The Proteus Paradox (32 page)

Drop.
Verb/Noun. Refers to a specific item that a mob may provide as treasure when killed. In this usage,
drop
can be thought of as one specific item among a mob's loot—the sum of its
drops
. As a verb,
drop
refers to the act of a mob providing loot when it dies.

Dungeon.
Noun. A series of passages and rooms with mobs and bosses in an online game. These are not necessarily underground, although many are. See also
Instance
.

Experience.
Noun. Characters need to accumulate
experience
points to level up.
Experience
can be gained by killing mobs, completing quests, and accomplishing other in-game objectives.

Farm.
Verb. To kill a mob repeatedly to accumulate or find a specific drop. Often used in the same context as camping (see
Camp
).

Gold Farming.
The act of accumulating in-game currency to sell for real-world currency. A player who is suspected of or confirmed to be accumulating in-game currency to sell for real-world currency is called a
Gold Farmer
. These labels are often used pejoratively.

Guild.
Noun. A long-term player organization that can range in size from one to more than two hundred players. Players often have to pay a small fee to start a
guild
. They can then name the
guild
and recruit other players to it. In online games,
guilds
facilitate larger dungeon and raid encounters. They also enable sustained social interaction among a group of players.

Healer.
Noun. Combat class that focuses on restoring the health of team members during fights. One of three combat archetypes. See also
DPS
and
Tank
.

Instance.
Noun. One of many parallel versions of an area, usually a dungeon, in an online game. To avoid overcrowding in dungeons, each player group entering a dungeon receives its own version of it, termed an
instance
of that dungeon. This usage of
instance
is a reference to object-oriented programming. In contemporary online games,
instance
is often synonymous with
Dungeon
.

Loot.
Noun/Verb. As a noun,
loot
refers to the collection of items and in-game currency that a mob drops when it dies. As a verb,
loot
refers to the act of gathering items and in-game currency from a dead mob. See also
Drop.

Mana.
Noun. A resource that magic users draw from to cast spells. Players use
mana
to cast spells, after which their
mana
recovers slowly over time.

MMO.
Often used as the abbreviated form of
MMORPG,
although it can also be used as a more inclusive category of all persistent online games that can support many players at once.

MMORPG.
Short for
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.
Often abbreviated to
MMO
or
MMOG
.

Mob.
Noun. Short for
mobile,
a coin termed in MUD by Richard Bartle to refer to computer-controlled monsters that would move around the map on their own.

Mod.
Noun/Verb. Short for
modify
or
modification
. In a gaming context, a
mod
is a third-party-created piece of software that extends an existing game in some way. For example, a player might create new textures for the existing 3D models. To
mod
a game is to create this additional functionality. Different games have varying rules in terms of whether
modding
is allowed and in what contexts. Most online games do not allow
modding
.

MUD.
Short for
Multi-User Dungeon,
or text-based multiplayer online world, created in the late 1970s. The predecessor of online games.

Nerf.
Noun/Verb. As a verb, the actions taken by game developers to reduce a character class or race's abilities in order to balance an online game. Owing to the complex rules of and interactions in online games, it is often difficult for game developers to ensure that every character class performs equally well in combat throughout the game's content. When imbalances are noticed, developers may bring certain abilities in line with the average. This almost always has the effect of upsetting players who were playing those classes or races. As a noun, a
nerf
refers to the specific rule change that reduces a certain ability.

Newbie.
Noun. A new player.

Ninja.
Verb. As a verb, to purposely loot a drop off a monster by disregarding the agreed-upon rules of the group—in a sense, stealing the item. Depending on the game, this can occur in different ways. In
World of Warcraft,
it was possible at one point for a player to roll on an item that he or she could not use. A
ninja
might exploit this mechanism to attempt to win a roll this way. Players who
ninja
an item are referred to as
ninja looters
. See also
Roll.

Noob.
Noun. The pejorative form of
Newbie.

NPC.
Short for
Non-Player Character.
A character controlled by the computer.

Patrol.
Noun. A mob that has a set, looping path. In a dungeon, it is important to be aware of
patrols
and their spawning intervals. Abbreviated to
Pat.

Pull.
Verb. To initiate combat with one or more monsters by luring it toward the group. In most dungeons, the group will stay at a safe location while one character, the
puller,
lures monsters toward the group.

PvE.
Adjective. Short for
Player Versus Environment
. In this context, environment refers to monsters controlled by the computer. In other words, you cannot be killed by other players except under mutually consensual conditions.

PvP.
Adjective. Short for
Player Versus Player
. In other words, players may freely kill each other outside a few safe areas.

Race.
Noun. In the context of online games,
race
refers to fantastical creatures. Examples include Elves, Trolls, and Gnomes.

Raid.
Noun/Verb. As a noun,
raid
refers to a challenging dungeon for a normal or large group of players. In
World of Warcraft,
some
raids
require up to twenty-five players.
Raids
involve more challenging mobs, bosses, and tactics than normal dungeons and may require many hours to complete. In
World of Warcraft,
a group may attempt to complete a
raid
over a one-week period if it cannot complete it in one run. As a verb,
raiding
refers to an attempt at completing a high-level dungeon.

Rez.
Noun/Verb. Short for
resurrection
or
resurrect
. As a verb, the act of using a spell or ability to return a dead player to life. As a noun,
rez
refers to the actual spell or ability.

RL.
Short for
Real Life.

Roll.
Noun/Verb. As a verb, the act of using the in-game random number generator to decide which character should receive the loot. Thus, each character
rolls
a virtual hundred-sided die, and the character with the highest result wins the loot. As a noun,
roll
refers to the actual random outcome.

RW.
Short for
Real World
.

Server.
Noun. For technical reasons, it is often difficult to maintain a stable online world with thousands of players. Most online games thus split the game population into parallel universes, each on its own
server
. When players start playing an online game, they select a
server
to join and their character lives specifically on that
server
.

Shard.
Noun. Synonymous with
server.
Originally used to refer to servers in
Ultima Online.

Solo.
Verb. The act of playing an online game alone. More specifically, the act of being able to kill mobs that are the same or even higher level than the character with relative ease and safety. In online games, certain classes are designed to be able to
solo
well while others are more dependent on groups.

Spawn.
Verb. In reference to a mob, to reappear after being killed. In most online games, mobs
respawn
after a set interval, as in, “He's waiting for the goblin chieftain to
spawn
.”

Spec.
Noun/Verb. Short for
specialization
. In online games, each character class's abilities and skills can be configured in many ways. Each combination is referred to as a
specialization,
or
spec
for short. Although there are many configurations, optimal configurations are described by their intended goals. For example, a druid may have both a healing
spec
and a DPS
spec
.

Tank.
Noun/Verb. As a noun, one of the combat archetypes. A
tank
is a durable character who shields the group from the brunt of the enemy's attacks by standing in front and taunting the enemies. As a verb, it means taking on this role in a fight.

Wipe.
Noun/Verb. As a verb, in reference to a group, to be completely overwhelmed and killed by mobs or a boss, generally in difficult dungeons or raids. As a noun, a
wipe
is a specific instance of this happening.

XP.
Noun. Abbreviation of
Experience.

Zone.
Verb/Noun. As a noun, a bounded geographical area in an online game. As a verb, the act of crossing a geographical boundary in a game.

Abrams, J. J.,
57

add-on tools,
159
–161,
169
–171,
192
–193

ADVENT
,
13

advertising, targeted,
77
,
115
,
157
–158,
174
–175,
211
–212

aggressiveness and black uniforms experiment,
147
–148

Agreeableness personality factor,
167
,
168
,
173

Aion,
171

Alone Together
(Turkle),
194

altruism: and in-game death penalties,
181
–183; and returning lost objects, Japan versus US,
177
–178; and social interaction,
184
–188; as system trait,
188
,
194

America Online (AOL),
14
,
15

Andrejevic, Mark,
176

anonymity,
128
,
174
–176

arcade games,
22
,
99

Armory (
World of Warcraft
),
169
–171

Arneson, Dave,
11

Aron, Arthur,
146

arousal and bogus heartbeat rate experiment,
144
–146

ARPANet,
14

Asheron's Call,
16
,
55
–56

attitudes and behavior,
144
–146

attractiveness,
1
–2,
148
–151,
153

avatars: attractive,
1
–2,
148
–151,
153
; and basic gameplay,
17
–19; confidence and height of,
151
–152; death penalties,
179
–183; as digital doppelgängers,
155
–156; and gender-bending,
111
–113; and immersion motivations,
32
–33; inefficiency of,
202
–203; male versus female appearance of,
104
–106; online games reliance on,
21
; and reimagining reality,
213
–214; and replicating reality,
199
–201,
204
–208; retirement savings and aging of,
154

Bailenson, Jeremy,
1
–2,
141
–142,
147
,
148
–153,
157

Barlow, John Perry,
198
,
201
,
207

Bartle, Richard,
13
–14,
18
,
19
,
20
,
29

Beck, John,
75
–76

behavior and attitudes,
144
–146

behavior-personality link,
167
–169

“Being in Nothingness” (Barlow),
198

Bettelheim, Bruno,
135
–136

Big Five personality factors.
See
OCEAN (Big Five personality factors)

binding,
184
–185

Blizzard,
17
,
45
,
159
–160,
168
,
169
–170,
206

Blomme, Rick,
12

brain.
See
human brain

broken reality,
142
–144

Burger, Jerry,
140

Bush, George W.,
141
–142,
212

Buss, Allan,
188

Cable, Daniel,
151

California, University of, Berkeley,
165

California, University of, Davis,
201

California psychological Inventory,
165

Capilano Suspension Bridge experiment,
146

Castronova, Edward,
4
,
96
,
211

Chainmail,
10
–11,
21

Chan, Dean,
85

Chang, Iris,
90
–91

China, gameplay in,
3
,
26

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882),
90
–91

Chinese gold farmers,
81
–89

Chinese immigrants,
89
–91