LF1M Need healer

I don't think anyone says "dd" over "dps"

This is well done. I am sure we all have lots of input on what else they should have included.

A few of my coworkers know a lot about the MMO lingo and have never played an MMO.

They have simply been involved in conversations about a game and have picked up some of the lingo.

They love to listen to the stories since it is like someone explaining an adventure book to them.

@Fbu:
Yeah, I play WoW and I wasn't sure what dd stood for when I just read it, but I figured it meant dps.

"Twink: Additional, rarely used playing character"

Huh? Methinks they missed the point of what seperates a "twink" from an "alt".

@Quark: So they did.

What a badly written article. It almost sounds like a hastily written paper for a school assignment. Proofread much? The formatting is horrible. Do they know you can do more with a web page than blocks of text? Even some line breaks for that "info box" would be nice.

The author states some things as facts that I believe only apply to specific games, not a general fact about MMO games. I've never heard anyone say 4/6. WoW had 5 player dungeons. "Bio" does not automatically set you afk from what I remember.

I have more gripes with it, but I've said enough. Blah.

@oofgeg: DPS meens Damage Per Second, DD meens Damage Dealer.

@MugiMugi: Never heard that iteration of DD. I'd always heard Direct Damage.

I never really heard people say "mainchar." We just said "main" for our primary character.

Not too bad of an article for inexperienced players, though. It's kind of interesting, too. I played WoW for over two years but had never really thought about the degree of language that an outsider would shrug his shoulders at.

ni hao?

Very badly written..

@iamnotdryad: I agree. Really, I picked up the language quickly, but it's not something I ever use outside of people who play MMOs, and only when talking about MMOs.

This is not standard for all MMOs. Especially WoW.

In WoW dps (damage per second) is used instead of dd.

An alt is an alternate lesser (but usually not 'rarely') used character. A twink is a low level alt that is given gear that most new players at that level would not have through normal gameplay due to lack of luck, funds and social network. T

I have never seen the term 'linkdead' in WoW. Generally someone will say dc'd which is shorthand for disconnected.

Mainchar is usually shortened to main. Sometimes I see main toon (a toon being another word for character.)

I don't think MMO speech is half as bad as table-top speech, but that's just me.

i play guild wars so theres some different terms but wow might have them... lfgm, glfm, wts, wtb, ss, mm... the list goes on and on...

omgwtfbbq tmgsa (too many game specific acronyms)

Does anybody know the source of the article image?

@Moonshadow101: Yeah, when I first read the term dd it was in EQ and stood for direct damage.

Is it bad that I play a free MMO that uses no such language, and I still knew what that meant?

oh and, none of those terms apply to RO (ragnarok online). I know it isn't heavily played, but its just evidence that those terms are largely unused by most mmos.

B>+7 SGH 7m, N>FS for GY/P2, z plz!

i really hate it when people try to make an article to help people, only to leave them just where they were at the beginning.

It started out decent, but once it got to "Bio automatically sets you afk and freezes the game".....

@HigglyPiggly: Guild Wars is just a very cut down version of WoW, so yea people pretty much use all the same abreviations. Infact, most of Guild Wars spell names are similair to that of WoW's too, so they might be near identical in terms of game specifics.

True Story: I went to a Star Trek convention some time ago and there were quite a few people dressed up like Klingons. Long story short I got kocked into by one of them. The guy starts going off on me and I can't understand a word he is saying. I'm like WTF you bumped into me, but hey sorry just the same. Next thing I know a person in a full Star Fleet uniform walks up to me and asks if I need a translator. Now I'm a bit like...ummm what? Turns out the guy was speaking "Klingon" to me, and no shit there were books on the language for sale.

Anyhow, my thoughts were, shit I had a hard enough time learning another language in school...but Klingon?
I'm not trying to down play someones hobby or the importance of learning an "Intergalactic" language.

Anyhow, on point I just think it's pretty cool how a language or means of communication developes over time. Games like WoW and many of the early games have almost a unique language to the players.

I know i'm a broken record on this, but MMORPGs are satan. They must all be destroyed. You don't really have to do a separate lineage on it, because it's called "racketeering", and it's been around for a while.

@Fbu: I have no idea what dps is.

We say DD in FFXI.

I don't think anyone really says dd, unless they we're playing ff11. Most just say dps instead.

@VipingViper:
dps = "damage per second"

@-EDGE-: eh... thats abit more hardcore than mmo slang, i would think.

Sounds like the article was written from an EQ player's perspective, since I recognize some from my old days back in Norrath. Especially the 4/6 makes me think EQ. Most I don't see in Azeroth anymore, and have new iterations and stuff. Had no idea there was a /bio command for restroom breaks in any of the mmorpg's I've played though...

And for the record, though I believe the one who said it was a troll, GW is not a "very cut down version of WoW". It's a game done in a completely different style. I've played and enjoyed both. If anything, they were based off EQ, which explains the common jargon they both use. And EQ came from Ultima, and that from D&D and so on.

So many factual inaccuracies in that article...

"Char or Avatar for short" is my favorite. I guess the author has never heard of the word "character".

GW is probably the only MMO thats adopted the "-way" in its lingo based on team builds. IWAY, ViMWay, Heroway, Paraway, SWAY (spirit way), Ursan-way, etc. Then theres RSpike, Bloodspike, Rainbowspike, FCspike etc. SS/SV with BR lf 55 for 50/50 in UW.

Article also fails to mention all the abbreviations for instances and dungeons in a game. I dont really know about LotRO or GW, but in wow, a LFM/LFG message usually is followed by the name of the instance, abbreviated.

LF3M SL, have tank, need CC, DPS

:p

DPS is the term generally used for damage dealing characters. DD usually refers to a type of attack (Direct Damage) as opposed to a DoT (Damage over Time).

People list people currently in group now? I must be getting old.

We use DD in FFXI where a lot of the players assume it means damage dealer versus direct damage. The players prefer it over DPS to differentiate between physical damage (direct damage) and magical damage, which consists of bursts or DoT.

@Archetype: We just referred to that as "burst" vs "sustained" damage. Not even just that, there were so many words for ways to deal damage, if we wanted damage dealers, we asked for DPS.

I like how the comments are breaking down nitpicking who uses DD and who uses DPS to refer to a damage dealing class. I think its obvious this article was not meant for Kotaku readers. That typo with the twinks and the alts is so noob. :P

as Torusan pointed out, some terms very depending on the game. ffxi ftw (for the win)!

LF39M Molten Core.

An article like this is never complete until "pwned' is brought up.

The author also referred to tank and dps as classes. They're not classes; they're roles assumed within a group. While in most MMOs, warrior/fighters make the best tanks, they are rarely the only class able to tank: other classes can do it too, just not as well (example: Paladin in EQ or even in WoW).

I think it would've been more effective if the author had mentioned that certain classes are best geared to certain roles in a group.

Oh, and as to DD vs DPS. Archetype has it right, though it appears that the distinction between the two is getting weaker, at least in some games. In EQ, it was good to know if someone was good at DD or was good at sticking DoTs on an enemy.

Generally speaking we always said DD vs AOE DPS. DD being a rogue or fury warrior or hunter, while AOE DPS would obviously be a mage, warlock, etc.

I honestly thought it was decent for being so very general, but getting twink and alt confused was a pretty huge faux pax. There's a big difference between the two, so I'm surprised the author screwed that up.

Where can I get a bigger version of this picture?

Direct Damage referred to a caster class, like a mage or a wizard in EQ, not describing them but their damage dealing ability. They could deal a lot of damage in a short period of time, unlike a rogue or necromancer.

@creid: [www.worldofwarcraft.com]

Article made me think of this.
[youtube.com]

Nazi's used the phrase SS. Godwins law FTW!

I'll have to read that later. I've played over a half dozen MMOs and from "4/6 lfm tank and dd" I made out "tank." The rest wasn't part of the vernacular in any of the ones I've played...

No mention of "mob"?

That one threw me for a loop when I was new. A mob is a single enemy (mobile object), and not the common definition as a whole group.

I've also never seen or used re, bio, or dd. I don't think I've even seen wb other than my own usage, generally when someone leaves a group and returns, not just from afk.

Here's a good list of them: [www.gamefaqs.com]

Granted, it's for WoW, but it's an actual list which could be useful as a reference.

There needs to be a book about all this, with interviews from MMO companies and every shorthand term in use. Even specific terms for certain games could be added on an accompanying site later.