Gamer Glossary

So, a tiny bit of explanation:

I have friends and family who read my Blog but who are not gamers and after curious looks and questions and even a comment of: “I like your Blog, but I cannot understand half of it,” I thought it best to provide a list of terms to help out.

So below is a reference of words, phrases and acronyms I use that may not be clear to everyone.

Please feel free to leave a comment or send me a note about any other words I may be missing or to make comments on my definitions.  This will be updated as I think of (or get told) words that belong here.  🙂

~ Effy

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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

Arena – This is a PvP environment with a set amount of player characters (2, 3, 5) who fight in a limited Arena setting.

B

BG – (Battleground) This is a PvP environment with a set amount of players (10, 20, 40) who fight and work together to accomplish a

BoA – (Bind on Account) This is an item that may be used by any character on your Battlenet (WoW) account.  For example: Here is a list of BoA items in-game.  The Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak is a BoA and may be worn by any of your characters at anytime.

BoE – (Bind on Equip) This is an item that is trade-able or sell-able until it is actually equipped on a character, at which time it becomes Soulbound.

BoP – (Bind on Pickup) This is an item that immediately becomes Soulbound to your character, meaning it cannot be traded or sold.  There is an exception to this rule: If an item drops to a group, the group members may trade the item amongst themselves for two hours from the time the item drops.

Boss – This is an NPC monster with a larger amount of health and better loot drops than regular mobs.  Bosses of end-game level (currently 85+) require the cooperation of a group of players to defeat.

C

Class

D

DPS

Drop – An item that is received by your character from a defeated monster (ie. armor, weapons, crafting materials).

E

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F

Faction –

G

Gank

H

Healer – This is a type of player character.  The Healer is responsible for healing group members from damage they take from mobs or other players of the opposing faction.

I

Instance – This is a

J

…

K

…

L

…

M

Mats – This refers to crafting materials gathered for trade professions and to create items.

MMORPG – (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) This refers to an online video game with a setting where players from various geographical locations can interact together.  There are many types of MMO’s, but MMORPG refers specifically to those in a more fantasy-type setting.

Mob – This refers to an NPC monster.  Most commonly used to describe trash or quest monsters.

N

NPC – (Non-Player Character) This is a character controlled by the game’s AI.  NPCs may be quest givers, merchants, trainers, mobs or bosses.

O

…

P

Player Character – This is a person’s focus for interaction (or avatar) in the World of Warcraft setting.

PvE – (Player versus Environment) – This refers to the portion of the game that is played as your character (either in a group or solo) against monsters in the game world (ie. dungeons, quest mobs, raid bosses).

PvP – (Player versus Player) – This refers to the portion of the game that pits your character against other player characters.  This can either happen in BGs, Arenas or open world.

Q

…

R

Race

Rep

RP – (Role Playing) This refers to a type of play where players become more focused on their character’s past, personality and storyline so that they can interact with other players in-character.

S

Skype – One of several voice communication programs, used in conjunction with WoW.

Soulbound – This means that an equip-able item (weapon, armor, trinket, etc.) may be put on only the character who currently possesses it.  It cannot be traded or sold.

Spec

T

Tank

Trash

U

…

V

Vent – One of several voice communication programs, used in conjunction with WoW.

W

Wipe – This refers to an occurrence where the entire group of player characters die.  Usually this is used to describe a PvE situation where the characters die to NPC monsters.

WoW – World of Warcraft.

X

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Y

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Z

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