A mob, short for mobile or mobile object, is a computer-controlled

non-player character A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...

(NPC) in a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

such as an

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

MUD A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

. Depending on context, every and any such characters in a game may be considered to be a "mob", or usage of the term may be limited to hostile NPCs and/or NPCs vulnerable to attack. In most modern graphical games, "mob" may be used to specifically refer to generic monstrous NPCs that the player is expected to hunt and kill, excluding NPCs that engage in dialog, sell items, or NPCs which cannot be attacked. "Named mobs" are distinguished by having a

proper name A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', '' Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...

rather than being referred to by a general type ("a goblin", "a citizen", etc.). Most mobs are those capable of no complex behaviors beyond generic programming of attacking or moving around.

Purpose of mobs

Defeating mobs may be required to gather

experience point An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experi ...

s, money, items, or to complete

quests A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ev ...

. Combat between

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

s (PCs) and mobs is called

player versus environment Player versus environment or player versus enemy (PvE, also known as player versus monster (PvM)), is a term used for both single player and online games, particularly MMORPGs, CORPGs, MUDs, other online role-playing video games and survival game ...

(PvE). PCs may also attack mobs because they aggressively attack PCs. Monster versus monster (MvM) battles also take place in some games. A game world might contain hundreds of different kinds of mobs, but if players spend a certain amount of time playing, they might become well aware of the characteristics presented by each kind and its related hazard. This knowledge might dull the game to some extent.

Etymology

The term "mobile object" was used by

Richard Bartle Richard Allan Bartle FBCS FRSA (born 10 January 1960) is a British writer, professor and game researcher in the massively multiplayer online game industry. He co-created ''MUD1'' (the first MUD) in 1978, and is the author of the 2003 book ''Desi ...

for objects that were self-mobile in ''

MUD1 ''Multi-User Dungeon'', or ''MUD'' (referred to as ''MUD1'', to distinguish it from its successor, ''MUD2'', and the MUD genre in general), is the first MUD. History MUD was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle at the Univer ...

''. Later

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

DikuMUD DikuMUD is a multiplayer text-based role-playing game, which is a type of multi-user domain (MUD). It was written in 1990 and 1991 by Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, Michael Seifert, and Hans Henrik Stærfeldt at DIKU (''Datalogisk In ...

used the term "mobile" to refer to a generic NPC, shortened further to "mob" in

identifiers An identifier is a name that identifies (that is, labels the identity of) either a unique object or a unique ''class'' of objects, where the "object" or class may be an idea, physical countable object (or class thereof), or physical noncountable ...

. DikuMUD was a heavy influence on ''

EverQuest ''EverQuest'' is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed by Verant Interactive and 989 Studios for Windows PCs. It was released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999 in North Americ ...

'', and the term as it exists in MMORPGs is derived from the MUD usage.. The term is properly an abbreviation rather than an acronym.

References

{{MUDs Massively multiplayer online role-playing games MUD terminology Video game terminology