The Ulitmate Guide for City of Heroes Chat and Vocabulary

City of Heroes is a fun MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) that allows you to create your own superhero character and defend Paragon City. Chances are that if you've played the game much past the tutorial zone known as "Outbreak" that you have become accustomed to the chat features of the game. In your chat window you can read what other players are saying and can even determine where players are in the game (to a degree) based on the color of their text. Chat text in white means that the player is located in the same area of the map as you. Grey text is a message that has been sent in broadcast mode, the player could be anywhere in the game but all players should receive the message. Green text is from a player on your team. And purple text is a special request message that works similarly to broadcast except it is specifically used for requests.

After playing the game for a while I am sure you have also seen words or acronyms used in the chat window that you may not be able to figure out. In the following I will list several of the most common terms and abbreviations used in City of Heroes along with their meanings. There are a lot of abbreviations and I cannot list them all here and more are created by players each day. So, if you run across a term you do not recognize in the game that is not listed here ask the player what it means. You may be called a "NOOB" by some players but others recognize that not everyone uses the same terms and will be more than willing to type a quick reply to your question. And, even though I've been playing the game for over a year, I will still run across a term that I don't know.

Term or Abreviation ..................... Meaning

ACC ................................................ Accuracy

AFK ................................................ Away From Keyboard

ALT ................................................. Alternate Character

AoE ................................................ Area of Effect

AT .................................................. Archetype (i.e. blaster or scrapper)

ATM ............................................. At the Moment

AV ................................................ Arch-Villain

BBL .............................................. Be Back Later

Bio .............................................. Away from keyboard, or working on character biography

BRB ............................................ Be Right Back

Bridge ...................................... Higher level characters may ask a slightly lower level character to sidekick another character in order for the sidekicked character to gain optimal experience

BRT .......................................... Be Right There

BTW ........................................ By the way

CoH ........................................ City of Heroes

CoT ......................................... Circle of Thorns

CoV ........................................ City of Villains

DC .......................................... disconnected, the player was disconnected from the game suddenly

Debt .................................... penalty for defeat fro character's level 10 and above

Devs ..................................... The game's developers

Ding ..................................... Used when a player's character has attained the next level

End ..................................... Endurance

End Break .......................... used to call for a break in action to rest and build up lost endurance

Exp ..................................... Experience

Farm .................................. Doing a mission several times without completing it to try to get more experience

Flame ............................... Insulting someone

G2G / GTG .................... Good to Go / Got to Go (can mean either of these)

Gather ............................ Used to call members of a team together for support powers to be doled out

Grats / Gratz ................. Congratulations

Griefer ........................... a player who complains and is not fun to play with

Inf .................................. Influence (in game money)

Insp ............................... Inspiration

KS or Kill Steal ............. a player who kills a villain that another player has been attacking without first asking the other player

LFT / LFG ....................... Looking for team / group

Lvl .................................. character's level

Mish .............................. Mission

Noob / Newb .............. person new to the game

NP ..................................... No problem

NPC .................................. Non-playable character

OMW ............................... On My Way

Own / Pwn ...................... To defeat someone

PL ..................................... Powerlevel

PST .................................. Please send tell

Pull ................................. method of attack to pull one villain out of a group

PvE ................................ Player vs. Environment

PvP ................................ Player vs. Player

Respec .......................... Respecification of powers, these can be received as special mission rewards

RL .................................. Real Life

Runner ........................ a villain who is running away from the attack

SG ............................... Super Group

SK ............................... Sidekick

Spam .......................... flooding the chat with inane banter

TF ............................... Task Force

Toon .......................... player's character

TP .............................. teleport

WB ............................ Welcome Back

WTG ......................... Way to Go

Xmp .......................... Exemplar (reverse of sidekick, a higher level can be brought down to lower level to work of debt)

Xp .............................. Experience

YW ............................. Your Welcome

Zoning ....................... process of moving from one zone to another