Mob (computer gaming)

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A mob (Mobile Object) is a type of non-player character (NPC) or monster in a role-playing video game which has the ability to move around. They are commonly found in MMORPGs.

Killing mobs can give such rewards as experience points and items. Usually the combat is player initiated; however, if the mob is flagged as aggressive, it is configured so that it will challenge a player who enters within a certain range. This area is known as the aggro range or aggro radius. A player engaged by such a mob is said to have aggro. This marks that player as the primary target of the attacking mob(s). Combat between players and mobs is called player versus monster (PvM) or in a broader sense, player versus environment (PvE), as opposed to player versus player (PvP) battles where the emphasis is on defeating an opposing player. Monster versus monster (MvM) battles, though rarer, also exist.

[edit] Etymology

The most commonly-held belief about the origin of the term is that it derives from mobile or mobile object. In many early MUDs, there were three basic structures in the game: rooms, objects and mobiles. The latter were objects that could move (i.e. they were mobile), could be attacked and thus removed from the game, could be aggressive (might attack the player), and which wandered through rooms when permitted. The term, mobile, was later replaced by NPC to cover a broader spectrum of mobiles: dialog or quest givers, vendors, trainers, and now mobs, to name a few.

There is also some debate over whether the term is somehow related to MOB, a synonym of sprite usually considered an acronym for Movable Object Block, stemming from its use in the earliest text-based multi-user dungeons (MUDs).

One theory is that "mob" is simply a bastardized form of "mop" in which consonantal transformation has occurred. The term "mop" was heavily used in the game Lineage to refer to all monsters. "MOP" is short for "machine operated player" according to the Lineage.com website. Groups of mops, as they are often hunted, were referred to as "mobs." It is possible that the term "mop" was bastardized and turned into "mob" by foreign players who did not understand what the difference between the English "mob" (group of monsters) and "mop" (single monster). Then it made its way back into English parlance when those players migrated from Lineage to Everquest where the term "mob" suddenly came into heavy use to describe even single monsters. The term was then carried over to World of Warcraft as players from Everquest migrated from one game to another.

Backronyms such as "monster or beast" and "mere ordinary beast" have been developed.

[edit] Usage in MUDs (multi-user dungeons)

The term "mobile" was originally coined by Richard Bartle in a paper describing an early MUD which was being constructed as a research project at the University of Essex. Although it originally referred to an object that could move (as opposed to one that couldn't), one reviewer of the paper misunderstood the term to be a reference to the classic children's toy or sculpture that goes by the same name - and referred to it as "an incredibly beautiful analogy to those hanging toys, which appear to move around randomly as if alive, while in fact being composed of mechanical parts and operating in accordance with fixed scientific laws". (Bartle was also suitably impressed by the analogy, and wished he'd thought of it.^[1])

Other MUDs and MUD-like software use a variety of terms to describe these as objects, emitters, and actors.

[edit] Usage in MMORPGs

Mobs in MMORPGs usually refer to the generic monstrous NPCs that the player is expected to hunt and kill rather than NPCs that engage in dialog or sell items. Named mobs are distinguished by having a proper name rather than being referred to by a general type ("a goblin", "a citizen", etc.).

In certain MMORPGs, a mob can refer to a group of MOBs (typically more than 1) in which an AoE (area of effect, aka mob skill) is used, it produces higher damage and exp than a 1 on 1 attack. Examples are found in such games as Maplestory and World of Warcraft.

Examples:

"I'm going to go mob some squids, brb"

"Dude, there's a mob of like 30 down there!"

"I just got my first mob skill, it hits 6 enemies max."

[edit] References

pl:Mob ru:Моб (MMORPG)