"MOB" is deprecated! Use "Critter"
By
Calash,
Posted on: 2009-06-14 01:43 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Mob=1 mobs=>1
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This.
I'll stick with MOB(S). "Critter" sounds like I'm fighting squirrels, raccoons, or gophers.
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Mob=1 mobs=>1
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This.
I'll stick with MOB(S). "Critter" sounds like I'm fighting squirrels, raccoons, or gophers.
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That's coming in City of Vermin: Going Rural.
They're still negotiating for the use of "Terminix" as the EAT name, so it may be delayed.
Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...
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I never understood the use of 'mob' for a single foe.
<dictionary definition>
[/ QUOTE ]It's an abbreviation of programmer jargon from the old MUD/MUSH (Multi-User Dungeon/Multi-User Shared Hallucination: the precursors to MMOs, frequently D&D-based) days. In a MUD, both enemies and things like shopkeepers were frequently programmed to be "Mobile OBjects" (or alternatively: MOBiles, MOBile objects, or MObile oBjects). The abbreviation was picked up by players then, and has carried until now.
Bringing up the dictionary definition is useless. MOB isn't a word, it's an abbreviation.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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Mob = 1 enemy unit
Mobs or Spawn or Group = multiple enemy units
Critter = 1 Non-attacking/Non-attackable pet unit (i.e. a Kitty Cat that follows your toon around OR found wandering around a map )
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Which, honestly, all sounds so non-intuative to someone who's never played an MMO before...even many people who have played a few before.
The only one of those that is correct usage in the English language, according to Merriam-Webster, is the "Spawn or Group". I can see why many people get confused, when in hectic situations.
I feel that this is a 'live and let live' situation.
[/ QUOTE ]His definition for "critter" is also incorrect as far as this game is concerned. While MOB has its origins in the guts of the program, the guts of this program calls enemies "critters".
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
"foe" is a good choice; plain English meaning of this word means pretty much the same as the jargony use of "mob" and the number of letters is the same for slow typists.
It is also amusing that the origin of both meanings of "mob" stems from "mobile" moveable... maybe only to me 
"Critter" however is the correct jargon in CoH for "stuff that fights" whether allied or opposed or neutral. Even non mobile, attackable or defendable objects are "critter" I believe.
"Mob" is correct jargon in many MUD based MMOs like Everquest and world of warcraft. It can safely be left there with other terminology that is imported without regard for applicability to CoH.
CoH badguys don't like to be called Mobs. They prefer Adversarial American.
Fulmens wrote:
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"Mob" seems like it's for people who are just dying to tell you their stories about Meridian 59 and the good old days.
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I have no idea what "Meridian 59" is (or was), but it still cracked me the hell up. Bunch of old codgers on the porch in their rocking chairs, grousing about how, in their day, a mob was a gray wolf and they were grateful for it.
I prefer "baddies" or "enemies" myself. I also recognize that the COH Dev team uses "critters".
+1 to Part_Troll's suggestion.
--NT
They all laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
But I showed them, and nobody's laughing at me now!
If I became a red name, I would be all "and what would you mere mortals like to entertain me with today, mu hu ha ha ha!" ~Arcanaville
Meridian 59 was the very first graphical MMO
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
Some people have zero sense of humour. (Hey, One Star Rating Guy, thanks for the heads-up).
A cheery hello to those people who 'got the gist' of my post, and agree, kinda/sorta that Mob is deprecated/ambiguous.
As I was saying when I started this shindig:
I prefer "critter" because it's unambiguous when referring to a single foe. You can be referring to a Ghost, a Paragon Protector, Diseased, Vahzilok, Clockwork, Giant Monster, lightning cloud, Carnie, anything, 'critter' nails it, every-time. It is also the term that the Developers use to refer to foes.
"Something we have to overcome to achieve our goals or to make our progress less hazardous".
A bunch of critters is a group or a spawn -- but sometimes you get bunched of critters which are just a random patrol, they aren't a spawn, per se, but a patrol. Ambush groups are even worse, because they ignore stealth completely -- how many Superior Invisibility Illusion controllers have you seen get one-shot by an Ambush group they thought they could ignore?
My main thrust, so to speak, was to try to alleviate the rot from within; make it known that MOB is Ambiguous ESPECIALLY when it is used to denote a group of critters instead of as single entity, but also because of the innate ambiguity of the term. People use it because they -learn- it from the specialist jargon of game players -- the aforementioned Buff is a great example, because to normal non-game players, it means something entirely different to the gamer variant. There is lots of jargon, I'm well aware of this, but the most egregious (common and overused) abysmal usage, to my discerning sense of taste, is 'MOB and MOBS'.
Use Critter or Foe or Enemy or whatever, but DO NOT perpectuate the Mob Myth. Its time has gone. Let it rest.
Now, is I15 coming in tomorrow? My Tuesday Role-Play group on Justice desperately needs to know!
Ex
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Ex.
Part-Troll, who used to be Excession777, now playing pantomime with people's mindlets.
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