Humanity Online: World Sanctuary

Glossary of Video Game Terminology

Are you unfamiliar with some of the terminology casually tossed around in video game novels? If so, good news! This glossary is here to help! I've focused on MMO terms, since that's most relevant if you're reading my novel, but I'm happy to add others if anyone has other questions. If you ever come across a word you don't know, please feel free to ask about it, and I'll tell you what it means and add it to this glossary for future readers! :)

These are in alphabetical order for now:

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Add/Adds - "Additional Enemy" : a term, generally used in boss fights, that means "generic enemies that aren't the boss." Someone saying "clear adds" really means "kill the additional enemies that are not crucial to the mechanics of the boss fight." (Mobs and Adds are often used interchangeably and essentially mean the same thing.)

Aggro - Aggression: measure of a mob's attack interest in a specific character. "Holding Aggro" means the mob is fixed on you, so it's focusing its attacks on you. (Generally good for the Tank to Hold Aggro)

AoE - Area of Effect : dealing damage to enemies standing within a certain range radiating out from the spot where the spell/attack was targeted

Buff - Spell that increases a beneficial attribute to a player (can also be obtained through foods/potions/etc, depending on the game)

CC - Crowd Control : as an attack, it controls a number of enemies by either freezing, slowing, or generally inhibiting their attack abilities so your own team can attack more efficiently

Cooldown - After certain attacks or spells are used, the cooldown is the time before the attack can be used again

Crit Hit - Critical Hit : When the maximum amount of damage for an attack is reached, it is called a critical hit

Debuff - Spell that decreases a beneficial attribute of a Mob or player (can also be obtained through poisons/etc, depending on the game)

DOT - Damage over Time : When a spell or attack deals damage over a period of time

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DPS - Damage Per Second

EXP - Experience : points received for killing mobs, completing quests, etc; used to increase in level and strength

Grinding - Killing mobs for experience without regard to a quest or other goal

HP / Health Points / Hit Points - measure of a character's life; decreases upon injury

Instance - A specific area that exists only to a particular to a specific player or group of players

Kill Steal - Killing a Mob another player was in the process of attacking (generally for the purpose of stealing the EXP and/or loot drop)

Kite/Kiting - Tactical technique that reduces the amount of melee damage taken; generally involves using ranged attacks, then running away, then ranged attack, then running, all while the mob chases you, until it dies (hopefully without ever getting near enough to land a hit)

Leech - Stealing experience and/or items; Sometimes a player will follow closely behind a group or higher-level player as they perform a specific quest. The group does all the work clearing a path to the quest and the leech can then complete the quest without doing all the work

Loot - Objects obtained as rewards for killing mobs, completing quests, opening chests, etc.

Melee - Close-combat attacks performed with martial arts or with melee weapons: swords, axes, hammers, daggers, scythes, etc

MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

Mob - "Mobile objects" / "Mobile Object Blocks" OR "Monster or Beast" : generic term for non-player entity whose primary purpose is to be killed for experience, quest objective, or loot. They tend to be aggressive to all players

MP / Mana Points / Magic Points - measure of how much magic a character has to cast spells

MPK - Monster Player Kill : luring a monster to kill another player

MT - Main Tank : (See "Tank") Most highly skilled defensive player, who holds aggro for difficult mobs so the other members of the party can focus on attacking without needing to take hits

Nerf - To reduce the capabilities, power, or attributes of a weapon or attack, or even an entire race/class; in an attempt by the developers to balance game play

Noob/n00b/newb (etc) - New or inexperienced player (generally an insult)

NPC - Non-Player Character (entity in game controlled by the game/computer)

OT - Over Threat/Off-Tank : When another party member accidentally pulls aggro from the Main Tank; this player usually doesn't have the defensive capabilities of dealing with the aggro and taking hits, or they would have been the MT. Sometimes, parties with many capable tanks will purposefully have Off-Tanks to split up the defensive duties.

PC - Player Character (character controlled by a human player)

PK - Player Kill : killing another player

PvE - Player vs Environment : Fighting against Mobs and other game-controlled enemies

PvP - Player vs Player : Fighting against player controlled characters

Regen - Regenerate : depending on the game, mobs and/or players may have functions to automatically regenerate HP, MP, and/or SP. Mobs, especially elite mobs, often have a HP regen function that allows them to regain HP during a fight, so the players fighting have to deal more damage per second than the mob can heal

SP / Stamina Points - measure of a character's stamina; meaning greatly changes depending upon game play

Stun - Attack that stops a player or mob from attacking (and usually moving at all); usually only lasts a short time

Tank - Character with inherent high armor factor, high defense, high strength; they can take more damage than most characters. Used to Hold Aggro during team fights so lower-defense characters don't take damage. (Also makes it easier on healers if they only have to focus on Tanks)

VRMMORPG - Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

Zerg - An attack in which you overwhelm the enemy with excessive numbers