City of Heroes Jargon
I've always been interested in how communities form their own language around their combined interest. This is loosely called "jargon," though people in the medical community like to claim they've got exclusivity on that term.

The massively multiplayer game communities are no different, and are IMO better than most for transmitting jargon and terms, as the game itself is a communications sub-medium. After all, MMOs have been referred to as "chatrooms with combat."

Coming back to City of Heroes, the superheroic Massively Multiplayer RPG, I've been trying to pick up on the jargon. Here are some I've picked up. I've mostly skipped terms created by the designers (or abbreviations of the same), preferring terms created by the community itself to describe the action in their virtual world. I've also skipped a lot of words (though not all) that are common throughout many different games --- though I've kept some of the more amusing ones.

So here are some terms for your amusement, complete with definitions if you have never played the game.

Red / Blue / Purple / Yellow / etc:
1. Inspirations of the appropriate color. They are referred to by color, as the names change as the strength of the inspirations increase. Example: "Anybody need a blue?"
2. A mob (AI-controlled enemy) with a name of the appropriate color. The color-coded name informs the player of its difficulty.

Wakie: A recovery inspiration, which allows you to "wake up" after being knocked unconscious without respawning at the hospital

Scrapperlock: Target fixation, often experienced by those in the Scrapper archetype. Because they are focused on dishing out lots of damage, they may ignore their own health or the status of their teammates. I've experienced this more than once, suddenly noticing I'm fighting an entire group of enemies solo and that I'm nearly dead because half my team is now knocked out, and the rest are fleeing for the exit.

Squishy: A player character who cannot take much punishment before getting knocked out. Blasters and controllers are typically squishies.

TP / Travel Power: One of a secondary power set that allows much more rapid movement, though usually at the expense of combat capability (preventing it from being used in combat, so it is more exclusively used for "getting around fast"). Travel Powers become available at level 14, making it the magical "Travel Power!" level. Interestingly enough, TP is also the abbreviation for Teleport, which is one of the secondary power sets that include teleportation as a travel power.

Blapper: A blaster with a lot of melee powers (a combination of "Blaster" and "Scrapper" archetype names).

Hami Raid: A large-scale attack against the enemy "Hamidon." Hamidon is so powerful it requires a large number of attackers, well organized into a raid, to destroy it.

Hami Enh / HO: Hamidon Enhancement (HO = Hamidon Origin?)- the special enhancement (power improvements) acquired from a Hamidon Raid. Hami Enhs are very valuable and Hami Raids tend to end with lots of trading of these enhancements.

Bubbler: A Defender-class character with Force-Field powers. The force-fields appear as transparent bubbles.

Overburn: (Also used in other games) - to use up too much of your character's endurance in an attack. This not only leaves you vulnerable and in danger of being out of endurance to do anything else later in the fight, but it may also anger the mobs and draw an unnecessary amount of aggro. Which, if you are playing a squishy, could finish the fight for you in an unhappy way.

"Stay in the Bubble": a request to stay within range of the Area-of-effect (AOE) Heals and Buffs

Res: A term borrowed from other games. Res was short for "Resurrection," a spell used in fantasy games to bring player characters back to life. In the context of City of Heroes, no player character ever dies, so this is a misnomer. But the gameplay effect of being knocked out is basically the same thing, so borrowed terms from other games still applied.

End Break: A short rest between encounters where players can recover their Endurance

Lock: To prevent an NPC from taking actions (by causing them to be stunned, slept, whatever). This is also sometimes referred to as being "Mezzed," a term borrowed from another game for the same effect. Locking them with immobilization is sometimes called "Rooting" them - also a term taken from another game with the popular "Root" spell

Mish: A Mission

Toon: A Player Character. This term has struck me as being a little bit derogatory (?) (over the more conventional "character," or the more scholarly "avatar."). Maybe it's an attempt to separate the player from any emotional involvement with the game ("This isn't me, it's only one of my 'toons").

Bridge: In a party with a wide range of character levels, this is where someone in the middle of the level range sidekicks a lower-level character in order to maximize their experience point gain. It's a power-leveling technique.

ZZZ: Stunned / Held / Otherwise Temporarily Incapacitated. Usually used to alert one's team of one's status.

Big Bad: The "boss" of a level

GM: Giant Monster. A Godzilla-sized monster of some kind rampaging through a zone. This typically requires a number of heroes coordinating efforts to take down.

SK / Sidekick: This is a designer-created term, but I'm using it here to explain another term. One of the problems with level-based games is that players are prevented from effectively playing together when their characters' levels differ too greatly. City of Heroes resolved this by drawing upon a comic-book convention and allowing the lower-level character to act as the "sidekick" of the higher-level character. The lower-level character's effective level is raised to just below that of the character who sidekicked them (as long as they remain close), which allows them to contribute to the battle without extreme danger. The lack of enhancements or higher-level powers still reduces their effectiveness well below that of a legitimate hero of that level.

AT: Archetype. City of Heroe's version of a "class". Another "official" term, but useful.

Aggro: Used in many (all?) MMORPGs, this is a collective measure of how enthusiastically an AI-controlled character will attack a particular character. If you have "high aggro," the enemy or enemies are unlikely to move on and attack another character until you have been dropped.

Got any others I've missed?

Labels: Mainstream Games, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:48 AM (Permalink)