The question arose in the WoW official forums "Why do they call it 'rolling?'" This is of course in reference to creating new characters. The original poster pointed out that there really is no rolling involved just selection. I'm sure its obvious to most of us that the terms comes from pen and paper role playing games where we roll dice to determine character statistics and sometimes other attributes. But it got me thinking of terms that we use for WoW that came from other games:

• The battleground Zerg comes from Starcraft's Zerg race which was kind of a fast, battle driven faction.
• DKP is short for Dragon Kill Points, a term that dates back to EverQuest when the main bosses were dragons.
• Nerf means to make things less powerful, and refers to the Nerf brand of spongy toys.
• For some reason we refer to instances as dungeons, despite the fact that Stockades is the only actual dungeon that comes to mind. Though I have to admit, even in D&D dungeon crawls were typically done in caves or castles.

It's surprising how terms seem to stick with us even when they're obsolete. Speaking of rolling, when was the last time you actually rolled down a window in a car?

It's good to go back and remember out gaming roots. I'm sure there are many more crossover terms, and terms from the World of Warcraft lexicon like Leroy Jenkins, will out live Azeroth. For the life of me I can't find the etiology of the term "twink." What else am I missing?

Boomslang has an interesting point of view on the fact that in the next expansion, Death Knights will start at level 55. We've heard his concerns that there'll be too many Death Knights floating around, but he says that starting them out at level 55 is, in his words, "cheap." Every other class, he says, had to roll up from one, so why should Death Knights be any different?

The given answer is something that we heard at BlizzCon last year: Blizzard wants this Hero class to be epic in a way that no other class has before, so they don't want anyone who can literally command death running around as a level one noob. But does that justify cutting off more than half of the Death Knight's lifespan? Can a class that you started past the halfway point really be as epic as that Hunter or Warlock that you leveled to 80 all the way up from level 1?

Again, we don't yet know exactly how a Death Knight is created -- maybe there's something in the quest to get one that will explain what's going on here. And other people say that just letting the Death Knight start at 55 isn't enough -- if you get a character to level 80, you should be able to get a head start with any class, without having to go back and do all the lowbie quests again. We'll see in the expansion if Blizzard can make a class that you level only 25 levels feel as epic as they say it will.

Spensi on WoW LJ says she may have accidentally ninja'ed -- it was clear before the raid that if Moroes' Pocket Watch dropped, she would get it. But when it actually dropped, she apparently looted it herself as main looter without saying anything, and her guildies didn't quite remember the deal before the instance started. Was it a ninja? I don't know -- there are good points on both sides.

In fact, it seems the only way to really avoid loot drama is to, unfortunately, be as selfless as possible. Last night, I did a run of Ramparts on my up-and-coming hunter, and on the first boss, the Hunter mail pants dropped. The other Hunter in the party needed them as well, so we rolled on them, and I won. Later in the instance, another green piece came up that we both needed, but to be fair, I let him have it. And finally, on the second boss, the mail hands dropped, and I did need them, but once again, to avoid drama, I just let the other Hunter have them. I could probably have made a case for at least rolling on them, but it wouldn't have been fair for me to walk away from the instance with two blues when he only had a green, so to keep the peace I let it go.

It worked out, too, because I picked up some great blue hands anyway when I turned the quest in. And that's the thing to remember when it comes to loot -- there will always be more of it. Even if your item doesn't drop, or you don't win this roll, or your guildie gets angry because you nabbed an item, even though they knew you needed it, there'll always be more drops and more rolls and more loot to get.

I've noticed something a bit unexpected and confusing over the last few months: apparently, the way my server generally deals with loot in 5-mans is strange. Rather than rely on the in-game roller, we pass on all loot, and let people call need on a piece. Then we all roll need or greed on the stuff. If there's an enchanter in group, they can disenchant the loot for the winner on a greed roll and hand over a shard. Lately, though, since Blizzard started allowing server transfers, it seems a lot of the new 70s have come in and told us that this method is a bit weird. Why don't we just use the in-game rolling system? Why should enchanters be expected to automatically be willing to shard gear for non-enchanters without compensation? These are questions that are really alien to most of our server community, but there they are.

So, I thought I'd ask you, dear readers. How do you deal with 5-man loot on your servers or groups? Do you just use the built in roll system? Do you use Master loot? Do you pass and discuss? Is it generally expected that an Enchanter will gladly shard loot for everyone in the group, or is it expected that an Enchanter only need shard his own loot?

This little informal survey by Ralloszek over on the WotLK forums raises a pretty good question: is anyone not planning on making a Death Knight when the next expansion hits? We're going to end up with a world full of pale people in black armor wielding gigantic frostblades-- maybe Blizzard should call it "World full of Lich Kings."

It's pretty easy to see that not everyone will switch their main (I don't ever foresee leaving my main, although I do plan to level a Death Knight as an alt), but even if people just roll them to check it out, it reminds me a lot of the Star Wars Galaxies "new game enhancements" where they made Jedi a playable class. If you can roll a Jedi as a class, why would you roll anything else?

Of course, we could give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt here-- they haven't revealed much at all about the game's first Hero Class, so maybe it'll be so hard to get one that they really will be very rare, or they'll only be allowed in certain areas (so you won't see a pack of Death Knights swarming around the mailbox in Stormwind). We already know that they'll start at a higher level, so the good news is that you won't see Elwynn Forest flooded with a bunch of level 1 Death Knights. But as for other ways to keep what is supposed to be a special class special, we'll have to see what Blizzard comes up with.

The Daedelus project recently posted an article dealing with MMORPGs and the superstitions we build as we play the games. Seeing as how we as people love to finding meaning in seemingly random events, World of Warcraft has its fair share of superstitious players. I might even go so far as to say we all are superstitious about some things within the game. Despite the prevalence of superstitions in game, we always seem to see others' quirks as crazier than our own. Now we're not talking about religion or spirituality here, we are talking about how players create meaning where there is none. Here are just a few examples that Daedelus brought up:

The spawn dance

There are many players out there that subscribe to the particular belief *cough* Maelis *cough* that a special dance will help mobs spawn faster. I have never myself attempted to use a spawn dance, but I have found that I tend to run in a clockwise direction when I am farming because somehow the mobs seem to spawn faster. Or perhaps it's just because I can't turn left.

Here is, as she says, an interesting "moral quandary" from jumpingjessflash. She was making her way through Maraudon (one of my favorite instances) with a few guildies, and the BoE epic Icemail Jerkin dropped. At first, she thought it was an upgrade for her Hunter, so rolled Need and took it she asked for Need, but then eventually won it with Greed (see note below). But on second thought, she didn't like only +5 Agility-- turns out it wasn't the Jerkin for her.

So she's left with a choice: wear it anyway, or auction it and risk suffering the wrath of her guildies.

I've been in (almost*) the same position, but (especially with guildies), if I'm not sure whether I'll use something or not, I'll usually let everyone else in the group know that it's iffy for me-- usually they'll let me take it anyway, to keep as a sidegrade or a piece of a different set. If I want to be really nice, I'll sometimes let them reroll on it if I decide I don't want it, and then send it away to the winner. Another option is to sell it, and then split the gold.

Of course, you could also go the other way and send it to an unguilded alt to sell it anonymously. That way, you get the cash and no one is the wiser. Like I said, usually I don't care, but I'll admit that sometimes I'm a stickler-- if someone happens to roll Need on a BoE that I think is a questionable call, I have in the past asked them to put it on so I can see them wearing it via /inspect (I haven't ever done that to guildies, but in a PUG everything is fair game as far as I'm concerned).

Still, I don't have a problem with selling a piece picked up accidentally, if someone thought it was a good piece and then had second thoughts. If you did that and then put it on the AH, no one would accuse you of being a ninja-- would they?

*Update: As a few people have pointed out (including the livejournal poster), it seems like I did misunderstand her original post. She wasn't ninja-ing at all-- she asked for Need, but eventually won it rolling greed. Her concern was that someone may have passed because she asked for Need, not because she rolled Need and then decided she didn't need it. Because she rolled greed and won it, the piece was hers.

Anyway, I still think the issue of second guessing something that you roll Need on is an interesting one. That's not what the original post was talking about, but it's what I am talking about in this story, and I think it's worth a discussion.

Impossibility over on the WoW Ladies Livejournal is, I'm sure she'll agree, a newbie. But she did just finish Deadmines (grats!), and she was surprised, after completing the instance, to see the message above. Her rogue ripped her off!

Now, as she soon learned, she didn't really get pickpocketed-- rogues can only pickpocket mobs, not players. But she did get emoted-- what happened was that the player typed "/e successfully steals.." and it appeared like that above. You can do all kinds of fun things with emotes, because although they always appear in orange (in the default UI), players, even experienced ones, can get them confused with all the other messages coming by. The most common trick is usually "/e rolls 99 (1 - 100)", which looks like you got a really nice roll (except for the color, of course, which makes the trick easy to spot in a big list of rolls). Another good one is "/e receives [Sword of Awesomeness]," or just shift-click whatever item you want it to look like you just looted something cool on your own.

A warning: Just like the old Piccolo, lots of players usually find this more annoying than funny, so use it at your own peril (and you should never use it to try and rip other players off-- alert players will know exactly what you're doing, and then you're in real trouble). But a little levity sometimes goes a long way, and it's a fun trick to use once in a while.

Some of you may remember, as I do, a time when there was no Greed button, only a dice and pass options on looting. Either you wanted the item, or you didn't. Or, it was BoP loot, in which case, as I remember, everyone was supposed to pass, and then you all decided what to do-- though it was so long ago, I can't quite remember why that was...

At any rate, that time is over, and now we have the option to Need or Greed roll on loot that shows up, so it's pretty clear what to do when loot drops-- if you need it, roll Need, and compete with other Needers. If you just want, roll Greed or pass, and everybody's happy.

Except, as with everything, there are exceptions. Nesp from Lightning Blade brings up one of the most common-- he's a jewelcrafter, and he's wondering if he should roll Need or Greed on gems-- sometimes, he's the only one in the party that can cut them, but then again, anyone can use them after they're cut. Likewise, I think there's a little confusion about things like Fel Armaments and Arcane Tomes as well-- yes, people of the opposite faction from Aldor or Scryer shouldn't roll on rewards they don't need, but should the right factioned people all roll Need or Greed? Likewise, everyone needed things like Corrupter's Scourgestones-- should everyone in that case roll Need, or just roll Greed?

As Blizzard says (sensibly) in the thread, the best policy is to actually decide on a policy within the party before you have to-- nothing worse than losing an item to someone who can't use it, or taking an item accidentally that you don't really need. My plan is probably the default most players use: if you need it (as in, you can wear it or turn it in ASAP), roll need. If you don't (or you're going to sell it at the AH or DE or vendor it away), roll greed, and live with the consequences (there's always more loot to gain). But whatever works for you is what works best.

shaw_na_na over on WoW Ladies has a problem: she's unlucky. She's been /roll-ing and /roll-ing in instances, but on a number of runs through ZF, she's grabbed nothing but an alchemy recipe. I've been on bad streaks before (mostly because of droprates, not rolls, actually), but never anything that bad.

So how do you get better rolls? If you're going to be all scientific about it, you don't. Blizzard has gone to all kinds of trouble to make sure that random rolls are as random as they come. They've even put measures in the game to make sure players can't spoof rolls-- roll "emotes" are yellow, not orange, and rolls are generated by the server, not the client software.

But if you want to be silly about it, there are a few methods. Some players swear by keeping Lucky Charms in your bag (while it would be awesome if that worked, it doesn't). Others say higher intelligence helps rolls, and have special gear just to use for good rolling (again, that won't work either, but it makes me laugh). And still other players believe the /rolls are set to a certain time-- they'll roll on the hour or minute just to try and catch the server on a particularly high random seed. Doesn't work either, but don't tell that to the players who swear by it.

Here's what I do: whenever I'm on a particularly bad streak of rolls, I warn the group that I'm "clearing out my bad rolls," and then run /roll a few times. You'll get a few low numbers (34, 20, 52, 30), and then you'll get a higher number (something like 84 or 91). At that point, you stop rolling, and then the next roll, you'll win the loot roll. Again, according to science, that's not supposed to work (and it probably doesn't, except in my head). But believe me-- my characters have become better geared more than a few times because I "cleared out the bad rolls."