WoW terminology

From AJS.COM

A work in progress... this essay stems from a posting to the World of Warcraft forums that I made.

World of Warcraft terminology comes from quite a few different places. In many cases, it stems from the long history of MUDs or even tabletop roleplaying games, but I first came into contact with many of the terms in EverQuest (EQ). Below, I'll try to outline the history of the more commonly used terms:

Contents
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

agro/threat

EQ, but probably pre-dates it — Refers to the targeting of a mob / measure of its likeliness to target each character (threat is sometimes called "hate")

alt

EQ, and possibly quite a bit earlier — An "alternate" character.

AoE

Tabletop roleplaying games, possibly miniature wargaming — Area of Effect, referring to abilities that affected more than a single target based on proximity to the target or source location

B

boss

single player video games as early as the 80s — A mob that is hard to kill, and represents a climactic challenge of a quest, area, level, dungeon, etc.

BRB/BBL

BBS/IRC — "Be right back, be back later"

C

CC

tabletop roleplaying? — Crowd control abilities.

corpse run

EQ — where you had to run back to your corpse to loot your gear when you died

cybor

IRC and possibly previous chat systems / BBSes — Any chat-based roleplaying of physical affection (etc...)

D

DOT/HOT

EQ or earlier? — "Damage/healing over time"

dps

miniature wargaming — "Damage per second"

E

F

farming

EQ, but probably MUDs before it — Repetitive killing or gathering in order to gather a particular type of item or money, usually solo

FD

EQ (where it was a spell name) at least — Feign Death

G

gank/ganking

EQ or earlier, also DAoC — Killing another player. Typically implies a lopsided or surprise fight

gear check

first heard this in WoW — A boss which is intended to block progression until the players have a sufficient level of gear to handle the subsequent content

H

hack

circa 1950s MIT — A rich and varied set of meanings, but in WoW and most video games it means any way of exploiting the game's software or rules in ways which are not intended.

I

J

K

L

LD

just about any video game — "link death" - when a character is disconnected due to lack of connectivity

LFG

EQ, but probably earlier (MUDs?) — "Looking for Group"

LOL/ROFL/etc.

IRC/Web forums — "laughing out loud / rolling on the floor, laughing"

M

main

EQ, and possibly earlier — The main character, which can mean the most often played, highest level, etc.

mob

MUDs — Mobile object block, which was usually a creature, though not all creatures were mobs.

N

ninja

EQ — Taking loot without group consensus... amusingly neither EQ nor WoW have a ninja class

newb/noob

BBSes — Refers to a "newbie" or an inexperienced user/player

NPC

D&D and later, numerous other tabletop games — Non-Player Character. Any character within the game that is not a player's avatar.

O

OOC/IC

Tabletop roleplaying — "Out of character/in character"

P

pat/pather/patroller

EQ — Any mob that has a set route that it patrols, often moving between or among other groups of mobs

PC

D&D — Player Character. Any avatar (character) of a human player.

ping

UNIX networking tool — The time packets take to travel from the client to the server (or visa versa)

PST

EQ but I think this goes back to MUDs — "Please Send Tell"

pushback

WoW? — The increase in time to cast a spell when hit.

PvP/PvE

MUDs? — I know this terminology pre-dated EQ. (Player vs. Player/Environment)

Q

QQ

Internet forums — "cry more," the capital letter Qs are used as icons to represent tearful eyes.

R

raid

MUDs? — When a large group of players gather to attack a creature or dungeon

roll (up) a character

D&D (and later, other tabletop and video games) — Referred to rolling dice to determine stats

root

EQ (where it was a spell name) — Abilities which prevent movement of a mob or player

RP

tabletop roleplaying, "roleplaying"

S

snare

EQ (where it was a spell name) — Abilities which slow the movement of a mob or player

T

taunt

In both EQ and WoW — This is both the name of an ability, but in EQ it was more typically used to refer to any activity, increasing threat, where that usage is rarer in WoW

trash

first heard this in EQ — Non-boss mobs that must be killed or otherwise eliminated before engaging a boss

U

V

W

WTS/WTB/WTT

At least back to EQ — Want To Sell/Buy/Trade. In the earliest days of EQ, all buying/selling was negotiated by players gathering in one place and using the "ooc" channel to hawk their wares. WTS/B/T was used as a convention to identify what interest a player had in an item.

X

Y

Z

zone (v.)

to load a new game area when traveling (much more frequent in EQ than WoW, but it might predate both)

zone (n.)

unique game territory maps (in EQ this implied areas between which one "zoned", in WoW this does not, but we still call different maps zones)