Sky's introduction of 'mob' into the lexicon

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Well, to me, "mob" still means "mafia", "la cosa nostra".

[ekolis]

Wait, "mob" is short for "mobile"? I always thought it was shorthand used by game developers to mean "Monster OBject" - back in the day variable names were limited in length, and the prevailing theory was that variable names should be as short as possible, to make them easier to type. So, mob might be a monster object, and pob might be a player object, and iob might be an item object, or whatever, but for some reason only mob stuck around...

[Pete Mack]

For the record: i do not like this lexicon. "A mobs" just does not work.

[tangar]

a "mob" of mobs ?

nope, mob as one monster; mobs for several monstrs.. so `mob` in Russian used as shortener for `monster` for long time..

[Estie]

a "mob" of mobs ?

[tangar]

In Russian slang language we use 'mob' word for past 20 years to call monsters in MMORPG games

[Pete Mack]

Ingwe--
I had assumed a mob was a group of unrelated monsters, say from out of a diagonal vault. I used "pack" for related ones, like wolves and hounds.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

When it's a "murder" of crows,
an "unkindness" of ravens,
a "boil" of hawks,
a "cast" of falcons,
a "colony" of vultures, and
a "convocation" of eagles.

"mob" just doesn't evoke much.

[Hounded]

Might I propose "gaggle"?

[wobbly]

Clearly the plural is a mob of mobs.

[kineahora]

So... what is the term for an actual mob (plural)?

Choose another synonym that hasn't already been coopted for silly confusing jargon--like maybe "gang" or "bevy" :-)

[Julian]

So... what is the term for an actual mob (plural)?

A monster of mobs, clearly

[Pete Mack]

So... what is the term for an actual mob (plural)?

[Huqhox]

I noticed the gradual uptake of 'mob' for a singular inhabitant on the forum and then have adopted it myself. I find 'monster' a very negative word, after all not all the mobs in the game are monstrous by any means.

From a technical background it also fits pleasingly into terms such as blob or glob where the 'ob' is just short for 'object'. So it could refer to 'monster object' which is essentially how mobs are represented in the code

Bottom line, I like it

[Grotug]

Thanks for the doom plugs, Gwarl! I will try to do an FDA of the first link as that looks very much up my alley.