A Gamer's Lexicon - Entry 4

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
Entry 2: Newb/Newbie, Noob, Aggro, Train, KoS
Entry 3: EQ, Evercrack, Lesson of the Devoted, DOOM, Rat Killer, Everquest Expansion Abbreviations through RoF

It's been a while since I've had a new post for A Gamer's Lexicon! To put it in perspective, Everquest has released two more expansions (up to 21 now). I think it's high time I added more terms.

camp - NOUN: A specific area a group sets up to kill surrounding mobs. When people call for a Camp Check (sometimes simply abbreviated CC) in a certain area, they are asking where groups already there are killing mobs, so they know not to encroach on their territory. VERB: To target a specific mob or mobs to kill. "I'm camping this mob until I can get the loot I need from it."

spawn or pop - After a mob is killed, you have to wait for the next spawn or pop, in other words for it to show up again. There is usually a timer, different for each area, that determines how long it takes for mobs to re-spawn or re-pop. The average time in Everquest for more recent expansions is 15-20 minutes. That can be a long time to wait if you're only killing one mob and waiting for it to re-spawn!

Named - A special and rare kind of mob that takes time to spawn. Named mobs usually drop better loot, including armor. Most Named have capital letters at the beginning of each word in its name, hence the term Named. However, there are some Named with all lowercase letters because the developers like to be sneaky.

PH - PH is an abbreviation for placeholder. This refers to the specific kind of mob that has a chance to re-spawn as a Named. It's a normal mob, but not all normal mobs that are killed can re-spawn as a named. Usually PHes are in specific locations or have a particular name, to allow players to figure out what mobs to target if they want to spawn a Named.

grinding - One of the main goals of a game is to level. If you sit in one spot for hours on end, only killing mobs to gain experience in hopes to level, this is called grinding. "I hate grinding - I'd rather be questing!" True statement. ;)

Can you figure out this paragraph that uses all the terms above?: Last weekend I camped a Named mob. But it kept spawning as the PH! There are 20 minutes between pops, and I had to have killed at least a dozen PHs. How monotonous and mind-numbing! But that's the life of a gamer. I guess I could have been grinding instead.

Did you get all that? It's like learning a new language. Well, I hope you at least found the post fun. Now I'm looking forward to some Named hunting this weekend, and I hope we don't get PH after PH!

NEXT UP: What Am I Writing?

A Gamer's Lexicon - Entry 3 - Special Everquest Edition!

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
Entry 2: Newb/Newbie, Noob, Aggro, Train, KoS

Welcome to the special Everquest Edition of A Gamer's Lexicon! Everquest recently released its 19th expansion (crazy, isn't it?), so I thought it was a good time to focus solely on some Everquest-only terms.

EQ - Everquest.

Evercrack - This one might be self-explanatory. ;) Many people refer to Everquest as Evercrack, as it can be quite the addiction!

Lesson of the Devoted - Also simply called Lesson or LotD, this is a veteran reward that allows players 30 minutes of double experience gain every 20 hours. Veteran rewards are for long standing players, a different award given for every year (cumulatively) you have played/paid for Everquest. Lesson is the 1-year reward. When people activate the ability, they may say something like: "Popping Lesson" or "Burning Lesson".

DOOM - Yes, all caps. Could mean anything, right? Well, for Everquest players it's related to Lesson. When people pop lessons while killing mobs, they may call it DOOM because some consider it unlucky! For some reason, there tends to be a higher chance of death when you are burning your Lesson (this is likely simple coincidence). The RNG Gods seem to think that wipes are more amusing when Lessons are popped. =P

Rat Killer - This was a nickname for Everquest when it was first released! I didn't start playing until several expansions later, but I heard when EQ first came out, it was mostly people chasing after rats!

And the coup de grâce of this post--the list of expansion abbreviations! Hang tight, 19 expansions makes this list a long one!

RoK or Kunark - The Ruins of Kunark

SoV or Velious - The Scars of Velious

SoL or Luclin - The Shadows of Luclin

PoP or POP - The Planes of Power

LoY or Ykesha - The Legacy of Ykesha

LDoN - Lost Dungeons of Norrath

GoD or GOD or Gates - Gates of Discord

OoW or Omens - Omens of War

DoN - Dragons of Norrath

DoD - Depths of Darkhollow

PoR - Prophecy of Ro

TSS - The Serpent's Spine

TBS - The Buried Sea

SoF - Secrets of Faydwer

SoD - Seeds of Destruction

UF - Underfoot

HoT - House of Thule

VoA - Veil of Alaris

RoF - Rain of Fear

And word is that they will be releasing content differently in the future. Is it the end of the expansion acronyms? We'll see! But I think Everquest still has quite a few years left in it.

Speaking of EQ, time to log in and nuke some mobs!

NEXT UP: The Sims 3 - Lavender Legacy, Chapter 1 - Meet Lila Lavender! - I lied! It will actually be Magic is Reality, Reality is Magic: Yule

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

A Gamer's Lexicon - Entry 1

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) 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!

Welcome to the first entry of A Gamer's Lexicon series! The picture paired with this series is actually a screenshot of my wizard, Karriya, from Everquest (and her newest mount, Starglow). But that isn't what you want to know, is it? You want me to define some crazy gamer terms!

I'll start out with 5 terms this entry.

RNG - Random Number Generator - This term is used a lot in terms of luck. Different items drop from the mobs (term defined below), and its chance, luck, and the percentages that have been plugged into the system that determine what will drop.

RNG Gods - Associated with the term above, these gods come into play when either someone is begging hopelessly for a rare item to drop or when she is cursing said gods for not having dropped the item desired or having given her a bad roll when needing to "roll the dice or choose a random number" if rolling against someone else who wants the item dropped.

mob - In most cases, a mob is a creature that the player needs to kill to work on a quest or to obtain loot (term defined below).

loot - Noun: The items a mob drops that can be pilfered from its corpse. Verb: To actively pilfer the items off of a mob's corpse.

wipe - What a mob does to the player and her group so they cannot loot its items. In other words, total annihilation. The mob killed all of us! = We wiped!

Fun, no? Soon you'll be able to speak a whole new language. Watch for the next entry in the series!

NEXT UP: Classic Voltron: Defender of the Universe--Silly Stuff from Episode One!