved references to plants, hence "root".
RvR	Realm vs. Realm.
Server	Due to technical reasons, each server can only support a limited amount of players. Each MMORPG typically has several servers. Players cannot interact with players on other servers.
Shard	Synonymous with server
Solo	The act of playing alone, hunting mobs alone.
Soulbound	An item-control mechanic where an item cannot be traded. In other words, only one person can own the object and it cannot be traded. See also BoE and BoP.
Spawn	Mobs typically appear (spawn) on a given schedule. This is both a verb and noun.
Spec	Short for specification. When used in games, it usually refers to the build/specifications of your character in terms of skills/abilities/magic/powers/etc.
Stun	A typical form of crowd control ability that immobilizes an enemy
SWG	Abbreviation for Star Wars Galaxies. An online game.
Tank	As a noun, refers to character classes that can take a lot of damage. As a verb, refers to the act of drawing aggro from mobs before other team members strike with their abilities.
Twink	As a verb, the act of giving currency or valuable items to a newbie. As a noun, refers to a character that is twinked. In many games, twinked characters are visually marked by their level-inappropriate gear.
Twisting	To rapidly change from one type of ability to another where the abilities overlap momentarily. In DAOC a bard sings a song that gives a buff. By rapidly changing the song several songs will overlap due to the duration of the songs continuing for a short period of time.
UO	Abbreviation for Ultima Online. An online game.
Uber	Slang form of super
WB	“welcome back”
Wipe	To "wipe" means for the entire group whether party or raid to all die. However, party or raid can only continue if there is a class that can resurrect oneself, thereby avoiding the time consumed from running back from the the graveyard and regrouping at the beginning of the instance.
WOOT	Synonymous with "hooray" or "way to go".
WoW	Abbreviation for World of Warcraft. An online game.
WTB	“want to buy”
WTS	“want to sell”
XP	experience points
Zerg	A combat strategy where a large group of players rush in at the target. Seen as a simple-minded strategy that requires no skill.
Zone	In games where different areas of the world are parceled out for loading reasons, different areas are referred to as zones.

====

You are welcome to post suggested additions to the list via the comments. In general, I've tried to only include terms that are used across several MMOs. I feel that including game-specific terms would overwhelm and make this page unnecessarily unwieldy. The goal here is to provide a lexicon that would allow the parsing of most MMO talk across most MMOs. So terms like "mob" or "camping" make sense, but terms like "ferry" make less sense.