A Gamer's Lexicon - Entry 2

Screenshot from Everquest

A Gamer's Lexicon series touches upon terms players use in video games. The terms here mostly come from my experiences in the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) Everquest. This series will hopefully help the non-gamers understand some of the terms gamers use. And gamers may find it humorous as well! If you have any gaming terms (from any type of video game or table top gaming) you would like me to address in the future, or if you think I should add something to already defined terms, please post in the comments--I may ask you to define a term though, if it isn't one I've come across before. Happy hunting!

The previous terms in A Gamer's Lexicon series can be found here:

Entry 1: RNG, RNG Gods, mob, loot, wipe

5 more terms to add to your gamer-speak arsenal!

Newb or Newbie - This term refers to players that are new to the game (or gaming in general) and don't know most of the ropes. Newbies tend to ask a lot of questions. Whether players want to admit it or not, everyone was a newbie at one time!

Noob - Yes, this is different than newb. Noob is actually more of an insult. When one player is upset with another, she may call that player a noob. It's like saying said person is an idiot, so much that he acts like a new player. People that have been playing a game for years do not like being called noobs. Don't piss older players off, as they may have no gaming etiquette and decide to train (term defined below) you.

Aggro - When you engage a mob, you aggro it. Most times attacking the mob with weapons or spells will aggro the mob, but you can also aggro it if it is hostile to you, or KoS (term defined below), and you pass near it. Make sure to have invis on if you're running through a pack of mobs! However, some may see through your invis and aggro you anyhow. Eek!

Train - To create a train, a player aggros a bunch of mobs, then she runs about with all the mobs following her. If she is cruel, she can purposefully run through another group in attempt to wipe that group--the mobs may decide to jump the group members and the player training will lose aggro. Some trains are accidental, though. A player who aggros a mob on accident may run for her life, gathering more mobs in the process. Most of these panicked players run to a zone line, which will end aggro. The kind thing to do when this happens is to call, "Train to zone!" so people standing at a zone line will know to move out of the way before they aggro the mobs and die!

KoS - Kill on Sight. Many mobs in games like Everquest are KoS to the players. This means, if the KoS mobs see a player, it will attack her immediately. There is actually a system where if you stay far enough away from the mob so it doesn't notice you, you can check, or con, the mob to see if it is KoS or not. But con is a term to be defined another day. =)

There are just too many terms I would have loved to list here, but I have to limit myself! Next time. ;)

NEXT UP: SFFS Snippet - 9/15/12