-- In many games, players may have several characters they play. Usually they have one character they consider to be their "main" character, that they devote the most attention to; and then the other characters are considered "alts" or alternative characters. (Wikipedia)

Avatar

-- a graphical representation of a user in a computer game or online community. (Wikipedia)

Buff

-- A beneficial spell cast on a player. (Wikipedia)

Debuff

-- A harmful spell cast on a player. (Wikipedia)

Drop

-- When a monster is slain, players may loot its body to receive a drop. A drop can be game currency and/or game items (like a cloak or sword) or trash (items that are largely worthless but can be sold to vendors for a small profit).

Experience Points (XP)

-- units of measurement to quantify a character's progression through a game. (Wikipedia)

FTL

-- an acronym for "for the loss."

FTW

-- an acronym for "for the win."

GM

-- (1) An acronym for the "game master" or one of the programmers or support people assigned to provide in-game help to players. (Wikipedia)
(2) An acronym for "guild master," the person who is the leader of a guild.

Grinding

-- Staying in the same area on the game map, fighting the same types of monsters over and over again, hoping that the slaying of one of these monsters will yield a desired drop. (Wikipedia)

Grouping

-- The act of forming a group, or party, to work together to complete certain objectives.

Guild

-- A group of players that formally associate together under the umbrella of a guild name (for example, "Sonic Death Monkeys" or "The Grim Knights"). These players share resources, assist each other with game objectives, and run dungeons together.

HP

-- An acronym for "hit points" or "health points." (Wikipedia)

Instance

-- In many MMOGs, special game events are accessible in a stand-alone fashion. For instance (no pun intended), in World of Warcraft, when a group of 10 people decide to run a dungeon, they are given their own instance of the dungeon so that no other players appear in the dungeon at the same time, competing for the same objectives. Other instances include special PvP battlegrounds. (Wikipedia)

Level

-- (n.) A numeric status ranking in the game. For instance, when players start a game, they are typically at Level 1. As they complete quests and earn experience points, they advance levels. (v.) The act of increasing levels. "To level up" means to advance more levels in the game. (Wikipedia)

Loot

-- (v.) To take items off of a slain monster's body, ie. "looting a corpse." (n.) The items taken off a slain monster's body when it is looted. (Wikipedia)

LVL

-- An acronym for "level."

MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game)

-- - A type of computer/video game played online by vast numbers of players who interact with each other within the game world. There are many types of MMOGs, such as those that focus on role-playing, first person shooters (also referred to as "FPS"), adventure and strategy games, etc. (Wikipedia)

NPC (Non-player Character)

-- a character in a role-playing game or computer game whose actions are not controlled by a human player. (Wikipedia)

PvE

-- An acronym for "player versus environment" where the player competes against the game environment rather than against other players. (Wikipedia)

PvP

-- An acronym for "player versus player" where the player competes against other players. (Wikipedia)

Quest

-- A task or objective charged to a player by an NPC. (Wikipedia)

Role-Playing Game (RPG)

-- a type of game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters and collaboratively create or
follow stories. (Wikipedia)

Roll

-- (1) Many MMOGs are based on the protocols and rules similar to the old Dungeons and Dragons dice rolling game. Thus, players of MMOGs will often be heard to say "I rolled a mage," meaning that they chose to play a mage as their character. In the old dice rolling games, players would roll to create characters, letting the die decide what type of character they would play. Although this was decided by chance, players still use the term "roll" in reference to creating a character, even though chance did not make the choice; the player did. (2) Also, players might work together to defeat a very powerful monster who will drop exceptional loot. The group of players will often roll on an item the monster drops so that chance decides who gets the item. In the game World of Warcraft, players "roll" by typing the "/roll" command into the chat interface.

Run

-- A run is when a group of players decide to enter and fight through a dungeon or some other specialized game event together. They "run the dungeon."

Simulation Game

-- A simulation game, or sim game, contains a mixture of skill, chance, and strategy to simulate an aspect of reality,
such as a stock exchange, or to simulate a fictional world. (Wikipedia)

Vendor

-- An NPC that sells game goods to players and will often buy items from players.

XP

-- An acronym for "experience points," which are what a player earns as he slays monsters and completes quests. (Wikipedia)

Zerg

-- To attack something with a lot of other players assisting. For instance, in World of Warcraft, when one team of players rush a base in a PvP instance, the other team might exclaim "They are zerging the farm!" (where the farm is a base in that particular PvP instance). (Wikipedia)

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