An MMORPG glossary, Part One

A change of pace after this bloodthirsty-type entry....

I've culled most of this glossary from the corresponding Wikipedia page on MMORPG terms and acronyms. I've kept only those terms which are relevant or applicable to Granado Espada, and inserted comments as necessary.

I hope you have fun with this one!

Part Two is here.

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MMORPG Glossary, Part One

Admin - An administrator/staff of an online game; helps players with game-related problems and resolves any in-game issues such as bugs or hacking
AFK - Away From Keyboard
1. - noun Leaving the computer for some reason while in game.
2. - verb To go AFK
Aggro - derived from aggression/aggressive
1. the extent to which enemy mobs are focused on a player. Sometimes this is done intentionally, as in the case of a tank, other times it is unintentional and undesirable, as in the case of a group's healer or caster gaining aggro.
2. when a mob is aggro, it will attack non-cloaked players within a certain radius. Depending on the MMORPG being played, the cloaking can vary and be based on sight, sound, smell or a combination of these three.
3. To aggro a mob is to draw attention by breaking its aggro range or by using an ability that either intentionally or unintentionally provokes it.
Aggro Range (sometimes Radius) - The invisible area around a monster that, when entered, causes the enemy and anything else within the Aggro Range to attack. The radius tends to increase as the monsters become higher level than the player, and vice versa. For example, if the monster's level is trivial compared to the player, they might need to walk very close to the monster for it to attack.
AoE/AE - Area of effect (or "area effect"), a spell or item that deals damage in a given targeted area, as opposed to items or spells that deal damage to a single enemy. AoE items or spells can also heal instead of doing damage.
ATK/AT - Attack, usually in reference to the damage dealing capacity.

B> - "Buying"; the speaker is announcing their willingness to buy the listed item. For example, "B> epic sword" means that the speaker wishes to buy an epic sword, and is inviting other players to offer to sell theirs. If the speaker is willing to buy or to trade for the item, the term B/T> may be used.
Bio - The act of taking care of basic biological functions. A common reason for going AFK.
Bolt - A type of damage skill that causes a projectile to fly towards an enemy character and impact him, causing damage. Usually associated with magic spells as opposed to missile weapons like a bow. Also used as a verb, to mean the act of casting such a spell ("bolt the mage").
Bot - a player character controlled by a 3rd party program, against the rules in most MMORPGs.
Buff
1. An effect that improves a character's stats temporarily. These stats could be increased health, strength, defense, speed, or other effects.
2. Using a buff on a character.
3. Enhancing an aspect of the game (see also nerf)

Camp
1. An area chosen by a player or group of players in which they will engage mobs. The chosen area is usually safe from undesired mob interference. Usually the only person to leave the camp is the puller.
2. To stay in one area to engage mobs. Also used in some games when an enemy player hangs around a slain opponent, waiting for the player to respawn (or resurrect) so they can kill the player again.
Caster - Short for "spellcaster." Used to describe any player/NPC who uses magic, usually at long range or in the form of AoE attacks. In Granado Espada, normally applies to wizards, elementalists, and to a limited extent support-type scouts.
CC
1. Short for "crowd control," a general set of ability types that involve limiting the actions of others. Such abilities include immobilizing a character, slowing the character's movement, taking control of the character, making the character run away, and others. More specifically it connotes abilities that force a given enemy to disengage, and are often broken if the players attack the mob, but generally have long durations if not broken or dispelled.
2. To use crowd control abilities. Example usage: "CC the add!"
3. To change channel, usually because the current channel is crowded.
CD - Cooldown. The time between when a skill is used and when it may be used again. Usually, skills producing powerful and important effects have longer cooldown periods than others.
Crit - Critical strike/hit. A hit that multiplies the damage of a typical strike.

DC
1. Disconnect, when a player is disconnected from the game.
2. To get disconnected. It is often used with an apostrophe, as seen in "I got dc'ed."
Debuff
1. A buff which has a negative affect.
2. Using a debuff on a character.
DPS - "damage per second"
1. A standard way to calculate the rate of damage dealt to others. For example, 100 damage over 4 seconds is 25 DPS.
2. Describing a character class that is known for its high damage per second. Example usage: "We need to bring some more DPS classes for this encounter."
Drop
1. A monster leaving behind equipment when slain. "The princess drops a nice shield."
2. The equipment itself that is left behind when a monster is slain. "I got a sweet drop last night off the ogre chieftain."
Drop rate - Term referring to the frequency at which a monster will drop a given piece of loot.

Emote - An action that allows the players to act out feelings, moods, etc. As an example, a typical emote could be that a player wishes to laugh, or to show that he or she is bored, etc. Known as Pose in Granado Espada.
End-game - also "Endgame" and "End game", refers to the parts of an MMORPG designed for the highest level players.
Exploit
1. A specific flaw in the game mechanics, system architecture, or world geography to give oneself an advantage over other players, access otherwise hidden or unavailable content, or bypass intended elements of the game design or NPC AI. At all stages of an MMORPG's development and release, making use of exploits for personal gain rather than reporting them to the designers (through whatever channels are provided) is subject to punitive action (usually resulting in the offending player(s') account(s') being banned.
2. To deliberately use such a flaw for personal gain.
EXP - Experience Points or just Experience (sometimes XP), EXP is used as a physical word for the experience the character gains after finishing a quest or killing a monster or another player (see Player versus Player, or PvP) and when the character gains enough EXP it will Level Up, generally becoming stronger and gaining more health points (see HP) Mana points/ Magic points (see MP) and the ability to use more items, weapons, spells, and armor.

Farm - To repetitively gather resources in an area. to get a rarely-dropped piece of loot, lots of a common drops, or just money. Named because you end up killing all of the available mobs, and then waiting for them to respawn, like a farmer growing crops and harvesting them. May also see "China-Farmer," which refers to the perception that many professional farmers (people who farm in-game items/exp for real-world money) are employees working in China. This perception is valid, as many professional farming companies employ labor from third-world countries in Eastern Europe and from China. It is common for players to facetiously tell a perceived China-Famer "Ni Hao," in order to prove that they are as they seem.
FedEx Quest - Also called "Fetch Quests", as the name implies, a FedEx quest requires a player to act as a 'courier', taking an item from point A to point B (and often point C). FedEx quests are often decried as simplistic and lacking any real challenge.

GL - Sometimes stands for "Good Luck".
GM - Game Master, a person employed by the developer of the game as a customer service representative (CSR), typically offering in-game tech support and policing.
Grind - To repetitively kill mobs in an area, usually for experience, although also used as a term to repetitively kill mobs for money or specific items.

Instance - An instance dungeon is a part of the world (normally a dungeon) of which a private copy is made and reserved for a player or group of players, as opposed to a non-instanced dungeon or location where the player(s) can meet other players of their own or the opposing side, with the related consequences. Instancing has become more prevalent in MMORPGs over the last five years.

Kite - To prevent an NPC from successfully attacking by continually running around while the monster chases the player.
KOS - Short for "Kill on Sight", a description of a mob that attacks players without provocation. Example: "I can't enter that town because the guards are KOS to me." Guilds may also declare members of certain opposing guilds as KOS, meaning that they are to be killed immediately if they are encountered, regardless of the situation or etiquette. Example: "Remember, anyone in Tenebris is KOS."
KS - Short for "Kill stealing", when a player engages and kills a NPC that was being fought by another player, possibly receiving loot rights and experience. Intentional KSing is severely frowned upon in most games.

Lag - When the game client freezes up or moves slowly, either due to large amounts of content being loaded from disk and into memory or from large amounts of data being sent from the game server to the client. Typically exhibits itself as a momentary freeze in the game client, after which the game will quickly act to catch up with the current game state, either by moving players around to where they are now or having them seem to run around at increased speeds.
Lawndart - Uncommon antonym of Nerf, meaning to increase the power level of some game element for game balance reasons. Usually done when something is gimped or has been nerfed excessively.
Level / lvl
1. A way to measure the power of a player, see experience points. Usually considered small milestones that may add stat bonuses, etc.
2. The act of gaining a level

Macro
1. A preset arrangement of commands set to a hot key or combination (such as Alt 5, or Ctrl 9) used to make the process of doing said commands easier, or quicker to use. Often used since multiple actions can be used with one keystroke.
2. A character who utilities macro keystrokes to carry out simple repetitive tasks for the acquisition of wealth or skillpoints or the player who owns such character(s). Normally players will use multiple such entities simultaneously. Often, the product (in-game currency, items of value or characters) of such activity is sold for RL currency resulting in a upset to gameplay balance and for this reason is disapproved of by MMORPG operators.
Mana - The pool of magic points used by a player when casting spells or using other magic abilities. This term is used even in games that officially call magic points other names such as power.
Meat Shield - A longer, more intentionally humorous term for a Tank.
Melee
1. Combat at close range, e.g. with swords or clubs, as opposed to ranged combat with arrows or spells.
2. Player classes using melee attacks as their primary form of damage (e.g. rogues and warriors in most games)
MOB - A mob is a single NPC, usually one that is meant to be killed for experience or loot, though strictly speaking any computer controlled creature is a MOB. MOB is usually (but not always) interchangeable with Monster (see below). Short form of mobile object.
Mob training - gathering more than one monster and killing them with an AoE spell. Compared to killing one monster with the same spell / one by one, it provides more exp per hour.
Monster - A general name used for any type of NPC (see NPC, below) which the players kill to gain experience, loot and items. Also known as MOBs (see MOB, above).
MP - Magic Points/ Mana Points. A common abbreviation for Mana Points.

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Watch out for the next part, coming up shortly ^^