Terminology

adj.	adjective
adv.	adverb
interj.	interjection
n.	noun
v.	verb

ban, v. To bar from entering. Most often used to describe the locking of a game from entry by users from a particular site.

See also: banish

banish, v. To bar from entering. This is what administrators do when they decide they no longer wish for a particular player or users from a particular site to use the game. Most often it means that a character has been nuked and no user may create a new player of the same name.

See also: ban

bot, n. 1. A computer program which can direct a PC on some MUD without human intervention.

2. Any NPC of above average intelligence, esp. those with descriptions similar to robots.

BRB (BRB is a shortened term for be right back.) See you again very soon.

character The personality and appearance that a player takes when in a world. Also known as an avatar, persona, or incarnation.

clueless newbie Particularly bad newbies, usually new users who are annoying people.

dino Short for dinosaur, this is someone who has been around a long time.

emoting The use of the emote command, ':', or equivalent to simulate an action. For example if your name is Tinkerbell, entering the command :moons you. would result in people seeing Tinkerbell moons you.

furry An anthropomorphic intelligent animal. Any character which has fur and is cute could be called a furry. Furries tend to hang out on FurryMUCK.

haven A room where one character cannot kill another character. The term originates from the Tiny worlds, where the HAVEN flag can be set that has this effect.

hit point, n. See HP.

host, n. The machine from which a game operates.

HP, n. (HP is a shortened term for hit point.) A measure of how many more times an object may be struck by a force causing one damage point before hit points are less than or equal to 0. Usually when hit points fall below 1, death or destruction of the object will occur.

IC (IC is a shortened term for in character.) On role-playing worlds, players are expected to play the part of a character in the world, adopting behavior and mannerisms appropriate to the world. This is called being in character.

lag Between your computer and the world you're connecting to, there may be up to 30 links consisting of serial lines, high-speed modems, leased lines, satellite uplinks, etc. If one of these gateways or lines crashes, is suddenly overloaded, or gets routing confused, you may notice a large amount of lag time between your input and the world's reception of that input. Computers which are nearer to the computer running the world are less susceptible to lag. Another source of lag is if the computer which hosts the world is overloaded. When lag happens, it is best to just patiently wait for it to pass.

log A log is the record of what happens in a world.

mob Used especially on Diku worlds to refer to a mobile NPC or a monster (usually aggressive.)

mobile This term usually refers to an NPC, though it may refer to a Terminology . It may also be generally used to refer to any moving object in the world.

MUD Multi-User Dimension or Multi-User Dimension. This is a class of world.

MUSH Multi-User Shared Hallucination. This is a class of world.

newbie Someone new to the Internet, to a specific world, or both.

NPC, n. (NPC is a shortened term for non-player character.) All of the data and characteristics of any object used by a game to represent an actor which is meant to operate without much human intervention.

PC, n. (For definitions 1 and 2, PC is a shortened term for player character.)

1. All of the data and characteristics of an object which a game uses to represent an actor whose actions and description are most often under the control of a human user.

2. Any actor within a game, human controlled or automatic.

3. A Personal Computer. Eg: An IBM clone.

PK Short for 'player killing.' This refers to one player killing another. On many worlds this is forbidden, while on others it is the whole point of the world.

posing See emoting.

race, n. In MUDs the term nearly always refers to the species a player's character belongs to. Eg: His race is human.

reboot, v., n. The events which cause a game to start performing its normal operating jobs. This can only occur after a game is down (off.) (Some games can reboot without disconnecting users.)

RL (RL is a shortened term for real life.) Usage: Bob farts (in RL).

room, n. A location to which players may move (mostly.) It generally consists of a title and description. A common error of newbie players is to visualize rooms as cells of equal size. This is usually wrong. The only assumptions you should make about a room are those contained in the room’s description.

RW Short for 'real world.'

spam Spam Spam Spam Spam! Spamming is flooding the world with inappropriate information, such as saying the same thing over and over. This is generally considered bad form, and it can get you barred from a world.

tinysex This is when you have consentual sex in the world with another character. It challenges your creativity. You need to type quickly to keep your partner intrigued, and this may be difficult with one hand.

wizard A person who has special privileges on a world. Often the wizard is running the world on their particular machine, so you already owe them one. Treat these people well, for they are subtle and quick to anger.