|  | | Strange New Gaming Worlds Online |
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Computer games have always seemed like a quiet underground, and the news that game revenues have surpassed that of Hollywood came as a surprise to many people. Those people haven't been playing games online lately. The online gaming world is enormous, and it's taking shape as an interesting mirror of some of the ways people interact in the real world. More personal than big public events, more structured than bars and parties, and more subtle than chat rooms, online game worlds have their own economies, social structures, codes of ethics, and even languages. Massively multiplayer online (MMO) games arrived at the turn of the millennium. Since then dozens of manufactures have come to market with massively multiplayer online games; EverQuest, PlanetSide, Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and There have all made a mark. At any given moment, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the globe are running around in these online universes. 
How it All Works MMO games are a combination of PC games and online social gatherings. The flavors change from game to game—most are more competitive than they are social—but the setup is always roughly the same. When you play a PC game, it fills your whole monitor display, and commands your attention. To play, you go to the store, buy the game, install it on your PC, and away you go. MMO games up the ante by connecting your single PC's game world to Web servers, where lots of people play at once and change the game with their actions. Instead of playing against the computer, or with a handful of friends, you're playing with thousands of people at once. The catch? A small subscription fee, (usually around $10-12 per month) to pay for the servers you connect to. Game worlds vary widely, but they all offer the chance to create your own character, select a set of skills that will let you make your way in the world, and either take on adventures by yourself or with groups. You might be a soldier in a futuristic war, a character from the Star Wars films, a sojourner in a medieval fantasy world, or a citizen in a more lifelike parallel modern society. You'll control a unique 3-D humanoid that you can craft to resemble you or anyone else you like. With this character, you'll join the war, the adventure, or the rat race—it's up to you, and so is what you do when you get there. Why It's Fun Every game has its own recipe for entertaining its players, but it boils down to the unpredictability of people in groups. When you play a game with a computer, you can expect it to do the smartest thing in pursuit of victory—small groups of people tend to do the same. MMO games tap in to the random unpredictability of the crowd. Every game has its suspenseful moments where chance and strategy collide and the outcome is uncertain. That tingle of anticipation is what every game company would like to bottle and sell. Letting massive crowds of strangers loose in each other's company heightens the suspense ... especially because the game never really "ends." You just get tired, go to bed, and log back on later to see what happened while you were gone. MMO Lingo There are thousands of chat acronyms and slang terms in the dozens of MMO games, but we've assembled a few of the more common and colorful ones..
- Aggro: Slang for attack, usually by a hostile creature, and used as both a noun and a verb. If you wander into a hostile creature's "Aggro radius," chances are it will attack you. If you're with a group, usually the stoutest warrior character goes in and takes the first aggro to distract the monster.
- AoE (Area of Effect): A magic spell or attack that spreads over everything within a given space.
- Buff: A temporary increase in the powers or abilities of your character.
- Camp: The place where monsters spawn. Also a verb—if you wait by a spawn point to kill new creatures as they're created, you're "camping" them.
- Character: The person you control in the game. In many games, you can have more than one, so there might be more characters appearing in the game over time than there are players logging on and off.
- Con: Short for consider. Most games will tell you how strong an opponent is compared to how strong you are—and whether you have a chance of winning a battle with them. All smart players check this information before a fight.
- Ding: To gain a level in experience. Players who advance in levels often say "ding" in chat, either to inform their teammates or just to gloat.
- Experience. The closest thing to keeping score in most MMO games. Dozens of levels of experience await the new player; as you gain experience your character becomes more powerful and can survive more and more grueling events.
- Group: A temporary assembly of characters, gathered semi-formally to pursue a quest, battle, or puzzle.
- GTG: Acronym for Good to Go. Means you're ready for whatever's next.
- Kill stealing: When others are fighting and someone swoops in and kills a dying fighter to gain experience points for the kill, that's kill stealing. Waiting around for easy prey at someone else's expense is bad manners.
- Loot: In-game items. You can loot items from fallen players in some games, or take the loot from foes after a victory. You can keep the loot if it's something your character can use, or sell the loot for currency to buy something you can use. Used as both a noun and a verb.
- Mob: Short for Mobile Object. Virtually any computer-controlled creature in the game, especially hostiles. Refers to single creatures rather than a group—plural is "mobs."
- Newbie: New or inexperienced players, or a character of little experience.
- NPC: Non-Player Character. Computer-controlled characters in the game. While mobs are technically NPCs since players don't control mobs, when players say "NPCs" they usually mean the neutral characters who sell you goods or give you information.
- PC: Player Character
- PK: Player Killer. A player who kills other players. Some games allow this just on certain worlds, some allow it anywhere; in some games it's not relevant.
- Pop: Short for populate. When creatures spawn or otherwise appear nearby, players say this in chat to sound the alarm.
- RL: Real Life. What's that?
- Spawn: Place where a creature appears, or the act of joining the game. Mobs, NPCs, and characters all spawn into the game at some point.
- Spawn point. The designated location where spawning happens—whether a player has just logged on or a new mob is spawned, it happens at the spawn point. Usually spawn points are widely separated on the map to keep fights from starting too quickly.
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