Online gaming has been around so long that it has even developed it’s own sub-language, which includes various terms and abbreviations. Whilst this is no bad thing, and it is to be expected really, it can easily confuse newcomers to the world of online gaming. With that in mind, here are some of the most common online game terms and abbreviations…
P2P – This is an abbreviation of pay-to-play which is used to describe online games which you must pay the creator of the game to participate in. This payment can be for a set number of hours or, more often than not, on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis.
F2P – This means Free-to-Play and is basically a self explanatory term. You can register on the game distributors site in your country or region, get a user name and password and you can play the game. You will simply need to download the game from the distributors site and you will be able to play the game from your computer.
Bots – Some people who want to level up even when they are not playing often use what is called a bot. A bot is short for robot and is a program or script that commands your character to do certain tasks, like kill others players in an area and pick up loots, to either level up by itself or to make money with loots that you pick up. A lot of games have outlawed bots but some games still allow these auto-players.
NPC – Those characters within a game which are there to facilitate your adventure by giving you advice and helpful items are called non-player characters (NPCs). These are harmless characters for which you will gain nothing for killing.
Mobbing – This means to go on a mass killing spree in a short period of time. It is done if there happens to be a lot of weak players in the surrounding area or if someone want to quickly improve their characters points or reputation.
Loots / Drops – When you kill another character within a game you are rewarded with what is called loots or drops. These appear at the spot where the fatal blow was struck and can come in different forms. What exactly loots or drops are is dependent on the type of the character that has just been killed and what they were carrying. Typically though, you can expect them to be one, or a combination of, money, weapons, potions or accessories.
Farming – This term is related to mobbing and loots / drops, in that it applies to a situation where lots of characters have been killed in a short space of time, in a specific area of the online map, and, as a result, there are lots of items that can be picked up. So, a character that is farming is basically going around collecting lots of items from characters that have already been killed.